The Guitarticle (Guitar article)
“The Guitarticle” (Guitar article)
Back in the 70’s guitars were generally crap. Once the big bucks were on the table, concerning the guitar market, the corporations jumped on the bandwagon, bought out Gibson and Fender, and began producing guitars that were inferior—aka—crap. Not all, but too many thought, “Hey! Have you ever seen the kids that play these guitars? We could sell them crap and they won’t know.” So they did, and generally, we teens bought them anyway, in big numbers. To have an authentic Les Paul, a real Fender strat, that was all you needed to achieve stardom—or so we thought.
I first saw a picture of Jimmy Page, probably in about 69/70 playing a vintage gold top Les Paul, which was not vintage back then, but it looked salaciously delicious, nonetheless. So, I set out to get me one. From there, the sky was the limit.
Sure enough, my wish was fulfilled after getting a full-time job and laying out 325 smackaroos, which, with inflation, is about 3000 in today’s dollars. It should be obvious that inflation is the enemy of mankind. Anyway. I took to that puppy like a baby to mother’s milk, like a salmon ready to spawn—and, spawn, I did. Pretty soon I was wailing riffs so awesome it threatened to destroy the space-time continuum. This compelled me to join a band and find my place in the pantheon of the greats, ala Clapton, Beck, Hendrix, and Bloomfield.
But the gold top, while groovy in many ways, had issues, right out of the box, which I worked around, by avoiding those parts of the neck. I could've taken it to a luthier if I’d know what a luthier was and where to find one, But I didn't. This dilemma was hardly unique to the Les Paul. Fender cut corners, too. Some changes in design were improvements, most weren’t.
Eventually, as the 70’s came to a close, Gibson and Fender came to their senses, and went back to the basics, with some genuine improvements. This move was precipitated by one thing, competition, which always separates the wheat from the chaff and drives the market to innovate. Prices fell like a stone, as well, because Japan began making a better guitar, at half the cost, than either of the big guitar manufacturers. When Japan’s labor costs got too high, Mexico, Indonesia, and China began to produce high-quality instruments that were a fraction of the cost of an American made instrument.
Now, the key to understanding this is, Americans still produce guitars. Better than ever, I might add. But so does Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, and China. So, if you want a Korean made Les Paul-style guitar, “Agile” makes a superb one for the same price that I bought my first American made gold top Les Paul, back in 1972. My Agile has an ebony fretboard, jumbo frets, 18 to 1 real Grover tuners, a solid mahogany body, a tusk nut, a superior bridge design—all for about 1/8th to 1/10th the cost of an American made instrument today.
After 50 years of off and on playing concerts, clubs, studio work, even live TV, I think I can spot a good one when I see it.
What’s the moral of this story?
Free markets and competition improve everything. They increase innovation because you're expanding the numbers of people working in the industry to solve problems, including budget instruments, hand-made, very expensive instruments, or run-of-the-mill, working-class guitars. Yes, some people lose their jobs, but overall, consumers get a big break. And let’s be honest, for every one person working in the industry, there are at least, many thousands of consumers who can now afford to buy a guitar for themselves or their kid—and, at a fraction of the cost.
Of course, Japan, China, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, etc., get a big hand-up, as the result of foreign investment, which creates desperately needed jobs. In the real world, and for most, living, breathing, human beings, it’s a win.
As a guitar player, I add my amen to the chorus, as I play-the-shit out of my foreign-born babies, and tell them, daddy loves you. Yes, he does.
Mark Magula
Back in the 70’s guitars were generally crap. Once the big bucks were on the table, concerning the guitar market, the corporations jumped on the bandwagon, bought out Gibson and Fender, and began producing guitars that were inferior—aka—crap. Not all, but too many thought, “Hey! Have you ever seen the kids that play these guitars? We could sell them crap and they won’t know.” So they did, and generally, we teens bought them anyway, in big numbers. To have an authentic Les Paul, a real Fender strat, that was all you needed to achieve stardom—or so we thought.
I first saw a picture of Jimmy Page, probably in about 69/70 playing a vintage gold top Les Paul, which was not vintage back then, but it looked salaciously delicious, nonetheless. So, I set out to get me one. From there, the sky was the limit.
Sure enough, my wish was fulfilled after getting a full-time job and laying out 325 smackaroos, which, with inflation, is about 3000 in today’s dollars. It should be obvious that inflation is the enemy of mankind. Anyway. I took to that puppy like a baby to mother’s milk, like a salmon ready to spawn—and, spawn, I did. Pretty soon I was wailing riffs so awesome it threatened to destroy the space-time continuum. This compelled me to join a band and find my place in the pantheon of the greats, ala Clapton, Beck, Hendrix, and Bloomfield.
But the gold top, while groovy in many ways, had issues, right out of the box, which I worked around, by avoiding those parts of the neck. I could've taken it to a luthier if I’d know what a luthier was and where to find one, But I didn't. This dilemma was hardly unique to the Les Paul. Fender cut corners, too. Some changes in design were improvements, most weren’t.
Eventually, as the 70’s came to a close, Gibson and Fender came to their senses, and went back to the basics, with some genuine improvements. This move was precipitated by one thing, competition, which always separates the wheat from the chaff and drives the market to innovate. Prices fell like a stone, as well, because Japan began making a better guitar, at half the cost, than either of the big guitar manufacturers. When Japan’s labor costs got too high, Mexico, Indonesia, and China began to produce high-quality instruments that were a fraction of the cost of an American made instrument.
Now, the key to understanding this is, Americans still produce guitars. Better than ever, I might add. But so does Mexico, Indonesia, Korea, and China. So, if you want a Korean made Les Paul-style guitar, “Agile” makes a superb one for the same price that I bought my first American made gold top Les Paul, back in 1972. My Agile has an ebony fretboard, jumbo frets, 18 to 1 real Grover tuners, a solid mahogany body, a tusk nut, a superior bridge design—all for about 1/8th to 1/10th the cost of an American made instrument today.
After 50 years of off and on playing concerts, clubs, studio work, even live TV, I think I can spot a good one when I see it.
What’s the moral of this story?
Free markets and competition improve everything. They increase innovation because you're expanding the numbers of people working in the industry to solve problems, including budget instruments, hand-made, very expensive instruments, or run-of-the-mill, working-class guitars. Yes, some people lose their jobs, but overall, consumers get a big break. And let’s be honest, for every one person working in the industry, there are at least, many thousands of consumers who can now afford to buy a guitar for themselves or their kid—and, at a fraction of the cost.
Of course, Japan, China, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, etc., get a big hand-up, as the result of foreign investment, which creates desperately needed jobs. In the real world, and for most, living, breathing, human beings, it’s a win.
As a guitar player, I add my amen to the chorus, as I play-the-shit out of my foreign-born babies, and tell them, daddy loves you. Yes, he does.
Mark Magula