KVR Audio

tapper mike · Post by **tapper mike** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 3:13 am

On another subset of the above. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be under contract with a guitar company?

Take for example Eric Clapton and his signature strat. For a long time he couldn't be seen with anything not manufactured by fender. I mean yeah it's nice to have a contract and have your face in advertisements when you are already famous. maybe it will insure ticket sales or record sales and you'll get cash out of the deal. As well many artists are/were so linked to the identity of the instrument they were famous for playing it was something that fans would revolt such as when Bob Dylan went to playing a strat and hard core folkies abandoned him. It's like being caught up in a martial arts movie where everyone must never change their clothes because someone might get confused.

hibidy · Post by **hibidy** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 4:38 am

Over at sevenstring, there are guys that have endorsement deals. I can't make heads or tails over who's who and what is the truth. Many of these guys apparently don't even get stuff for free. I have no idea.

@line6: I've felt for quite some time that they are behind. But that is just me. I tried one once and was at first taken by the coolness of the tunings. But after you listen for a while you realize there are quite a few artifacts and the newness would wear off. Different for a gigging musician. I can imagine that being very attractive.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 5:05 am

okay, I have probably mentioned this guy I knew who was an awesome luthier that I worked with and got a job at mars...he now works for these guys http://visionaryinstruments.com/ this guy is good, probably the best I have ever known but I have to say this message he sent me on facebook really made my night.

What's up John! Looooong time no see.
I was just telling a friend how I got my big break as repair tech over at Mars music, and I remembered that you got me that gig. I was like, Shit, gotta look John up on Facebook!
Anyway, good memories of gettin stoned in the back of the Davis Sq store. Hope you're doing well. Cheers! -ben

good times indeed

in fact, this is Ben

#!

hibidy · Post by **hibidy** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 5:23 am

I don't know what to think of that. I'm jealous of his fingers!

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 4:17 pm

hibidy wrote:I was thinking about a warmoth neck for my squire bass, but decided against it. Too much money and according to some, you have to level/dress the frets anyways. They are not cheap.

Our in-store tech can install a neck and dress the frets for around $75. Including the neck from Warmoth, that's less than $300 to get exactly what you want. That's probably too much for a Squire but you can get a loaded American body for cheap enough to make it worthwhile. My 1973 P-Bass body with a not-so-amazing modern Mexican neck only cost me around $325, that's a perfect candidate for a Warmoth upgrade.

My best Fender's have all been Warmoth's.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 4:57 pm

tapper mike wrote:Many years back I tried Line6 Variax (pre JTV) in a store. Everytime a new model can out I'd rush to the store to check it out. There were only five things I hated about them. Style, Size, Weight, Scale length and action.

I've played the high-end American-made Tyler JTV's and didn't like them much, either. The Les Paul one feels and looks incredible, every bit as good as a PRS, but the sound is still off for me. I prefer the sound of the Fender/Roland version.

tapper mike · Post by **tapper mike** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 7:18 pm

Don't get me wrong I love fenders it's the roland thing that leaves a bad taste in my mouth. I was looking at the Ga and was shocked at how few sounds it actually had.

Tyler was a bad idea. Parker was a good one but it costs too damn much for an Adrian Belew model.
If Line6 released variax as a hardware assembly kit Techs luthiers and other brands would have equal footing. Customers would be the ultimate winners because they could have guitars built their way. Line6 would reduce production costs and liability while increasing production. Hence my constant references to transpant variax's over the years. It's not like you have to buy a Seymour Duncan guitar to get Seymour Duncan pickups why should you have to buy a jtv for the electronics?

Line6 has to many burners on the stove. Great ideas one and all but... As soon as one big new idea comes along it's like they forget about the rest. I doubt anyone will see an update to workbench or a new enhanced guitar model selection version in the years to come.

If they sampled X amount of guitars and pickups why can't they sample more?

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 7:32 pm

tapper mike wrote:On another subset of the above. Have you ever thought about what it would be like to be under contract with a guitar company?

Take for example Eric Clapton and his signature strat. For a long time he couldn't be seen with anything not manufactured by fender. I mean yeah it's nice to have a contract and have your face in advertisements when you are already famous. maybe it will insure ticket sales or record sales and you'll get cash out of the deal.

It sounds heavenly to me. I'd do it with PRS and have them make me a guitar that only does the 4 pickup positions I actually use.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 7:38 pm

hibidy wrote:Over at sevenstring, there are guys that have endorsement deals. I can't make heads or tails over who's who and what is the truth. Many of these guys apparently don't even get stuff for free. I have no idea.

Joe Morgan, from the super boutique Morgan Amps, told me he doesn't give away free amps to endorsees any more because he found that it actually ruins relationships instead of building them. People would get a free amp, then sell it (because that's what we all do, right?), and then feel so bad about selling it that they'd never talk to him again. He says it's better they get the amp for a dirt cheap price so they'll actually sell it for a profit and come back to him to buy another.

hibidy · Post by **hibidy** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:13 pm

The conversation came up over Guthrie Govan and apparently that even on his second endorsement that he gets jack shit. I don't understand that. I'd think that if you endorse someones gear, you should get something in return.

I don't get it at all.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:26 pm

hibidy wrote:The conversation came up over Guthrie Govan and apparently that even on his second endorsement that he gets jack shit. I don't understand that. I'd think that if you endorse someones gear, you should get something in return.

I don't get it at all.

Going by Joe Morgan's logic, I could see charging for the actual instruments but then paying the artist separately for the right to use their name. Then again, I think the careers of both Guthrie Govan and Doug Aldrich were helped significantly by their Suhr endorsements, maybe the deal was for marketing dollars?

hibidy · Post by **hibidy** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:29 pm

It's a huge question mark. According to GG, he doesn't really get anything and certainly not his guitars for free.

There has to be something to it though.

There are two camps, those who think endorsements are mad cash, and people who say it's really nothing other than name recognition.

I really don't know because both camps show up at every bitchslap fest and they're both convinced they are right. BUT, people that supposedly have endorsements seem to be saying it's not much, so I'll lean that way for now.

Uncle E · Post by **Uncle E** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:45 pm

hibidy wrote:BUT, people that supposedly have endorsements seem to be saying it's not much, so I'll lean that way for now.

Maybe we musicians are such narcissists that we care more about having our names on guitars than we do about money.

Hink · Post by **Hink** » Thu Jun 06, 2013 8:58 pm

Uncle E wrote:
hibidy wrote:BUT, people that supposedly have endorsements seem to be saying it's not much, so I'll lean that way for now.
Maybe we musicians are such narcissists that we care more about having our names on guitars than we do about money.

my warmoth strat has my signature on the headstock...it didn't make the guitar play better or sound better though

tapper mike · Post by **tapper mike** » Fri Jun 07, 2013 1:58 am

Hink wrote:okay, I have probably mentioned this guy I knew who was an awesome luthier that I worked with and got a job at mars...he now works for these guys http://visionaryinstruments.com/ this guy is good, probably the best I have ever known but I have to say this message he sent me on facebook really made my night.

What's up John! Looooong time no see.
I was just telling a friend how I got my big break as repair tech over at Mars music, and I remembered that you got me that gig. I was like, Shit, gotta look John up on Facebook!
Anyway, good memories of gettin stoned in the back of the Davis Sq store. Hope you're doing well. Cheers! -ben
good times indeed

in fact, this is Ben

#!

Wow what a novel idea. Imagine developing it to a point where you could access and control your software vst rigs with it.

Way cool looking concept.

Your next guitar?