Do you think this guitar has been played often?

Sean · 2010-04-02T17:19:14+00:00

My wife bought a cd featuring a guy called Glen Hansard. I quite like his style. Anyway, in the cd sleeve I saw this photo of him with his Takamine. I did a...

Do you think this guitar has been played often?

singemonkey

Both those guitars actually creep me out a little - like a crack-head who's lost all his teeth. Something gruesome about that hole in the top. I'm not phased by holes in the sides or heavy wear. But those guitars look critically injured.

Sean

X-rated Bob wrote: No doubt you've seen the reference to Willie Nelson's guitar in this thread. He calls the famous instrument "Trigger".

Meet Trigger

Goodness, that is something... ?

Jack-Flash-Jr

Sean wrote:
X-rated Bob wrote: No doubt you've seen the reference to Willie Nelson's guitar in this thread. He calls the famous instrument "Trigger".

Meet Trigger
Goodness, that is something... ?

Yep, and it sounds pretty much how it looks... just happened to be watching Willie on Clapton's Crossroads benefit concert...

Bob-Dubery

singemonkey wrote: Both those guitars actually creep me out a little - like a crack-head who's lost all his teeth. Something gruesome about that hole in the top. I'm not phased by holes in the sides or heavy wear. But those guitars look critically injured.

Well that damage is in an area of the top that is important to generating sound, so I'd guess the tone must have been effected. Maybe the owners think it sounds better.

In the case of Nelson it has become a part of his image, maybe his fans would think he'd gone weird, or want their money back if he played something else. He must like it. He had a chance to retire it a few years ago when the bridge broke. But it was fixed and went back on the road. In fact the guy who fixed it (Rick Turner) had less than 24 hours to do the job, so it seems like Trigger didn't miss many shows.

Keira-WitherKay

i love beat up guitars.... they way cool...and especially if you the one who put the wear/hole in the guitar ......... must be quite awesome to know you played so many gigs and all on one guitar ... mmmm yes i know i'm a hippie but that would be way way cool for me........

Bob-Dubery

If you believe that a guitar is a tool then the important thing is that it functions correctly, that it does it's job.

singemonkey

X-rated Bob wrote: If you believe that a guitar is a tool then the important thing is that it functions correctly, that it does it's job.

Spoken like a man who doesn't consistently post to the pr0n thread ?

I've got no problem with a beat old guitar. Just the hole in the top that somehow freaks me out at a subconscious level. Like turning over a nice piece of fruit and finding a maggot-filled crater.

chris77

Thats just nuts. Somebody on the forum once made reference to a luthier who built a body from paper mache with a solid top to show the importance of the wood used for the top in producing toneful sound. No bloody way will it sound as good with half the top missing. Playable it may be, and defenitely unique sounding, but to me those guits are broken.

vic

How old would you say that Takamine is..? Wear hole ? ? No ways... .The Nelson guitar's "wear hole" also seem a little odd....some of it is actually under the strings...?

vic

singemonkey wrote: Both those guitars actually creep me out a little - like a crack-head who's lost all his teeth. Something gruesome about that hole in the top. I'm not phased by holes in the sides or heavy wear. But those guitars look critically injured.

Agree...really looks K2A....these guys ought to have their strumming technique checked out ?

Keira-WitherKay

vic wrote: How old would you say that Takamine is..? Wear hole ? ? No ways... .The Nelson guitar's "wear hole" also seem a little odd....some of it is actually under the strings...?

? knowing willie nelson and his brush's with law re drugs hehehheh that hole was prob made by customs searching for his stash which many muso's think they can hide inside the guitar when crossing borders .... just a suggestion

Bob-Dubery

singemonkey wrote:
X-rated Bob wrote: If you believe that a guitar is a tool then the important thing is that it functions correctly, that it does it's job.

Spoken like a man who doesn't consistently post to the pr0n thread ?

Well I did say "if..."

Bob-Dubery

I think that in this case the LOCATION of the wear and tear is unusual, but acoustic guitars taking a beating is not that uncommon. Collings, Martin and Santa Cruz all offer models with an enlarged sound hole. Those enlarged sound holes often came about because the artist's original guitar slowly had it's sound hole enlarged by the pick and hand scraping away at the edges. I think in some cases roadies may have just cut bits away to make everything lot neater. So eventually somebody comes along to make a signature guitar and to get the look and maybe the sound right they have to open up the soundhole.

Tony Rice (fab bluegrass player) has certainly "modified" some guitars in this way. I have seen a couple of Martins that are chewed up in this particular fashion.

Maybe we place too much stock by the superficial elements of the guitar. I recently played a +- 40 year old Martin D28 with a crack in the top and a nicely chewed up sound hole and it sounded pretty good.

Rob-dos

i think he has played it alot.. on the opening of the woodstock dvd you will see a fine musician who had eaten away at his guitar
i have a friend who is very nearly at the point of breaking through the wood, he plays really hard on acoustic
i think once you break through its all downhill from there and you just eat away at the axe