Hey Friend,

The other day, my wife was watching a video of a-ha performing a live acoustic version of “Take On Me,” the hit from their 1985 album Hunting High And Low. After hearing it, she couldn’t get it out of her head. 

This version is arranged as a ballad, filmed in what appears to be a very intimate setting. I guess that's the typical approach for MTV Unplugged, which is the host of this performance.

Anyway, as it usually happens, one video leads to another on Youtube, and before you know it, you’re on to the next distraction.

We ended up on another video from the 80s where the main guitar used was a Rickenbacker 330. Unfortunately, I don’t remember which video that was…

Being the gear geek that I am, I was extolling the virtues of the 330 and mentioned I used to jam with a guy who had a couple of these.

My wife surprised me and said maybe I should look at getting one for myself at Christmas. Unfortunately for me, she didn’t realize how much these babies are going for!

A quick search on Reverb.com showed me $1300 and up is the going rate...

However, given that little conversation, maybe I can swing a Fender Telecaster!

You might be thinking, “Why do you need more than one guitar?”

What?!! Only one?

Clearly, if that’s your line of thought, you haven’t been bitten by the guitar bug yet!

They’re like functional pieces of art to me. They’re awesome to look at, but they also serve to change the musical landscape of your playing.

Each guitar has a unique sound to it. That’s why you see professionals playing different styles of guitars - each have different tonal qualities based on their physical properties, so you can get different sounds. This is called timbre (pronounced ‘tamber’).

Guitar are designed using different types of woods (and other materials) to change the tonal qualities for their sound. 

This is why a Gibson SG has a different tone than a Gibson Les Paul - the SG is solid mahogany (a soft wood), while the Les Paul has a brighter tone because it has both mahogany and maple wood (a hard wood) on the body.

Soft woods give mellow tones, while hard woods give brighter tones.

A Rickenbacker 330 has a maple semi-hollow body, so you get a much more jangly, bright sound out of it. A Fender Telecaster is typically made from Alder or maple, so it also has a very bright tone, but the fact that it's solid wood versus semi-hollow makes it good for very gnarly sounds.

Listen to the way the Rickenbacker sounds in The Byrds “Mr. Tambourine Man” and you’ll hear what I mean (it’s the guitar played by Roger McGuinn - the guy singing lead). Tom Petty used them. Bryan Adams used them.

It’s definitely a distinctive sound, one I wouldn’t mind adding to my musical palette.

So when you see someone playing on stage and they change their guitar, they’re doing that to change their sound a bit. This is done to fit the song in most cases.

So yeah, just another way you can create something different sounding to catch the ears of your audience. Music is more than just melody, harmony and rhythm - you can influence your audience with how your instruments sound, too. Love it!

Peace~

Dave