-
I wrote a thread about my old 2005 Eastman a couple years back and how I thought it sounded better over time and maybe it was getting better with age. There were a lot of good replies about how ears and preferences change in addition to wood opening up and all of that.
Well apparently I’m at it again and this time I’m curious to hear if this is something you all have had happen or if I am just on a guitar merry go round that rotates slowly and has one sunny side. Of all of my guitars I have consistently loved my L5 and it is definitely my favorite guitar (I’d take it as my only guitar if I had to). But some gigs due to weather, location or acoustics or whatever I need something different and my PM100 has filled that role well. Other guitars do too and I have others that I really like - virtually all of them in fact. Occasionally I will get one that I don’t bond with and I sell it.
I have a 2004 ES-175 that was in that category. It is a good guitar and it has been through the hands of a couple of forum members here. I didn’t need it when I bought it but the price was good in pre CME blowout dollars and after I got it I still preferred the PM100 because that is just a killer plywood guitar that out 175’ed my actual 175.
I picked it up yesterday just to set it up since I hadn’t touched it since the weather change and I haven’t been able to put it down since. It feels better than I remember and sounds much better than I remember. I can’t think of why that might be - the Eastman I had put down for a long time (years) and then came back to it finding it sounding better but this was months, not years, so I don’t think the guitar has changed.
Have any of you had that happen? Any thoughts as to why? I don’t think my ears would have changed in that period of time and I wasn’t crazy about the neck profile before either but now it feels great all of the sudden.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
-
01-03-2018 04:25 AM
-
Absence makes the heart grow fond. It is true with people and guitars.
-
This happens to me often and I have pondered a thread on it, so thank you for that.
Usually it is a string change, saddle change, truss rod tweak, or some other small physical aspect of the guitar that dramatically changes my impression of playing it. Unfortunately, the same thing also seems to happen in reverse - a prize suddenly becomes a dud for no apparent reason. It's truly annoying, actually. This is one reason I do not sell certain guitars. I just rotate through them ad nauseum. It's inconvenient for muscle memory, but somehow satisfying nonetheless to have a wide palette of choices.
-
It happens everytime I need to sell a guitar I don't play. It screams to me "No don't sell me! I'm perfect!" and yes, it's perfect.
Seriously though, to me it seems that while I'm thinking of it as a "guitar", it's got some kind of fantastic charm; a charm that fades as an object. If, however, I really start to play it, it becomes an "instrument" for making music. Once it starts bringing out the music, and all the ways I'd grown as a musician, nope-not gonna give that up.
David
-
It happens to me every time I pick up a 175. I have some great guitars. And I love them all. But when I pick up a 175, something happens. The notes just flow. The guitar responds quickly. Its a stable platform that can do anything. Other guitars challenge me. The 175 doesn't. All the possibilities are right there under my chin. The Mahogany neck never moves. The 57 humbuckers are the most underrated and best Archtop pickup ever made. They never get enough credit.
The recipe is so simple. Too simple in fact. It often gets taken for granted. People rationalize it. They say, "ahh this is not big deal, I could do this with any other guitar".. Pessimists try to poke holes in the 175. The bottom line is.. Its the original. The benchmark. Its a guitar that was created for the purpose of being the working mans jazz guitar. And for roughly 70 years, it has stood the test of time. Look at the long line of top flight guitarists, who could have played ANYTHING.. What did they pick up? The 175.
You are not alone. Embrace it.
Joe D
-
I think it has to do with my brain. It changes. My taste in tone changes from time to time, and my preference for amp, guitar, and settings on all change. Sometimes I dislike a guitar for awhile and then suddenly I like it. This week I've been playing my Eastman again. I have it for sale on Reverb, because I really need to thin the herd, but now I'm having second thoughts. I've been thinking about getting a carved-top 16" thinline, but they're hard to find, and considered having one built in China, but now I'm thinking 15" may be close enough, and 1.75" may be close enough to 2.25" for depth. I think my Benedetto Bambino may now be the red-headed stepchild, and may need to go.
-
There's more to the phenomenon, actually. It results in a small amount of anxiety every time I pick up a guitar that was "perfect" the last time it was touched. I wonder if it will still be like that. Sometimes it is not, which causes distress, along with a round of self-doubt that my judgment can ever be trusted.
