Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The slow death of the electric guitar

washingtonpost.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

251–260 of 343 posts

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#251

Post by moogly »

eyeJam wrote: post #235
moogly wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Technologically the instrument ran its course. While the tech was still innovative in the 90s with the new digital effects, it hasn't changed much in 20 years. This is... whilst not exactly incorrect, it's not the whole truth either. The article touched a little bit on this with the robotic tuner thing, but didn't fully explain why. In my experience partaking in internet guitar forums over the decades, the vast…

> can't break your headstock off — a quite common way to damage your guitar Really? Are people using their guitars as hammers? I think it's pretty damn hard to break a headstock off. Much more common damage to a guitar is denting the frets, distorting the neck or busting the tuning pegs. I'd put "breaking off the headstock" as the 99th percentile of common ways people materially damage their guitar.

I should've said accidental damage. Dropping the guitar. Knocking the stand over. Shipping damage. Guitar trauma, basically.

Tuning pegs don't really tend to fail. Unless you have those "vintage" Les Paul-style ones (yuck), but they're easy to replace.

Frets get worn down, necks tend to bow or arch, or at worst warp (more seldom). Fret recrowning/redressing, truss rod adjustment and fretboard leveling are part of the regular maintenance of a long-lived electric guitar.

Now, headstock breakages are usually pretty easy to fix for a luthier, and the result is stronger, since a glued joint is stronger, just not as strong as a glued scarf joint.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#253

Post by Sevores »

agumonkey wrote: post #87
kaoD wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO there will not be a next Miles Davies or a next Jimmy Hendrix. Or rather, they've already been. The last 40 years of music have experienced such a revolution, we've already had many of those (most of them relegated to obscurity through sheer volume and industrialization of music). But now that I've re-read your comment you've already mentioned the niche-ization :) Hip-hop was a revolutionary genre like rock musi…

I don't listen to much electronic music, but I find no subtleties or sensitivity in what I hear. I understand that dismissing the new for no other reason is useless but I just don't feel it.

Listen to this Charles Cohen record if you want subtlety and sensitivity: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c-c5_A2y0JM

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#254

Post by moogly »

jdietrich wrote: post #233
moogly wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 1. Technologically the instrument ran its course. While the tech was still innovative in the 90s with the new digital effects, it hasn't changed much in 20 years. This is... whilst not exactly incorrect, it's not the whole truth either. The article touched a little bit on this with the robotic tuner thing, but didn't fully explain why. In my experience partaking in internet guitar forums over the decades, the vast…

>Maybe these old people in the article (I'm 37 so I'm one of them as well, I guess) are the problem, and when younger people that don't revere the word "vintage" so much can usher in the era of the truly modern guitar that Ned Steinberger has shown us glimpses of? One can only hope. It's already happening. A huge proportion of young guitarists are playing metal, which is a hugely progressive scene in terms of technol…

Sure. Headless designs is going in the right direction IMO, but other than that, don't fool yourself, the Strandberg and Kiesel guitars etc. are still very traditional designs:

Wooden body, wooden neck, wooden fretboard, and in the case of Strandberg, Ibanez AANJ-style neck joint and silver/nickel frets (Carvin/Kiesel have neck-through and SS frets as options, or at least used to have). Most, if not all parts, you can get from Warmoth/All Parts, no custom designed parts there, apart from maybe the Strandberg's string fastening mechanism/headpiece, but that one is pretty crude, to be honest.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#255

Post by luckydata »

SAI_Peregrinus wrote: post #238
tasty_freeze wrote: post #218

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Singing / playing requires a split brain. If you think the chord + bass on Neon requires a split brain, check out Charlie Hunter. I just picked one of the first videos that I found on youtube, but he always plays guitar & bass at the same time: https://youtu.be/-B7btsk6ASE?t=1m

How about Luca Stricagnoli, who tends to play guitar, bass, and drums all at once, with just the guitar: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJiok_3B-JA Or with some extra instruments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MxHGyqobsbI Or Mike Dawes, same deal: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LYksCAhjthk Most of the people Candyrat Records sign, really.

there's a long lineage of great fingerstyle guitarists in that style, arguably all generated from Tuck Andress of Tuck and Patty.

Tommy Emmanuel is another one, and one of the best: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPkQn5nDTZs

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#256

Post by khazhou »

paulsutter wrote: post #26
khazhou wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

??? Jack White John Mayer Are they on the list?

