Why Do We Do It?

[mick hearn]

Why do we do it? Why do we buy a perfectly good instrument and then start pulling it apart? Yes - steel players are the worst at this. Yes I know that we have all swapped pickups - thats the nature of sound. We all hear things differently or are perhaps misled in to thinking that fitting a pickup as used by some star is going to make your playing better. I have a Gretsch Country Gent and when I saw Brian Setzer was using a different brand I replaced mine. It was horrible and within two weeks the originals were back in.

However I will get back on track. I have a ShoBud 6139 which started life as a C6 model with 5 pedals and the usual levers. Then a previous owner at some stage bought it and immediately changed it to E9. Two pedals now missing and probably sold for a little profit. Now immediately it's no longer original. As you may know the original pull rods had allen bolts on the end and you tuned with an allen key. Not good enough - so the pull rods were changed for those with the plastic hex tuners. Now we are a bit further away from original. But we are still not finished. When I collected the guitar I was told that he didn't like the volume and tone knob so pulled them out and threw them away. Aaaaaah!!!! Holes filled with cork. Why, Why Why. Why didn't he simply put the pedals to one side and the rods and pots and keep them with the guitar. At least it could have been put back to original state. Value now depleted.

One of my favourite guitars is the Peavey T60. I have 2 of them. One I brought new in the early 80's and the other a later purchase second hand a few years ago. The second one had been rewired - but - the original wiring harness was in a plastic bag in the case. Now if I want to put this guitar back in to original mode I have the parts to hand.

Why is it we do this? Steel players appear to be the worst. I should think JD makes a nice little earner replacing original parts on steels that have been changed. I also understand that Alan Cook bought a Kline Universal a while back and it was such a mess underneath he had to order parts from the builders to put it right. We must be mad.