Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

tone?

tone?

New member
Or do you need to get used to it to fall mire in live with it?

Do you always like a new guitar 100% on ALL levels or do you mod certain things and fine tune it to your liking?
Joneser told me that I should find a guitar that's comfy and my ear will tune into it and all will be well if it is pretty much there
and that got me thinking that we really DO tune ourselves to guitars

An example is pick up a Les Paul and play for a good while
then pick up an alder strat and it will take a bit to get used to the more trebely twangy sound
you might actually be turned off when you first play it

it's kinda an aural illusion

So do you guys play a guitar at a store and love it the same EVERY day 100% or do you try sometimes and dial it in?
Is the guitar you buy 110% what is in your head? Or is that basic tone there and then you mod it a bit then tune it to you're liking?

Does the guitar have 100% playability and 100% the tone you are after?
It's a tough one to have both in one instrument

Cheers
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

Well, for me it seems that the instant connection grows stronger and stronger as I keep moving forward in my quest to find the perfect guitar. It started out with a big collection of decent guitars that varied greatly, and then I started thinning out the group, figuring out what I liked best. Eventually I bought 1 really nice guitar, played it for a while until I figured out what I liked and didn't like about it, and moved on to something that fit better, and so on.

For me this started with a group which had Les Paul type guitars, hollowbodies, a multitude of strats, a few teles, a few shred type guitars, and pretty much everything else. Then, out of that, I made a list of things I liked, and got a PRS CE24 Maple top. The guitar had a thinner body than a LP, but with the same wood, a maple neck, 24 frets, and a vintage trem, which was what was on my list.

After a while, I figured I didn't use the trem much at all, and that I wanted the vibe of a set neck much more. On top of that, I found it difficult to fret the upper register with 24 frets, and figured out I wanted a bigger neck. So I moved on to an SG, which was pretty much what the PRS was, but with the changes I would make to it, minus the maple cap. Got to it, and it was a great guitar, but I wanted more low mids, but wanted to keep the other features, minus the location of the toggle switch (that I hated), and moved on to a Les Paul Traditional.

I would say that I felt ''love at first sight'' with all these guitars, as they all were important points in discovering what I liked best about guitars. As I progress, the bonding just seems to be more instant and stronger. I think I've found what I was looking for in a LP. Kinda always wanted one, but told myself the upper access would limit me. Now I've gotten use to it, and that guitar makes me real happy.
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

No. It took about a year for me to realize how fine my Jaguar is. I guess you could say it happened after playing an Epiphone for a long time and then switching back to my Jaguar.
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

I usually know what I'm going for. Being spoiled from the info on this forum, I know exactly what I want and what to expect when buying a guitar. So if it feels good, plays good and has the right price it's a done deal for me. The rest is just finetuning it to your exact wishes.
A guitar has to be resonant and the neck should be really comfortable.
Then when playing it through an amp you will hear the guitars character, is it dark, bright, dynamic? Does it have a lot of mids or a good bottom end? Is it smooth sounding or piercing. Does it carry your voice?
The rest is all ajustable in terms of hardware, wiring, pickups to your own liking.
The amp does the rest, with a great amp a lot more guitars will sound better!
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

I know whether I'll want to own a guitar within 10 seconds of playing it. Everything after that is just fine tuning.

After all these years, I've become very good at figuring out what works for me and what doesn't when it comes to gear.
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

Sometimes yes, sometimes no. Some have to grow on you. You can't always tell up front. I've bought guitars that played and sounded awful, but after a few tricks from my magic bag, they were singing to me.
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

Depends. It's not about love, I love them from the first sight otherwise I would not get and play them. Perhaps, my only exception is my Warmoth that was like waiting for a planned baby born, somehow familiar from the first touch.

In case of other guitars I always needed some time to find a way to get the tone. Changing pickups is part of it. It's not about the amp 'n' gear played through, rather than hands and ears measuring all the little nuances of the response of the actual instrument and set my mind on it.

Because of that, I never sound good playing a brand new guitar.
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

NecroPolo said:
In case of other guitars I always needed some time to find a way to get the tone. Changing pickups is part of it. It's not about the amp 'n' gear played through, rather than hands and ears measuring all the little nuances of the response of the actual instrument and set my mind on it.

Because of that, I never sound good playing a brand new guitar.
Click to expand...

+1. It usually takes me time to get it the way I want it. And that may involve another set of PU's and/or magnets.

