Just wondering if any one else ever expirenced this. I have been buying some parts at a locale music store, just when I needed something right away. I have been talking to the repair man and he seemed genuinely interested in what I was doing. Well I took two of my CBG'si n today and really and really got the cold shoulder. You know, like , yea that is really nice but it is not a real instrument. I don't know, made me wish I would have never taken it in there. Just wondering if anyone else out there ever had this happen. Does not deter me any though and all my buyers have been very pleased.
Old Man Vinegar :-)
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Tell them you Thought this was "A real music store" but since it isn't you'll buy your stuff elsewhere. I've had plenty of snobbery thrown my way, I live in austin tx,( the inflated ego musician capital iof the world). I think the're intimidated by such a cheap looking thing that makes original sounds.
Took a CBG to a music festival, just a small one, a party really to celebrate the passing of a local musician, and you would have thought I brought a box of snot as far as the guitar players were concerned. None of them would touch it, literally wouldn't touch it and looked disgusted. The kids all had to try it though.
Interesting story and comments. Yes. I've had similar experience. Some folks get it and some don't. Their loss. Lots of music snobs and guitar snobs out there. Screw em. And don't be that way.
I guess I'm lucky, or I just haven't taken any of my builds into enough guitar shops, because I haven't had the "not a real instrument" experience yet. I've taken a couple of builds into 1 or 2 shops, but that was only after I had talked to the people there a bit about them, and they wanted to see one. The general consensus is that CBGs in general are pretty cool. I'm pretty up front about them though. Before I even take it into the shop, I let them know that it's not a Fender, Gibson, Gretsch, or anything else even remotely similar. I let folks know right off the top that they're primitive, primal, rude, crude, and socially unacceptable, but you'll never get this sound out of anything else.
What I've most commonly heard is, "I don't play slide." My reply to that is "I can't play anything, and I can get music out of it." That usually gets a smile, and they at least try it.
The same approach is valid for the CBG...
They might say they're not real guitars, they might say they're not expensive enough, whatever... "The unique truth is reality", used to say a guy from my country, and I say "the unique reality is that CBGs make me happy and a bunch of guys play awesome music on them". All in all, that's the point of music
I first became aware of the CBG "thing" this year, too, and it is hands-down the best thing (musically) that ever happened to me. I've never met so many good and decent music people in one place, nor have I ever found so many people who seem to "get" the music I'm making. Open-minded, grateful, creative and a little sonically perverted...what more could you want in folks?
That's rough, being told that in a shop. I've had the "not a real instrument" thing from guitarists, which is just rude, but I think there have been more who have genuinely liked the whole idea of it. For the detractors, maybe it's simply because it's not what they are used to. They also say things like "have you ever thought of making a tapered neck" and on my dulcimer guitars "there aren't enough frets to play it properly." I guess that many guitarists will have invested a lot of time (and money) into their hobby over the years, and to see something which bucks that trend may be somewhat difficult, so I agree with what others have said here in that people may feel threatened. But I do know this - I am always genuinely thrilled when I hear a good guitarist pick up one of my builds and play the hell out of it!
Old Man Vinegar
That's the whole beauty of this scene for me...I've always played pretty beat-up, janky guitars (my main electrics are a '93 LP Studio that looks like it's been in a rock tumbler, and a '00 Danelectro that behaves like it was re-wired by a drunken one-eyed chimpanzee), so this was sort of the ultimate extension of that for me...you can't get much jankier than a stick of poplar, a cigar box and no frets.
Especially when I'm the one building it, since I am very much not a carpenter. I'm massively impressed by some of the woodworking skill I've seen around here, but I really dig listening to someone bang it out on a CBG that ain't all that pretty.
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