The New Vintage

This month’s Vintage Guitar Magazine features a review of my Tulsa Korina guitar. It’s a short piece that lays out the basics of what is essential about the guitar. The reviewer, Tom Guerra, got all the points of interest dead-on, so it was a joy to read. You’d think I’d be jaded, but I still get a thrill when people like my work.

Although the bit about being a “legendary luthier” has been used before to describe me, I’ve never been comfortable with the title. I feel as though there’s a bit of exaggeration going on—with both terms. In contrast, I am proud of the headline. The New Vintage. It describes what I am going for perfectly. And  even more profound is what it means in the context of all my work.

Almost 30 years ago I devised an ad campaign for Hamer Guitars called “Modern Vintage” and the phrase became synonymous with the brand. Since then it has been appropriated by companies that probably were not even in business then. Most of the tactics and ethos of our little company were new for the time. What we started has been ground into a meaningless barrage of boilerplate ad copy that I never saw coming. “Made for musicians, by musicians.” What a concept. “Time honored craftsmanship, the most exquisite tone woods, and state of the art hardware…” The jokes practically write themselves.

So, here’s to you—the marketing men and women of the boutique guitar world. When all the hipster hyperbole is sliding into the ditch you can pivot to bragging about how your CNC accuracy and SolidWorks 3D plotting makes you the NASA of the garage builders. Meanwhile, I’ll just keep doing what I’ve always done. Hey, I’d better steal that New Vintage™ phrase before somebody else does. Thanks again Vintage Guitar for truly making my day. And that’s no exaggeration.