Re: How important is it to you WHAT you play onstage?
I've got a 30-year old Yamaha str*t copy (Super R n' Roller for you import fiends) that is absolutely fantastic. I run that $200 guitar through a Yamaha T50 amp, that I also paid $200 for. For a $400 rig, it's amazing. I like the fact that it isn't a boutique guitar. I am certainly a label slave, but only if it's justified by an appreciable difference in playability and tone. I have a Tom Anderson hollow DropTop, which I love, but it doesn't sound like the Yamaha (for obvious reasons). I've played very expensive guitars ($3000+) that I thought were absolute SH!T. I like very resonant, spanky, and evenly voiced (string-to-string) guitars, because you can always mellow the tone out with the controls, picking, etc. Have fun making a guitar brighter and bouncier...