What do you look for in a guitar

[Alan Manning]

When I got my first top end guitar I'll be honest I went on looks and trusted the price would justify playability and it did. Cus 24.
Then I went back to playability first then looks. McCarty !!! I have different makes but these just work for me.
(Oh Betty Swollocks I'm starting to get the itch again ).

 

[Alnus Rubra]

When I got my first top end guitar I'll be honest I went on looks and trusted the price would justify playability and it did. Cus 24.
Then I went back to playability first then looks. McCarty !!! I have different makes but these just work for me.
(Oh Betty Swollocks I'm starting to get the itch again ).

So what are you getting?!

 

[Alan Manning]

So what are you getting?!

Put It this way!!! Er's in the doors thinks she's getting a new 3 peice suit but I don't think that comes with 3 pickups.
Disclaimer I hope she doesn't read this .

 

[Alnus Rubra]

Put It this way!!! Er's in the doors thinks she's getting a new 3 peice suit but I don't think that comes with 3 pickups.
Disclaimer I hope she doesn't read this .

Good luck!

Take a swig of Scotch before you break the news! Haha.

 

[Screamingdaisy]

Honestly, what I look for in a guitar is that it makes me sound like myself with a minimal amount of effort. I already have my own signature sort of sound that I aim for, and although it’s matured over the years it hasn’t really changed all that much. Experience has taught me that some guitars get there, and some guitars don’t. It doesn’t make them bad sounding guitars, just not the right guitar for me.

That said, I started playing in cover bands and had to at least approximate other people’s sounds I came to appreciate PRS approach to multiple sounds in one guitar. Yeah, it might not nail Strat or LP or Tele or whatever, but it gets close enough to get the job done and I don’t need multiple guitars to do it. Now when I used a specialized guitar that excels at one particular thing it almost feels constricting when I can’t get it to do anything else.

Now, on one hand I will say that I like playing in bands because I’m too busy playing music that I don’t have time to put my tone under a microscope or sweat the details, but on the other hand playing in bands also pushes me to try new things and choose tonalities that I wouldn’t necessarily consider a core part of my sound, but it serves that particular song enough that I’ll run with it anyway. So, in a way I get less GAS but I’m open to trying more things.

TL;DR, what do I look for in a guitar? No idea, I just go with the flow.

 

[John]

Sound, feel, and aesthetics are important to me.

I usually gravitate towards thinner necks, with the wide-thin profile being my gold standard of sorts. Some guitar tones can be remedied with certain pickups or amp configurations, and up to a certain point I've usually been able to get a serviceable tone somehow. Regarding aesthetics, there's certain shapes I'm cool with and others I wouldn't ever want to be caught dead with. ie- The PRS Custom/CE-24's are the only double cutaway guitars I care for. I'm also a fan of the LP shape. Certain variants like the PRS Singlecut and the ESP Eclipse are perfectly fine by me, but other styles from competitor brands come across as hideous such as the relevant offerings from Collings, Balaguer, Dean, Agile, to name a few. The laws of attraction are different for everyone.
Apart from those top 3. Other personal preferences kick in such as my preference towards having at least 24 frets. Some of my preferences are niche, but that ok- I know what suits me, and that should take precedence instead of simply caving into some hype brand or whatever when actually buying a guitar.

 

[Sybo]

After having two paying gigs this weekend, the thought crossed my mind that when I wasn't really playing out, what I 'wanted' out of a guitar was a bit different than what I 'need' out of a guitar now that I am playing in a band situation consistently. If you all can remember, a couple of years ago, after not playing out for like a decade and a half, I was asked to back someone up on a radio show. Rusty and out of practice as h*ll I did it, and somehow, got pulled into her band. Since then, from rehearsals, gigs, an upcoming recording project, pandemic zoom practices, lessons to try to build on what I am doing, a church band position starting up next Sunday, and being more pulled into the local music community, I have found that some of the things that were important to me in a guitar over the past 15 or 20 years, aren't quite as necessary at the moment. But then things that I never considered in the past are now part of what makes me choose a certain guitar to play in certain situations.

Just wondering if others here, who have experienced being a "collector" more than a "player"....and then became more of a "player" than a "collector" (or even that same thing but in reverse. . .maybe you USED to play out a lot, but now you don't)....and are the requirements for a guitar 'different' now.

(pic from this weekend for attention)

I can definitely relate..

 

[sergiodeblanc]

I think I accidentally became a collector?

