How did you choose your guitar?

[Bogner]

How did I choose my guitar(s)? I found a need and met it.

[Aceman]

Oh man. You picked the perfect question to get a bunch of guitarists talking.

Strat because David Gilmour. And because "a Strat can do anything".

LOL - a Strat can do anything David Gilmour wants to do!

[Zombie 13X33]

If I had enough money I would copy kirk hammett and james Hetfield. But since I dont I bought a few cheaper guitars over time. My most recent favorite being my Jackson dinky js34q. It's an hss. I originally just wanted hss cus I liked the look and didn't have one. Now I know I will stick to hh or single hum even. I'm probably converting it to a single hum emg 81 anyways. I just buy new gear that is in the beginner category I would say but hope to get my half stack and kirk hammet signature guitar someday. I really want the black esp that's about 1200 bucks but would consider other options if I really was gonna spend that much. I probably would get a non signature model but something that has a nice finish with some actives in it.

[LesStrat]

I’ve never wanted a guitar based on what someone else played. My first electric was LesStrat. I needed an electric, and I got that one at store cost. I modded it heavily, and eventually sold it.

my second electric was a Parker Nitefly. It played like a dream, but it lacked character. It would respond to whatever I played through, though.

yhen my BIL sold me his Fly Deluxe. Great guitar, but a bit bright. He had the pickups rebuilt by MJ, which helped yet it remained bright.

I had MJ rebuild a bridge pickup to Brobucker specs. This helped some. Interestingly the guitar has become darker sounding in recent years.

I saw ads for the Fly Mojo. It sounded like I could get my sound with the brilliance of the Parker design.

No one stocked it. We went to LA to visit my BIL, and I found a store with a Nitefly Mojo in stock. After playing it, I was convinced that the Fly Mojo was what I wanted.

we found one on the GC website. On sale. We went to the GC in Redlands, and they were having a managers sale. We inquired about getting that discount in addition to the website discount, and the manager agreed. I ordered it, and it happened to be in the color I preferred.

That guitar has been my #1 since 2009.

TLDR: functionality and sound.

[ehdwuld]

strangling someone won't bring your guitar back
it will make you feel better about the loss

[Mincer]

What a story! Do you have a photo of that guitar?

Not of the actual one. I found a similar one online. Mine was a red burst, with 3 knobs.

[Sirion]

Some more details...
I started playing at 8, mostly because my older brother did. He moved out of the house at 17 to join the Marines, and I was forbidden to go in his room (I was 7) much less play his Japanese early 70s Sekova guitar. The first song I learned was Wipeout.
Well, he never moved back into the house, and when he knew I was serious (taking lessons!) he let me use that magical guitar. At 13, my mom re-married to a guy that used to sit at the table and strum and sing 60s country tunes. He was also a pretty terrible person. In a drunken rage one night, he was tired of me learning my Ozzy tunes, so he broke my guitar while I was sleeping over a friend's house. Snapped the headstock off.
When he sobered up, he felt bad, and came home one day with a 1982 Fender 'The Strat'. It was my only guitar for 20 years. I still have it and it is in amazing condition. While he is long gone (thankfully), most guitars I got later were refinements of the Strat ergonomics.

What a story! Do you have a photo of that guitar?

[Mincer]

Some more details...
I started playing at 8, mostly because my older brother did. He moved out of the house at 17 to join the Marines, and I was forbidden to go in his room (I was 7) much less play his Japanese early 70s Sekova guitar. The first song I learned was Wipeout.
Well, he never moved back into the house, and when he knew I was serious (taking lessons!) he let me use that magical guitar. At 13, my mom re-married to a guy that used to sit at the table and strum and sing 60s country tunes. He was also a pretty terrible person. In a drunken rage one night, he was tired of me learning my Ozzy tunes, so he broke my guitar while I was sleeping over a friend's house. Snapped the headstock off.
When he sobered up, he felt bad, and came home one day with a 1982 Fender 'The Strat'. It was my only guitar for 20 years. I still have it and it is in amazing condition. While he is long gone (thankfully), most guitars I got later were refinements of the Strat ergonomics.

[DKSEARS]

My first guitar was a cheap Epiphone Strat package from a local mall store. It didn't last long. I ended up trading it for an Ibanez bass at the old Thoroughbred Music store in Tampa while I was in college in Lakeland, FL. That lasted until I graduated and moved back to Cincinnati where a friend of mine found a used black 89 Jackson in a local shop and called me because he knew I was Def Leppard fan and this one reminded him of Phil Crackle Jack. So, I ended up trading the Ibanez bass and an old 9mm pistol for the Jackson, which I still have. That was probably around 92 - 93. My collection has grown considerably since then, of course.

[Ashurbanipal]

I started out on a nylon string, which remains a big part of my playing. For playing multiple parts, acoustic is unbeatable.

Like many, my game-changing moment was hearing Eddie for the first time, which meant I had to get some kind of Strat shaped object with a Floyd, which was a MIK RG. Really cut my teeth on that thing, and replaced many parts on the Floyd which would wear and break. Had to retire it eventually and began looking for a replacement. I did have a Jackson Dinky briefly, but there was a problem with the neck joint creaking when using the trem which couldn't be fixed, so back it went.

