Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

Re: Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

Interesting conjecture. Not sure about your reasoning, but I'll leave that for now. My methods for determining what guitars that I purchase are mainly based upon budget. That being said maybe they are and maybe they're not. But you know as well as I that plenty of people won't buy a guitar because "it doesn't look right". I don't think that I fall into that camp. If I found a Parker Fly going for cheap, I'd snatch it up in a heartbeat.

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Re: Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

I think some guitars are ugly
i admit it

I get the ones I want

I want guitars that are not ugly
 
Re: Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

I think many of the most popular modern superstrats already get most things right, at least for my own preferences.

I do wish they'd all come with stainless frets at the mid-level/import price range,,,,,,but now we're even starting to see that with the newer Schecters.
 
Re: Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

I agree
stainless steel frets
locking tuners
better pickups
should all be at a modest price range
 
Re: Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

Better nut, too. Most guitars are priced so that they deserve better than a hollow piece of plastic.
 
Re: Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

Demanic said:
Most people make their choices by looking around and seeing what other people are doing. They tend to be afraid of doing anything that would make them different from the rest of the crowd. This is especially true with musicians.

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I find the Internet also drives this. Best guitar for this, best amp for that, best pickups, best strings, best pedal.... over time it's homogenized people's opinions.

Kid starts learning guitar, he asks Google what the best guitar is. Someone asks that kid what the best guitar is, he tells them what Google told him.

Ever wonder why a kid playing metal is using a classic Les Paul loaded with scooped/squishy low output alnico pickups? Ever noticed that everyone now thinks you need a boost pedal to tighten up an amp to play metal?
 
Re: Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

Well, boost pedals do tighten things up for metal. But you won't catch me telling someone that pedal "x" is the only one that's good enough.

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Re: Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

Demanic said:
But you know as well as I that plenty of people won't buy a guitar because "it doesn't look right". I don't think that I fall into that camp. If I found a Parker Fly going for cheap, I'd snatch it up in a heartbeat.
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I fall into the 'It doesn't look right camp', and am not ashamed to admit it. I've seen some versions of LP's that have some pretty strange design changes to get around infringements & lawsuits. Same with deign changes to SG's and V's. Are they really improvements, or just changes for legal reasons? I think a number of (but certainly not all) guitar designs have that as motivator, rather than offering things that are truly innovative. The bulk of design work on electric guitars was done in the 1950's, and most of what we've seen since then is refinements, which some players think are needed, others don't. Are changes to an existing design by and of themselves necessarily an improvement? Listening to a recording, how many of those 'modern' changes can be detected? Are some of those bemoaning 'conservative' guitarists preferring traditional instruments using their eyes more than their ears? Is there something lessened by great music created on traditional guitars? Do 'modern' guitars make songs sound better? Or is it more about making a visual statement?

Why should we care about what guitars other people play? What's of far greater importance is what the musician does with his instrument, than details about what particular instrument he happens to use.
 
Re: Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

Good thing is that we have more choices (and access to those choices) now than ever. If you want a traditional LP, get it. If you like a Strandberg, go with that. What hasn't changed is the judginess of guitarists when it comes to other guitarist's choices. But I am not one that thinks older designs are better. There certainly have been many improvements.
 
Re: Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

There's something I find incredibly inspiring about playing a Strat style guitar with true single coil pickups and stamped steel saddles into a tube amp on the edge of breakup. It could be shaped like anything and be any color, but that core of tone really sounds and plays differently for me.

Now on the other hand if I'm playing a style that the above setup isn't really ideal for (thrash, punk, etc.) I've got guitars with floyds and active pickups into a variety of tone sources that sound great for those styles....

Like I mentioned above, the Deluxe Strat Plus was supposed to be the late 80's correction to all the flaws of the original Stratocaster. Locking two-post bridge with cast saddles, locking tuners, roller nut, noiseless Lace pickups, TBX tone control, micro-tilt neck, thick poly finish, strap locks, it came with all the advancements of the day. You can debate which of these are contributing to the tone the most (obviously Lace Sensors, obviously not strap locks) but it doesn't sound and feel the same at that edge of breakup place....
 