'Love at first sight' is also a factor of a good set-up. If it's on a music store wall with rusty old strings and is poorly intonated, with a lousy action and greasy fingerprints everywhere, it's hard to bond with a guitar like that. But an hour's work can totally change all that. I think 'Love at first sight' happens a lot more in movies than real life.
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

First and foremost, it all comes down to the feel. If the neck carve is right, that's half the battle. If it sounds good unplugged then it's just a matter of fine tuning the electronics. I try not to overthink things. I know what neck shapes and sizes I like, I know what I look for unplugged and if those are there, I'll buy it and sort out the electronics and set it up to my taste.
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

With me it's a universal vibration that transcends time and space. I can tell if a guitar is supposed to be mine by the aura it gives off.
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

I've had some love/hate things with my guitars, here's how it went:

Squier Tele Custom: got stuck with it, was my second guitar and it was a pain getting it to play well. That bond was something easily broken as I had little problem selling it. It was like a war buddy that you don't talk to after everyone goes home

Squier Tele Std: 2 years of owning it before selling it, and it took a lot of adjustments over a long time to get it to play the way I like. not love at first sight, more like "this is a tool"

Standard Strat: Love at first sight. Had some 57/62 pickups to put in right when I got it. i dug that strat and I miss it. I sold it so I could afford summer tuition, hoping to buy another good strat later that year. Ended up buying a better amp instead, but now I miss the strat

Epi Std: LOVE AT FIRST SIGHT BABY played a few chords and new it was gonna be with me for a while

Squier Deluxe Strat: mistaken love at first sight. I wanted to love it so even though it sounded like ass sometime I kept putting $ into it hoping it would get better. It eventually became "passable" but not for me. I wanted that one to be "the one" but nope.

MIM Tele Std: Love at first sight baby! A few chords, and I knew it was good. New bridge made it better, but the pickup I put into it ended the honeymoon. Eventually put the duncan '54 set in and now she's my #1!

Agile AL-3100: I looked at the auction page and got a premonition: will it be love? YES, oh YES

So really it depends A LOT on your standards, and how hard you look for the ones that you can actually gel with, and how good the guitar actually is. My thing nowadays is if I don't dig it in the first 2 minutes playing it, it's not gonna come home with me. If I don't LOVE it within a week, it's not gonna stay with me. After that Squier Deluxe I'm much more cautious now.
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

I have a pattern whenever I get a new guitar:

- Pick it up, play it, like how it feels, take it home.
- LOVE LOVE LOVE Play it all the time, can't get enough of it. Start to wonder why I have any other guitar at all.
- A couple months later, pick up one of my older guitars and remember how good she is.
- Completely ignore new guitar for a few months . . . slowly start to think that it was a bad purchase.
- Pickup up the new guitar again, and remember why I liked it so much in the first place.

Sometimes this has to cycle through three or four times before I accept that I like the guitars for different reasons and should keep all of them.
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

ahem.

YOU ARE OVER-THINKING THIS

JUST GO BUY A GUITAR ALREADY
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

I don't know if I can answer this how you want. I've never bought a guitar when I've had a disposable income (not that I have a disposable income really now) I've always researched and knew what I was looking for knowing what I wanted and knowing I didn't have the cash to make a mistake. However. In 1998 I went out to buy a Jaguar because that was a cool guitar and the then current MIJ reissue was getting really good reviews. I tried one which was okay but had a massive chunk out of it. So I wasn't going to buy that I thought I would have to get to another part of London or out to Romford the next day to look at another Jag. As I had some time to kill I went into Macari's (The store where back in '60's the Page and Beck got their as new '59's) they didn't have a Jaguar but had a 1st generation Godin LG so I tried that on a whim and was left alone for about half an hour. I still really wanted a Jag but over the weekend thought about and went back on the Monday and got the Godin. Which I used as my main guitar for a decade until I retired.
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

ahem.

YOU ARE OVER-THINKING THIS

JUST GO BUY A GUITAR ALREADY
Click to expand...

I over think everything it's my job lol!

I actually did get a guitar and wanted to keep playing it last night instead of make love
go figure!
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

For me...usually...then there's the "test drive"...if it checks out there, and the price is right and I'm in the market...then it just might go home w/me. :cool2:
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

Not necessarily "love at first sight" but there obviously has to be something I like about a guitar before I bring her home.

The only way to find out if we're compatible is to spend time with it, set it up properly, play it, play it thru my rig, & decide if it influences me musically.

Then, I'll decide if I'll love it or leave it.
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

tone? said:
I over think everything it's my job lol!

I actually did get a guitar and wanted to keep playing it last night instead of make love
go figure!
Click to expand...

Cowgirl then you can do both.....:naughty:
 
Re: Is it always love at first sight with a new guitar?

At first sight.. mhh... It's more like INFATUATION & that's a wonderful feeling too, later on.. after playing, recording & touring with her, you fall in love, that one last longer, then you end with so many guitars that... well, I am looking for a bigger home now.

Saludos.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top