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Post by jackorion on May 9, 2014 20:04:24 GMT
Before I got my Fylde Alexander 10 months ago, my only acoustic was my Martin OM28v, which I was very happy with - in fact, throughout the build for my Fylde, I often wondered how it was going to beat such a great guitar.
Since then it's become second favourite, seeing hardly any play time compared to the Fylde which is played every day.
It's almost as if the Fylde has spoilt the Martin - when I pick up the Martin I notice how the longer neck is less comfortable and harder on stretches, I notice that the smaller frets make it harder to play cleanly and I get fret buzz, I notice that the trebles are harder and less sweet with quicker decay...
Then I pick up my Fylde and it's like - aha!
I've tried a few things like keeping the guitars in different tunings, or using different string gauges for a different feel to give me an reason to not use my Fylde for everything, but I'm slowly starting to realise that the Martin just isn't my favourite anymore...
Has anyone else gone through this? Once a guitar is 'surpassed' does it ever come back into the fold?
My Martin was the first serious thing I ever bought, and I loved it from day one and I'm not sure I could ever be rid of it, but why keep such an expensive guitar that's not getting played?
I've been thinking about selling off my electric gear to fund an Oberon the last few weeks as that gets played even less, but then I'm certain I'd play the Martin even less...
Sorry for the slightly ranty nature of this post - I'm just thinking out loud I suppose...
Anyone else been lucky enough to find a guitar that ruined your other ones for you?
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Post by scorpiodog on May 9, 2014 20:14:32 GMT
Not ranty at all. Happens all the time.
What I always find is that after a while of not playing my former favourite I rediscover it. I may never play it as often as before but I play them all sometimes.
I've said it before but in my view (and I know I'm in a minority here) guitars are for buying not for selling ;-)
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Post by earwighoney on May 9, 2014 20:56:55 GMT
It's almost as if the Fylde has spoilt the Martin - when I pick up the Martin I notice how the longer neck is less comfortable and harder on stretches, I notice that the smaller frets make it harder to play cleanly and I get fret buzz, I notice that the trebles are harder and less sweet with quicker decay... How do you find the Fylde's shorter scale and CGCGCD? What do you mean by the smaller frets? I'm with you that one guitar can outshine other guitars, I'm definitely a one guitar person (one guitar for the different functions eg 12 string, 6 string, flamenco, electric, which isn't really one guitar!) I'm in a similar situation to yourself. I'm trying to gain the motivation to sell my 1968 Gibson SG and a Fender valve amp that I bought when I was 16, I can't justify to myself keeping them as I don't play them more than a handful of times every few years now it seems.
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leoroberts
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Post by leoroberts on May 9, 2014 21:05:23 GMT
I've said it before but in my view (and I know I'm in a minority here) guitars are for buying not for selling ;-) It's a minority of at least two, Paul - I'm with you. I have my guitars in different tunings and use them to play different things (obviously) but Naomi will ALWAYS be my 'go to' guitar for general play despite having other, more expensive guitars to choose from.
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alig
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Post by alig on May 10, 2014 5:24:17 GMT
Well...
I have to say that my experience has also involved a Fylde. I bought an Orsino in 1980/1 (don't want to think about how long ago that is...) and have had several guitars since, culminating in two Tarans. I always found that, when I went back to the Fylde, after the new guitar novelty had worn off, I was always pleasantly surprised by it. I haven't played it since I got the Tarans as I left it with Rory for a refret and fettle prior to selling it. However, now I think about it, it will probably sound so good I won't sell it
As far as the Fylde's concerned, it's simply a very, very good guitar that has a voice all its own. It's different to all the other guitars I've had - not better. My first 'quality' guitar and one does remember one's first...?
So, no, I haven't had a guitar spoil another. I've been lucky enough to have had the opposite experience.
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Post by scripsit on May 10, 2014 6:10:24 GMT
I started to map out a complicated, logical argument but ... one can never have too many guitars.
Kym
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Post by vikingblues on May 10, 2014 7:02:49 GMT
I've lost track of the number of times a favourite guitar has been put in the shade by a later acquisition. But I've tended to keep a collection of several guitars at any one time so although the ex favourite might not be played much there's usually a reprieve period where it has the chance of coming back in to regular use. But that comeback rarely seems to happen and eventually the guitar becomes the least good option in the collection and gets weeded out in an occasional purge. One reason I don't give my guitars pet names - having a name makes it way more difficult to part with one. But I have had one case of what I think was a change in my sense of hearing when in the space of just a month or so I went from having a favourite "go to" guitar, to that same guitar being one I could not bear to listen to. It wasn't anything that had happened to the guitar as I had the same negative reaction to the sound of older recordings I'd made. Glad that doesn't happen often! Bear in mind though that I tend to buy at the cheaper end of the market so I'm not offloading high class quality instruments - just cheap mass produced tat. Maybe I wouldn't be so cavalier, and would think guitars should be for keeping, if I had high quality gear. Mark
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Phil Taylor
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Post by Phil Taylor on May 10, 2014 8:51:34 GMT
