My Les Paul Forums - View Single Post

Paul86 · 02-21-2008, 06:35 PM

Just to clarify,
What they call "Honduras" mahogany is actually from... Brazil. Now, the old mahogany trees have all, or almost all, been cut and sold, and old wood = lighter wood. Not only because of the wood itself (the bigger a tree, the more you have of 'good' wood), but because in the old days when demand wasn't that high there was more time for the wood to 'dry' (which you do, incidentally, by submerging the logs into water!).
So, is the reason behind the chambering one related to economics (AS ALWAYS)? Definitely! Of course! In the words of a former President - 'It's the economy, stupid!' Does it mean the chambered guitars are worse? Well, it depends, doesn't it?
There are now some people trying to market some late 70's and early 80's guitars as 'vintage', which is laughable really - I'm old enough to remember the time when guitar making in America took a royal kick in the ass by the Japanese. Why suddenly nobody wanted to buy American anymore? Because the 'management' people who moved in (Norlin, Fender were all part of bigger conglomerates) decided to make the factories more 'efficient' and 'economically viable', which means things like, 'Why are you people still making amps with tubes? Haven't you heard of transistors?', or 'This amplifier has some nasty distortion, let's fix it, pronto!'. Not only were the Japanese versions of American-made instruments cheaper, but at that period in history American instruments were, for the most part, CRAP! And all because of very sound economics - cutting corners worked for the other industries, right?
There are many duds out there, irrespective of age. Go find yourself a guitar and fall in love with it, now THAT you can take to the bank.

02-21-2008, 06:35 PM	#51 (permalink)
Paul86 Member Join Date: Feb 2008 Posts: 64 Thanks: 0 Thanked 0 Times in 0 Posts	Re: Now it´s official: chambered bodies Just to clarify, What they call "Honduras" mahogany is actually from... Brazil. Now, the old mahogany trees have all, or almost all, been cut and sold, and old wood = lighter wood. Not only because of the wood itself (the bigger a tree, the more you have of 'good' wood), but because in the old days when demand wasn't that high there was more time for the wood to 'dry' (which you do, incidentally, by submerging the logs into water!). So, is the reason behind the chambering one related to economics (AS ALWAYS)? Definitely! Of course! In the words of a former President - 'It's the economy, stupid!' Does it mean the chambered guitars are worse? Well, it depends, doesn't it? There are now some people trying to market some late 70's and early 80's guitars as 'vintage', which is laughable really - I'm old enough to remember the time when guitar making in America took a royal kick in the ass by the Japanese. Why suddenly nobody wanted to buy American anymore? Because the 'management' people who moved in (Norlin, Fender were all part of bigger conglomerates) decided to make the factories more 'efficient' and 'economically viable', which means things like, 'Why are you people still making amps with tubes? Haven't you heard of transistors?', or 'This amplifier has some nasty distortion, let's fix it, pronto!'. Not only were the Japanese versions of American-made instruments cheaper, but at that period in history American instruments were, for the most part, CRAP! And all because of very sound economics - cutting corners worked for the other industries, right? There are many duds out there, irrespective of age. Go find yourself a guitar and fall in love with it, now THAT you can take to the bank.