Poser Value, Important?

[Rudi]

Does the look of the guitar matter a whole lot? and even if it does; does it suit you?

 

My guitar looked a hell of a lot better played by a guy who jumped up to do a couple of songs at a wedding a while back.

 

Why? He was tall. A little over 6ft.

I am 5ft 8.5" and it looks a bit oversize on me.

I think this is why Michael J Fox (who is short) used a peewee model in 'Back to the Future'.

 

A lot of us dont play live I know, so it may not matter so much to you, especially if you sit down to play. or does it?

 

Some bands seem to like to develop 'a look'. The axe then also becomes a fashion accessory.

[john]

I was thinking, nah it wouldn't bother me, and then I thought of several heavy metal guitars that I really wouldn't thank you for as most guitarists who ever played them looked like arses. I guess glam guitars fall into that category too.

If I played them I would look like the Grand Emperor Arse from the planet Arse

[TapperMike]

What we perceive and what we think the audience perceives may be entirely different.  Elvis had stunt doubles in his movies to play the guitar for him.

The monkees weren't allowed to actually play their instruments during the filming of the show..it was all overdubs (though later they could actually play them irl in reunion concerts.

 

I used to be in "The Bobby Cole Quartet" Bobby was an arse and a hack.  He could sing okay and was a mediocre piano player but was an extremely handsome older guy and he had a cult following from playing the same house since the 50's (this was back in the eighties.  Anyway I used to show up with my Les Paul for trad (music between WWI and WWII) jazz.  I took it because it was a paying gig and wanted to pay my dues as a jazz guitarist.  We'd have these photo op's for local papers and Bobby would push me out of frame.  I carried his arse we all did but he was the fair haired boy.  Anyway  I decided to get my long hair cut and bought a Gibson Byrdland.  I'm there in a suit nice jazz box in hand and... MTV on the Beach shows up

(this was when I was living in florida and the gig was at Fort Myers Beach.  

I'm having a great set the crowd is loving me...MTV camera's come in and Bobby being true to form tells me to sit out the next set.  I'm furious but I'm not going to call him out in his house.  So I sit out the set MTV films and leaves.  Bobby calls me back for the last set of the night ( I won't get paid if I don't take the show to the end)  The local paper follows MTV in and starts taking candid band shots.... The guy takes one of me that hid's Bobby behind me (because I've got a very pretty guitar)  At the end of the night after all the cash is sorted I tell Bobby I quit.  MTV never shows footage of that night but my face is plastered on the front page of the Mullet Wrapper (Fort Myers Beach newspaper).  One would figure that I could parlay that cover photo as a means to get into another jazz combo or get jazz gigs elsewhere in Florida.  Never happened.  But I did get positive comments from people I knew about the photo op. 

 

A similar situation happened when I moved back to Michigan.  I sat in with a Jazz trio during a jam trying to make a name for myself.  The upright bass player was amazing. I was so mesmerized by his playing I could barely keep up.  He was a very very heavy man and it was his trio (Hans Muer)

Great guy a true gentleman, gentile giant and extremely gifted.  Anyway we had a photo op for the local paper and they cut him out (and trust me he was the act) but not me.  I felt sorry for the guy. But this time the photo op was good for me as it allowed me to meet up with other professional jazz players and get more paying gigs.

 

In short a great deal of it comes down to situation.  Some people who come to a show are less concerned with the music then just being seen in that type of setting.  A great show and to the listener it may as well be background music.  I've noticed watching crowds at folk shows...If you have a young attractive singer....forget the band all eyes and ears focus on the singer.

 

Rudi-  You are tall compared to me I'm 5'6" and shrinking.  atleast you have meat on your bones. I'm 110 lbs

[symphonious7]

Hmmm...  Yeah that's the nature of the beast really.  I mean half of the top 40 artists out there are posers who can't really sing, now adays most people know this and just don't give a crap.  I've talked to tons of young people who are like "Yea I know they lip sync and don't play instruments, so what I like the music!"  But dial back 50 years or so, and I remember hearing about how Pink Floyd's talent was in question with some people because they used electronic instruments that played themselves in some parts of some songs.  Well that's what one of the band members said in live from pompeii anyway.  

 

To me it's.. it's weird.  If you've got this great show you really love, you're not gonna be like "Wait! The lead guy isn't really playing!"  And not like it anymore, but at the same time if people don't do that, music just gets more fake, and more fake, and more fake.  I mean, if musicality is now synonymous with showmanship and beauty, then it's something else.  It's a pageant show.  No thank you.  

[JoeBennettMusic]

Guitars are things of desire, so begrudgingly, I say yes. It does matter- a bit- sorta'-ish...

 

A well made guitar that looks nice probably sounds nice. And vice versa. That's the issue. Man, in the studio it's a tool rather than an ornament, unless of course you're being filmed on location . 

 

So as long as you've already got to the point of sounding good on the stage, I see no harm in thinking about whether you look cool as well. 

Edited May 1, 2014 by JoeBennettMusic

[JoeBennettMusic]

I was thinking, nah it wouldn't bother me, and then I thought of several heavy metal guitars that I really wouldn't thank you for as most guitarists who ever played them looked like arses. I guess glam guitars fall into that category too.

If I played them I would look like the Grand Emperor Arse from the planet Arse

 

With you. Back in my drink fuelled and ponderous adolescence, I used to play a Dean ML in a god awful 'metal' band. I s'pose it was somewhat fitting given that at the time I weighed about as much as Dime Bag Darrel. -

 

See if you can spot me! - 

[TapperMike]

Re maple fretboards because they look better.

 

I get that but sometimes it doesn't get me. My newest tele is the straightest maple fretboard neck I've ever own.  I've gone through dozens of maple neck guitars only to be disappointed.  The reason why I choose rosewood for my strat many years back is that I just didn't trust the one piece maple neck due to all the bad experiences I'd had in the past.  That didn't stop me from loving the look of a maple fretboard on a tele or strat.

 

Maple fretboards are just sexier on electric guitars.  I'm really glad my tele has one.

[Rudi]

I had a maple neck strat. I loved the look, but never got on with the shape and feel with it. Not even after playing it for 25 years. It may have had more to do with the design and scale than the wood. It was hard & slippery and not even 25 years continuous play broke through that laquer.

 

It stood up to my downward string bends though. My nails have gouged ruts into the soloist's frets.