Now THIS is How You Mass Produce High Quality Guitars

Re: Now THIS is How You Mass Produce High Quality Guitars

The "100 details" are important, certainly. That's why I mod and set-up every guitar I buy no matter what the initial cost of the guitar. I personally put in those "100 details" myself. And, YES, my $300 guitars look, sound, play, and last every bit as good, and usually better, than the $2-3000 guitars.

In the past 10 years I haven't found ANY guitar at any price that didn't need some further attention to detail...at least a lot of fretwork (yes, even those that were factory Pleked), nut and bridge work, and intonation.

I'm all for quality and detail, but it's not there unless I put it there.
 
Re: Now THIS is How You Mass Produce High Quality Guitars

GuitarDoc said:
The "100 details" are important, certainly. That's why I mod and set-up every guitar I buy no matter what the initial cost of the guitar. I personally put in those "100 details" myself. And, YES, my $300 guitars look, sound, play, and last every bit as good, and usually better, than the $2-3000 guitars.

In the past 10 years I haven't found ANY guitar at any price that didn't need some further attention to detail...at least a lot of fretwork (yes, even those that were factory Pleked), nut and bridge work, and intonation.

I'm all for quality and detail, but it's not there unless I put it there.
Click to expand...

As Sterling Ball says in the video, that's not the customer's job. Every Music Man I've ever picked up has been IMO ready to pick up and gig on the spot. To me that's well worth the price.
 
Re: Now THIS is How You Mass Produce High Quality Guitars

Well that says a lot. Never played a MM, though...couldn't get past the looks.
 
Re: Now THIS is How You Mass Produce High Quality Guitars

GuitarDoc said:
The "100 details" are important, certainly. That's why I mod and set-up every guitar I buy no matter what the initial cost of the guitar. I personally put in those "100 details" myself. And, YES, my $300 guitars look, sound, play, and last every bit as good, and usually better, than the $2-3000 guitars.

In the past 10 years I haven't found ANY guitar at any price that didn't need some further attention to detail...at least a lot of fretwork (yes, even those that were factory Pleked), nut and bridge work, and intonation.

I'm all for quality and detail, but it's not there unless I put it there.
Click to expand...

This is a curious post Doc. With respect, it doesn't sound like you have had much real comparison time with other world-class luthiers or instruments? Its both curious and erroneous to say the quality and detail doesn't exist unless you put it there. Can you clarify what does that even mean? Its a bold claim and disrespectful of some great luthiers, designers, instruments and companies. There is no flame here, just clarification. Are you saying you can make any $300 guitar come up to a standard of excellence to match a PRS, Sadwosky, Suhr, Collings? ...or (name your luthier). If so, how many skilled labor hours would that be and cost of upgrades? How do you change the wood, binding, finish, neck construction, truss material, etc. How do you add 'back in' the precision? We can certainly get a guitar playing really great, but its not the same thing.

I think any respectable luthier would all agree it starts with the wood. No way around that detail.

Thank you,

Cheers and respect, RG
 
Re: Now THIS is How You Mass Produce High Quality Guitars

Cool video. I love guitars so I can always watch and appreciate something like that....even if it is a guitar company that I personally don't particularly care for. I'd like to add one thing when people talk about quality etc. I agree that there are plenty of well made guitars, but I don't agree that the result is always a better guitar. I mean...if that were the case...would it even be possible for a lowly assembly line mass produced factory made guitar like a Fender Strat ever be good? I think we can agree that sometimes guitars are magic regardless of how they are made (I do know I exaggerated the process). Just a thought. It reminds me of other discussions where people say that someone had a problem because they were not playing the guitar (properly)....I always come back with..."Hendrix did OK not playing properly as did many many others". Carry on ;-)
 
Re: Now THIS is How You Mass Produce High Quality Guitars

Rodney Gene said:
This is a curious post Doc. With respect, it doesn't sound like you have had much real comparison time with other world-class luthiers or instruments? Its both curious and erroneous to say the quality and detail doesn't exist unless you put it there. Can you clarify what does that even mean? Its a bold claim and disrespectful of some great luthiers, designers, instruments and companies. There is no flame here, just clarification. Are you saying you can make any $300 guitar come up to a standard of excellence to match a PRS, Sadwosky, Suhr, Collings? ...or (name your luthier). If so, how many skilled labor hours would that be and cost of upgrades? How do you change the wood, binding, finish, neck construction, truss material, etc. How do you add 'back in' the precision? We can certainly get a guitar playing really great, but its not the same thing.

I think any respectable luthier would all agree it starts with the wood. No way around that detail.

Thank you,

Cheers and respect, RG
Click to expand...

