Cooper’s Column

Let me give you an example. Back in the mid 1970s, when the sound of a Les Paul running at full honk through a Marshall just on the edge of meltdown was considered one step away from Valhalla, a valve-amp designer looked me square in the eye and, without the trace of a smile, told me that what guitar players really wanted from a valve amp was a clean sound and that was what he was striving for. He has, as you might imagine, long-since gained his place in history’s curiosity corner. But it wasn’t just the little guys who got it wrong. Look at Gibson themselves, who, having ditched the original Les Paul in the early 1960s due to falling sales, steadfastly ignored the massive popularity of ‘golden era’ models as played by Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Peter Green and Paul Kossoff, and didn’t get round to re-launching something like the vintage models until 1983.

Not that other guitar makers have acted with a great deal more nous. Consider how long it took before some bright spark at Fender began to wonder what the words ’pre-CBS’ meant in adverts for second-hand Strats. And just in case you think this is all history, let me whisper that similar nonsense is going on, right now. Rumours are currently afoot in the guitar business of all sorts of shenanigans in the acoustic guitar world, as a (smaller) once US-produced brand is being switched to Far Eastern production while others are having their production moved from plant to plant, as if they were mere chocolate bars. As more than one observer has commented recently (among them no less than Hartley Peavey): “It’s like history rewriting itself.” There may be more to come too, as the recession bites and brands start to be shed — watch this space. What all this means, I suspect, is that we shouldn’t place too much trust in what people tell us — least of all equipment manufacturers and, sad to say, some retailers, too.

The sad truth is that there are few authorities (though they do exist) and always the safest thing to do is ask as many opinions as you can and yet take everything you are told with a pinch of salt. In the end, the right instrument for you is the one that sounds and feels right — and not even the manufacturers know what that will be, not even if they made it or offer another model they think is actually better. Indeed, past precedent says they might be the very last to know. So remember Goldman’s words the next time someone tells you to ditch the guitar or amp you love in favour of the latest model in town, or to buy Brand X instead of Y, just because someone famous does. Musical taste, including a taste in instruments, is too personal to be predicted, let alone dictated. And that’s just one of its charms.