The Strat

I indulged myself this week. I bought a guitar…well to make that statement more accurate, I should say, “I bought another guitar.” This brings my current total up to eight. Very few people that I know truly understand the why of it all, and all of them are keepers of multiple instruments themselves.

I’m not sure I can ‘splain in a way that is meaningful to a layperson, but let me say first of all that I am blessed to have the means to be able to maintain such a collection. That certainly hasn’t always been the case, and I am bright enough to know that it may not be the case tomorrow. I remain humble and thankful.

Well crafted instruments are a wonder, like anything else that is really well made, the quality is obvious to anyone with the knowledge to appreciate it  Although looks can be deceiving, fit and finish, or the feel and smoothness and effortlessness of operation can’t be faked. This is especially true of guitars. A poorly made guitar may well be unplayable at the worst, or simply difficult to play at best, requiring too much effort to form chords and sounding bad even at their best.

This is so unfortunate for people who would like to learn. They are unwilling to spend the money for a good instrument when they are unsure if they have the ability to learn or if they will even stick to it. So they buy a $100 instrument. They end up with a beast that savages their fingertips because the strings are so hard to depress and often quit, happy that they did ‘waste’ a bunch of money. Sad.

If you are a musician you know the feel of a good instrument. One that almost plays itself. If it is a keyboard, every key falls readily to hand and is radiused perfectly. The amount of force required is perfectly balanced…just enough resistance to avoid accidentally depressing a key, and perfect linearity, the volume increasing in correct proportion to effort.

In a guitar that is just right for you it is similar. The spacing of the strings is just right, not too close together, not too far apart. The effort required to form chords or play discrete notes is the same where ever you are on the neck. The strings require only a light touch to hold depressed…no death grip required….. and the intonation is correct from top to bottom  and end to end of the neck.  The strings will easily bend to alter pitch when you ask them to, but stay well behaved otherwise. The sound will be pure and clean, with no buzzing of string against random fret, and enduring sustain that leaves you marveling at the sound.

My guitars? I have one that is sized to travel, an easy carry-on, small but with surprising presence, a joy to play but inexpensive enough to not hurt so much if lost, stolen or destroyed. I have three 6-string acoustics. The first and my oldest is a nylon stringed pure acoustic on permanent loan to my youngest daughter. The second is a steel stringed acoustic electric that I keep tuned to an open G for Hawaiian Slack Key practice. The third is a concert quality steel stringed acoustic-electric for gigs. I have two 12-string acoustics, the first of which is a real beast that I have had for too many decades. It is pretty much unplayable with terrible intonation and finger killing action. I keep it for sentimental reasons. The second is the first guitar I bought after I quit drinking five years ago as a reward. It is a beautiful acoustic electric with buttery action. I love its full sound and often gig with it. The last two are also my newest, pure electrics, fine quality professional instruments, one for rhythm and the newest one for leads and rhythm. It is indeed a joy to hold and behold. Playing it is like driving a Ferrari. You don’t hold it, you wear it, and you don’t play it, you think it. It is happiest when it is playing with you and it shows……