the incremental future of the guitar ?

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  • DaevidJDaevidJ Frets: 414
    Perhaps they should just treat guitars like any other stringed instrument. Just keep making them better. 
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  • Clarky said:
    what would you guys consider to be the last big innovation?
    Locking trem and tuner systems. 

    At least the last innovation that enabled higher performance playing. 
    " Why does it smell of bum?" Mrs Professorben.
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  • HAL9000HAL9000 Frets: 9551
    sev112 said:
    Not to mention how resistant to change the guitar buying customer generally is. 

    This is interesting - but how many of we “resistant guitar buying public” want vintage washing machines, vintage tennis racquets, vintage cars that we use for our business / commuting every day etc ?

    I suspect this is because there is a perceived ‘golden era’ for electric guitars (birth of rock and roll, iconic players such as Hendrix and Clapton, etc) that still resonates with a lot of us today. There isn’t an equivalent golden era for washing machines, tennis rackets, etc
    I play guitar because I enjoy it rather than because I’m any good at it
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  • stickyfiddlestickyfiddle Frets: 26753
    HAL9000 said:
    sev112 said:
    Not to mention how resistant to change the guitar buying customer generally is. 

    This is interesting - but how many of we “resistant guitar buying public” want vintage washing machines, vintage tennis racquets, vintage cars that we use for our business / commuting every day etc ?

    I suspect this is because there is a perceived ‘golden era’ for electric guitars (birth of rock and roll, iconic players such as Hendrix and Clapton, etc) that still resonates with a lot of us today. There isn’t an equivalent golden era for washing machines, tennis rackets, etc
    It's also because directly after that golden era of 50's and 60's, everything (particularly from Gibson & Fender) got demonstrably worse. Has there ever been a decade that produced fundamentally worse washing machines and fridges than the decade before it?
    The Assumptions - UAE party band for all your rock & soul desires
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  • Clarky said:
    what would you guys consider to be the last big innovation?

    Evertune

    Fishman Fluence pickups too, but evertune is even more significant IMO because it alters a core characteristic/limitation of the instrument in a way nothing else ever has until now 
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  • fandangofandango Frets: 2204
    HAL9000 said:
    sev112 said:
    Not to mention how resistant to change the guitar buying customer generally is. 

    This is interesting - but how many of we “resistant guitar buying public” want vintage washing machines, vintage tennis racquets, vintage cars that we use for our business / commuting every day etc ?

    I suspect this is because there is a perceived ‘golden era’ for electric guitars (birth of rock and roll, iconic players such as Hendrix and Clapton, etc) that still resonates with a lot of us today. There isn’t an equivalent golden era for washing machines, tennis rackets, etc
    Bjorn Borg played (and won) plenty tournaments using wood tennis racquets. All before the carbon kevlar revolution and associated R&D. How many modern players want to play with a wood racquet now?

    I wish modern guitar manufacturers would stop persisting with the race to be the most faithful and true historic replica. Bores me senseless. C’mon, the LP was soooooo good in 1960, that Gibson couldn’t even give them away, and had to stop production for 10 years. Was it only when Eric Clapton with an old unloved LP joined John Mayall’s Bluesbreakers and made the ‘Beano’ album that the Les Paul kicked off again? I’m thinking that the Les Paul is to guitars what Status Quo is to modern music.

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  • fandango said:
    HAL9000 said:
    sev112 said:
    Not to mention how resistant to change the guitar buying customer generally is. 

    This is interesting - but how many of we “resistant guitar buying public” want vintage washing machines, vintage tennis racquets, vintage cars that we use for our business / commuting every day etc ?

    I suspect this is because there is a perceived ‘golden era’ for electric guitars (birth of rock and roll, iconic players such as Hendrix and Clapton, etc) that still resonates with a lot of us today. There isn’t an equivalent golden era for washing machines, tennis rackets, etc
    Bjorn Borg played (and won) plenty tournaments using wood tennis racquets. All before the carbon kevlar revolution and associated R&D. How many modern players want to play with a wood racquet now?


    Sport and art aren’t the same thing. You’d be at a huge disadvantage to use vintage equipment in sports but for making music the character of something vintage could still be preferable and in theory can still be used to create something new 
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  • TTBZTTBZ Frets: 2873
    Clarky said:
    what would you guys consider to be the last big innovation?

