Sunday's Post on Saturday...Tone vs. Playablility

Just played my John Cruz '56 Tele... what a machine! Neck has very little nitro left... it's always me saying to myself... if I was terminally ill, which guitar would I play every remaining day of my life, rather than leave them to someone after I am dead? Then I took out my Linhof guitar, built by ex-Masterbuilder at the Custom Shop, Jay Black. The Linhof is truly a working musician's guitar...and Kurt Linhof admit's that... he only sells to pforessionals... grease-lightning action and neck... whatever I play on the '56 with it's thick clubby (and wonderfully authentic neck), goes almost twice as fast and ripping on the Linhof. Custom shop guitar has that '50's Blues tone... guess if you are playing the blues, it need not be fast... On Monday will talk about current custom shop Masterbuilders, and who took over for who, when the older guys retired. The Masterbuilders today offer different guitars, whether you want to admit it or not, than those that came before them....we are all creatures of the media... was just reading that in 1975 nobody wanted to get within 10 feet of a fifites tele, and you couldn't give them away... sort of like the current situation with Jaguar's and Jazzmasters from the 60's... but I still agree with Mr Nash of Nash guitars... it's hard to make a Jaguar or Jazzmaster that sounds good like a Tele or Strat...