STAR LETTER
WHERE DO THEY ALL GO?
I’ve had a conundrum for some time, which I may have finally solved. Electric guitars have been around for some 70 years. Production numbers have fallen and risen – lower in the earlier years of Gibson, Fender and others, but rising dramatically in the rock and pop era of the 60s and through to this day with an ever-increasing number of models and manufacturers who come and (sadly) go. And, my question is: where do all these guitars go?
The number of guitarists worldwide has probably stayed roughly the same for decades, as older players move on to the ‘great jam session in the sky’ and younger players begin to get their first callouses. So, the number of guitars out there, old and new, seemingly exceeds, evermore, the demand. Apart from those rarities yet to be discovered in a loft or the occasional one that has been played to death and shuffled off this mortal (split) coil and ended up in landfill – where do they all go? But, having seen a number of recent news articles, I think I have the answer: Joe Bonamassa buys ’em.
David Higgins, via email
Many thanks for putting a smile on our faces, David. Seriously, however, it is a conundrum – there are only so many dusty cupboards and lofts that guitars can go to if they’re not being played, surely?
The editor of this tome used to live round the corner from a pawn shop and there was always a diverse mix of guitars in there at any one time. Everything from benighted budget Strat copies to battered 90s Charvels and, every once in a while, something interesting like an oldish J-200. These guitars seemed like the flotsam and jetsam of the six-string world – cast adrift by owners who’d become bored or needed the cash for something else. I suspect a fair few guitars don’t even make it as far as the pawn shop and, sadly, end up in landfill – Sheffield songsmith Richard Hawley got a Burns electric by plucking it from a skip and he still uses it to this day! I wonder if any obscure PhD has been done on the ‘mortality rate’ of guitars to the local rubbish tip?
But your theory about Joe Bonamassa is also very timely given the cover story of this issue’s supplement on IconicGuitars! For these Nostradamus-like powers we grant you this month’s Star Letter Prize…