O N, O FF, OR STAN DBY...
The editors of Premier Guitar offer up some unsolicited opinions about guitars and six-string life.
ON
Something Old, Something New – Rather than slavishly recreate past benchmarks, the
NAMM show demonstrated that builders are now intent on mash-ups of older, proven designs with new
techniques and features to create altogether new instruments, with pickers being the beneficiaries.
OFF
The Friendly Skies – After NAMM we counted five cancelled flights, ten delayed flights, lost
luggage, one unintended overnight in the Denver airport and an honest-to-goodness case of DVT, or
“economy class syndrome.” At the risk of being placed on some career ending no-fly list, screw United.
ON
OFF
STANDBY
Choosy Mothers – After slogging it out for decades, makers like Hamer, Anderson, PRS and Suhr are
finally getting the respect they deserve, not only for kickass axes but also for helping to guide the market to its
current state of unparalleled quality. When there are too many good guitars to choose from, thank these guys.
Genre Bashing – Okay, we don’t fully get metal – well, we get Motörhead – but da mn, it’s still
guitar music. It doesn’t matter if you only play country, punk, or polka – go buy some Django, Jimmy
Bryant, Wes or anything outside of your comfort zone and enjoy!
Too Much Mix-up Mix-up – Pedals are fun sometimes, but do you really need six different overdrives
on your pedalboard, three choruses, or separate delays for slapback, ambient and dotted-eighth notes? Can
anyone hear the difference at the VFW anyway? Remember Thoreau – simplify, simplify.
