The Future is in Plastic

Music Villa’s good friend Dickie Nelson has agreed to do some writing for the MusicVilla.com Blog. He’s an excellent writer and a very cool guy, with an interesting insight on the music world and life in general. Leave him a comment below. Enjoy!

The Future is in Plastic

I studied the sitar a long time ago because guitar seemed too hard at the time. When I eventually wanted to buy a nice instrument, I mentioned to my sitar teacher that I would like to get something perhaps with real ivory decoration instead of the imitation plastic that my practice instrument had. He said “Why would you want to do something stupid like that?” and explained to me that the finest instruments in India always used plastic, because it was cheaper, easier to work with, lighter, more durable, and more beautiful to his eyes.

This incident found a spot in the back of my brain-box where it found a secure home in some deep dark gooey recess of cells.

Many years later, after I decided that the sitar was too hard to carry around and busk with, I switched to guitar. Fate brought me to Los Angeles and the usual assortment of oddball personal judgment calls dictated that I was going to live on a boat there. As always, the first thing that pops into one’s mind is “What kind of new guitar do I need to buy to perfectly fit my slightly different life-circumstances?” That’s when that dark gooey recess let loose of my sitar memory and I decided that a plastic guitar might be perfect.

Boats are a mess – hot inside in the day, cold at night, 100% humidity almost all the time – piles of broken sandals, empty rum bottles, and expired flares everywhere. What guitar could stand up to this?  Luckily my guitar psychologist friends at Music Villa introduced me to the Martin HPL (High Pressure Laminate) guitar line and I ended up buying a Martin Cowboy III.

It is not plastic, but rather a Martin proprietary mess of resin, wood chips, laminates, plastic, glue, etc, put together using traditional guitar construction techniques. I thought I was going to get a somewhat playable compromise because of the materials but it has become one of my favorites, even after moving off the boat.

1. Sound – This guitar does not have the “wooden magic” of a guitar made of fine tone woods, but it does have a “HPL Magic” of it’s own. I still haven’t figured out whether I think it’s so great because it’s not wood, or if it really sounds good – but if you have not heard one I think you’ll be in for a surprise. Martin used all their knowledge of bracing and tuning to get a really good tone and volume out of this instrument. Where wood guitars can vary quite a bit in sound – even the same make and model, the HPL guitars have sounded consistently good to my ears.
2. Cost – This guitar was certainly cheaper than its all-wood counterparts, by quite a bit.
3. Durability – I barely ever have to retune, even after a day of sitting in the sun. My guitar still looks like it did the day I got it. I called Martin up to ask them what to clean it with and you can clean the whole instrument with soap and water. It has been knocked around both in heavy seas and by my drunken sailor friends when they think they remember the words to a ditty.
4. Environmentally Friendly:  I think one of the reasons Martin came out with this guitar in the first place was that they saw the writing on the wall about the availability of fine woods and wanted to start experimenting with different materials. You can make your own decision whether this is good for the environment or not – Is it better to cut down trees to make guitars, or cut down trees to make a factory to make plastic guitars?
5. Beauty: The Cowboy Martin has a somewhat cheesy cowboy scene molded into it which might not be to everyone’s taste, but is kind of different. They have also come out with HPL that imitates wood appearance and that leaves me a little cold – Like vegetarian chicken morsels – but some might like it.
6. Size: My guitar is a 000 and it’s perfect for playing for yourself in closed quarters. Martin has also come out with a line of “mini” HPL guitars – the newest of which is a “Jimmy Buffet” model. I ended up getting a mini and would give a 100% recommendation for anyone looking for an excuse to buy a new guitar –They are cheap, well built, fun to play and sound better than you would ever expect.  This would make a great starter guitar for smaller people too.

So if you like to travel, play outside, live on a boat or in a tent, or for any other reason can’t control your environment, take a look at the Martin HPL line. It won’t change your life, but it is fun.

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Richard Nelson was well known in certain circles in the 70s, 80s and 90s for attempting to become a visual artist. When that did not pan out he decided to switch to becoming a musician because it seemed a little less messy. With Grace Slick now painting, it seemed like the right thing to do to keep the universe in balance.

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