Electric Board
What aspects of the way electric guitars are made have improved the most in the past 90 years?
Paul Reed Smith: “It depends. In general, on the guitars themselves, the frets are more in the locations they need to be to play in tune than they were 90 years ago – though some manufacturers still have improvements that are needed. Looking at how the guitars are made, I like CNC [computer numerical control] machinery. The tooling that’s used to hold onto the instruments in CNC machinery has been considerably improved over the past 60 years and, if you program right, it repeats much better than machines operated by hand.”
Rich Lasner: “Several aspects have improved quite a bit, such as more reliable hardware, better pickups at all price points, and so on. But, for me, the major improvement has come from immensely improved overall quality of guitars from China, Indonesia, Mexico and South Korea. I think this is most important because it allows first-time buyers and novice players – especially for whom the cost of the instrument could be a barrier – to have solid, good-quality guitars to start. Having a terrible first guitar is one of the major reasons people don’t continue to play, so getting a great guitar for a few hundred quid/dollars/Euros opens the door to getting people into the instrument and keeping their interest as they improve.”
Patrick James Eggle: “I think I’d have to say CNC. If you went back 90 years, some of the machinery that was used and some of
