GUITAR
TRUST YOUR INSTINCTS | James Duke
I bought a new guitar last week. A 1966 Fender
Mustang in the most lovely shade of Daphne
Blue. The neck is stamped 16 Sept 66 - B. It’s
a really clean guitar for its age and the original
case it came with is also it wonderful condition.
I really love Mustangs. It’s actually the second
Mustang I’ve owned. I previously had a red
model from the same year. I used it on a lot of
records and it gave me some of the best single
coil guitar sounds I’ve ever gotten.
I remember when I bought the red Mustang. It
was just after Thanksgiving in 2010. I got it for
a great deal. I think it was around a thousand
dollars. I was a little nervous, but I bought it
anyway. I was nervous because I had always
been told that they weren’t good guitars. I had
heard all the horror stories. The tiny necks.
The poorly designed tremolo. Apparently,
they never stay in tune, and if they did for a
few seconds, they sounded horrible. I heard
all of the cons of these student model guitars.
They always left out the fact that they look
amazing. A true iconic design, down to every
last detail. Besides, I didn’t care if it didn’t stay
in tune. When I was a kid, Kurt Cobain played
Mustangs. That’s all I needed to know.
When the guitar arrived, I was immediately
impressed. I was expecting a flimsy feeling, out
of tune playing, crappy sounding guitar. What I
got was a solid, well playing, albeit very small
guitar. When I plugged it in and cranked the
amp, it sounded great. I loved it. I didn’t know
what those two little switches at the top of the
pick guard did, but they made it sound cool. I
loved it.
That guitar, the little red Fender Mustang,
inspired a lot of really cool music. I even loaned
it to friends to use on their albums and it inspired
them in the same way. It’s cool how a fifty
year- old guitar, that most people wrote off and
stored in their attics, can somehow find their
way to a new owner and bring fresh inspiration
with them. All the little quirks and problems that
come with an old guitar can make you adjust
and rethink your approach to how you play.
They can literally transform your guitar playing.
I’m glad I didn’t worry about all the opinions I
heard about vintage Fender Mustangs. For one
thing, it’s a guitar. It’s not a major life choice. I
wasn’t really taking that much of a risk. I was,
however, stepping into uncharted territory. I
was buying a guitar, which I had never touched
or played, and sending money through PayPal,
for a guitar that I had only heard bad things
about. I’m glad I went with my gut.
If we aren’t careful, we can spend an incredible
amount of time worrying about other people’s
opinion of us. How we play or sing, or how we
dress. We want the cool guitars and equipment.
We might even be tempted to play and sound
like whoever the hot players are, forgetting
what we are actually passionate about and the
things we actually like to play. It’s easy to lose
our identity in a swirl of insecurity and the need
to impress.
What the world, and worship music, needs is
new expressions of people’s hearts. We don’t
need people rehashing the old. As a guitar
player I, for one, am searching for the new hot
guitar players. Where are they? I know they are
out there. It might be you, reading this right
now. We need you to be you. We don’t need
you to worry about what someone told you was
or wasn’t cool. We need you to step into what
you know in your heart is your true calling and
your own voice.
As a musician, you have to trust your instincts.
You have to trust your heart. Go play guitar.
James Duke
James is a musician, songwriter, and producer from
Jacksonville Beach, Florida. Most known for playing
guitar alongside artists like John Mark McMillan, Matt
Redman, Johnnyswim, and Steven Curtis Chapman,
James also records his own music under the name
All The Bright Lights. He currently lives in Nashville,
Tennessee with his wife and 3 kids..
82 August 2020
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