Being an absolute guitar nut, I love to play them, work on them and build them. Want to know the physics of sound........etc.

It has come to my attention though that there are number of guys out there that absolutely care nothing about how and why a guitar works or sounds like it does. They play guitar and thats it! In point of fact they might play them quite well.

However, you might ask them if they prefer humbuckers to single coils and they look at you dumfounded, that is, because they don't know what your talking about. Lately, I have ran into a few of these fellows, accomplished, talented, professional musicians who don't know a thing about their instruments other than "it has strings on it and its in tune" One new friend of mine has a Kramer electric guitar that is absoutely filthy and caked with grime of all sorts. The metal parts are rusty and strings are long overdue. He does not give a flip. For him, as long as it makes sound he is up town. He's played it that way for years, and no he has no clue what type pickups are on his guitar.

Its hard for me to fathom, but then I recall the epiphany I had the day I realized a good portion of the general public, women in particular, don't know which direction is North, South, East and West. They go through life somehow, finding their way around, how, I do not know. ........"It's over there?"

I guess we are all nuts of some sort. I cannot look at a rock and tell you anything about it much than its color, and to a geologist I would seem quite correctly seem ignorant.

So to my fellow guitar nuts, be happy, when your buddies guitar quits working, you know who they will turn to!

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I remember when we were free!

Grime on a guitar. Blech.

I'm one of those guys that when I get into something, I go all the way. If I leave strings on my guitars for than a month, I cringe. I do all my own settings and just got done checking intonation, even though I already knew both guitars are right.

Hummm. I could check the bias on my amp!

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Gary

Im with you guys..I really dislike dirt on my guitars!! One reason I will NOT own a black guitar they show every single stinking fingerprint!...Last night I was out watching my guitar teachers band..he has a Gibson Hollowbody that I would sell my youngest daughter for..(Just Kidding) it was filthy! I had to razz him about it I offered to bring it home and clean it up for him but I dont think he trusted me to bring it back LOL!!
On a side note..I admit it..I have absolutely no inner Compass at all..I landmark drive it drives my hubby nuts when he gives me directions and says go north of so and so...reallllly..what goes through his head!!

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Mona
"Music is What Feelings Sound like"

I can't fathom how people can "landmark drive" and still find their way without knowing the difference between north and south. You need both.

"Turn north at the tack shop with the giant cowboy boot in the parking lot." That's an example of a good direction.

How else are you gonna say that? What? Turn left at the boot? That doesn't work. No, no, your other left, silly. Or what if you're coming from the other direction then it would be right. No, no, your other right. If somebody doesn't know north and south they prolly don't know right and left. It's all just too confusing and too easy to goof up and waste my valuable time.

I give directions in NSEW along with landmarks and if they can't figure it out I just let natural selection take its course. If they give me directions and there's no north and south then I don't need to go there that bad.

My 2¢

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Just think of how awesome a guitar player you could have been by now if you had only spent the last 10 years practicing instead of obsessing over pickups and roasted maple necks.

To some the guitar is just a tool and as long as that tool functions thats all that matters. To others it is a thing of beauty. I have talked to many of fantastic guitar players who don,t know anything about their guitar or amp. It sure would be cheaper that way.

I really can't tell why those differences occurs . For my own part , I love music - love the sound of certain parts in music , and I am curious of WHAT exactly makes this sounds good . That involves rhythm , harmonies and the instruments ability to express it . And , of course - my own playing ability . When all those things works together , I am a happy man
Though I am no expert , I notice that I know more about what it takes , than many other musicians . I will always do what it takes to make my instruments 100 % in top shape . Changing pups/hardware/electronics if ''necessary'' . Perfect set-ups. I own quite a bunch of guitars (IMO)
- no really ''top-of-the-line'' guitars , but they are all great Each time they get new strings , they also get full nursing with cleaning , polishing , lemon-oil and whatever is necessary . It has to be that way.
But I am aware that there are really good players out there , who really don't care I guess they are really stuck if something does not work properly........ or they are perhaps so rich and famous that they have a tech around them all the time...

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A-man

+1

I love it when non-geargeeks try to talk technical when they bring me a busted piece of gear......

"This thingie keeps blinking" or "It makes a 'zzzzzz' when I turn this doo-hickey".



Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY

Sorry -- but this isn't ignorant?

Yes it is!

And thats the real point of the thread. We are all ignorant of many things, and in many ways.

OL

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I remember when we were free!

I don't understand how someone can use something so regularly and not know why it does what it does... and I am no geologist either, but I still wanted to know why a rock was a rock I mean I cannot pick up "ANY" object without wondering how it came to exist and why id does the things it does. and I am soooo glad my wife doesn't
"Landmark Navigate"

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There's a local guy here in town, excellent player, great teacher, but the dude can't plug in a stomp box, or figure out how to change a battery in one of them. It's almost laughable how clueless he is about it, but he's a good guy and he just laughs at his technical ineptness with gear. But he's so good that we forgive him!

I heard the great Pat Martino speak of the guitar as a tool.
He compared it to a table fork, it just transports the food to your mouth.

Now somenone here just spoke of our instruments being -a thing of beauty.
I absolutely marvel at my guitars man.
With the passing of time, I have forsaken the competitive technique,
and trying to achieve impressive feats.
Rich, enchanting tones, the right vibrato, dynamics, deep meaning.

I kind of go through a cycle. If my depressive symptoms are present,
I don´t clean much. Then I come around and I play a nice cd while
I ceremoniously treat my guitars with oil or wax accordingly, using a deer skin cloth, the kind
people use on their cars. What a great feeling!

And yes! I put my kid on a chair and proceed with an air of sophistication,
-Look here my lad, an electric guitar is a transdusive device that puts out approximately
1.3 Volts. And Leo was this really cool guy who got to thinking...
Hahaha I think I have successfully steered my 11 year old away from those
cheesy and ugly, flashy Black Metal axes he sees on magazines. Thank God for that!

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FIGHT!

You should really remove the DNA from that guy's guitar.

And I use relative location and landmarks to tell direction. Like, I know that right now, I'm facing north. My computer setup is on the back wall of my room, the highway runs along my left side and eventually runs into Maryland, which is north of Virginia. I use it when my friends and I are lost (which is a rarity, I know NOVA so well)

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1984 Squier Contemporary Stratocaster
1986 Peavey Envoy 110
1967 Kingston Acoustic

That's a clever way to put it.

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I remember when we were free!

Being fairly new to this guitar playing thing, I have to say that as much as I'm learning how to play, I'm also learning how the thing works. I have never sent my guitars to anyone for a setup or a string change, I made it a point to learn all that on my own. I'm constantly wiping them and when I change the strings, I clean and polish them. It is amazing how crud collects in between the fretwires it's nasty for anyone to just change the strings and not clean that fretboard.

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"Music is what feelings sound like"