They're famous, and they play guitar, but they aren't famous for their guitar playing "fell in love with a girl" is an awesome song but not so challenging to play: https://youtu.be/95HRZ2SLMJk

Mayer is an amazing blues guitarist, and recognized as such. He tours with Pino Paladino as his bassist, a testament to his own chops!

And Jack White, while not a "virtuoso" has mastery of the rock guitar language. It's not immediately obvious to everyone, but his technique is flawless.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#257

Post by luckydata »

moogly wrote: post #254
jdietrich wrote: post #233

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Maybe these old people in the article (I'm 37 so I'm one of them as well, I guess) are the problem, and when younger people that don't revere the word "vintage" so much can usher in the era of the truly modern guitar that Ned Steinberger has shown us glimpses of? One can only hope. It's already happening. A huge proportion of young guitarists are playing metal, which is a hugely progressive scene in terms of technol…

Sure. Headless designs is going in the right direction IMO, but other than that, don't fool yourself, the Strandberg and Kiesel guitars etc. are still very traditional designs: Wooden body, wooden neck, wooden fretboard, and in the case of Strandberg, Ibanez AANJ-style neck joint and silver/nickel frets (Carvin/Kiesel have neck-through and SS frets as options, or at least used to have). Most, if not all parts, you ca…

C'mon, innovation is clearly trickling down. It all began with Ken Parker:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dR01zIjj4_w

Line6 has created the Variax that uses the piezo signal of each string to model other stringed instruments and their electronic system (and even things like banjos and resonator guitars)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYHJaL6g6Jc

and now even Music Man is adopting steel frets lately. Guitars evolve slowly but they do evolve.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#258

Post by splicer »

kaoD wrote: post #81
davnicwil wrote: post #76

I think there are strong parallels with the tech/startup world here: the often-touted quote "The next Bill Gates won't build an operating system, the next Mark Zuckerberg won't build a social network" comes to mind. The next Miles Davies won't play the horn, and the next Jimmy Hendrix won't play guitar. There will always be jazz, there will always be rock n roll, but the level of interest in those styles, particularl…

IMHO there will not be a next Miles Davies or a next Jimmy Hendrix. Or rather, they've already been. The last 40 years of music have experienced such a revolution, we've already had many of those (most of them relegated to obscurity through sheer volume and industrialization of music). But now that I've re-read your comment you've already mentioned the niche-ization :) Hip-hop was a revolutionary genre like rock musi…

Shpongle is from the 90’s (though mostly not techno). Granted, most of their hits came out in the 2000’s.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#259

Post by coldtea »

lz400 wrote: post #163
coldtea wrote: post #128

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Here are some examples of some classic stuff -- but like anything new, they probably require repeated listenings to get the layers: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgzjFCXCA8g https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WTxC8wnXQo https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dnXVIsMimHY https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xw5AiRVqfqk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7bKe_Zgk4o&index=5&list=RDX... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1FGtd3oH_PQ http…

This shows how subjective things are. I'm really into electronic music, or at least was. Some of your links are absolute masterpieces like autechre or aphex twin. Some of the the other trance stuff is so far below in my opinion that don't belong together.

>Some of the the other trance stuff is so far below in my opinion that don't belong together.

The trance stuff is not that "below" in quality, it's more of the "subjective opinion" thing that's not to taste, if not a reaction to automatically associate "trance == bad".

It's not like I linked to some cheesy GOA stuff. If you look at those "trance" pieces, the craftmanship and complexity is obvious, sometimes to the point that some "higher-quality" Aphex Twin part is just quick farting around with the equipment.

In any case, not knowing what the parent would be interested in, I tried to go for a wider variety. If they were for 70s prog rock for example and "epic" stuff, they might appreciate the Infected Mushroom stuff more.

Re: The slow death of the electric guitar

#260

Post by splicer »

agumonkey wrote: post #87
kaoD wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IMHO there will not be a next Miles Davies or a next Jimmy Hendrix. Or rather, they've already been. The last 40 years of music have experienced such a revolution, we've already had many of those (most of them relegated to obscurity through sheer volume and industrialization of music). But now that I've re-read your comment you've already mentioned the niche-ization :) Hip-hop was a revolutionary genre like rock musi…

I don't listen to much electronic music, but I find no subtleties or sensitivity in what I hear. I understand that dismissing the new for no other reason is useless but I just don't feel it.

If you’re looking for an example of subtle and thoughtful electronic music, I recommend listening to recent works of Tipper.
Post reply on HN