Re: Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

Great question, guitarists as a lot are pretty conservative in their approach to design. On one hand both the Les Paul and the Stratocaster are great designs, very forward thinking for its time and it speaks to the genius of the design team. On the other hand they have remained pretty much the same. One of my favorite guitars is my Yamaha AES920, it feels like what a Les Paul would be if it were to evolve organically. Guitarists also seem to reject the new, one of my other all time favorite designs is the Gibson Nighthawk, a guitar that many guitarist reject outright but it is an absolute joy to play.
 
Re: Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

Sometimes designs are just right from the start, whether it's guitars or furniture or cars. A magical visual/functional combination.

Even with the classic guitar designs, the same designers in the 50s designed guitars that didn't become classics. Hard to say why some stuck and some didn't.
 
Re: Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

Demanic said:
Most people make their choices by looking around and seeing what other people are doing. They tend to be afraid of doing anything that would make them different from the rest of the crowd. This is especially true with musicians.

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Absolutely. My first guitar, that I was not sharing with my dad, was a 64 ES-330. I played strats and Pauls and teles but I wanted to be as close to Marty McFly as I could and everyone thought I was crazy because I was using a P90 equipped jazz guitar playing classic-modern rock Now days when I show up to a gig with a Gretsch even the audience loses their minds because it's SO far out of left field to see a guy on a big hollowbody who is, as Rip Glitter succinctly put it, swallowing people in a whirlwind of brutality banging out Iron Maiden riffs.

Taz Rules said:
Don't forget Vees/Explorers/Jaguars/Firebirds
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Those guitars were way ahead of their time and are still considered "Wild" by many. The Moderne even more so with the Gumby headstock.

some_dude said:
I find the Internet also drives this. Best guitar for this, best amp for that, best pickups, best strings, best pedal.... over time it's homogenized people's opinions.

Kid starts learning guitar, he asks Google what the best guitar is. Someone asks that kid what the best guitar is, he tells them what Google told him.

Ever wonder why a kid playing metal is using a classic Les Paul loaded with scooped/squishy low output alnico pickups? Ever noticed that everyone now thinks you need a boost pedal to tighten up an amp to play metal?
Click to expand...

This is so true. I told Christian, the guy who invented fire, that had I not been so caught up in the Gretsch for 50s rock and western swing my guitar tonal development would've looked a lot different.
 
Re: Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

Time & trends mostly. You did'nt see too many kids rushing out to buy strats, tele's, & LP's in the 80's. It was all about superstrat's & pointies. Since these things go around in circles..I'd expect superstrat's and pointies to have their day again ...probably someday soon :bigthumb:

In the end I think tone & comfort/playability is probably the least important consideration for the vast majority of guitar players, though they will all make the biggest deal of it :laugh2:
 
Re: Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

If all those improved guitars sounded like the traditional instruments, I'd never buy a traditional instrument again.
 
Re: Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

beaubrummels said:
If all those improved guitars sounded like the traditional instruments, I'd never buy a traditional instrument again.
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That's really the main thing, isn't it? Every time you change even a small part of the formula, it can have a major impact on the end result.

There's probably some aesthetic psychology thing happening, too. You could play great jazz on a Parker Fly, but when you hold a big hollow-body jazz box, you feel like you're Wes Montgomery. I have a Lucille, and even though it's basically just a standard-recipe Gibson, I always end up messing around in the "BB box". Fine line between conformity and inspiration when it comes to classic designs.
 
Re: Why are traditional guitar designs so popular?

One reason I like older designs is that I can fix almost anything that goes wrong with them fairy easily. If something goes wrong with one of Gibson's new control cavity circuit boards, I would have to gut the entire guitar to fix it. Then again, there are some designs that were poor to begin with, and I wish would go away; Wire ABR bridges, Input jacks on a Tele etc.
 
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