The Missing Link
Penning this month’s longterm test on the ES-330 I picked up recently, I was struck again by the fact that, when choosing gear, so many players leave the most important factor out of the equation when deciding what gear they should buy next: themself. It’s very easy to think of musical instruments as if they do all the work of generating your tone – and you merely input notes. But the truth is, of course, that your tone is how your gear sounds when you are playing it, not the demonstrator in the shop or the star endorsee on YouTube.
For example, some players have a very confident, precise style that calls for an amp with a fair bit of clarity and headroom, such as a Fender Twin, to show their bold picking off to best advantage. A different player, who prefers to live in that lovely world of touch-sensitive crunch tones that you can get from lower-output amps, such as a Tweed Deluxe, might find the Twin a bit hard and unyielding. Neither player is wrong. It’s simply the difference between individual players that brings a piece of kit to life or not. Personally, I didn’t suspect a 330 was just the guitar for me until I tried one by chance as part of Guitarist’s daily round of reviewing. Now I absolutely love it. So it pays to keep an open mind and not have too many preconceptions about what the ‘perfect’ guitar for you might be – and try everything at least once.
With that in mind, if you want fuel for your quest in search of that elusive ‘perfect fit’, you’ve come to the right place – as this issue is given over to glorious new gear. In the cover story on p66 you’ll find page after page of top-rated gear that the panel of veteran Guitarist reviewers have played to bits, agonised over and finally proudly presented to you as the best they’ve found in a year’s gear testing. No matter what kind of player you are, we think you’ll find that the award-winning gear inside this issue is all worthy of serious consideration next time you’re gear-hunting. The rest is down to you to see if any of it floats your particular boat – and that’s the magic of guitar: the player is very much an essential component. Enjoy the issue and see you next month.