Restore or Retire?
Posted: Sun Jun 24, 2012 12:22 pm
Apologies for opening a new thread about my Bailey Guitar but this is relevant to all guitars / owners and I want to conduct an opinon poll so please do answer, if only briefly, rather than just read this post
RESTORE OR RETIRE?
I have been listening to much advice and there is coming a time when I will have to decide what I think is best. Do I restore or retire this first Bailey guitar?
There are two schools of thought:
Make it playable with minimal intervention / change and restoration. Yes, clearly I could probably buy a better instrument for less than the value of this one and its restoration cost - actually not that significant - but regardless, this guitar deserves to be heard, irrespective of it's relative quality (and it's quality won't be known unless it is restored and played)...
The other camp is to case it and do nothing. Preserve it as a historic item, as an 'antique' that may have intrinsic value simply because it was JB's first.
Interestingly (to me!) is an analogous argument of car restoration (I'm a petrol head too).
A car is like a musical instrument. It lives, it breaths, it makes a sound, it has a living character that can only be fully appreciated when it is driven - not merely gazed upon.
If one has a unique, irreplaceable race car, do you put it in a museum or do you maintain it in track worthy condition and race it, thus incurring the necessity to abandon total originality?
In terms of cars I'm in the repair and race it camp - let it breathe fire, let it fulfil it's original purpose. In terms of this guitar, and faced with more than a hypothetical choice, I'm leaning towards the (gently & respectfully) 'race it' arguement but I'm not yet 100% decided.
So, Restore or Retire?
Cheers
Duvet
RESTORE OR RETIRE?
I have been listening to much advice and there is coming a time when I will have to decide what I think is best. Do I restore or retire this first Bailey guitar?
There are two schools of thought:
Make it playable with minimal intervention / change and restoration. Yes, clearly I could probably buy a better instrument for less than the value of this one and its restoration cost - actually not that significant - but regardless, this guitar deserves to be heard, irrespective of it's relative quality (and it's quality won't be known unless it is restored and played)...
The other camp is to case it and do nothing. Preserve it as a historic item, as an 'antique' that may have intrinsic value simply because it was JB's first.
Interestingly (to me!) is an analogous argument of car restoration (I'm a petrol head too).
A car is like a musical instrument. It lives, it breaths, it makes a sound, it has a living character that can only be fully appreciated when it is driven - not merely gazed upon.
If one has a unique, irreplaceable race car, do you put it in a museum or do you maintain it in track worthy condition and race it, thus incurring the necessity to abandon total originality?
In terms of cars I'm in the repair and race it camp - let it breathe fire, let it fulfil it's original purpose. In terms of this guitar, and faced with more than a hypothetical choice, I'm leaning towards the (gently & respectfully) 'race it' arguement but I'm not yet 100% decided.
So, Restore or Retire?
Cheers
Duvet