I totally understand what you're saying. And I respect your opinion on this as well as many other threads you have posted to.

First of all, I've been at this for nearly 50 years, so I have had a decent amount of comparison time (I made my first 12 string acoustic guitar totally from scratch with no plans or templates in 1965). But notice that I haven't said anything about "world-class luthiers", only stock/retail instruments, and only in the $2-3000 range (that excludes custom guitars). Also in another post I admit to not ever playing a MM and that may well be an exception (but it IS hard to imagine).

How many hours I put into adding more excellence to a guitar depends upon the guitar, its original condition, and what I want to specifically accomplish with that guitar. It can be anywhere from 5-100 hours.

Obviously I don't ever "change the wood", it would be a new build then rather than an "improvement". And I can't make ANY $300 guitar into a PRS, etc. Some are obviously just beyond help. But, yes, I have stripped many down to the bare wood, reshaped, refinished, improved fretwork, nuts, and bridges, and all electronics. Some guitars I've put in $5-800 and many many hours of labor. Yes it would be cheaper to buy a PRS, but I'd still have to do some work even on that.

I haven't purchased or played any new guitar that I couldn't have improved on its quality, especially the fretwork and setup. Again, no slam to good luthiers out there that do as good or better work than me...Just refering to new instruments.
 
Re: Now THIS is How You Mass Produce High Quality Guitars

I always secretly liked this shape.

I will deff rock one in matt black !



p1_uz0prjw1h_so.jpg
 
Re: Now THIS is How You Mass Produce High Quality Guitars

I love the look of the Silhouette body, but I've never had a chance to play one.
 
Re: Now THIS is How You Mass Produce High Quality Guitars

I've always appreciated MM quality, but didn't care for their smallish design. I've nicknamed them Midget Man Guitars. LOL

Because of the bridges pushed out toward the butt end of the guitar and the small neck profiles, I don't feel like they're the right fit for me. I feel like I'm playing a 3/4 scale guitar anytime I pick one up.

I have to admit I really like the MM Reflex and the Stingray basses. The Reflex really surprised me. Notice the added distance between the bridge and butt end. They fixed what I didn't like about many of their popular models.
Music-Man-Reflex-Guitar-HH-Trem_front_page_teaser.jpg
 
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Re: Now THIS is How You Mass Produce High Quality Guitars

I know this is a very diff shape to the OP . . .


. . . but somehow they are still 'kinda' connected with one another.


I will gladly rock this one . . . no questions asked !


EVH%C2%AE%20Wolfgang%C2%AE%20Ebony%20Stealth%20Black%202011%206-String%20Electric%20Guitar.jpg
 
Re: Now THIS is How You Mass Produce High Quality Guitars

GuitarDoc said:
Check out the defect next to the binding on the lower horn.

Don't see "high quality" like that on most guitars these days.
Click to expand...

Are you sure that's a defect? It could just be a trick of the light/camera angle for all you know.

Even if it isn't, things like that can happen over 20 years.
 
Re: Now THIS is How You Mass Produce High Quality Guitars

Agileguy_101 said:
Are you sure that's a defect? It could just be a trick of the light/camera angle for all you know.

Even if it isn't, things like that can happen over 20 years.
Click to expand...

You're not actually going to suggest that this guitar is 20 years old?!

Definitely not lighting!

It's actually fairly easy, if you're not very careful, to chip some wood on a small diameter curve where the grain is going parallel to the cut. I guess this is just one of those "100 details" that they missed, or perhaps it isn't included as one of the "100 details" so it was ok to skip it. Certainly this doesn't compete with your Y2D with "the binding is second to none".
 
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Re: Now THIS is How You Mass Produce High Quality Guitars

Uh, yeah. That's an EVH model - you can tell by the switch placement - and they were produced from 1990-95, putting it between 18 and 23 years old.

what_now1.jpg

And if the "defect" (quotes because I don't believe it's there) happened how you say, Ernie Ball's method of applying binding would have covered it up, would it not? Even if it didn't, Sterling Ball said in the video that they don't put out seconds, so it's either a trick of the angle/lighting and not actually there, or a owner-inflicted battle scar.
 
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Re: Now THIS is How You Mass Produce High Quality Guitars

Tell you what, Doc - go to your local Guitar Center and pull down a few Music Man guitars. See for yourself - their quality control is second to none (provided a bunch of punk ass kids haven't screwed them up). You might like the new Steve Lukather III model, it's a fantastic guitar with an awesome all rosewood neck and really nice medium output Dimarzio pickups.
 
Re: Now THIS is How You Mass Produce High Quality Guitars

You have GCs with music man guitars? All we get here are a couple stingrays...
 
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