I see a lot of posts about people having great guitars and then getting rid of them, always seeming to be in pursuit of the "perfect" one, well here's a thought that may help some of you out. I play bass, classical, rock, and country, and have 28 guitars. I love 'em all. I'd say I've done some tweaks on almost all of them, all for the better. I've reshaped necks, removed finish, changed tuners, added/swapped pickups, changed bridge pins and nuts, and haven't sold one guitar off because it didn't perform well. I don't understand why some of you just don't take a cabinet scraper to that axe of yours if you love everything about it but the neck is a bit deep or wide....I've scraped five necks into perfect shapes for me, and all it cost was seven bucks for the scraper. Want better sustain in your acoustic? Put in some boxwood or ebony bridgepins. Don't like your pickup? Put in another one or swap it out. I have four acoustics with two pickups and two jacks coming out of them. I've got a $600 parlour on which I scraped and shaped the neck, put in a real good pickup, and changed the bridge pins and tuners. I put an extra $500 into it, which may seem crazy, however, I now have an $1100 guitar that sounds and plays better than the $3600 one I was contemplating on getting. To my thinking, I'm $2500 to the good. Seems to me too many guitar players are overly concerned with how their instrument looks rather than what it's intended to do, be a tool for producing music that you like, eh???? Remember, most guitars are mass produced, and signature models are just a gimmick.....if you don't have Eric Clapton's fingers and hands why would you think you'd like his signature guitar???? Would you buy a size 10 shoe if your feet are size 13???? Finally, if you're only buying a guitar to resell down the line and keep it wrapped in bubble wrap, you're not a musician, are you, you're a matchbox collector! As an aside, there are a few guitars I have that needed nothing, I won't name them because they're perfect for me, and it's subjective anyway. But four were made in Canada and one was made in Oregon. Only thing I did to the Oregonian ( is that right? ) was add another pickup to complement the one it came with.
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