Beater guitar- what's in a name ?

**electricfactory** · 01-31-2018, 07:35 PM

I'm sure you've seen the term before, usually as it relates to one or another guitar one dosen't have to worry about at a gig or on a guitar stand or whatever. The inference being if it gets knocked or dropped or banged it's all good, it's 'only a beater'.

I understand the principle, it isn't a $10K Wes. But as I thought about it I realized I've never had a beater guitar, no matter how little money I may have paid for it. Here's why.

Any instrument I've ever owned has in some way made an impression, appealed to me enough to want to buy it. At a certain price point I often upgrade parts to get a peak level of performance from them, the Epiphone ES-175 Premium being just one example. Frets often get crowned & dressed, replaced pickups, wiring harness, bone nut installed and whatever else necessary to bring a guitar to performance level. And upgrading dosen't come cheap.

My point is any of the guitars like my Epi ES if stolen or lost would be a blow, a bummer. Any of them casually knocked off of a guitar stand would get more than a shrug, even if I could in theory start over with another. I've made both financial and in some cases emotional investments in all of the guitars, none of which I see as lesser instruments because they aren't expensive.

Beater status to me confers a certain measure of disregard. I don't have any guitars in that status, at least none that I play- do you ?

**73Fender** · 01-31-2018, 07:53 PM

I agree. Any guitar I would actually play with any frequency would have to be decent even if it didn't cost a ton. You mentioned the Epi ES 175 Premium. I'd love to try one of them.

Beater cars, now those I believe in.

**pingu** · 01-31-2018, 08:20 PM

I guess you don't have a tele then ....

**electricfactory** · 01-31-2018, 09:41 PM

Ha! Point taken;

Originally Posted by pingu

I guess you don't have a tele then ....

**citizenk74** · 01-31-2018, 11:00 PM

I have owned many guitars that had been ill-used when I got them. I still have some that are in the process of being restored and/or rehabilitated. I could never recoup the time and effort, let alone the money, that has been put into them, which is why I don't sell guitars, for the most part (I have sold a couple in the past, but always came to regret it). I keep them and play them and sometimes find good homes for them. All of my pre-retirement acquisitions were self-financing (not in real time, but on balance) and earned their keep on the bandstand. As soon as I could swing it, a back-up instrument was always ready for exigencies. Some of the joints we played (OK, most) were shall we say, volatile, and on occasion the Gibson went back in its case and the Ibanez came out - not because it was a lesser instrument per se, but simply because of replacement cost, which in worst-case scenarios would have been prohibitive. As far as getting knocked off stands, my policy for decades has been that the instrument is either in my hands or in the case (stands are for string changes and maintainance, not display). On the gig, if it's not being played, it's in the case, behind as much stuff as I can rustle up. No beaters here. All of the were a struggle, and their own reward.

**Jp267** · 01-31-2018, 11:21 PM

Before I took a hiatus from playing I had a G-400 that was a diamond in the rough. Wish I wouldn't let that one get away!

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**Skip Ellis** · 01-31-2018, 11:30 PM

Someone mentioned having an emotional attachment to a guitar. I just don't understand this - it's like having an emotional attachment to a monkey wrench or a chain saw. A guitar is a tool used to create sound - it has no feelings. My first guitar was a 1936 Martin 0-17 and I played it until it wasn't functional to me anymore then sold it and got something that could do the job. I guess I'm just not as 'touchy feely' as some folks.

**BigMikeinNJ** · 01-31-2018, 11:59 PM

When I was young we called them beach guitars, usually a rough flat top you didn’t mind handing to another drunk partier to sign on. Still have one. No shame in it, it’s smart - you take it, leave the Martin under the bed.

Big

**Longways to Go** · 02-01-2018, 12:21 AM

I go to a weekly jam, and there is a nice old gal there who always borrows a guitar to play a song or two.
One time, I let her use mine. Soon after I came to realize that she played thumb on the low E string while wearing lots of rings -- including a thumb ring! Gouged the heck out my neck -- and incidentally, many of the other regular players had the same bad experience!

I was done with that BS. I don't own any beaters, but when my guitars get a ding or two, I'd prefer to dent them myself.

**Hep To The Jive** · 02-01-2018, 01:28 AM

What?? Almost every guitar I own now is a beater. I don't care about keeping it scratch and dent free... No wait, in fact I do, I want more of it!

I take my heavily modified 64' American Vintage RI tele to work with kids in school, the rock band class. I highly recommend it, if you want a nice relicing guitar for free, get a job working with 10 year olds. You leave it in the room full of kids running around, and with a thin nitro finish it doesn't take long to look like a beater we all love and want.