I dunno… the guitar has to feel right, I prefer there to be no uncomfortable bits (or minimized at least), has to stay in tune, needs a trem and other parts that don’t really require many tools, and has to sound good (duh).

If I coulda ponied up the $8000 in 1995 when the Santana came out… I probably would’ve been set for life.


But ya know, it’s the journey and not the destination…. Okay, that’s bullish!t. It’s totally the destination.

 

[Boogie]

. Hell, I stop playing when the wife comes in the room.

Just between you and me…I stop playing when Mrs. B comes in the room too. Playing in front of a few hundred people doesn’t bother me much but she still makes me self conscious.

 

[dmatthews]

Just between you and me…I stop playing when Mrs. B comes in the room too. Playing in front of a few hundred people doesn’t bother me much but she still makes me self conscious.

Same here.
I'm the lead singer in the band and won't do karaoke.
I don't like playing solo in front of most anyone.
Put me in a band situation and I'm good to go with any sized crowd.

 

[alantig]

Ownership.

 

[Tony M.]

Same here.
..I don't like playing solo in front of most anyone.
Put me in a band situation and I'm good to go with any sized crowd.

Me too.

 

[11top]

I look for an outrageously expensive instrument so I can delude myself into believing it will make me a better player than a mere expensive instrument will.

And I think, now THIS is my player!



Until the next one comes along.

 

[Deleted member 5962]

Just between you and me…I stop playing when Mrs. B comes in the room too. Playing in front of a few hundred people doesn’t bother me much but she still makes me self conscious.

I stop playing when my wife comes in the room, but it's because she never does unless she is going to bed. If I go back to play for a while, sometimes she'll go to bed and hope I stop soon, but usually she'll come in and tell me she's going to bed which means either A) I'm done for the night or B) time to switch from tubes to modeling. Never been self conscious about playing in front of her though. When we were dating I did it to show off, even though she likes country music. (I should have known better).

 

[cycler]

Is the neck comfortable. I prefer C shaped necks, .85 to .90 thick at the first fret. How it balances in my lap for those times when I play/practice sitting down. And these days I prefer lighter guitars. Also, I given up on guitars with a wide bottom width, think 335s, etc.

 

[Rod/]

I’m a player. Live bands since I was 12. Toured a lot. Tone of concerts, Lots of recordings My electrics are tools. Just picked up a wood library DGT and it’s beautiful and all but I bought it because it had “IT”… the neck, resonance, tone, sustain… felt like an old friend . Grissom and Paul built a great tool for me… and for that a big thank you! And for John Mann’s Guitar Vault

 

[Daryl Jones]

Bodia, I can relate. I played lead trombone in a concert and stage band in high school (about a million years ago) as well as soloing, festivals and such. Some was fabulous and some well, I was there. Glad I did it, and still miss my horn. I played piano for years (pretty well all long hair stuff that nobody really wanted to hear anyway, it was the early 70's after all) but aside from some evening practices/jams never jumped on my own portable set of electric keys to pursue R&R gigs, sort of wanted to do more than garage/basement band stuff. Now I just play my guitars pretty much for my own enjoyment until I retire in a year and then who knows what will transpire. Lots of locals to jam with so when the stupidity/restriction ends maybe something will come of that.
So back on track, if I get the bug for something (like that first PRS I heard a few years back, and that's another story) and if I find something that feels right or sings that "buy me!" song loudly, and I have the disposable coin then I'll jump on it. I've made a couple mistakes so far, but that's all part of the process I reckon. I try to listen, and then learn from the mistakes of others too. I'm too old to make them all myself.

 

[Greywolf]

pardon the lag on this but I'm new to the forum . My band days were decades ago , before the kids and career.
Then I got into Lutherie and found it was more fun making them them being on stage. 50 years of playing a variety of stringed instruments ( violin , viola, mandolin, dobro , guitar, bass ) what I look for and what I strive to build is something with a rich voice and full dynamic range . It is essential to have an instrument that projects this well , it helps the whole band.

I've had several occasions where after receiving a well built instrument , everyone in the band came up after the set and said " Wow , I can actually hear everything they are playing now!" it's not about volume .. Paul has been an enourmous inspiration along with other Luthiers. As much as we all love vintage stuff , I'm here to tell you , the top instruments available today are equal to any ever built . Check out the Artisan Guitar show in PA in april each year .. it will blow your mind