I am playing guitar for 2 or 3 hours, every day, at the moment and have been using my Shines. First the red one, and then, in case it felt left out, the black one.
Today I decided on a change, so I pulled out my Gordon-Smith Gypsy 2. I am sorry to say, I don't really like it !!!
It looks the biz, and it sounds great, but I don't really like playing it. I am going to give it a couple of weeks to see if I settle to it, but if not it will have to go. It is earmarked for my eldest grandson, so he may get it before my demise!
One of the things I don't like about it is the fact that the strap button is on the base of the heel and the guitar leans forward on the strap. Someone else obviously had the same problem, some time in its 33 years history, as there is a hole where a strap button has been mounted on the back of the top horn. I'll maybe try moving the strap there and see if it makes a difference. I am afraid, even playing sitting down, I hate a guitar without a strap. Maybe it is just my body shape!
Any advice welcome.
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Comments
Looking at Gibson SGs, similar to the Gypsy 2, and the strap button is there as it comes from Gibson.
I think what you have to consider is, crucially with the guitar at playing angle, is how far horizontally towards the headstock you can get the strap attachment point. The trouble is that with the guitar at playing angle, the tip of the upper horn can end up being more or less vertically above the position at the back of the heel, and thus offers no improvement. Hope I'm being slightly clearer than mud here... I did think about making some sort of extender to fit to the upper horn on the Vantage, but what a faff, and it would look odd too. But if Lester's suggested strap location offers an improvement, maybe that's worth consideration - you could try taping the end of the strap in position to see what the balance is like before going ahead with the drilling.
I just don't particularly enjoy playing it. I have hardly played it at all in the time I have owned it. As I said, I will play it over the next couple of weeks, at the exclusion of all else, and see if I grow to love it. If not I will pass it on to Liam.
I think all I really need is one Shine and my Larrivée. The rest seldom see the light of day!
(Mind you, a few months back none of them were getting an airing.)
If you're anything like me with guitars, you'll find reasons to like it, but I do know what you're on about with just having the guitars you need - I kind of wish I could do the same, there is something to be said for keeping things simple. If I did, I think I'd end up with a classical guitar, an acoustic, my JP20 archtop (which I could never sell, for sentimental reasons), one of the Shines, and a strat. Still too many, some might say.
I have been experimenting with the coil tapping though, for the first time really, and like the range of sounds I can get. From SG to Strat, with many in between.
I'll suffer it a bit longer!
So I'll carry on a bit longer with it. Who knows, I may get to like it.
The older I get the more important I find a guitars comfort is to me.
Also the older I get the more difficult it seems to be to get it to that happy state. Humph!
I reckon if a guitar is uncomfortable and has great sound it'll still end up not getting played enough to merit my having it.
The "just having the guitars you need" scenario is an interesting one. Due to a move of house (a long and drawn out process) in the not too distant future my electric guitars and octave mandolin went into storage over 4 months ago as part of de-cluttering for people viewing the house. I haven't missed them at all for at least the last three months. Certainly don't feel inclined to sell them though.
I have still have 4 acoustics "on display", so I haven't totally gone mad.
It's good to fall in and out of love with certain guitars over time, quite normal. I do get what you say about coil taps and could recognise a use for that.
I struggle a bit with the comfort issue myself sometimes e.g. on my tele-partscaster, but it has it's own sounds, and I intend to keep it. I've sometimes thought of building a stratele type hybrid, but I think probably best not go there - I'll just keep the tele.
Serial No. 01668 is a Gypsy 2 in Wine, built Mar 1985. Records that old are a bit sketchy, but looks like it was probably made from Brazilian Mahogany with a Rosewood fingerboard.