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Finding a guitar that you jive with...

12K views 66 replies 36 participants last post by  Josh 
#1 ·
How many of you have *that* guitar? The one that you'll never sell? How did you come across it, or find out what you wanted in your guitar if its a custom?

Post pictures of yours.

Sad thing is, I could sell my whole rig down to my pick, and not feel an ounce of remorse.
 
#3 · (Edited)
I thought my Gibson LP studio was a never-sell guitar. It's been gone for two years.

The only guitar that I've gotten and not sold yet is my Squier strat that I started on. I don't ever *want* to sell my custom singlecut though - I spent a lot of money on guitars I wouldn't have bought if I had kept it. The one-of-a-kind factor helps!

The Singlecut blends what I liked about various guitars: PRS scale length, superstrat Maple neck, Gibson profile neck, PRS tummy cut, neck-thru style heel, Gibson maple top, Gibson trapezoid inlays.

(pre chrome rings)
 
#4 ·
iPhone pic again, but of all the guitars that I own, these three are my favorites.

L: Carvin CS4
M: Ancient Ibanez EZ
R: RG550

The Carvin is the best playing, best sounding guitar that I've ever owned. I've only played a few that keep up with it. It's absolutely fantastic, and it's what I reach for about 90% of the time. From a player's perspective, this is my favorite.

The EX, however, is "that guitar" for me. I bought it with my paper route money when I was 13, traded it in at Daddy's Junky Music when I was about 15, and then found it again (the very same guitar) when I was 17 and have never let it go since. It's absolutely amazing, it sounds like nothing else. It's the combo of huge sentimental value + really unique sounding guitar. If my house caught on fire, the EX is the only one I'd run back in for. In all my years playing, I've probably logged more time on this one than all of my other guitars combined. It's worth absolutely nothing to anyone but me, but honestly if someone offered me ten grand for it, I'd turn them down. it has a BFGoodrich sticker on it that I put on there when I was 15, that reminds me of old friends and good times. It's a piece of my life, so to speak.

The RG550 is both one of the nicest Ibanez's I've ever played, and one of the nicest things that a relative stranger has ever done for me. I "knew" Mike online and we hung out once or twice before he refinished it for me, but the amount of work that he put into it combined with how fantastic it sounds - I'll never let it go.

 
#51 ·
The EX, however, is "that guitar" for me. I bought it with my paper route money when I was 13, traded it in at Daddy's Junky Music when I was about 15, and then found it again (the very same guitar) when I was 17 and have never let it go since. It's absolutely amazing, it sounds like nothing else. It's the combo of huge sentimental value + really unique sounding guitar. If my house caught on fire, the EX is the only one I'd run back in for. In all my years playing, I've probably logged more time on this one than all of my other guitars combined. It's worth absolutely nothing to anyone but me, but honestly if someone offered me ten grand for it, I'd turn them down. it has a BFGoodrich sticker on it that I put on there when I was 15, that reminds me of old friends and good times. It's a piece of my life, so to speak.
Same story here, worked my ass off to afford my (purple) EX, it was a proud moment when I carried it out of the store :D
I played my first gig on it(you could literally hear clacking sounds from my knees from my stage fright), countless hours of practice and fun.
I'll never sell it, but I might give it to my son if he's really interested to learn the guitar some day.
Like you say it has a very special feel and sound to it and I'll claim it holds its own qualitywise against any prestige that Ibanez has on the market today.
Posts are worn and the knife edges on the trem are dull, but it still works.
 
#5 ·
Has to be my RG7620. I bought it for $300 and it has been my playground into learning everything I know about guitars. How to tear em apart, set them up, adjust this, tweak that. and it was my introduction into the world of mods....and it's not done, next up, a real 1/4" maple cap! Out of all the 7's, this one I consider "bullet proof". It absolutely refuses to go out of tune, no matter if it's sitting in it's case, or hanging on the wall with the others.


to this...

to this...on the left..
 
#8 ·
Has to be my RG7620. I bought it for $300 and it has been my playground into learning everything I know about guitars. How to tear em apart, set them up, adjust this, tweak that. and it was my introduction into the world of mods....and it's not done, next up, a real 1/4" maple cap! Out of all the 7's, this one I consider "bullet proof". It absolutely refuses to go out of tune, no matter if it's sitting in it's case, or hanging on the wall with the others.

I was reading your post, nodding, saying to myself, 'yeah, that's the 7620, alright. Always a killer guitar', and then I scrolled down.

Holy shitballs have you done some work on that! The inbetween yellow looked great. Was it a matte finish? And now....now it's a different story. The cap looks fantastic, and particularly lavish on the headstock :flex:

You don't want to tackle relpacing the fretboard? Offset dots on that would look great. Oh, and that JPM control layout is the best layout on an RG, hands down.
 
