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“There is an
incredible amount of hogwash written and spoken about guitars. Some of the
stuff you read online or in magazines is just ridiculous. This is a
mechanical device and therefore has to be maintained as such. You can have
the most expensive guitar in the world but if it is not set-up correctly, or
the frets are worn, or there are any other issues then it just won’t
work properly”.
“I don’t
buy into the ‘tone’
debate. Sound (or ‘tone’
if you like’)
is such a nebulous concept, so subjective and contextual, that I just switch
off when people start to talk about it. We ALL sound different on the same
instruments! Tone comes from the player. Full stop. My job is simply to make
the instruments play as well as they possibly can – and this means that they
will also sound as good as they can. The tones that come out of it are up to
you guys!”
“The manufacturers don’t know how a guitar should be set-up. It’s
the 21st century – the marketing guys rule the earth! They’ll have you believe that their plastic nuts and saddles are the
best thing since sliced bread, full of tone and sustain (whatever they are);
they’ll tell you that you
are going to sound like your favourite player if you just buy all
the gear that they endorse; they’ll hoodwink you with lies about timber and finish and where the
darned things are made, but they’ll still ship guitars that are borderline unplayable and not
give a damn. The simple fact is that EVERY manufacturer-made guitar sold now
needs to be set-up before it will play correctly. If they’d
just tell everyone this then it would make complete sense and people would
understand”.
“The guitar is a
precision instrument. The neck, the string-height at the nut and the
string-height at the bridge have to be adjusted to within very close
tolerances before it will play properly. Hardly anybody out there seems to
understand how the nut should be set or how the string-heights at the bridge
should relate to the fingerboard radius. If I set-up your guitar, fit a new
bone nut and saddle, or refret it if required, I GUARANTEE that it will play
correctly. You’ll laugh out loud when you feel the difference! But as always,
making good music with it is then up to you!”
“All
the time I hear about guys (it's always guys) that "fix their own guitars,
man", or "have a mate that does this stuff" or advertise themselves as a
guitar-repairer because they once worked for a while for a
guitar-manufacturer. My favourite is "I'd do it myself but I haven't got the
tools".
Sorry, but none of these things are credentials.
Not even remotely. Nor is an internet presence any kind of qualification. If
you want the best possible service and best possible result, then go to a
genuine, experienced professional, someone that has thought about and worked
with this stuff for years and years and years. This applies to ANYTHING!! If
you live too far away from my shop then I’ll
refer you to an equally experienced professional close by. Just don’t let some amateur fool around with your guitar”.
You’ve probably guessed by now that Andrew Knight is very passionate
about the idea of only trusting your instruments to true professionals and
paying as little attention as possible to both the manufacturers marketing
strategies and the dubious claims of the countless amateurs.
Andrew is also
currently writing a book on the technical history of guitars, which will
teach you all you need to know about how guitars work, how they are made,
how they should be maintained, the differences between various materials and
components, which components function better than others and which
particular design concepts are good and which should be avoided like the
plague. The book should be completed by early 2012 and will be available in
print and also pdf file download.
The “inter-active”
component of this website basically comprises the facility to email AK for
advice!
Please feel free to
contact Andrew Knight for any advice about your instrument.
Andrew Knight Guitars
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