Even if it still is perfect, I then imagine what would happen if I changed something and ruined it forever, or if I should consider getting another similar guitar just in case something were to befall this one.
Really, what a PITA this whole cycle can be. Very unproductive and a waste of precious musical time.
I have experienced it enough now that I've learned not to react impulsively, though. I scoured Reverb.com over the holidays, danced over "Buy It Now" buttons during the endless sales, but did not - did NOT - buy anything.
-
I think just picking up something that's different from what you've mainly been playing wakes up your playing and grabs your attention/focus in a way that the familiar doesn't. There's also the the opposite problem -- you can get tired of playing a guitar and/or overly focused on what you've come to perceive as drawbacks, and you set it aside for a while. Then if you pick it up later, the virtues that caused you to acquire it in the first place reassert themselves.
John
-
My most common experience, and maybe most dramatic, was my VOS 1959 ES175. I had some money from selling some family land, the wife had "cleared" me to set aside some of it for guitars... so I'd bought Joe D's ES165 (love at first sight). Then visiting friends in Chicago, I dropped into CME. This was in maybe March 2016. I just wandered in because CME is so famous. They had cool rooms in which to try out guitars, so I pulled down a VOS ES175 and stepped into the room and played it maybe a half hour. It was okay, but I wasn't blown away. Until I looked at the price tag: $1999.95! I realized that at worst, I could play it and re-sell for that identical price and recover costs.
I bought it on impulse, and spent some time setting it up, getting the right strings, playing around with other pickups (put the originals back in). Then one day, BOOM. I was playing it and realize, Wow, this is a fantastic guitar. I love how it sounds, how it feels, how it plays. If I pick it up, I'll play it for half and hour at least. I even love the rather plain looking wood. This guitar doesn't shout "Look at me!" It's not the fancy gunslinger with the pearl-handled Colts and tooled leather holsters. It's more like the grizzled old town marshal with his plain looking stuff... but draw is smooth and the shot is accurate. I even call my VOS ES175 "The Marshall" because of that.
I have other guitars, all of which could be "if I only had one guitar" instruments. But this was the surprise. Started out as a try-it-out one-night-stand, and ended up married.
-
I picked up my Peerless Sunset after not playing for a few months--had it listed on Craigslist for awhile with no takers--and was again reminded what a nice-playing and sounding guitar it was. I am going to gig with it this week.
I just can't quit you, Sunset.
-
What is more common for me is to stop playing one guitar and play another for months or even a year. Then either go back to the previous one or pickup a different one I haven't played and think why did I stop playing this one.
I have a few guitars, but I tend to play/practice with one guitar for months and months. I'm not into switching guitars a lot, but I do have a guitar out in every room of my apartment or when I had a house so I can grab and play when an idea comes to me.
-
I get this effect too, where a negelcted guitar appears better than remembered when you rediscover its charms.
For me, with electric guitars I almost always plug in, and that raises a whole other set of variables.
I think both guitars and amps/speakers do change in response to conditions, and so does my brain's perception of their sound.
When everything orbits into the perfect alignment, that's the reward and should be the point of judgement.
For me, the guitars themselves are probably the most reliable/stable part of this system (even though physically they go through the most drastic changes with humidity, my house gets very dry in Winter and ebony shrinks a lot!) Amps/speakers seem to have different reactions on different days, and those changes are very noticeable as they are, well, *amplified*. My own head's role in all this (perception) is anyone's guess, though I'm not expecting a glorious guitar sound to overwhelm me with its goodness if there's a sinus headache it can't get past.
John
-
This is happening on & off a bit with my Greco 175- I didn't play it for a few months; I felt that I really didn't like the humbucker/laminate sound. I then took it to a rehearsal a while later and was loving the sound... I'm still not sure what to do with this guitar, I don't play it much - I probably will sell it, however I know I'd probably miss it.
-
My Fender Tele.
A friend of mine, who considers himself a "strat guy" bought a Tele just to see if he could do anything with it. He didn't like it, and I guess was a little cash-poor, so I bought it. I'd been "Tele-curious" for a long time. For a while, I didn't play it much. It seemed to me a bit like a Strat, but without the character. Boy was I wrong about that.