#7 ·
My #1 is a Warmoth that Lee gave me.





Dunno how or why, but it just sounds *awesome.* Plays great too.
 
#11 ·
My Gibson Customshop 1958 reissue plain Les Paul Standard is the guitar I will never sell. I spent a lot of time trying out a lot of Les Pauls, PRS, Fender Customshop Strats, and other high end guitars before settling on mine. It is the absolute best playing and sounding guitar I have ever played. I know that Gibson has huge quality control issues but mine is absolutely amazing.

A close second is my Ibanez S7240FM with wave inlays.
 
#12 ·
I hate all my gear. It makes me sound like crap.



Seriously though, I'm not really attached to anything. I'm still in CL swapping mode where I keep trading guitars around every few months or so.
I REALLY liked my c1 hellraiser, but then it got an electrical issue and it's been sitting on the stand for about a year now.
I should probably bring it somewhere to get it fixed. i've mostly just been playing my rg 321mhe, which is pretty much the best cheap guitar you can buy. all mahog, emg passive h4s that are pretty decent, and fixed bridge for nice and easy tuning and sustain.
 
#15 ·
As most are well aware, I very rarely get attached to gear. To me, it's tools for the job & I believe most of the tone & "your sound" comes from the player. Having said that, I have bonded with maybe a half dozen guitars out of around 100 that I've owned. Some just sucked. Some fit what I needed for a particular set of gigs I was involved with. And some just had that magic where the stars aligned at that time & it worked on every possible way. Of the guitars that have become my #1 instrument for several years, they stick around because they are the best playing instrument I've come across.

The problem with me is that I never just settle. When I came across another instrument that outplays & outperforms, #1 becomes #2 or soon finds it way out the door in favor of the new #1. Repeat as necessary. It's not so much "Gear Acquisition Syndrome" or "Who has the most toys, wins," but more of a refinement of what Shannon likes & finding that ultimate instrument for all my peculiarities. When what I thought was the perfect instrument for me gets trump by a newcomer, I have no qualms with selling off an instrument to get one notch closer to my personal sonic nirvana & something that plays just as I've envisioned.

1. 1984 Yamaha Eterna EF-15 - It's my 1st guitar that I began playing on in late 1984 & my only acoustic. I spent my first 10 years of playing on that guitar. Giant baseball bat neck, strung with 13s in standard E. Those frets are very worn. While the guitar is essentially worthless to everybody but me, there's a huge amount of sentimental value & it will never leave.

2. 1997 Ibanez UV777BK (all-black) - My 1st 7-string that I bought new in early 1997. What a revelation for me. I really wanted the black/green model, but they discontinued them at the end of 1996. Anyway, I had been tuning my 6-strings down low for several years & unlike most, I didn't want to go lower. I wanted my high E string back. The 7-string gave me a standard tuned & baritone tuned guitar in one. This is the guitar that started my 7 craze. I had a ball with this guitar & it was one of the most musically productive times in my life.

3. 1999 Ibanez UV777BK (black/chrome) - A friend of mine had acquired this guitar from a guy who had Steve Vai's guitar tech trick it out with 6000 fretwire & some of the lowest action I had ever felt. From the moment I played it, there was an instant connection. Like buttah! My friend had an instant with my custom RG7620 that had been modded with an all white finish, EMGs & 3-way LP selector. We traded straight across. I used this UV for several years & I wrote some of the most technically demanding music I've ever come up with. It just begged to be played with ferocity. Unfortunately, this UV & my ESP 7 were stolen out of my car in a guitar center parking lot around 2002. Sad, sad day. Which leads me to....

4. Steinberger Spirit GU-7R (flamed green) - In 2002, I bought this guitar from MusicYo. At the time, everything I wrote required a 7, so this was basically a travel/practice guitar for home. When the UV & ESP were stolen, I was left with one guitar in my possession....this guy. I slapped on a set of 13s & tuned it to Bb & away we went. I had to adapt my 7-string arrangments to a 6 because I just didn't have the money for a replacement 7. Little did I know that I would fall in love with this guitar. I loved the way a headless played. Perfectly balanced. The less you're fighting with a guitar, the better you play. It really opened my eyes to what a wonderful design steinbergers are & it worked perfectly for Byaxis (super demanding technical band I was doing at the time) & for a variety of cover gigs. It was my main guitar for several years & I had 2 more GU-7Rs (black & white) as my backup/alternate tuning guitars. Unfortunately, I hit hard times when I was laid off. I sold the green one to a friend for $200 because I was dying financially. It killed me to do it, but I had to do. There's a lot of sentimental attachment to that guitar. Over the years, I had offered to buy it back for up to twice what I originally sold it for, but no deal. Oh well.

