NEVILLE’S ADVOCATE
Nev ponders why anyone wouldn’t use their best guitar on a gig. And comes to a rather shocking conclusion…
On the gig circuit I regularly play, which is mainly theatres but also includes 60s weekends at UK coastal holiday camps, we get to work on the same bill as many hit bands from the era. Recently we played with one group that had achieved several massive hits and are still going strong, albeit with various replacement members. The nowfrontman is also the guitarist. He and I always chat about our gear and there he was, as usual, with his original Gibson ES-335, now incredibly faded through having done thousands of gigs, and a more modern Martin acoustic. I admire his approach: “This is the guitar I love and I’m going to play it!”
Several of the other acts, though, have swapped their primary gear for cheaper alternatives. As often as not they do a lot of work in Europe and can never be sure whether they’ll be allowed to stow instruments in the overhead lockers. While I can understand not wanting to entrust a precious guitar to the baggage handlers, or the sub-zero temperatures of the hold, I don’t get why one wouldn’t revert to playing the best possible instrument when back on home turf. Which most of them don’t seem to do…
Our band rarely plays overseas these days, but when we do fly off to some festival or other, I always take whatever is my current stage guitar (I even used to take my 1963 Lake Placid Blue Strat when I owned it) as I can’t imagine not playing the best instrument I can afford. Something that makes me feel good and gives me the best chance of sounding ‘like me’ through whatever backline amps the organisers might present us with. And, as anyone who’s done it will attest, you can get landed with some stinkers!
Just In Case
If I’m playing a Strat, Tele or Les Paul it goes in a Calton case, which, short of it falling out of the plane at 30,000ft, is going to protect the guitar through pretty much any eventuality. Yes, those things now cost an arm and a leg, but I’ve had mine 20 years. I bought a matching pair, electric and acoustic, when they were about £300 each and I was starting a 60-date tour; they’ve done God knows how many shows and paid for themselves many times over.
In case you misunderstand my point, I’m not talking about leaving the half-a-millionquid ’59 Burst at home and supplanting it with a Murphy Aged ’59 Reissue; I mean playing a Squier instead of your bogstandard American Strat.
Of course, the flip side of this argument is that even the cheaper versions of the famous guitars we all know and love are infinitely better now than they ever were. And, of course, I have no idea whether these guys’ instruments haven’t been upgraded with new pickups, wiring, tuners, bridges and so on. And also (I’m talking myself out of my own argument here, aren’t I?), people get used to a guitar’s neck shape, a certain sound, or a particular look. So while they might have intended to go back, perhaps the cheaper replacement actually works better for them now.
Come to think of it, when recording my own noodlings recently, on a couple of tracks I used the Classic Player Stratocaster that I souped up and refinished for Guitarist last year. It sounded ace. But then I played it on a couple of gigs and, while it looked amazing, played brilliantly and still sounded superb, something about it not being my favourite Custom Shop Strat made me revert.
The uncomfortable conclusion at which I may have to arrive, and which I’ve probably known all along, is that I’m a guitar snob and that’s all there is to it!