Throughout June, SDPB presents a series of short videos that reveal what guitar professionals appreciate about their chosen instrument. Old Guitars and the Local Musicians Who Love Them features artists performing on acoustic or electric guitars, talking about their favorites, and demonstrating the unique qualities and sounds that their favorite instruments can produce.
They also talk about the tangible and intangible things that led them to prefer one brand or model of guitar over another. Experienced guitarists may find the artists’ insights enlightening. Beginning guitarists will find them encouraging.
Michael Hilson was born in Yankton and is a guitar instructor in the music department at the University of South Dakota. He’s also a performer fluent in several genres, including classical and jazz. Hilson talks about learning to play the guitar and says that although a high-end guitar won’t automatically make anyone a better player, the difference in sound between top-quality and second-tier instruments can be striking.
“You know, when suddenly you have a great instrument in your hand it’s like, ‘Oh. That’s what they’re supposed to be like,’” says Hilson. But, he says, there are a lot of comparatively good guitars on the market that don’t cost a lot of money. Student guitarists just need an instrument that’s playable.
“I think that’s something that I really thought about a lot when I was selling guitars,” says Hilson. “You don’t want to handicap someone, right? It’s hard enough. I mean your fingers are going to get sore, you’re going to be frustrated with the sound that you’re getting, so if you have an instrument that’s just not playable by a good player, why would you give that to a beginner?”
Hilson also discusses some of the digital technologies now available to guitar players and how they have or haven’t changed music and musical performance.
The series will also feature performances on several of the guitars collected and preserved by the National Music Museum in Vermillion. Arian Sheets is the Curator of Stringed Instruments with the Museum. Sheets talks about the history of guitar manufacturers like Martin and Gibson, describes guitar materials, design and construction, and explains the significance of certain guitars in the evolution of folk, jazz, rock, and other guitar-centric music.
“There are people who absolutely believe that the vintage instruments have the best sound,” Sheets says. “What it’s probably more like is that it’s a sound that we get used to — we’ve heard these very great musicians within a few years of when these instruments were made. That’s what was available at the highest end of the line and so that sound, albeit a very good sound, is just something we get used to.”
Sheets also believes that we are in a golden age of instrument-building and quality. New technologies allow very precise and uniform construction, so as long as manufacturers use good quality materials, they’ll continue to produce high quality and relatively low-cost guitars. But there will always be a market for vintage guitars.
“I couldn’t say that these instruments are better (than new instruments),” Sheets said. “They’re just, again, going back to the idea of the classics. They’re something that people are used to and something that they associate with the best music in the genres they were played in.”
Images of the Past Old Guitars and the Local Musicians Who Love Them premieres in June on SDPB.org/music.