5. "Greenie" The Mike Sherman-ized 1991 Ibanez UV777GR - You all know Greenie. I had been searching for a GR for 12 years & it just happened that Steve here was selling his for a great price. It was instant love & was everything I hoped it would be. At this time, I was way better off financially. I had built a nest egg, was playing a TON of paying gigs & started building quite an arsenal of gear. However, NOTHING I played, even guitars costing 3x as much, even came close to how well Greenie played. I was offered some amazing guitars if I would trade Greenie, but I couldn't do it. As a gear whore, it was so weird for me to actually NOT want another guitar. Greenie was the go-to instrument for the hundreds of guitar gigs I did from 2008-2011. I bonded with her musicially moreso than any other instrument up to that time. I thought she's be around forever until.....

6. "Strypoverse" The bastardized Ibanez 7 - ....fucking Donnie creates the Strypoverse. :lol:
Donnie has a very special gift with making guitars play unbelievable. He spent many hours hand crafting this guitar. This guitar called out to me in many ways though. Playability & setup aside...
1. I love old school Universe necks & this neck was the best I had ever come across. Donnie's abilities are the stuff of legend. He knows how to make a guitar perform at its best & most of what makes this guitar's mojo is that.
2. I'm a HUGE EVH fan, so the black/yellow stripe design called to me.
3. I'm a HUGE Dimebag fan & EVH's original black/yellow guitar was laid to rest with Dimebag. Two of my musical heros encapsulated into one 7-string. Perfect...Shannon....guitar. Unfortunately, the affair lasted around a year because I've recently discovered Carvin 7-strings & I'm just floored by them. As a mainly diehard Ibanez 7-string player for 15 years now, it's hard for me to admit there are sonic better guitars out there, but there are.

When I sell off a guitar I've become attached to, it's only because I've found something this is superior to what I thought was previously untouchable & the pinnacle of playability for me. When those revelations happen, I just want to move up. I currently have a Carvin headless HH2X on order & I'm making my final specs for a Carvin DC700 or DC747. The search is never ending, but I've enjoyed my time with each of these killer instruments.
 
#32 ·
As most are well aware, I very rarely get attached to gear. To me, it's tools for the job & I believe most of the tone & "your sound" comes from the player. Having said that, I have bonded with maybe a half dozen guitars out of around 100 that I've owned. Some just sucked. Some fit what I needed for a particular set of gigs I was involved with. And some just had that magic where the stars aligned at that time & it worked on every possible way. Of the guitars that have become my #1 instrument for several years, they stick around because they are the best playing instrument I've come across.

The problem with me is that I never just settle. When I came across another instrument that outplays & outperforms, #1 becomes #2 or soon finds it way out the door in favor of the new #1. Repeat as necessary. It's not so much "Gear Acquisition Syndrome" or "Who has the most toys, wins," but more of a refinement of what Shannon likes & finding that ultimate instrument for all my peculiarities. When what I thought was the perfect instrument for me gets trump by a newcomer, I have no qualms with selling off an instrument to get one notch closer to my personal sonic nirvana & something that plays just as I've envisioned.

1. 1984 Yamaha Eterna EF-15 - It's my 1st guitar that I began playing on in late 1984 & my only acoustic. I spent my first 10 years of playing on that guitar. Giant baseball bat neck, strung with 13s in standard E. Those frets are very worn. While the guitar is essentially worthless to everybody but me, there's a huge amount of sentimental value & it will never leave.

2. 1997 Ibanez UV777BK (all-black) - My 1st 7-string that I bought new in early 1997. What a revelation for me. I really wanted the black/green model, but they discontinued them at the end of 1996. Anyway, I had been tuning my 6-strings down low for several years & unlike most, I didn't want to go lower. I wanted my high E string back. The 7-string gave me a standard tuned & baritone tuned guitar in one. This is the guitar that started my 7 craze. I had a ball with this guitar & it was one of the most musically productive times in my life.

3. 1999 Ibanez UV777BK (black/chrome) - A friend of mine had acquired this guitar from a guy who had Steve Vai's guitar tech trick it out with 6000 fretwire & some of the lowest action I had ever felt. From the moment I played it, there was an instant connection. Like buttah! My friend had an instant with my custom RG7620 that had been modded with an all white finish, EMGs & 3-way LP selector. We traded straight across. I used this UV for several years & I wrote some of the most technically demanding music I've ever come up with. It just begged to be played with ferocity. Unfortunately, this UV & my ESP 7 were stolen out of my car in a guitar center parking lot around 2002. Sad, sad day. Which leads me to....

