Ray wrote
Ag I've got a whole bunch of thinkings on this and related topics. Why would someone buy a relic'd guitar or jeans? Dunno. I read a Joe Bonamassa interview where he talks about the relic'd LP bearing his signature and says something like then people wont be scared to play the thing. Yissis, if you spend money on the guitar and are going to be scared to play it what do you need it for? But he is payed to say things just like Tiger Woods is payed to say good things about Nike kit. Which brings up the whole artist series or signature series or whatever. Are you going to buy a Dave Gilmour guitar to play like Dave Gilmour? Oh boy, have a heart!
I think a reasonable idea is that if, say, Eric Clapton or Dave Gilmour or Steve Vai goes on the road with such a guitar then it's good enough that they will stake their reputation on it. If you want to believe you'll play and sound like they do then good luck to you.
This assumes, of course, that what you are buying is built the same as whatever it is the more famous person is using.
I think it's fair in the case of Clapton who takes fairly stock, fairly recent Strats on the road. So you should be able to buy one like that without having to go shopping at Gruhn's. For things like the Rory Gallagher or John Mayer Strats I think it more questionable.
There is a Richard Thompson signature Lowden guitar, and it IS just like the one he is touring with. All you need is 4000 pounds....
Last year Thompson auctioned a guitar on E-bay for charity. A Danny Ferrington creation - they don't come up for sale everyday. With a letter of authencity and notes about which tracks on which albums it had been used on. The entry on e-bay did explicitly state that there was no guarantee or even implication that the purchaser would start playing like Richard Thompson.
The other aspect to all of this, of course, is that these limited edition guitars are intended for collectors and investors. Buy that limited edition now because they're limited - there won't be any more of them made. So, the theory goes, the price must go up. I don't blame the companies for tapping into that market.
I think most of this is a way of exploring the vintage market created by the decline in quality of a lot of big name guitars in the 70s and 80s. There was a time when a lot of players were willing to stake their reputation on a bog standard Telecaster, Strat etc that was bought over a counter. Then the bog standard guitars got worse and worse and eventually the vintage market opened up - they don't make them like that any more!
Unfortunately they don't make them at all any more! Nobody is ever going to make 1962 Stratocasters again. But you can buy something that is designed after disassembling, x-raying, carbon dating etc etc Clapton's famous "Blackie" and built to be "identical".
