I'm not one for playing all the new guitars at music stores, I pretty much have the guitars I like and haven't bought a new guitar in somethiing like 15 years. Well, except for the FSR ash tele a couple of years ago, but that has been the only guitar I've bought since 1992 (!). I stopped in the local GC trying to pick up an old school strap for my mandolin (no luck there. If I wanted dayglo, furry, or aliens printed on it though...) and they had a mark knopfler strat used for a reasonable price. So I checked it out mostly because I dig Knopfler, and the thing was as dead as a doornail! unplugged it sounded like I had wads of cotton stuffed in my ears and just felt like it had no life at all under my fingers. It just felt like a lump in my hands. I played a couple other strats and while they weren't as "dead" feeling as the MK, they weren't at all as lively as my 78 or my 80's super strat. I haven't played roomfulls of strats but I've played more than my share, and unplugged I've come to expect a strat to be a bit bell-like and responsive. The ones I played yesterday just sounded dull. Is it just me or what?

I think I can relate to that. I wonder how much of it has to do with how accustomed we get to playing with and listening to our own rig and just knowing how things sound to us.

I spend a lot of time, probably more than I should, trying to get my sound "just right" and my tone right where I want it to be. I don't go through a lot of guitars and amps, and have pretty much had the same setup for several years now - for one thing I'm too cheap and poor to own a catalog of high-end gear, and I just don't gig often enough on a professional level to need more than 1-2 guitars and one amp. So in between giving lessons I'll go across the street to the shoppe, tool around on a few niceties and rarely do I ever find something "better" than what I've already got. I guess that's a good thing, I don't know.

Discounting that of course, there's always the one or two lemon guitars in every bunch, the store's demo models with old strings or not yet set up properly, etc.

It's not you. I bet it's GC. Who knows how long those guitars have been hanging on the wall and who knows how many snot nosed greasy fingered kids have played those guitars and wiped their grime all over the strings.

I bet new strings and a proper set up to YOUR specs will make those guitars sing for you.

But yes there are "dead" guitars out there and no matter what you do they still sound dead. I suppose chalk it up to guitars being made of wood and every piece of wood is different like fingerprints. Some will resonate and some will be dull.

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Obligatory gear list: Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Gretsch, Vox, Martin, and more Fender.

I actually liked the setup on the MK, it just didn't resonate at all. The kid (why can't there be a couple old cats at a music store that have actually played a few gigs?) working the guitar section asked me if I wanted to plug it in; "nope, it's dead as a doornail, making it louder won't help it". Besides who can hear a guitar over the three greasy kids who can't fret and pick at the same tempo (when they aren't popping zits) while looking around to see who wants to ask them to be in the next worlds' greatest band?

Hey that makes me wonder why the original owner sold the MK Strat to GC. Was it dead and he just wanted to unload ASAP because he was frustrated getting it sound good? "Now it will be someone else's problem"

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Obligatory gear list: Fender, Rickenbacker, Gibson, Gretsch, Vox, Martin, and more Fender.

+1 and some guitars are just acoustically dead. I agree, if they ring loud and true unplugged, they they most likely will feel and sound better plugged. I have a few Strats that when you hit certain notes you can hear the springs inside the body do a harmonic resonance thing. Really cool. And that sound will come through the pickups when you play loud. I like older Strats (no offense to my buddies who have new ones!) but 1997 and older are my favorites.

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Xhefri's Guitars
www.xhefriguitars.com

Of all the guitars I have messed with, by FAR the most dead, useless sounding guitar I have played is my Jag-Stang. The poor thing, I only keep it because I know I would never find another one in such good shape, nor would I spend the money to own one again, lol. It is true that as a guitar gets older, it seems to feel more solid and resonate better. I do not doubt you could find a dead strat, but so many in one location? It has to be the booger-faced kids and dead strings A poorly cut nut can suck the tone out of any guitar......

lots of angst towards the younger generation...
They are the reason the MK strat wasn't up to your standards?
what a crazy world.

nope, kids didn't make the strat lame. I don't remember saying that. Hmmm, just checked, I didn't blame a lame strat on a bunch of kids. Is it possible that in reading a joke based on the stereotypical impression of music store chains that's been old since before "Waynes' World" (NO STAIRWAY!) you missed the joke? Sorry I didn't put a bunch of emoticons in there to make it obvious.


It hadn't occured to me that the original owner of the MK ditched it for the very reason I passed on it. Now I'm wondering how many people have shifted it down the road....

i'm aware you didn't blame any kids. Maybe I should have pointed that out.
I'm more of a wayne's world 2 fan myself.

I also think it is not you. I played guitars in all price ranges that had the same deadwood feel and I quickly and swiftly returned them to the place I got them from. If it is the nut or a setup issue that causes them to have dampened or buzzing issues, that can be fixed.

Flip side to this is that you will find players that can benefit from the spank and lack of the resonance.

You know, in a week or two, some guy is going to come on the forum and tell us about the wonderful used Mark Knopfler he just got at the local Guitar Center. He'll say that he had to clean it up a bit, put new strings on, and give it a quicky set up. Then he'll mention the bell/chime like cleans he can get through his "some big name pro" amplifier ...

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Member #26797
My other guitar is a Strat.

Exactly.
There has to be a reason for the guitar not sounding like it should, that can be sorted out.

And I have to agree, shops need to ensure played guitars look and sound as good as possible. The first rule of sales is presentation, gotta look right. Then you gotta have faith in the product.
How any shop thinks it's not counterproductive to offer instruments in a subpar state is deluded and entirely to blame for their own failings.

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No no and no

This is so true Big O!!

That is true however I sort of like that about some stores saves me some money, just another day I knocked $300 off a 61 reissue strat FSR Limited. It was in horrible playing condition, could not keep in tune after a couple of strums, fretting out, buzzing, you name it. It was hanging on the wall for about a year and lot of people passed on this.

I was able to look past the problems and found that the hardware was good, it was noticeably lighter than my usual AmStd and resonated better unplugged. After the good bath and setup WOW this thing just became my #1. It is equipped with CS Fat 50s so I am still evaluating those, a different flavor than AmStd or CS 69's.

AmStd is gonna get sold, this thing is leaps and bound better guitar. I was considering to get a CS 62 Closet Classic but this thing ended up being a lot better player.