**electricfactory** · 02-01-2018, 11:01 AM

Hey Skip,
I hear what you're saying, I do. A guitar is a tool of a sort, no doubt. But I'd classify it apart from a monkey wrench or phillips head. By definition a guitar/ piano/ flute is a conveyance to create art a.k.a music. And that's not all it is.

When I use the term 'emotional connection' I don't mean touchy-feely. I'm referring to whatever that thing is that sets certain instruments apart from others. Sometimes you can pin it down to a neck or pickups or bone nut or whatever.

Other times it's harder to quantify. It just feels right in your hands or pleases your ear bones in a certain way. You can play other guitars similarly, no doubt. But as most reading this have experienced some guitars are just special. Those make you want to play them, to have them in your hands is satisfying. I call that an emotional connection, something more than the sum of it's parts.

Originally Posted by Skip Ellis

Someone mentioned having an emotional attachment to a guitar. I just don't understand this - it's like having an emotional attachment to a monkey wrench or a chain saw. A guitar is a tool used to create sound - it has no feelings. My first guitar was a 1936 Martin 0-17 and I played it until it wasn't functional to me anymore then sold it and got something that could do the job. I guess I'm just not as 'touchy feely' as some folks.

**John A.** · 02-01-2018, 01:19 PM

Originally Posted by electricfactory

I'm sure you've seen the term before, usually as it relates to one or another guitar one dosen't have to worry about at a gig or on a guitar stand or whatever. The inference being if it gets knocked or dropped or banged it's all good, it's 'only a beater'.

I understand the principle, it isn't a $10K Wes. But as I thought about it I realized I've never had a beater guitar, no matter how little money I may have paid for it. Here's why.

Any instrument I've ever owned has in some way made an impression, appealed to me enough to want to buy it. At a certain price point I often upgrade parts to get a peak level of performance from them, the Epiphone ES-175 Premium being just one example. Frets often get crowned & dressed, replaced pickups, wiring harness, bone nut installed and whatever else necessary to bring a guitar to performance level. And upgrading dosen't come cheap.

My point is any of the guitars like my Epi ES if stolen or lost would be a blow, a bummer. Any of them casually knocked off of a guitar stand would get more than a shrug, even if I could in theory start over with another. I've made both financial and in some cases emotional investments in all of the guitars, none of which I see as lesser instruments because they aren't expensive.

Beater status to me confers a certain measure of disregard. I don't have any guitars in that status, at least none that I play- do you ?

I don't have any guitars that are beaters in the sense of "I don't care what happens to it" (I once did have one, and FSM knows what happened to it?). But I also don't have any guitars that I won't play outside the house because they're so delicate, unique, or valuable that I'm scared of what might happen. They are to a degree "cathected objects" and that factors into both the precautions I take and the degree to which I'd be bummed out if one were destroyed or stolen. That would definitely be worse emotionally than losing a cellphone, but a solvable problem, not a death in the family.

John

**mr. beaumont** · 02-01-2018, 01:46 PM

I don't think of any of my guitars as "beaters." But I do think about situations, sometimes.

I mean, it's snowing, icy, 15 degrees, I take a gig at a dinner party in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, there's never any parking, so I take the train and walk 6 blocks...Maybe, in case I face plant on an unsalted sidewalk, it's a better idea to take the tele, as I already know what type of fall it can survive and at worst, need to be re-tuned from.

Or I'm flying and want to bring a jazzbox, but I'm worried about having to gate check...so I can bring my Godin, which I love, but I also know is a highly consistent factory made instrument and god forbid anything happen to it, for a few hundred dollars I could replace it and have pretty much the same guitar all over again.

Or I could take my Heritage, which if damaged/destroyed, would cost me many times more to replace, and would need to be a custom order to get even close to the same finish/neck carve I've come to love.

So no, I'm not about "beaters," and I take care of all of my instruments...but I'm also practical.

**ESCC** · 02-01-2018, 01:52 PM

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

I don't think of any of my guitars as "beaters." But I do think about situations, sometimes.

I mean, it's snowing, icy, 15 degrees, I take a gig at a dinner party in Chicago's Lakeview neighborhood, there's never any parking, so I take the train and walk 6 blocks...Maybe, in case I face plant on an unsalted sidewalk, it's a better idea to take the tele, as I already know what type of fall it can survive and at worst, need to be re-tuned from.

Being a tele owner, I'm curious Jeff as to what type of fall it can survive?