4. Steinberger Spirit GU-7R (flamed green) - In 2002, I bought this guitar from MusicYo. At the time, everything I wrote required a 7, so this was basically a travel/practice guitar for home. When the UV & ESP were stolen, I was left with one guitar in my possession....this guy. I slapped on a set of 13s & tuned it to Bb & away we went. I had to adapt my 7-string arrangments to a 6 because I just didn't have the money for a replacement 7. Little did I know that I would fall in love with this guitar. I loved the way a headless played. Perfectly balanced. The less you're fighting with a guitar, the better you play. It really opened my eyes to what a wonderful design steinbergers are & it worked perfectly for Byaxis (super demanding technical band I was doing at the time) & for a variety of cover gigs. It was my main guitar for several years & I had 2 more GU-7Rs (black & white) as my backup/alternate tuning guitars. Unfortunately, I hit hard times when I was laid off. I sold the green one to a friend for $200 because I was dying financially. It killed me to do it, but I had to do. There's a lot of sentimental attachment to that guitar. Over the years, I had offered to buy it back for up to twice what I originally sold it for, but no deal. Oh well.

5. "Greenie" The Mike Sherman-ized 1991 Ibanez UV777GR - You all know Greenie. I had been searching for a GR for 12 years & it just happened that Steve here was selling his for a great price. It was instant love & was everything I hoped it would be. At this time, I was way better off financially. I had built a nest egg, was playing a TON of paying gigs & started building quite an arsenal of gear. However, NOTHING I played, even guitars costing 3x as much, even came close to how well Greenie played. I was offered some amazing guitars if I would trade Greenie, but I couldn't do it. As a gear whore, it was so weird for me to actually NOT want another guitar. Greenie was the go-to instrument for the hundreds of guitar gigs I did from 2008-2011. I bonded with her musicially moreso than any other instrument up to that time. I thought she's be around forever until.....

6. "Strypoverse" The bastardized Ibanez 7 - ....fucking Donnie creates the Strypoverse. :lol:
Donnie has a very special gift with making guitars play unbelievable. He spent many hours hand crafting this guitar. This guitar called out to me in many ways though. Playability & setup aside...
1. I love old school Universe necks & this neck was the best I had ever come across. Donnie's abilities are the stuff of legend. He knows how to make a guitar perform at its best & most of what makes this guitar's mojo is that.
2. I'm a HUGE EVH fan, so the black/yellow stripe design called to me.
3. I'm a HUGE Dimebag fan & EVH's original black/yellow guitar was laid to rest with Dimebag. Two of my musical heros encapsulated into one 7-string. Perfect...Shannon....guitar. Unfortunately, the affair lasted around a year because I've recently discovered Carvin 7-strings & I'm just floored by them. As a mainly diehard Ibanez 7-string player for 15 years now, it's hard for me to admit there are sonic better guitars out there, but there are.

When I sell off a guitar I've become attached to, it's only because I've found something this is superior to what I thought was previously untouchable & the pinnacle of playability for me. When those revelations happen, I just want to move up. I currently have a Carvin headless HH2X on order & I'm making my final specs for a Carvin DC700 or DC747. The search is never ending, but I've enjoyed my time with each of these killer instruments.
tl;dr
 
#21 ·
I've searched for SO long a white / maple board ESP Maverick or Mirage (it took about 2 years after loosing an auction in the last 5 seconds for about 3$ ... lol) that it's NEVER going away. There's just something about the overall shape and the way it plays... Soooo nice. Plus, they're kinda rare and this one is totally mint.

 
#26 ·
Wirelessly posted :)sponge:)

Honestly, everything I own now other than my Strat 7 falls into this category.

My original Strat that was my first guitar, that's been abused, modded, and played to hell and back, is still the best sounding and playing guitar for me that I've ever owned.

My Seagull S12+ is the first guitar I bought new with my own money and has that magic.

My Tele was such a collection of happy accidents, and was assembled by me and my dad, and just feels and sounds amazing.

My Jazz Bass V, that I toured with across Canada, and makes me not ever want another bass.
 
#27 ·
Wirelessly posted (Hivemind)

I've got 2 that will never ever go, and one that's close to that. My Taylor big baby was my first guitar, and it plays awesome and is all beaten up and amazing. It's home.

My ibanez s540 Was a gift from my mom and my girlfriend. Money was super tight, and none of us were doing much in the way of gifts, but a guy rolled in to my work wanting to sell it for $150. They snapped it up for me :wub:. It's got a wizard ii neck like my first electric, and my brothers old electric, but not the wizard ii you see these days. It's just a thicker wizard, still rounded. So that feels at home too, and it's stupid resonant.

The 3rd one that's almost that status is my usa SoCal, which was a gift from lee. Did up the electronics and otherwise left it alone. It's unreasonably resonant and fuck I love the neck.
 
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