Before I got my Fylde Alexander 10 months ago, my only acoustic was my Martin OM28v, which I was very happy with - in fact, throughout the build for my Fylde, I often wondered how it was going to beat such a great guitar. Since then it's become second favourite, seeing hardly any play time compared to the Fylde which is played every day. It's almost as if the Fylde has spoilt the Martin - when I pick up the Martin I notice how the longer neck is less comfortable and harder on stretches, I notice that the smaller frets make it harder to play cleanly and I get fret buzz, I notice that the trebles are harder and less sweet with quicker decay... Then I pick up my Fylde and it's like - aha! I've tried a few things like keeping the guitars in different tunings, or using different string gauges for a different feel to give me an reason to not use my Fylde for everything, but I'm slowly starting to realise that the Martin just isn't my favourite anymore... Has anyone else gone through this? Once a guitar is 'surpassed' does it ever come back into the fold? My Martin was the first serious thing I ever bought, and I loved it from day one and I'm not sure I could ever be rid of it, but why keep such an expensive guitar that's not getting played? I've been thinking about selling off my electric gear to fund an Oberon the last few weeks as that gets played even less, but then I'm certain I'd play the Martin even less... Sorry for the slightly ranty nature of this post - I'm just thinking out loud I suppose... Anyone else been lucky enough to find a guitar that ruined your other ones for you? Ah... the old '2nd guitar syndrome' eh? Well I suffered for years with this resulting in numerous guitars moving on, one in particular that I regret a lot so my advice is don't do anything rash. I have definitely conquered it now with my two Brooks. Guitars are always going to sound different from each other even when they are supposed to be identical so I have trained my mind to think of them as different not better or inferior. The main difficult thing for me was the feel so I made sure my current guitars were same scale length, nut width and action although the latter is not always easy to achieve. I actually share out the playing of my two Brooks and I'm careful not to neglect one - I know It's something you can only sort out yourself but I hope this helps - mind you what a nice problem you have Regards Phil
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Post by jackorion on May 10, 2014 12:37:38 GMT
It's almost as if the Fylde has spoilt the Martin - when I pick up the Martin I notice how the longer neck is less comfortable and harder on stretches, I notice that the smaller frets make it harder to play cleanly and I get fret buzz, I notice that the trebles are harder and less sweet with quicker decay... How do you find the Fylde's shorter scale and CGCGCD? What do you mean by the smaller frets? I'm with you that one guitar can outshine other guitars, I'm definitely a one guitar person (one guitar for the different functions eg 12 string, 6 string, flamenco, electric, which isn't really one guitar!) I'm in a similar situation to yourself. I'm trying to gain the motivation to sell my 1968 Gibson SG and a Fender valve amp that I bought when I was 16, I can't justify to myself keeping them as I don't play them more than a handful of times every few years now it seems. The fylde's okay in c tunings- it doesn't quite throw the low c out much but it sounds fine... the frets on the fylde are actually larger and higher than the ones on the Martin, and I just find it plays easier because of this... it is a nice problem to have, don't get me wrong!
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Post by bellyshere on May 10, 2014 15:32:46 GMT
I played a sobell a while back and now all my guitars sound inferior. It wasn't mine though. I wanted to run off with it.
Sent from my GT-I9300 using Tapatalk
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Post by melodeous on May 10, 2014 17:33:28 GMT
Spoil. That's a good way to think of it. Yes, the evolution of the player begets a succession of guitars until the grave, I think. I'm down to one guitar. I'm 59 and no longer looking or even interested in looking. I can walk past a store without the slightest curiosity to stop in unless it's for strings or an accessory. I'm also done with guitar table talk from the same lack of interest. That leaves the music, which isn't really a topic that lends itself to conversation, as my sole interest these days. On the whole I look at it as having arrived.
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Post by vikingblues on May 10, 2014 20:00:36 GMT
That leaves the music, which isn't really a topic that lends itself to conversation, as my sole interest these days. On the whole I look at it as having arrived. I think I like the sound of that destination!
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Post by delb0y on May 12, 2014 12:38:57 GMT
Wouldn't say I've had one guitar spoil another - but I'm very wary that the Martin is so easy to play that if I'm not careful I play it too much then struggle when playing something else. So I tend to play the Tanglewood (lovely sound, slightly harder to play) a fair bit just to keep my chops, such as they are, together. I also have a masochistic tendency to learn fingerpicking tunes on the 12 string even when intended to play them on the six...when I go back to any 6 string after the 12 it's like the weights have been taken off my ankles and wrists and I'm allowed to skip along unfettered!
All that said, I recall thinking when I bought it that the Martin was a lot more difficult to play than I'd anticipated. But I guess I've adapted to it.
Cheers Derek
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Akquarius
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Post by Akquarius on May 13, 2014 18:17:48 GMT
This sounds very familiar to me, jackorion. I started with a Maya Hummingbird copy, then got a 12-string Seagull S12 Dreadnaught. And then: my Martin SWD-GT. This guitar was a kind of revelation: compared to what I had played before the sound was incredibly good, the whole guitar was premier league. And then came the Lakewood and everything changed. I had to learn that A) Dreadnaughts are not my favourite size; B) a wider neck (45-46mm) plays much easier than the one the Martin has; C) a huge sound is nice for strumming and flatpicking, but not necessarily for fingerstyle. Since then I got my Akquarius and The Little English Lady (a DeFaoite Feileacan Gallchno). Atm the Martin is touched only by dust. Result: The Martin will leave me in September to be played by more skilled fingers than mine.
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Post by jackorion on May 14, 2014 6:40:20 GMT
Well the funny thing is, after writing this post, I decided to deliberately play the Martin for a few days and I've started to enjoy it again!
Been learning Lady Nothing's Toye Puffe by John Renbourne and something about the Martin's sound seems to work for it - I'd say there's more fundamentals and less overtones than the Fylde, perhaps a cleaner, clearer sound. The Fylde is all warm and fuzzy and with overtones on all strings, whereas the Martin is more clinical, and that seems to work for this piece...
Of course, the shorter scale of the Fylde makes it easier to play, and the neck is nicer too, but I've come to appreciate a little more the differences rather than see them as 'this guitar is better' it's just different...
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