Agreed. While Dave Murray's black Strat from Number of the Beast is one of my all-time faves, I just don't see the guitar itself as being epic. It didn't launch the 2-hum locking tremolo Strat craze, nor did Adrian Smith's SG redefine the model.
In that sense, I don't even see Pearly or Blackie or Hendrix's Isle Of Wight V or his burning Strat as something unique. Those were tools in the hands of artists, rather than art in the hands of tools.
Gene's Axe Bass was an inspirational factor to other guitar makers that you could do those types of shapes rather than merely copying 1950s Gibson and Fender designs.
Ace's smoking LP was actually a mini marvel of engineering - put the light and the smoke charge in a functional guitar without killing the guitar's tone or making it catch on fire.
Frankie wasn't all that special by itself - "some guy with a couple of cans of Krylon, some electrical tape, and no clue how to wire more than one pickup to one knob and a jack". It was the "guy" who was epic, and what he did with a mangy mutt guitar.
Warren's Snakeskin Charvel was "just a 1-hum Strat with a Floyd", and Jake's white Strat was a relogoed 3-bolt Fender.
Rhoads' Concorde was definitely epic, because it launched a brand name from out of nowhere, although had he been "just some guy", there's no doubt it would be the only Jackson in existence today.
EVH's mutilated Destoyer on the cover of WACF inadvertently created a whole new model - the Star. While Ed is forever identified with Frankie, he inspired Akira Takasaki to such a degree that the Star is now more associated with him than Ed.
ESP has back orders for Akira's red Star with the Dano head and metal body accents that they can't fill fast enough, and Akira has long since moved to his Killers.
Page is linked with the EDS-1275 and the LP only for Song Remains The Same, even though he didn't even have one until Houses. The solo to Stairway was done on a Telecaster. The electric 12-string parts were played on a Fender Electric XII. The clean electric parts were done with a Hallmark Swept-Wing. It's senseless to tie Page to one model of guitar as epic when he layered so many different types of guitars.
Les Paul's Epiphone "log" was epic, as was Leo's originals, for what they did for guitar in general and the door they opened.
Charlie Christian's guitar that got the first pickup was epic.
The Gibson LP model was epic as a concept, though individual specimens are not.
But that's just my onions.
