- (Some) Old Instruments Are Better -
To the Editor:
With regard to Professor Cunningham’s article in the September issue, as an OLD guitar and banjo player I can agree strongly. Acoustic stringed instruments with wood faces improve with age as the wood fibers in the face line up and the finish crackles allowing the face to vibrate more freely. Bill Monroe, the father of bluegrass music, sent his (by then) vintage Gibson mandolin back to the Gibson Company to be overhauled with clear instructions not to refinish it. It came back refinished, and Monroe took sandpaper to the face and also scraped the Gibson later off the peg stock with a pen knife. I saw him play that mandolin as he altered it. Now with regard to banjos, I can affirm that model for model new and old ones sound equally crappy.
Eliot Kenin
Martinez, CA
I agree. I love the sound of my old guitars. It’s just as you say. And no one, as far as I can tell, has made anything like a Stradivarius lately. -Ed.
- Kind Praise from Arizona -
To the Editor:
There is nothing more important in my life now than to receive your informative journal every month—well, I do put my Social Security check right up there, too! You have added some very good writers this year, too.
Here’s my check for $30 to cover your paper for another year. (I hope I have the assurance for my life extension to 90 come November this year!)
Ke