In due course, I met a couple of guys who were using Teles for jazz. So I figured what the hell, and brought it to a jam session. I wasn't using my amp or anything, so my reaction was kind of like, "Well, okay, this would work if I were in a pinch."
Fast forward to the end of last year. I got a job with a long commute, but that also puts me closer to where my ensemble rehearses than my home is, so it didn't really make much sense to go home after work. I wasn't thrilled about the prospect of leaving my JSM-10 in my car all day, so I started taking the Tele. To my surprise, I really started liking it. I was feeling the pickup was a little weak, though, so I put a Porter 9-T in the neck position. That was all she wrote. I loved that sound tremendously. So much so that it inspired me to want a Tele with real P-90s in it.
I have that now, but the irony is, I don't want to leave it in the car all day. It's probably every bit as sturdy as the Fender, but it's kind of my baby, so I've brought it into the office with me. I used the Warmoth at a jam session on Monday and the sound was very good, considering, again, I was using someone else's rig. Taking it to rehearsal tonight. I'm very excited to hear it properly dialed in. It won't be my amp, but it's an amp I use every week, so I know it well.
I'm waiting until after I get the frets leveled, and the thing set up perfectly before I try it through the Dr. Z. I'm afraid that it might sound so good, they'll need the Jaws of Life to separate me from it.
-
All very interesting stuff guys.
As I think about it I am guessing part of it was that I have 2 other very similar guitars to the 175, the PM100 and a Japanese ‘77 D’Agostino lawsuit 175. My other guitars are all pretty unique held against one another but then I have 3 guitars that are supposed to be 175s, the real thing was the newest acquisition and I might have been comparing it too much rather than giving it a chance on its own merits.
The point about actually making music with these things is important too. The best it has sounded was when I took it out to gigs and rehearsals to try to get used to it. It probably didn’t sound different than in my house but to me it did since I was making music with it. And when I picked it up a couple of days ago to play it again it was to write a new
tune so that is now connected with the guitar.
And Joe you are right about 175s in general. It is simple and along with the L5 it is the jazz guitar sound I hear in my head. This is your old red 175 btw so you know about this one
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
-
I knew that bro.
Im glad you are giving it another chance. That guitar deserves a good home and a good player like you to appreciate it.
Joe D
-
This is a great thread. Thanks for provoking these thoughts, Rio. I bought my ‘modern ‘ ES-175 about 5 years ago from a jazz artist in NYC. He had the 2012 (that I ended up buying) and a ‘59 VOS reissue and said he didn’t need both. He chose to keep the VOS. My dream came true and I ended up with a nearly brand new 175. It’s nice, but his admiration for the VOS must have stuck with me because I have been gassing for one ever since.
This summer I found a beautiful natural 1959 ES-175 VOS and snatched it up. I am really enjoying it. Then recently, in a moment of weakness, I fell victim to CME and got a sunburst VOS. Couldn’t afford NOT to!
I’ve been playing the VOSes and neglecting the 2012. Over the holidays, I got all three out and holy smokes, the 2012 grabbed me by the heart. It’s utterly perfect. It plays like a dream. It sounds friggin’ gorgeous. I feel so bad about ‘needing’ the VOSes. The 2012 is all anyone could ever need. No way I can justify having all 3. First world problem, I know.
RoliLast edited by rolijen; 01-03-2018 at 10:57 PM.
-
I've been kind of wracking my brain on this and I can't remember any of the many guitars I have owned being un-loved, with one exception, which I will get to. All my early instruments (and quite a few later ones) were rescue cases. Non-functioning pups, broken headstocks, you name it. I wanted guitars, other people wanted money, win-win. I glued and clamped and sanded and soldered and cannibalized; when necessary I paid (rather reluctant) professionals to work on instruments they frankly denigrated in no uncertain terms. I ended up with instruments I could play (to the limited extent of my talent) for money to buy and repair guitars to play for more money for more guitars (and amps - more and bigger/better amps!) to play to....
