Best-looking guitars?

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Not enough gearhead questions on here! I like those garish neon things metal bands had in the eighties. Lipstick-tube pickups look neat too, and Gibson Flying Vs like Michael Schenker plays are classic! Any preferences?

― dave q, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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I'm a sucker for Danelectos, clearly. It's all I ever use any more.

But the BEST looking guitars on earth are clearly the Norma/Eko Italian sparkley guitars. I have one of those in storage back in NY, and the thing looks like a church and sounds like a harpsichord. Gorgeous.

Also mad props to Tiesco Del Reys, for just being so damned... ODD looking that they are beautiful. Anything with knobs and dials gets me going.

And bonus points to Vox, for bestowing the teardrop shape on the world.

DESTROY:

All BC Bich 80s lightning shaped guitars. Ugh.

― Kate the Saint, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Danelectros, as KSC sez, though the newer models (eg "Hodad") are nowt special IMO. Also Rickenbackers (my favourite) 350 w/checkered binding, 360-12, 381-12. I have a 620-12, and that's pretty nice too. Fender Jaguar & Jazzmaster, Coral electric sitar, Gibson firebird & thunderbird, getting obscure, Guild/DeArmond JetStar, Kawai KS12-xl, John McGlaughlin double neck (I forget the make - Ibanez?). The nicest guitar I ever saw was an old blonde Antoria les- paul-alike-ish, which was hanging on the wall of a local shop for 180 quid. I went to get ca$h, but it had gone. Next seen in a fancy guitar boutique for 500 quid :(

I'm waiting for the yamaha "melted rickenbacker" style range to get chopped out for next to nowt. Will buy the fancier model when this happens. xoxo

― Norman Fay, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

You know those guitars that are, like, double guitars?

― JM, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

THe Mike Hanle y guitar is the Peavey t 27 limited and t 60 bass, a matching pair! I kind of have to use these as they are my shtick. But latelyl I kind of like TH Warlock. I saw a see through one that was particualrly garish. I am sick of vintage "taste" . I say, bring on the 80s death axes

― Mike Hanle y, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

mosrites are the coolest looking guitars.

― fritz, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Not much of a gearhead, but aesthetically drawn to pretty much all Rickenbackers, Jaguars/Jazzmasters, those Vox teardrop 12-strings, and Cort's Jazzmaster-ish knock-offs. Anything big and round is cool by me ...

― Nitsuh, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Classic 80s cocksheaths:
1. B.C. Rich Warlock (four-pronged job, used by Lita Ford)
2. B.C. Rich Mockingbird (bat-wing design, Slash in "You Could Be Mine" vid)
3. ESP [model w/ skull shape] (George Lynch)

― AP, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have an old archtop made in like the 20's, I don't know what it is, but sehr schön. But I have soft spot for my old, natural finish Telecaster. Yum! Perfect for every occasion--and my PRS, which is sort of this hulking beast of a guitar.

It's kind of like comparing movie stars. But you've got the more natural, make-upless Meg Ryan type, aka the Tele, and then you've got the super-voluptuous, overkill pin-up, Sophia Loren. Or insert your own awful analogies--Claire Forlani, Jude Law, Lassie, ahem, anyhooooooo...

― Mickey Black Eyes, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Gibson Explorers. Who else played one besides James Hetfield and myself?

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

for metal - ibanez iceman. it's like, you know, explorer-like, but it's not an explorer, so you don't have all that "enter sandman" baggage hanging over your head.

worst guitars ever, though - steinbergers. headless, bodiless, horrible to look at and they make me think of balding, ponytailed guys in suits wanking in a restrained 80s king crimson fashion.

― your null fame, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Gretsches. Microfrets. Non-reverse Firebirds. Epiphone Casinos.

― Andy, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Jacksons with the custom paint jobs. You know, skulls and stuff.

― Kris, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh, and the one decent-looking Gibson guitar: the SG.

― Nitsuh, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yep, gibson sg is my guitar too.

― ernest, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I liek steinbergs! they are neato. I also like those electroic drumsets. I wanna be in a band that uses thos two things and a keyborad-guitar

― Mike Hanle y, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

oh, yes, Danelectros! cheap and fun. Also Nationals, especially the Westood or Newport models and the Reso-lectric. Italian EKOs look neat, too, with that accordion-like finish on them.

― pauls00, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I also like Steinbergs...if you've seen one in the hands of Martin Tielli of the Rheostatics, the whole old bald suited guy thing just disappears from your mind, and it becomes a sleek and sharp weapon, like a knife.

When I was younger I used to like the Ibanez guitars, you know, the ones with the really really thin necks. But I really grew out of that gearhead mentality, esp. after reading guitar magazines for a while. Now I just have a cheapo Aria Pro II with better pickups dropped in, and it does me just fine for the low-level wankerooni that I use it for (mostly strum and feedback). That might change if I played professionally...and I'd probably head to the Steinberg.

As for the Flying V, I can't think of a more metal guitar, and I think they're definitely more image than practical...I mean, if you sit down with it and try to just play, the damn thing slides off your leg. There's a good reason why that splayed-leg heavy metal pose became popular--to hold up the damn guitar!

― Sean Carruthers, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yes it s no lap guitar. My freind sawed off the V part, then it was a lapper.

