02/11/2026
CHANGE...
From the very beginning there has been change in the guitar industry, some of these changes
are for the good and some not so much. This month we will explore some of these changes and what impact (if any) they may have had. First let us look at some changes (or evolutions) undergone with Fender guitars in their early days. As noted in historical accounts, Leo’s single cutaway, non-contoured body, double pickup electric guitar underwent changes, through user input as well as R&D, to evolve into what later, would not just be a refinement but also a separate guitar altogether. The contoured bodied, double cutaway, triple pickup electric guitar named the Stratocaster. Be it by design or mistake, Leo and company, in changing their product to meet the needs (and input) from various sources both inside and outside the fledgling company, undoubtedly created two of the most iconic electric guitars still being copied to this day.
So in this case “change” was good. As time progressed and guitar companies morphed into things larger than expected, other changes were on the horizon. With the sale of Fender and production on a larger scale to meet the demands of orders, some cost cutting procedures were set in place. Now on paper and in a production setting, with the introduction of CNC machines, these changes appeared to solve one problem, yet they created others. Since CNC machines were in their infancy, the programs and tooling did not exist to produce guitars that were true to the earlier models and the result of body contours, neck pockets and even routing changes were drastic. These changes although good in some respect for being able to meet demands, were not good in the final product, and it would take decades for the machinery and programs to catch up to what was expected in quality of the final product. Today almost all large guitar companies employ the use of CNC machines in one aspect or another to mass produce their basic stock for final products and this today is seen as a good thing by most, but its lineage can be traced to the earlier days of change when things were not so good.
At Gibson, under Ted McCarty, there were also changes in their solid bodied electric guitar evolution. The first versions had a trapeze style tailpiece that were used on their other Gibson guitars in production, in an effort to catch up with those California guys.This change was to the dismay of most players. The first change to address that was the installation of a tailpiece that acted as a string anchor as well as a bridge, or the “wraptail” as it is referred to today, an improvement? Yes it was, but was not a final solution as the next change was the advent of a string anchor tailpiece and a separate bridge that could not only be adjusted for height but also had individual string saddles for setting intonation or the “ABR” as it is called.
For the most part the latter change is optimal for the Gibson guitars, but to this day many players still prefer the one piece “wraptail” bridge system. We also see a change in pickup configuration and design, from a single coil P90 to the advent of the hum canceling double bobbin or “humbucking “ pickup to a more drastic change (due to availability ) the “mini” humbucking pickups and then back to the traditional size humbuckers, all changes to their guitar to meet the needs of players and in some cases to meet the needs of production (management).
Other changes that were not as well received (again due to a change in ownership) was the introduction of maple necks not traditionally seen on the Les Paul model, multi-piece necks (which for the most part had always been used on higher end guitars produced by Gibson, but again a non-traditional look for the Les Paul), and changes to the pitch angle to the headstock, I assume not because of breakage problems but more for efficiency in production and using smaller pieces of stock wood inventory. There were even multi-piece or “sandwich/ pancake” bodies where several piece of mahogany (and sometimes maple) were glued together to construct the main body before the maple veneer top was applied. Why this was done is still in speculation. I speculate that most of these changes were due to cut waste as the guitar boom was in full throttle mode and I assume woods were becoming harder to secure. Therefor instead of scrapping unusable wood, these procedures were installed to utilize all of the natural inventories into the production of a finished product. Today that could be seen as “staying green” or conserving natural resources, but when they were first introduced it was more of a WTF moment for sure.
So in change we can look back nostalgically on the boom era as dark days in terms of “purity” but we also have to consider that sometimes change comes about in order for survivability for a company and it takes time for an initial change to become practical in terms of technological advances in the production areas to catch up with the visionary outlook of things to come.
In my own mind, yes I would love to see the days of human hands producing every part of every guitar that is sold, but I also know in today's market that is not a possibility in means of cost per unit, which is what brought about many changes in the past. Staying alive meant change.
So until next time... May all your days be memorable, all your friends stay true, and all your riffs be killer. Greg at Gregsguitars.net.
