Old Habits
This month’s feature on customising guitars once again underscored the importance of not getting too settled in your ways. For example, I have a very nice S-type guitar that a luthier friend made for me. It has a slightly chunkier neck profile than is usual for a Strat-type instrument and, combined with the 0.010-gauge strings he provided it with, it delivered absolutely beautiful tone – warm, expressive and classic. However, while perfectly playable, it was slightly harder work to get around the fretboard than on some of the slinkier guitars that cross my path at Guitarist. Without really meaning to, I started thinking of it as a great-sounding guitar but one that made you work for it slightly. No great shakes, just something you get used to.
But you really have to beware of getting complacent when it comes to these things. In my case, I’d long ago decided that 0.010-gauge strings were my preferred choice for Strats. However, as a wise person once said, ‘Assumption is the mother of all fuck-ups.’ When a set of Ernie Ball’s new Primo Slinky strings arrived for Guitarist staffers to try out, I decided to chuck a set on my S-type guitar just because it was ready to hand. The thing about the Primo is that they are neither nines nor 10s but exactly in-between at 9.5 to 44. And lo and behold that little shift down by half a gauge unlocked the slippery quality I was hankering for from the guitar, without sacrificing any significant amount of tone. So, just through pure habit, I’d fallen prey to something we often caution readers to avoid: if there’s something you don’t quite like about a guitar, don’t assume it’s an inherent part of its personality before you try some very basic adjustments, like tweaking the setup or changing to some different strings.
While we’re on the subject of small changes, keen-eyed readers may notice that one or two of our regular features aren’t in this issue – fear not, they’ll all be back next month, we just wanted to devote a little extra space to our customising extravaganza. Have a great month of tone-tweaking and see you next time. Jamie Dickson Editor