How did you choose your 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.

 

[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]

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.

 

[ehdwuld]

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

 

[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.

 

[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.

 

[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!

 

[Bogner]

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

 

[Spaghetti Bolo]

Was going to get my first guitar, knew literally nothing about them. Went into the local shop (Monkey Business), and hanging way up on those high walls was a second hand off-white one piece maple necked korean squire strat that looked like the one Hendrix played at Woodstock. It was that one, no question.

 

[JamesPaul]

I did not have enough money saved up to buy my Stratocaster, so I asked Santa for a Strat. The Elves were a little lazy that year and what showed up was my Fender Bullet S-3. I bought my Stratocaster the next year and had my Bullet Kahler'd, plus I wanted a Distortion and a Seymourizer II in it. Where I was, Distortions (and JBs) were hard to come by in '83, so I ended up with a Custom in the bridge slot. Probably one of the better things to happen to me. Swapped the Seymourizer II for a Jazz which became my favorite set. I still own the S-3 today, although it kind of became my test bed.

I still like that Bullet neck, even though it is basically a stock Tele neck. I like the '72 Tele Deluxe neck on my mutt Lead II even more, but won't swap out the Bullet neck as it reminds me of when I first started seriously playing.

 

[Wattage]

Suffice to say Ace Frehley had lots to do with my choice

 

[Ashurbanipal]

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.

Parkers are very cool, I'd get periodic gas for one, but they existed nowhere to try out .

I'd love to play one of Ken's archtops, it's like a mix of flat top, traditional archtop and Maccaferri.

 

[JamesPaul]

Suffice to say Ace Frehley had lots to do with my choice

Fortunately, I think all of those influenced by Ace finally found Les Pauls. But I think Ace used to flex a bit in the studio.

 

[Wattage]

Fortunately, I think all of those influenced by Ace finally found Les Pauls. But I think Ace used to flex a bit in the studio.

A bit yeah for sure

 

[Nightburst]

Well in hindsight I have been very heavily influcenced by this forum giving me GAS many times. Most notably Gearjoneser! I would have bought a dual rectifier but got a Bogner XTC instead because he was always raving about his amp and one popped up locally for a great price. I totally intended to just try it, flip it for profit and get a rectifier anyway but I fell in love with the amps sound and it stuck with me for one and a half a decade! Now I don't own it anymore but man that amp gave me some great tones thoughout the years! It also cemented my love for a plexi type of tone, which is what I setteld for nowadays. (first a Vintage modern Marshall and now after downscaling an Origin 20) I also got an F50 for those Mesa tones I also love.

Anyway I digress....

My first real electric guitar was an Ibanez RG, the local store had lot's of Ibanez's and I was heavily into Korn, Metallica and Pantera back then. I thought those guitars looked so cool on the posters and catalogs. I was 16 or 17 and I got a black pointy guitar with sharkfin inlays.
It was with this guitar when I found out about pickups and Seymour Duncan, I got a JB which was a massive upgrade over the stock pups.

Then during my emo phase I got a black Epiphone Les Paul Custom because it looked cool (and played really nice too) it was with this guitar I discovered my all time favorite SD humbucker: the Custom.

When I got my first Job in my early 20's and had some money to spend around christmas time, I went to the local store to see if they had anything cool and I stumbled upon this old beat up yellow boss pedal. I needed one to push my amp for teh Bro0tz so I went in to test it and stumbled upon this cool brown old looking Gibson SG hanging there on the wall!
Still own that Gibson today, in fact I just put on new Gotoh locking tuners on it and got it refretted recently. It's an 75' SG special with the block inlays, amazing guitar. I put a Brobucker in it because around the time I got it, the forum was buzzing with activity: Debating specifications and all that, I learned a ton about pickups from reading up on that whole process and decided to get in on the special run SD was doing for the forum members. That run became the Brobucker, designed by the forum! Still pretty cool.
If my memory serves me well I got a double cream under the nickel cover, but I doubt those bobbins will ever see the light of day, it's just too good to mess with it. But it's fun to know it's there.
Ahh I shoudl stop typing... Much Into fender strats nowadays.

 

[esandes]

I started using inexpensive HSS strat style Yamaha guitars that were within my parent's budget. But my first (no limits guitar) was a Gibson Les Paul.

I chose it because it's a US made masterpiece, its looks, humbuckers.

My first big league guitar, a Fender US Strat, was sold to me dirt cheap by an old Hell's Angel guy I knew from a dive bar we used to frequent. When I say dive bar...I mean dive bar in the sketchy as hell part of town. Mice, criminals, drug addicts, homeless, prostitutes...I just lived down the block. One day he saw me walk in the bar with a few books I picked up from the public library a block away. He asked me what I was reading and they were all guitar books. So then he told be about a guitar he had for sale. I assumed it was some piece of junk. So I went to his place later to check it out.

he opened the case and I did my best acting to not be super impressed so he wouldn't raise the price on me. The guitar probably has a history. Don't do drugs kids.

 

[Benjy_26]

I started playing classical, needed amplification for jazz stuff, and all I knew were acoustics, so I copped an Ovation, then went to a Carvin DC127T, in an attempt to cover as many sonic bases as possible. When I realized it was good for a lot of stuff but didn't really nail any one particular thing, I started collecting the basic food groups.

 

[Jack_TriPpEr]

I didn't choose Excalibur.

Excalibur chose me.

https://youtu.be/sprrQ1OLW6g?t=12

 

[some_dude]

In the early 90s I inherited a Fender HM Strat. It was my first and only guitar for about a decade, so I guess I was a Strat guy. The stock Super Distortion made for a pretty good guitar right out of the gate for the music I was into at the time.

However, “my” guitar is a Les Paul, and it happened by accident. When I discovered Internet forums sometime around 2003 someone posted that every guitarist should have a Strat, Les Paul, SG and a Tele. I’d never played any of those other guitars, so I figured maybe I should get started.

I didn’t really like Les Pauls because I thought they were old man guitars, but I found a blacked out Epi studio gothic that didn’t look old man and stuck some EMGs in it. Over the next decade they grew on me; I started playing LPs mor and Strats less. I eventually got a Norlin era Goldtop (stuck EMGs in that too), then post Afghanistan I used some of the money I’d saved up to get a Custom Shop model (no EMGs, but it does have a JB/Jazz in it) and that’s been my main axe for the last decade.


I’ve never really done the hero worship thing, but I have gone through phases where I dove in and experimented with ideas based on someone famous liking the same guitar I do… Slash, Warren Haynes, Bonamassa, etc. In most cases I realize I don’t sound like them and move on, but sometimes I might find something that kind of sticks and gets integrated into my style.

 

[Chistopher]

I picked mine because it was the same color as my car at the time. I later found out that both were factory resprays. The Strat was metallic blue over Aztec gold, the car was metallic blue over metallic red.