instruments: does appearance matter?

Subject: RE: instruments: does appearance matter?
From: Jim Carroll
Date: 08 Feb 19 - 01:12 PM

There's a story told by Irish Travellers of a fiddle player who turned up at Puck Fair with a very expensive shiny fiddle in a crocodile case, set up a music stand in the middle of the fair, took out his sheet music, carefully rozzined his bow and began to play - he was ****** awful !
Shortly afterwards, an old Travelling man turned up on a battered old bike, carrying a battered dirty old fiddle wrapped in torn newspaper
He set his bike down, scrunched up the newspaper, threw it on the floor and began to play
He was s**** too!
Jim Carroll

Subject: RE: instruments: does appearance matter?
From: GUEST,Ed
Date: 08 Feb 19 - 12:55 PM

Going back to Acorn4's comment regarding sanding laquer off, Ian MacDonald in is his excellent book Revolution In The Head, comments that:

"Lennon bought his own [Epiphone Casino] in 1966. In 1968, he stripped the instrument of its veneer on the then-vogueish assumption that this would improve its resonance; the fact that the unvarnished wood also gave it a look of deglamourised frankness presumably had its appeal."

Subject: RE: instruments: does appearance matter?
From: GUEST,johnmc
Date: 08 Feb 19 - 08:22 AM

And yet the varnish on a violin is sacrosanct.
Incidentally, the appearance is important to an audience sometimes.
Shiny brass in a Big band say.

Subject: RE: instruments: does appearance matter?
From: lefthanded guitar
Date: 08 Feb 19 - 05:54 AM

Did you ever see Willie Nelson's guitar ?

Subject: RE: instruments: does appearance matter?
From: Will Fly
Date: 08 Feb 19 - 05:03 AM

I recall the de-lacquerer being Mike Chapman - but I could be wrong!

Subject: RE: instruments: does appearance matter?
From: Acorn4
Date: 08 Feb 19 - 04:59 AM

I seem to remember in the seventies - I think it might have been Ralph McTell but not positive on this - bought a new Martin, took a disc sander and sanded all the lacquer off the front.

Most of the tone of the guitar is made by the front and lacquer makes it look nice and sparkly in a shop window but destroys the tone.

At least this was the theory at the time I think - not sure if people still do this?

Subject: RE: instruments: does appearance matter?
From: Tootler
Date: 07 Feb 19 - 10:31 AM

From: Acorn4 - PM
Date: 07 Feb 19 - 06:58 AM

Not for ukuleles!

I know you're being snarky but, actually, the brighter and flashier looking the ukulele, the crappier it's likely to be.

Good ukulele players use fairly plain looking instruments. the qualities that make a good guitar apply to the ukulele and to other string instruments.

At the end of the day, regardless of instrument, it's how it sounds that matters. It's interesting that the old flashy glittery style accordions are increasingly being replaced by ones with a plain wood finish which I think, looks better.

Subject: RE: instruments: does appearance matter?
From: saulgoldie
Date: 07 Feb 19 - 08:27 AM

To my mind, it matters. And it doesn't.

A beautiful and virtually blemish-free instrument *could* tell the audience that it spends most of its time sitting unused. OTOH, it could also tell that the player just takes fanatically good care of it so that it always looks pretty.

OTOH OTOH, if an instrument looks like it has been through both world wars and the next one but sounds like a piece of Heaven, that could say that the player is more into function than appearances.

And somewhere in the middle...somewhere in the middle. But I would *think* that whatever it looks like, that the player would want top notch sound.

Put this in different contexts. Think of...a dwelling, a vehicle, a romantic partner, and so on.

I have a bicycle that I used to ride all over. Others would remark on how ugly it was. It was dubbed the most UNstealable bike in town. Underneath the four different colors of paint, primer, and electrical tape lay a bike that was in better mechanical condition than most of the other bikes around. And yes, many of the pretty bikes didn't see much use. But also, some of the pretty bikes DID see use. Just that their owners spent much time and attention on cleaning and waxing them, cause that mattered to them.

Basically, I think attitudes go all across the spectrum, and that they are all valid. That is the wonder of the human condition, methinks.

Saul

Subject: RE: instruments: does appearance matter?
From: Acorn4
Date: 07 Feb 19 - 06:58 AM

Not for ukuleles!

Subject: RE: instruments: does appearance matter?
From: GUEST,Hootenanny
Date: 07 Feb 19 - 06:04 AM

Just in case it has escaped your understanding. Music is an aural experience not visual.

Subject: RE: instruments: does appearance matter?
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Feb 19 - 05:48 AM

I've often noticed that audiences can "listen with their eyes". Someone with a Martin guitar, say, must ipso facto be a capable musician. Despite audible evidence to the contrary.

Subject: RE: instruments: does appearance matter?
From: The Sandman
Date: 07 Feb 19 - 05:39 AM

no what matters is how the instrument is set up and how it plays and sounds and how it allows the player to be as musical as he possibly can be ,my thanks goes to steve dickinson of Wheatstone and co

Subject: RE: instruments: does appearance matter?
From: Dave Hanson
Date: 07 Feb 19 - 05:37 AM

I give you Bill Monroe's Gibson F5 mandolin and as said above Willie Nelson's Martin, Ricky Scaggs also has a wreck of a mandolin that sounds great, appearance doesn't matter at all, Johnny Cash famously scratched Marty Stuarts brand mandolin on purpose but it just adds to it's fame.

Dave H

Subject: RE: instruments: does appearance matter?
From: Jack Campin
Date: 07 Feb 19 - 05:30 AM

I'm sure accordionists think all that bling and fancy fretwork is a crowd-pleaser but most people these days must just think it's tacky.

The "tobacco sunburst" colour scheme on guitars and mandolins really turns me off. Why would anybody want an instrument to look as if it's spent 20 years hanging on the wall in the dayroom of a hostel for elderly alcoholics?

Subject: RE: instruments: does appearance matter?
From: GUEST,johnmc
Date: 06 Feb 19 - 04:50 PM

I saw Glen Campbell in one of his last concerts and the vibrant colour of his strat under the
lights really had a magnetic effect.
Close up, as in a video, an instrument as beautiful as, say, a bassoon adds to the overall
experience of listening for me.
Then again, how do you explain the allure of W Nelson's Martin ?

Subject: instruments: does appearance matter?
From: GUEST,Andy7
Date: 06 Feb 19 - 04:37 PM

Does the appearance of an instrument matter?

Obviously not on a recording. But in a live performance, does the beauty of the instrument being played add something to the enjoyment of the audience? Or is it irrelevant?