The one exception was my now much-loved 1964 Jaguar. It was brought to my door by the Mom of a kid who needed money for college. How could I refuse? I shelled out the asking price, took possession of the object, and asked myself, now what? Of all the basket cases I had seen, this was the most pitiful. The headstock had a hole drilled into it to hang it on a hook. The body had been crudely stripped of its original finish and the bare wood covered in some kind of goop that was 1/8" thick, and deeper than that in the many runs. And the frets? Ham-handedly replaced by frets that were too big, ill-seated, not correctly curved, and poking out beyond the fretboard so far that any attempt to play the thing was met with (literally) bloody resistance. The thing was tetanus-bait if ever I saw it. After several attempts to trade it in on something - anything, really - the bullet was bitten, and a reluctant professional called in and promised combat pay. The result, though hardly cheap, is a joy to play - a deep gloss black finish, a superb fret job, a new bridge (I forgot that the original roller bridge had been replaced with a ToM type), and switches & knobs all over the place. So many tonal possibilities!
Guitars? I love 'em all. Each one has its particular strengths. Every time I play a different instrument, I get a bit of inspiration. I've often said that each guitar has at least one song in it, and I have found that to be true. Variety is the spice of life, and no musical instrument offers more variety than the guitar, especially in its electric form. Whoo-hoo!Last edited by citizenk74; 01-04-2018 at 05:32 AM. Reason: Spelling
-
Great story Rolijen.
THey are hand built masterpieces and can vary to some degree.
Vinny bought 4 of them and can detect subtle differences amongst all of them.
-
What song is in the Jaguar C74?
great post!
JD
-
It never happened that way for me. Every guitar I ever loved I loved right away. Some guitars grew on me, but not to the point of true love.
On the other hand, I've had some that I thought I liked at first and liked less over time. None of those ever swept me off my feet though. They just seemed ok to good.
-
I've said it before, I'm pretty flexible on playability, and sound. I don't WANT 5 or more models to sound the same, and as far as action, scale length, single, double, no cutaway goes, I'm flexible too. Maybe that's why I have a number of amps, some just like some gits better.
But, the one that I just could not bond with was (note was) my 2003 ES-137 Custom. It played OK, sounded good, looked great (it was my first new Gibson and first cherry burst) but something about it was elusive. Over the years, I'd take it out, play it for a week, and get out my others and put it away for months at a time.
Like RP said, "Usually it is a string change, saddle change, truss rod tweak, or some other small physical aspect of the guitar that dramatically changes my impression of playing it"
YUP, 100% spot on with the 137C. It was the first git I ever installed flats (Chromes) on, the pick guard was just too... something or other that my anchored right hand couldn't abide, too slippery, not slippery enough, and the TOM seemed to make it metallic sounding and buzzy. Addressing all this made it a different git and I play it often now.
But this brings up a different issue... too many gits, not enough space for them or for that matter not enough time to play them all. Could man cave guitar hoarding be a new reality show? :-)
-
I would tune in every week for a guitar hoarding show, maybe with family interventions and things like that.
Originally Posted by GNAPPI
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
-
I'm more of a love at first sight kinda guy. That's usually why I bring the girl (I meant guitar) home!
Some of my guitar relationships have lasted longer than others. Some I should have given more time, but flipped off for some other hot thing because it was might have been a bad idea from the start.
My small herd/harem of guitars is quite nice right now. Sometimes if I get some new itch that needs scratched, hopefully I remember to open up one of those cases that has been sitting closed for too long. Much cheaper than pressing the "buy it now" button on Reverb!
I suppose I fall in love too easily and too often.
But I figure if I don't really dig a guitar on our first date then what's the point?
One or two special notes . . . a strum of a certain chord . . . not that different from a good first kiss
-
Mine is kinda the opposite.
Loved it, then...
I've got a mongrel that I'm currently sinking too much cash into.
Had it built for me a while back. More than a few issues.
When it worked, it THUNKED!!
Trying to make that a regular thing.
Can't sell it without taking a bath. Plus, it's a lefty.
If the repairs/upgrades work, I'll start a thread... with videos.
Reply With Quote
Recommandations for Hollowbodies for $600 and under?
Today, 05:20 AM in Guitar, Amps & Gizmos