Beauty vs Function

NorioDS

It dawned on me this weekend that I made a bit of a mistake buying my latest guitar. It's such a beautiful guitar but I bought it without ever playing it and I put my old Ibanez RG-42DX away and left the new one out to "play it in" a bit.

Every time I picked up the new guitar, I thought, "Wow, my playing sucks and has really taken a turn for the worst." It got so bad that I almost hated the idea of playing guitar! I stopped referring to myself as a guitarist and started wondering if music was, "just a phase."

After months and months of barely playing the guitar, I took out my old RG again and gave it a whack and, holy heck, I'm getting my chops back and quickly! It just feels right. The frets, the neck, the weight of the guitar, the sustain (it's a thru-neck, new one's a bolt-on), the almost evil growling of the stock pickups. It all just sounds "right".

I bought my RG based on actual experience playing that guitar. I bought the pretty guitar based on its looks. Stupid thing for me to do! I've now learned my lesson and I've packed the pretty guitar away until I've got some spare cash to make it more like my trusty RG ?

If you learn to pay on an Ibanez RG, going to something "standard" might feel very alien to you and could mess up your playing. I'm sure the reverse is true about learning on Strats and then picking up a sooper-strat. It's just so DIFFERENT.

So ja, that's my story for the day and the moral of the story is: Don't judge a book (guitar) by its cover (pretty pictures) ?

(All that said, I don't regret my buy. I just realise that that guitar needs some work before it will feel "right" to me. At least I'm hoping as much ?)

AlanRatcliffe

Did you ever have the pretty one set up properly? It might just be a bad setup...

ZarK

:applause: Ibanez RG! :applause:

I've developed quite an eclectic taste in axes over the years but if there could only be one, it'll be an Ibanez RG without any doubt. I'm also at a point where function (finally) has superseded beauty as the most important factor when considering a new axe...

Rock on! ?

singemonkey

It is, of course, possible to have a guitar that's both pretty and a total player ?

NorioDS

Alan, I'm waiting for when I can visit YOU! ? I've had it set up but I don't think you could call it "properly". Just some minor adjustments, nothing really noticeable.

Zark, rock on! \m/,

Singe, that's why I want a JS1200 so bad. They're the purdiest guitars I've ever seen and I suspect they'll play quite well if set up properly and if it's not a dud.

vic

Norio wrote: Alan, I'm waiting for when I can visit YOU! ? I've had it set up but I don't think you could call it "properly". Just some minor adjustments, nothing really noticeable.

Zark, rock on! \m/,

Singe, that's why I want a JS1200 so bad. They're the purdiest guitars I've ever seen and I suspect they'll play quite well if set up properly and if it's not a dud.

People say Alan can fix even a dud !

?