The golden age of guitar making is over people!

Re: The golden age of guitar making is over people!

I bought an es-335 cause I wanted one since I was a kid. Had to RMA it cause of the truss rod being set wrong. Gibson sent me a brand new one. It's great - but I also bought a Midtown Standard which is Gibson USA, not Custom like the 335. The Midtown is a freaking AWESOME guitar. The neck is made of some kind of composite, not even real wood I guess, but it plays great, cool tone, solid and was less than half the price of the Gibson Custom Shop ES-335.

My point is that Gibson still makes great guitars but you should definitely play before you pay and check 'em out REALLY good.

Also if you want an example of a great Made in America guitar company which has never really had the quality ups & downs of Fender and Gibson - what about Rickenbacker? And they aren't ridiculously overpriced. A new Ricky 330 is cheaper than a Gibson ES-335.
 
Re: The golden age of guitar making is over people!

James Nightshade said:
That's why the whole reissue thing is so big these days with guitar models from the late 50's through 60's being remade (although to cheaper standards, it's heresy really!!)...what people don't realize is this: those guitars were special not because of their design but because of the quality of the parts they were made from and the painstaking work ethic of the day. These reissue guitars never have the same pickups or high quality craftsmanship that produced those original instruments. Logically speaking, if a company had perfected their method at building an instrument 65 years ago shouldn't they be able to surpass that now and raise the bar for all guitar manufacturers these days? Sadly, it's just not so even with all the advancements in tech. These companies can create better products than they do but the fact is that most of their profits are from the beginners bargain market and that's all outsourced to Korea and China. The companies had their golden hour but they sold their souls to cheap labor. It must keep there pockets fat...I also hate how there's a billion different versions of the same guitar: the squire strat, the epi les paul ad infinitum...every guitar maker makes their own version of these guitars that have been around for aeons...The whole market is completely without innovation and I think the lack of creativity is bleeding over into popular music. When is the last time you've heard a piece of new music that was worth a tenth of it's weight in gold?
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I think there's still some innovation, but how far can you take an instrument? Look at Parker. The best guitar I ever owned was a Parker PM20 Pro, a lot like an SG in some respects. I bought it for $400 had the frets leveled and rolled for $200, with the Duncan pickups and Sperzel tuners that thing was a monster and it played and felt better that any guitar I've ever touched, including several $2000+ guitars. All for $600. True, it was made in Korea but a guys gotta do what a guys gotta do, to get what he wants.
 
Re: The golden age of guitar making is over people!

…she…
 
Re: The golden age of guitar making is over people!

…said…
 
Re: The golden age of guitar making is over people!

Mr 9finger said:
Huh? What exactly are you getting at? I've been here since 04. No other accounts or alter egos. Just the OG 9fingered bald guy here.
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Haven't you been here even longer than that? March 2004 was the big forum crash, where everyone's join date got lost/reset to Mar 2004. I know I've been here longer.

Artie
 
Re: The golden age of guitar making is over people!

hydro said:
I bought an es-335 cause I wanted one since I was a kid. Had to RMA it cause of the truss rod being set wrong. Gibson sent me a brand new one. It's great - but I also bought a Midtown Standard which is Gibson USA, not Custom like the 335. The Midtown is a freaking AWESOME guitar. The neck is made of some kind of composite, not even real wood I guess, but it plays great, cool tone, solid and was less than half the price of the Gibson Custom Shop ES-335.

My point is that Gibson still makes great guitars but you should definitely play before you pay and check 'em out REALLY good.

Also if you want an example of a great Made in America guitar company which has never really had the quality ups & downs of Fender and Gibson - what about Rickenbacker? And they aren't ridiculously overpriced. A new Ricky 330 is cheaper than a Gibson ES-335.
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Yeah . . . but . . . with mediocre pickups, the most uncomfortable neck available for guitars, crappy tailpieces . . . if someone making a Rickenbacker screwed up the guitar it would actually be an improvement. . .
 
Re: The golden age of guitar making is over people!

I think with Warmoth and other somewhat custom order providers/manufacturers, guitar players these days have pretty good options and a range of prices (from stripped down unfinished to top shelf exotic woods). Add to this the ability to buy pickups ranging from $50 to $1,000 on-line, and also a used guitar market that because of the internet is instant and worldwide instead of through a magazine, and we have some real choices compared to the old days.
 
Re: The golden age of guitar making is over people!

Mr 9finger said:
You've not played many top end Japanese guitars have ya man. Fender put a stop to Japan importing guitars(Fender logo'd of course) into the US because they were better than most of the guitars coming off the US production line. Gibson has used them in the past. Most recently Charvel has done this with the pro mods. Price and quality was too close to the US production guitars, so they moved it somewhere else.



I think you understood what I was saying completely.