    Evertune

    Fishman Fluence pickups too, but evertune is even more significant IMO because it alters a core characteristic/limitation of the instrument in a way nothing else ever has until now 
    Really keen to try an Evertune guitar out, think I will try and swing by the ESP booth at NAMM to try out an EC1000! 

    I get so annoyed with tuning issues, especially with my SG which seems flimsier than most. Would be great to have something rock solid in a Les Paul style body. Do you think they nevatively affect tone/sustain at all?
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  • OilCityPickupsOilCityPickups Frets: 9983
    edited January 2020 tFB Trader
    As a pickup maker I am seeing more and more customers interested in 7 and eight string options ... and I think it's actually only certain sectors of the guitar buying public that are resistant to change. It will be contentious, but I think the Clapton, Beck, Hendrix etc worshiping 'late boomer' generation with it's insistence on 'no change ever' is a dwindling market. I produce far more pickups for younger, metal players than for the 'grey ponytail' brigade these days.
    Professional pickup winder, horse-testpilot and recovering Chocolate Hobnob addict.
    Formerly TheGuitarWeasel ... Oil City Pickups  ... Oil City Blog 7 String.org profile and message  

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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71959

    It will be contentious, but I think the Clapton, Beck, Hendrix etc worshiping 'late boomer' generation with it's insistence on 'no change ever' is a dwindling market.
    There is an irony in this, which is that both Clapton and Beck - and others like Gilmour - have accepted new technology where it’s made their guitars better, especially from a performance point of view... lower noise pickups, active mid boost, roller nut etc. I’d take a bet Jimi would have too, if he was still with us - he hated the problems he had with his live sound, despite some of us chasing an exact reproduction of it...

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • mgawmgaw Frets: 5239
    I thought a guitar was a musical instrument until I joined here, now I realise its way more than that :)
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  • VibetronicVibetronic Frets: 1036
    Clarky said:
    what would you guys consider to be the last big innovation?
    Actually Fishmans (as mentioned already) are a good shout...they're popping up on everything these days. I wasn't sure at first, but in a band context they are really tight and punchy, and compared to something like the Blaze pickups on a Universe, they really cut through.
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  • LastMantraLastMantra Frets: 3822
    edited January 2020
    If it ain't broke... 
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  • prowlaprowla Frets: 4896
    There have been incremental improvements to guitars over the years.

    The most noticeable to me is the Rickenbacker bass, which is still essentially the same design as in the early 1960s, but has been tweaked over the years; the most recent mod being a new bridge recently introduced and available to retro-fit. They also released a new 5-string model which has triangular pickups, which is a bit marmite.
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  • ClarkyClarky Frets: 3261
    Clarky said:
    what would you guys consider to be the last big innovation?
    Locking trem and tuner systems. 

    At least the last innovation that enabled higher performance playing. 
    I was thing thinking that one too..
    or maybe the fan fret thing [but I've no idea when that first appeared..
    play every note as if it were your first
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  • What always amazes me is how Gibson and Fender got it so right so long ago.
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  • prowlaprowla Frets: 4896
    What always amazes me is how Gibson and Fender got it so right so long ago.

    Yep - more than half of all the (electric) guitars in the world are based on their original designs.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71959
    What always amazes me is how Gibson and Fender got it so right so long ago.
    The question is - did they really? I think you could argue that the Strat is pretty close to totally right - at least in the overall construction, shape, and basic hardware... but I'm less sure about the Les Paul.

    If you were designing a guitar from the ground up, knowing what we know now, would you come up with anything even close to a Les Paul? It has some real problems from an ergonomic and structural point of view.

    Or is it more likely that these designs are just what we're used to?

    It is true that Leo Fender had a big advantage in that he was - at least for the Tele, which the Strat is an evolution of - designing from the ground up... and even more in that he wasn't actually a guitarist, so he may have had far less preconceptions.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • HAL9000HAL9000 Frets: 9551
    Grey Ponytail Brigade
     I so want to use this as a band name.
    I play guitar because I enjoy it rather than because I’m any good at it
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  • guitars4youguitars4you Frets: 14033
    tFB Trader
    What always amazes me is how Gibson and Fender got it so right so long ago.
    Yet none of their classic guitars were intended to be used as we use them today - Great accidents in many ways, especially the Les Paul - Yet this also shows that the guitar is just a blank canvas that allows you to create what you want on it
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