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STAY OR GO?
Halfway through a 40-year career with a well-known aircraft manufacturer, the company gifted me my choice of an Epiphone 335-alike. I’d been wrangling a dreadnought since childhood and fancied some electric blues.
With a familiar fretboard and body shape, it should have been just the ticket, but for the last 20 years it has sat unloved on the rack, between my go-to 12-string and my National Tricone. The guitar is saturated with fond memories of past colleagues, projects and places I’ve worked, but, musically, we just don’t click. I can’t get the tone in my head out of the amp, the pots have become scratchy, the pickup selector horribly intermittent and the nut grabs the strings making tuning a perversely jerky affair, despite plenty of Nut Sauce.
So, do I pander to sentiment and invest way more than the Epiphone’s monetary value in lutherie, perhaps adding some Bare Knuckles, CTS pots and Switchcraft parts in the hope of getting the fat cleans and crunchy blues I’m looking for? Or should I just call time and go shopping for something unsentimental but
