One of the things I love about my job is how many guitar I get to see, study and fix. And talking to clients, you get a better understanding of how people's taste and choices when it comes to the guitars they like is always evolving.
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| Yamaha Blues Saraceno before the Setup |
The 1980s Super guitar was about being seen from 5 miles away (less than that and you end up blind by a flash of red, yellow, pink, green or all the above). Necks were slimed down, fretboards became flatter, and single coils were replaced with passive higher output humbuckers or active systems. All in the name of confort and tone.
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| 59 Les Paul - notice the wear on the edge of the fretboard. |
However times change and so does taste, and guitarists started looking at the beginning of the electric guitar, the iconic models. What some years ago was old, boring and obsolete, was now the holly grail, the 1959 Les Paul, the early strats and teles.
There was something about the way they felt and sounded that people loved and looked for, helped by a very retro feel that started to overtake the music industry.
In this this day and age both the vintage and the 1980s super guitar is sought after and loved.
And a lot of builders and brands focus on building something new, taking the best parts of both worlds.
I find this truly fascinating, when you take the things you like on several guitars and build another one joining them all in one instrument.
James Tyler and John Suhr are two examples of builders that updated the strat and tele design with some modern conforts and new finishes.
The first time I played a James Tyler guitar I noticed there was something about the neck that made it incredibly comfortable and it wasn't just the shape and size, something about the way your fretting hand felt was incredibly pleasing and just made you want to play.
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| James Tyler Mongoose - detail of the heavily rounded fretboard |
Took me a while to figure out that the fretboard edges were rolled, instead of being squared off and sharp they are rounded, allowing your fingers to wrap around the fretboard perfectly. Just like you would find on an old instrument that has been played a lot. It's simple and it makes a huge difference on your playing.
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| Surh Standard is thinner and more contoured than your average Strat. |
John Suhr alters the shape of a strat in order to make more comfortable and uses custom wirings to shape the sound of the pickups and how their potentiometers work.
We started to look at tone in a different way, nowadays you have a huge selection of pickups not just for higher and lower outputs. You can have a humbucker that sounds like a vintage single coil, just without the hum.
Noticing the things you like in a guitar and how they influence the sound can help a lot when modifying a guitar or ordering a custom build one, but we will leave that for another post.
Photo sources:
Musicradar.com
Rocketmusic.net
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