{"id":533,"date":"2006-07-17T15:11:56","date_gmt":"2006-07-17T21:11:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/wordpress\/2006\/07\/17\/the-shape-of-things\/"},"modified":"2007-02-10T16:22:00","modified_gmt":"2007-02-10T22:22:00","slug":"the-shape-of-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/?p=533","title":{"rendered":"The Shape of Things"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb_share_1\" style=\"clear:left; float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-top:10px;;width: 55px;\" name=\"fb_share\"><div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div><script src=\"http:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#appId=125029517579627&amp;xfbml=1\"><\/script><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/?p=533\" send=\"false\" layout=\"box_count\" width=\"55\" show_faces=\"false\" font=\"arial\"><\/fb:like><\/div><p>from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/\">Wired News<\/a> and William Hochberg:<\/p>\n<p>The music business is big; the musical instrument business (both new and used) is really big. They feed off of one another like the snake eating it&#8217;s own tail. A kid sees a performer using a particular guitar and that axe becomes part of a dream. They start saving up (or ask Daddy for it) and find that the actual guitar is a pretty pricey deal. They often have to settle for a knock off, a student model or another manufacturer&#8217;s take on that shape or style.<\/p>\n<p>Some shapes are nearly iconic; the <a href=\"http:\/\/fender.com\/products\/search.php?section=guitars&amp;cat=stratocaster\">Fender Strat<\/a>, The <a href=\"http:\/\/gibson.com\/Products\/GibsonElectric\/Gibson%20Electric%20Guitars\/LesPaul\/\">Gibson Les Paul<\/a>, The<a href=\"http:\/\/www.marshallamps.com\/\"> Marshall Amp<\/a>&#8230; these items are protected by copyrights and the companies go to court to protect themselves from the copycats. It&#8217;s the same as any large business trying to protect their marketshare. The other aspect is the fact that the feel and sound of these instruments is unique; even the companies who make them have a hard time copying their own successes. The vintage gear market is a wild and woolly place where hundreds of thousands of dollars can be spent for a single used item.<\/p>\n<p>Now in the digital age we have computers that sample and &#8220;model&#8221; these classic sounds, attempting to recreate the tone and timbre of guitars, amps, drums, keyboards, effects pedals and even microphones. With <a href=\"http:\/\/www.digidesign.com\/index.cfm?\">Pro Tools<\/a> software there are &#8220;plug ins&#8221; that attempt to resemble these classic sounds. We are now looking at a generation of listeners who have always heard computer corrected music and frown at the buzzy, imperfect, out of tune records of the 60&#8217;s and 70&#8217;s. They  figure they can just fix it in the mix or &#8220;take it into Pro Tools&#8221;. Even in live music the makers of Pro Tools are building sound consoles that use the plug ins that shape and change the sounds coming from the stage.<\/p>\n<p>I wish the following article would go a little further as this is a subject that every backline guy is intimately aware of. Does toting around a collector&#8217;s item on the road and subjecting it to the elements, aging and the danger of damage or theft really make a difference to the fans or just the performer? Have we finally reached a point where a little digital box isn&#8217;t only more convenient than an old clunky heavy delicate amp but actually sounds as good? Can we measure the value of sales when we hand a particular &#8220;free&#8221; guitar to a musician that he really doesn&#8217;t care about and his fans see it and then buy it?<\/p>\n<p>Maybe I should have wrote the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/news\/politics\/intellectualproperty\/0,71325-0.html?tw=rss.index\">Copy Instruments, Not Music<\/a>. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.wired.com\/\"><br \/>\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>from Wired News and William Hochberg: The music business is big; the musical instrument business (both new and used) is really big. They feed off of one another like the snake eating it&#8217;s own tail. A kid sees a performer using a particular guitar and that axe becomes part of a dream. They start saving [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true},"categories":[3,10],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peNcU-8B","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=533"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/533\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bittermancircle.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}