Man, this is like picking your favorite child! Actually it’s more difficult, I do have a favorite child! (It’s not fair, but my darling daughter has always been the light of my life) So I ran through all of my guitar’s again a week or two ago. I had to put them down for awhile due to an illness and wanted to give them all some love. And I was secretly hoping that one of them would rise above all the others. But alas, I do love them all, coupled with the fact that I do indeed have a sound, but I don’t think it is coupled to only one guitar. So hear are the finalists:
1996 Hamer USA Studio P90: I had been playing Strats and Telecasters but I always wanted a Les Paul and I told my favorite guitar shop owner that. Problem being, he wasn’t a Gibson dealer. He said he would find me a guitar that was better than Gibson in every way and left it at that. A month or so later he called me and said “my guitar” had arrived. I was almost put off a bit by his confidence that this was my holy grail until I saw it and played it. He ordered it with triple ivory soapbar P-90’s with matching binding at the body and the neck. The fretwork was, and still is perfect. The neck is a somewhat chunky full C, but it is tapered so you don’t even notice it. It isn’t svelte, at about 8 pounds 8 ounces, but I have never noticed that onstage.
So what else? This is the perfect blues/rock guitar. And to haul out the Spinal Tap reference, the sustain is really quite unbelievable. It is also perfect for Americana, especially Neil Young Old Black tones. It has the best in between the pickups sound I have ever heard. It was the first somewhat expensive guitar I ever bought and was worth every penny. Against my better judgment I loaned it out to a friend of my son and he hung on to it that I had to ask him to return it, then he hounded me for another year to sell it to him. When my playing days are over I will give it to my son who loves it as much as I do.
2007 PRS McCarty Standard: I was thinking about getting the humbucker version of this guitar, but my dealer had other ideas. He had just picked up PRS guitars in 2007. I had just begun to hear a little bit about them especially the McCarty model. Next thing you know he has a sunburst model in the shop. Not a 10 top, but it has fooled a lot of people. I’m not sure what I expected, but this was clearly not a Les Paul knockoff. Basically a Custom 24 with a thicker body and vintage sounding pickups, however pretty hot compared to other PAF types. It is the most beautiful guitar I own. The weight is damn near perfect. I would have to say it occupies a specific tone frequency that is not as flexible as a Les Paul. Really wish it had another volume and tone control like my MC 594 SE. But the sound is perfect for what it does.
PRS Silver Sky SE: I had not abandoned Strats. I bought a 305 when they first came out. Best looking best playing Strat I’ve ever owned. But it just wasn’t “stratty” enough so I traded it to a friend for an amp. Not more than a month passed by and the Silver Sky’s started showing up in the shop. I tried a core model first. Now this was a Strat. But a couple things kept me from buying it. The vintage neck radius felt tight and stiff. And the pickups were nice but almost too antiseptic. So I decided to wait until the SE showed up. Only problem with that was the staff was buying them up before they made it to the floor! They manage to save one for me from the original shipment in Moon White. I loved the neck. The pickups sounded warmer and snottier when you hit the gain. This guitar sounds better with my pedals and amps than anything I owned. And it reminded me that is the most flexible and adaptable guitar out there but with its own distinct sound. It puts a smile on my face every time.
So which one is better? Depends on the day and the mood. There are at least three others that qualify as Honorable Mentions. I’m sorry for focusing on the origin stories but that is a big part of my fondness for each of them.