**mr. beaumont** · 02-01-2018, 02:13 PM

Originally Posted by ESCC

Being a tele owner, I'm curious Jeff as to what type of fall it can survive?

What my tele has survived (keep in mind, I've had it 21 years, I'm a bit more careful these days)

Sliding in gig bag off roof of car onto street.

Drunken roommate fell on it. He was actually cut pretty badly. Tele 1, dumbass 0.

Fall off back when gigbag shoulder strap suddenly gave up, onto concrete

I fell down the basement stairs while holding it (slipped on water/melted ice shoe slush, this was more recent, again, tele 2, dumbass 0)

So yeah, it's got some dings...it's a natural finish, so you can't really tell, even. But it's never needed any repair bigger than bending the switch tip back into place.

**Skip Ellis** · 02-01-2018, 02:32 PM

Originally Posted by electricfactory

Hey Skip,
I hear what you're saying, I do. A guitar is a tool of a sort, no doubt. But I'd classify it apart from a monkey wrench or phillips head. By definition a guitar/ piano/ flute is a conveyance to create art a.k.a music. And that's not all it is.

When I use the term 'emotional connection' I don't mean touchy-feely. I'm referring to whatever that thing is that sets certain instruments apart from others. Sometimes you can pin it down to a neck or pickups or bone nut or whatever.

Other times it's harder to quantify. It just feels right in your hands or pleases your ear bones in a certain way. You can play other guitars similarly, no doubt. But as most reading this have experienced some guitars are just special. Those make you want to play them, to have them in your hands is satisfying. I call that an emotional connection, something more than the sum of it's parts.

Yeah, I get it (sort of) but I've played pretty much only Teles for 40+ years and they're the height of 'interchangeability' (if that's a word) and can all be adjusted to play good. I've had the same neck and pickups for 20+ years along with 15 or 20 bodies I've built. There's been a few experiments along the way but I always come back to that same neck and pickups, mostly, because I still have them and they function. I wouldn't have a second thought about selling them if I found something I like better. I'm one of those people who don't give a whit about neck size, string spacing, scale length, etc. - I just pick 'em up and play 'em and I still sound like me. I'm still of the opinion that the 'music' comes from the player. I'm not sure I agree that some guitars 'ask' to be played although some are prettier than others. L-5's are a thing of beauty but, to me, miserable to play. To each his own.........

**electricfactory** · 02-01-2018, 02:54 PM

Ha! Once again I agree with you, if the Tele isn't THE workhorse of guitars then I don't know what is! Interchangeable parts ? Pretty much. And I also agree that music does come from the player, not the instrument, am with you there too.
But let's be honest, some players do have guitar preferences beyond the utilitarian and functional. Even Willie Nelson prefers Trigger to say another 00-size acoustic guitar he could be playing. Just human nature I think to make a connection with something so personalized as a guitar, even a Tele.

Originally Posted by Skip Ellis

Yeah, I get it (sort of) but I've played pretty much only Teles for 40+ years and they're the height of 'interchangeability' (if that's a word) and can all be adjusted to play good. I've had the same neck and pickups for 20+ years along with 15 or 20 bodies I've built. There's been a few experiments along the way but I always come back to that same neck and pickups, mostly, because I still have them and they function. I wouldn't have a second thought about selling them if I found something I like better. I'm one of those people who don't give a whit about neck size, string spacing, scale length, etc. - I just pick 'em up and play 'em and I still sound like me. I'm still of the opinion that the 'music' comes from the player. I'm not sure I agree that some guitars 'ask' to be played although some are prettier than others. L-5's are a thing of beauty but, to me, miserable to play. To each his own.........

**Jp267** · 02-01-2018, 03:48 PM

Here is my current beater. The Tele named Keef on the right.

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**christianm77** · 02-02-2018, 08:30 AM

If you have a guitar that has been someone else’s beater is the ideal situation. 1) you know it’s good 2) it’s cheaper and 3) you don’t feel so bad when inevitably ding it when playing a gig.

But then I am a clumsy fool.

**Jp267** · 02-02-2018, 09:57 AM

Originally Posted by christianm77

If you have a guitar that has been someone else’s beater is the ideal situation. 1) you know it’s good 2) it’s cheaper and 3) you don’t feel so bad when inevitably ding it when playing a gig.

But then I am a clumsy fool.

It's kind of like when I bought my first new car. The second day I had it some teens went through the commuter rail lot keying cars. They got my trunk and I was actually relieved and less stressed tat it got it's first ding. I was stressing about keeping it in mint condition until then.

A little off topic but I hope you understand what I mean.

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