Sweat The Small Stuff

Could your gear be a tweak away from perfection? Paying attention to the details can sometimes help you avoid a big pay out, says Huw Price

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Not so many years ago, the tone secrets of vintage guitars and amplifiers were closely guarded by a select few. It was an era of mystery, superstition and wonder. Little did we know the internet was coming… It all began with newsgroups and rudimentary chat rooms, and the flow of information soon became a torrent. Schematics of long extinct amps and pedals were unearthed and could be downloaded in mere minutes. The types of tonewoods that great manufacturers once used became common knowledge. Groundbreaking websites, such as GuitarHQ.com, began appearing with paint codes, decent enough photography and breakdowns of features that charted the year by year evolution of most classic guitar models.

This had a profound effect on guitar manufacturing. With better informed customers, the big companies could no longer fob us off with inaccurate features, inauthentic parts and inappropriate finishes. Slowly but surely, then, vintage reissues began to resemble the guitars they were intended to emulate in a meaningful way. And before long, renowned pickup winders were being coaxed out of retirement and company records were dusted off to track down original parts suppliers. Meanwhile, crack teams of razor blade relicers were at the sharp end of the relicing revolution.

But while the big names focused on looks and seductive marketing campaigns, their efforts generally fell short when it came to the pickups. This left a wide-open goal for ambitious pickup manufacturers, who quickly stepped in to make more authentic and often better-sounding replicas than the big brand names and original manufacturers.