bridge you’ve got, what are the value of your
pots, how much wiring is in the guitar, is the
wood really old, what’s the finish on the guitar?
All those things become much more noticeable
because your not playing, when your not trying
to dominate the instrument in real time with
your musicianship.
This kind of goes off on a tangent, but this really
goes back to the idea of what you learn from
owning and playing vintage guitars and how
you put that into designing new gear. All the
stuff I mentioned is part of the experience. If
I had to wrap it up into one thing I’d say you
gain experience. If you have a good memory
you keep that in mind every time somebody
says, “Well, we can just cut this big piece of
wood out”, you might go, “Well you know, if
you take three inches of wood out you might
lose something. You put three more inches of
wood on there and you gain something”. It can
be that simple. I love playing my vintage gear,
then picking a brand new JS guitar and seeing
where there are similarities, where there are
differences… how we solved issues with older
designs that don’t interface well with modern
music.
May June 2016
CollectibleGuitar.com
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