Two Fenders, one Gibson.
Stratocaster, Telecaster and Les Paul.
Not long ago my guitar arsenal grew to include the holy grail selection..... It's funny to think that so much great music has been made on literally only three makes of guitar. It's actually insane to think that the music of which so many people have grown up listening to has been from such a relatively small selection of instrument make.
Those three guitars are also the inspiration for almost every other popular guitar out there in the market. The three shapes are so popular that people just keep going back to them. It's not like with cars for example: where there have been so many amazing looking cars - yet the shapes and styles of all the big brands are forever changing every few years or so. There is some form of phenomenon within the music instrument industry where there are only a handful of popular shapes that are liked and thus made.
The iconic music heros would definitely have a part to play in this phenomenon I'm sure. It did for me with Jimmy Page, Jimmy Hendrix, Jeff Buckley - and there is such a big list of famous musicians who have all used at least one of the holy grail.
The tones that the holy grail guitars have are iconic and unique to those instruments, their specifications and even their wood/body shapes and finishes. However minor the affect some of those specifications have, they all still add up in the tone colour in the end.
What I do like to see is when guitar brands like Gretsch, PRS and others spread away from the holy grail options and make interesting looking and sounding guitars. One can definitely see the similarities of PRS to Gibson. But at least the PRS guitars have made their own shape and arguably could be added to the trinity to make it a quaternity with their tones.
I think the next big change in the guitar market will come about with what some of the bigger contemporary artists end up using. The classics will always be classics and the guitar-hero status of various 60s and 70s guitarists will likely remain for centuries. I can't say I've seen a guitar-hero in the modern day that has been as big as the old guitar-hero personalities. There are clusters of communities and personalities like with Rob Chapman for example, where YouTube has facilitated a new space for guitar-heros to thrive. But they haven't made it into the public eye as previously.
Music is forever changing, and the resistance to change is part of what is stopping this process. I could see the world of guitar changing dramatically in terms of pop-music and in terms of getting back out into the mass-public-eye. There will be a new phase of guitar : In terms of both the aesthetics of the guitars themselves, but also how it is played in a musical sense. So many people are attached to those old classic guitar tones. The next phase will be interesting and completely different. With the electronic music scene growing so drastically in the last decade, I reckon guitar has a place it could fit in amongst it and still make an impact. The electric guitar has so many capabilities, being amplified is just the cusp of the iceberg.
I know that I more than ever want to strive to find a 'new' and interesting sound. Don't get me wrong I absolutely love those classic guitar tones and I love my holy grail guitars. But mark my words hah - I myself will be trying my best to investigate some crazy new tones - I hope those guitarists out there that read this maybe think - hey yeah it would be cool too..... It's about time for a new wave of guitar tones. I'd love to hear anyone's work where they've been experimenting, and check out my stuff over time too.
Lets see what happens!
Thanks for reading....
Ben.
Director of BPFProductions.
Comments