No it's not. People make it a bigger deal than it really is. Gibson, Fender, Ibanez, Marshall, Nike, LG, Samsung, Ford, Chevy......they're all names. Those names have built empires to make money. Hell even Seymour Duncan falls into this category. Most of them could care less what the end user thinks. They're name brands and will continue to make money because they are name brands. A few people b*tching on a forum doesn't bother them at all because those people/us people are a minority to their buying market.

Bottom line is, if you want a guitar built for a guitar player by a guitar player with passion and soul, you either need to hit up some of the smaller luthiers like McNaught, Huber, etc... or you need to pony up and get with the custom shop from brand X.
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Damn true!!
 
Re: The golden age of guitar making is over people!

GuitarStv said:
Yeah . . . but . . . with mediocre pickups, the most uncomfortable neck available for guitars, crappy tailpieces . . . if someone making a Rickenbacker screwed up the guitar it would actually be an improvement. . .
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I love the necks myself, and the pickups are a big part of their characteristic sound.
Rickenbackers are kind of special-purpose guitars which are the best at what they do, but not as versatile as the common strat and gibson types. I eventually started using an SG as my main guitar because of this...
 
Re: The golden age of guitar making is over people!

jmh151 said:
Mass production quality has improved tremendously when it comes to guitars, I'd hate to remember the budget guitars I grew up with in the 80's, or the budget amps (remember Gorilla?).
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My first guitar was a Lotus LP copy and Gorilla amp.

When it comes to high end guitars I think they have got worse over the years but for entry level guitars they have become so much better. Even the cheapest Squire combo is nicer then anything I could have afforded back then.
 
Re: The golden age of guitar making is over people!

Dr.K said:
I think a lot of American workers do still care about the quality of their work, I do. But, they've got a boss cracking the whip for them to get it out the door.
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I agree here. I do customer service and really do try to help people that call me, but management gives us such a small time window..

Sorry to feed into this necro thread, but since its up here.

I ordered a "2008" model les paul. Had to special order it. I waited forever to get it and finally, when I did, I had to return it cuz it had a bunch of flaws. Then, they said they discontinued the line and wanted me accept a regular production 2012 LP instead. NO!! (in hindsight, I prolly should have) But. they aggreed to build me another after alot of arguing back and forth. The new one is much better, but I still feel there is something off about it. But its a great guitar.. Just was very stiff while new and required a bit of break in.
 
Re: The golden age of guitar making is over people!

I can't really explain why but from my experience the very big operations are driven by the goal to increase revenue so leaders start taking desicions kind of disconnected from reality and driven by "I want my big year end bonus". But when leaders are motivated by their love to what their job then desitions are driven by true desired to make a great job, a great guitar in this case, maybe this is a too idealistic view but I feel that when I hear intervies with enterpreneus who actually started their companies, or when I read that Fender employees some how rescued the brand when CBS screwed it.

So being that said, I don't think the golden age if guitar making is over, maybe it is just that old strong brands are failing to deliver great guitars because they became too big operations, maybe you just need to look into other options to find people driven by their love on their job being able to deliver that great guitat you may be looking for.
 
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Re: The golden age of guitar making is over people!

The good news is that with forums and Facebook, small builders can get the word out. If you have $3k or more to spend, you have so many choices from some great builders out there. Even places like Warmoth are out there, so you can build your personal dream guitar for a great price. It is much better than the 80s even, where Kramer, Ibanez and Charvel put their name on terrible, terrible instruments.
 
Re: The golden age of guitar making is over people!

aleclee said:
Not in terms of bang for buck. The cost of truly giggable instruments is waaaay lower today than back then.
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This is very true! I see sooo many guys gigging these days with LTDs, Shecters and SEs. (and others)
 
Re: The golden age of guitar making is over people!

My Made In Japan Fender Jaguar is a superb instrument. The guitar breathes... play an epi les paul and all you hear are the strings themselves ringing.. play my guitar and you feel the whole thing vibrate.

I have no problem buying guitars not made in america... a lot of them are better than "american" models.

Here in PR there's this huge misconception that is a guitar is made in the mainland it's the best... I guess that leaves more MIJ guitars for me.

I'm not saying MIJ is better.. I'm saying that MIA isn't, sometimes.
 
Re: The golden age of guitar making is over people!

Not sure I agree that the Golden Age is over. Maybe the "Golden names" are just not the people you want to build your guitar anymore. Golden Age quality guitars are still being built by Anderson, Suhr, PRS, Nash, Xotic (the list can continue), companies come and go but there will always be a place for top quality, it just doesn't always have to come from the same company.

Giggable quality instruments as well as quality luthier work is MUCH more accessible these days as well. There are some great companies making instruments for gigging musicians (not necessarily pro's though I have seen some pro's with these instruments too now) out there at really reasonable price points.
 
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