The Best 'MOD' Ever!

Why do we sometimes over-look the most basic part of our guitar: our strings? Dave burrluck considers the importance of a fresh set of wires…

The other day a gentleman came up to me at a gig and asked if I knew anyone who could have a look at his teenage son’s guitar. “What’s the problem?” I asked. “It doesn’t play in tune; we think it needs a new bridge,” he replied. I felt my left eyebrow rising and then asked, “What’s the guitar?” “A Levinson Blade: not sure what model.” I assured him I was sure we could get it sorted, Gary and Christian are good people and I always welcome a chance to get in touch.

Some days later, Dad, teenager and Blade duly arrived. I pulled the guitar out of its gigbag and was a little shocked: I’d never seen one of these rather fine instruments in such a state. It was clearly very dirty and cried out for a little cleaning and TLC at the very least. Then I noticed that the strings were mostly black and caked with gunk. I asked the rather sullen teenager when he’d last changed his strings. I took the mumbled reply as, not recently. I offered that I doubted there was anything wrong with the bridge.