I appreciate the beauty of a nice curl in the wood, And can be as picky as the next person, but after the “NGD” wears off, I stop caring much about the figure in the wood. Possibly that’s the point where the guitar truly becomes what it’s intended to be, an instrument to make music with.
I can honestly say that I spend zero time looking at the guitars, except to take them out of the case, or put them back in the case, and the rest of the time playing them.
“Oh yeah? Then why do you spring for the pretty ones?”
“Because I’m as crazy as the rest of you.”
I’m pretty much like this - I love looking at a nice instrument when I first get it, but then I largely don’t see it after that. If it’s UGLY enough, like if it was some bright neon color I really didn’t like, I’d probably still see it. I had a relic finish Ibanez semi-hollow that I though was pretty stupid looking, but underneath all the stupid it was a pretty basic sunburst, and I never saw the stupid relic after the initial look either. It was a great player that I got for about half price because they were discontinuing that finish.
My 594 is by far the prettiest guitar I’ve ever owned - that mattered for about a week. Now it’s just the sunburst hanging on the wall, easily distinguished from my silver Robert Cray Strat next to it - I really dug the looks of both of them when I first had em and now I don’t see them anymore except to tell them apart. There are some extremely bright colored quilted tops I’ve seen here that are beautiful and I enjoy seeing, but wouldn’t personally want to own - we each like what we like. I guess if I still notice the looks of a guitar after a month, it’s because there’s something I DON’T like about it.
My 594 is a 10-top. As for why I “sprung for the pretty one”, it was the opposite. I was shopping for used to keep the cost down, wanted to buy from Guitar Center for easy returnability if I didn’t bond with it, and 5 of the 6 available at the time were 10-tops and the one core model was priced the same - they were all priced within about $300 of the same - except there was a violet one that was a couple hundred cheaper yet - didn’t appeal to me and I guess I wasn’t alone. I went for the tobacco burst model I saw because it was tied for the lowest price among them (aside from the violet one), was the most understated finish of those available, and, taking the word of the salesmen over the phone, was one of two available that appeared to have almost never been played. A new core 594 was about $600 less than a new 10-top, and my used 10-top was about $600 less than a new core model. So I sprung for the the best deal I could find in a finish I didn’t DIS-like. Still the most I’ve spent on an electric guitar by a factor of more than three. Extremely happy to have a guitar that plays this well and sounds this good, but I really don’t see how pretty it is anymore...
I recently saw a used green Zach Myers in a shop for $500 - thought it was as pretty as any 10-Top I’ve seen. I guess that one was just luck of the draw - I’ve seen some Zachs online that weren’t all that nice, but DAMN!
-Ray