I had played the odd MIJ Ibanez over time but it was difficult to find anything that wasn't an RG and wanted something with a different neck profile, so I began to look further back in the literature at older, discontinued stuff. This led me to Prolines and Roadstars. I managed to find a Proline after a bit of looking and promptly bought it. As soon as I unpacked it and felt the neck, I knew I it was a winner, and why people rave about old Japanese stuff. At that point, I had no qualms about spending some more $$ to get it the way I wanted it. Still my main axe, does lots of sounds and the raw wood feel of the 35 year old neck is primo.

So, Ed began the Floyd/bridge hb in a strat thing, but it's gone in a slightly different direction since then.

[jeremy]

i think i was 13 and reeeaaly wanted an electric guitar. my dad had two acoustics, hofner 6 and guild 12, but hard to rawk on those. i scoped out the local music stores, no internet to speak of at that point, and found the squier II contemporary strat. it was $200 and i had no where near that so for christmas, my parents brought me down and i picked out a black one. hss with no pickguard and maple neck. i didnt have an amp until my birthday in march but i loved that damn guitar. im still a strat/fender fan and i still usually prefer a maple neck even if i have a bunch of different guitars. humbucker in the bridge for heavy tones, which is what magazines showed me was needed, and singles in the neck and middle for the pretty clean tones. was a really good guitar and shoulda kept it

[SlyFoxx]

My first "guitar" was an ANCIENT Stella acoustic. Pegs barely turned. Bridge just sat where I thought it should kinda go. Fret board was (I kid you not) CONCAVE! Imagine seeing a diagram of a full major barre chord and figuring out what your index finger is supposed to accomplish when the middle of the board is lower than the sides! So I just mostly doodled single notes by ear due to a crap neck with action more suited to bottle neck work. I can remember driving my family crazy doodling the chromatic line from Pink Floyd's "Biding My Time" The first real rockin' riff I ever figured out was "Son and Daughter" by Brian May.

A while later I got my Gibson LP Firebrand and a tiny 12" Peavey amp from a classmate for 250 bucks. Now we were going places! The amp was given to a friend circa 1992, the guitar is in the other room.

Around 1996 I started doing open mics and getting into playing with others. For acoustic I settled on Taylor 'cause my duo partner had one and they just worked so well for getting through four hour gigs with my fingers not giving up.

For electric I settled on PRS. One, I had known a few dudes that had sanded bodies for Paul in the late 80's and they were just impressed as hell with the operation and how solid the guitars were built and of course they played great and sounded great.

(I live in central Delaware and went to college near Baltimore so I've always been close to Annapolis and nearby Stevensville where PRS were/are based. In fact I used to have a regular gig in Annapolis in this cool old pub named Griffins that was not far from Paul's first shop. Of course nothing in Annapolis is too far from anything else in Annapolis 'cause the place just ain't that big!)

Anyhoo....

The C22 was pricey especially for me at the time but I knew I was going to be playing a lot honing my craft at twice a week rehearsal and gigs every weekend. I'm not guitar tech by any means so I chose a PRS more for its reliability/consistency then anything else to be honest. My first C22 got sold to pay for my Taylor but my second I ordered sight unseen from my local shop. I just told Dale, "get me the first 22 with a wiggle stick you can get your hands on and give me a call." He asked me what color I wanted. I told him, "I don't give a rip about the color, they all look great to me." I ended up with something sort of butter scotch yellowish. It's in my avatar. In 20 years it's never let me down. I had to adjust the truss rod once and that was only after an outdoor gig with a temperature of about 22F. Other than that the only thing I've ever done to it is a bit of lemon oil, polish the frets a few times, change the strings and rub it with a rag once or twice a year. Actually that's a lie. The day I got it I pulled off the wiggle bar cap with some channel locks, hack sawed off about two inches of the bar (much to the horror of Claude the bass player!) and put the cap back on. I can't get on well with the standard length bar al la Gilmour. The end cap still has the teeth marks left by the channel locks...aids in grip! People talk a lot of crap about how a PRS isn't this or that but nobody can argue that Paul builds them as good as anybody. I've stood 30 feet from Alex Lifeson more than once and he got on just fine with a PRS that might as well have been mine and they are the only brand I'd have the confidence to grab off the wall, pay for it, shove it in a case and take it to a gig and start a show without having played it until the downbeat. Heck, the thing would probably still be in tune from when it left the factory!

I have about 5 other guitars each a different version of the major food groups: Slick Tele, Hum sing sing Strat (Black, white pups and hacked off Gilmour approved wiggle stick. It's my "Black Strat" look-a-like), LP, Charvel Hum Hum super strat w/Floyd (when the 80's come 'a callin'), a nearly 40 year old 200 dollar beater Yamaha acoustic that has more battle scars than I can count and a nylon Yamaha.

But honestly I could get on fine forever with just the Taylor and the PRS. But sooner rather than later I'm going to commission Falbo to make me a killer dreadnought. The Taylor has served me VERY well for 20 years and deserves a comfy old age. Besides, I've always wanted a multi kilobuck acoustic and Frank knows his sh-- umm stuff.

[Mr. B]

I bought them all and then kept a few....

Jesus . . . those are nightmare guitars.

I wonder what kind of tone wood they used? Balsa, Oak, Willow? It's like a beauty pageant in Buffalo, not a looker in the bunch.

[GuitarStv]

https://reverb.com/news/guide-to-soviet-era-guitars

Jesus . . . those are nightmare guitars.