― Mike Hanle y, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

This is quite, quite the saddest discussion I have every come across. But since you're asking, Fender Jaguar/Jazzmaster

― Mark Morris, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Fuck Steinbergers - nobody ever on this board will admit to playing a Chapman Stick.

― dave q, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I are not being a guitar player, or knowing much about guitars, but I are liking Rickenbackers (guitars and basses) and the nice little Gibson SG. I've often fancied buying a Rickenbacker (should I ever have that amount of disposable income), not to learn to play but simply because it's a fantastic looking thing.

― DG, Friday, 27 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Yeah, Danelectros are tasty... I was infatuated with the Jag-Stang (the Kurt guitar, dood!) as a teenager, and I currently play an Epiphone (I'm poor) SG. I like the dual humbuckers and stuff, but shit, give me an echoplex or a nice digital delay pedal and I'm happy playing ANYTHING. Of course, I've never been one for techincal prowess, instead choosing to spend the hours I could be practicing just droning and making weird-ass noise. Mmmm, pedals...

― Clarke B., Saturday, 28 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Fuck Steinbergers - nobody ever on this board will admit to playing a Chapman Stick.

I wish I could admit that!

― Kris, Saturday, 28 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have tried to play a Chapman Stick. Please highlight the word *tried*. I've usually been able to get a fairly decent tune out of just about any instrument from a cello to an african thumb gourd within about ten minutes or so, but the Chapman Stick is the one thing that has completely confounded me top the point where after about half an hour, I gave up and screamed for the person that strapped it on me to get it off.

Mosrites are also lovely, sorry I forgot them. And the Univox copies, as well.

― Kate the Saint, Saturday, 28 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

That shard of clear plexiglass Lou played in the VU reunion tour.

― Sterling Clover, Saturday, 28 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Guitarists always seem to be more obsessed with this sort of thing than bassists, probably also owing to the fact that guitarists traditionally have 69248925 guitars, and bassists have maybe two basses... but that doesn't mean we don't care about style at all...

DG is right on the money--arguably, the best bass ever made (aesthetically speaking as well as from an acoustic perspective) was the Rickenbacker 4001(s). Rickys look just like they sound: big, clunky, indestructable. People who even consider removing the horseshoe pickup cover are insane; half the character of the instrument is in it. Similarly, the 4003 looks like a 4001, but it sure as hell doesn't sound like it.

Other bass design props to the Hofner viola bass, and the Fender J-Bass, which is a total classic (and much classier than the boring P-Bass).

― matthew m., Saturday, 28 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Matthew, I've always wondered this - just what is the point of that horseshoe thingy? (I should mention I'm a really sloppy bass player).

― dave q, Saturday, 28 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i don't even own a guitar yet. in my band i play my friends gibson sg copy. i want to get a les paul when i get a guitar.

anyone here own a teisco?

― lady die, Saturday, 28 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Me! But it stopped working beyond the ability of anyone to fix it without destroying its Tiesconess, so I made it into art. I have a funny feeling my mum has thrown it out, tho. Sigh.

― Kate the Saint, Saturday, 28 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Dave, back in the good ol' days of bass manufacture, it was standard for basses to come with their pickups covered--both Fender and Vox started doing it to try to shield pickups against interference. They don't really do much for that, and Fender soon perfected the single-coil bass pickup, but after it was found that taking off the pickup takes out a lot of midtones of the natural timbre of the sound, the engineering types at the manufacturing plant decided to leave them on. Cosmetically speaking, they also looked really cool.

However, as more and more people started using basses (we're at about '63 or so, now), people started to (heinously!) take off the pickup covers so that they'd have more area on the body with which to pluck or pick strings. Undaunted, Fender kept at it, but when they split their line into a 'rock' bass (the Precision Bass) and a 'jazz' bass (the, uh, Jazz Bass), they decided, probably accurately, that the people who would care more about tone and have more small motor coordination would be the jazz players, so the pickup guard soon got nixed on the P-Bass and stayed on the J-Bass until the late 70s.

When Rickenbacker designed their original 4001 bass (c 1966 or so), they decided to also use a pickup guard, partially out of tradition, and partially out of the fact that it looked really great with the design of the bass. Most importantly, though, it was partially out of the fact that they were making a bass to imitate the distinct, clear, ringing tone their guitars were famous for, and it would be a useful tool to keep the midrange from dying, squashed between the punchy low end and the clear treble. In the end, they opted to cover only the bridge pickup, leaving the naturally-warmer neck pickup to fend for itself.

Again, people took the cover off. I am against this course of action, since not only does it make the bass look like crap, but it also takes away the only way to create the pure, full-bodied, growly Ricky tone. (You know a bass is cool when you describe it and it sounds like a beer.) Rickenbacker themselves apparently gave up on this important aspect of the 4001 when releasing the 4003 (the 'updated' version of the 4001s)--the pickup guard is plastic and therefore cosmetic only. So now, it really does just get in the way. It's unfortunate--the increased response on the new hardware doesn't make up for the loss in the shielded midrange of the tone.

As you can see, I think Rickys (well, 4001s's) are quite the shit. Neck-through design standard, nearly-infinite sustain, an incredibly recognizable-yet-versatile sound, a really neat, built-in way to send one pickup to one amp and the other to another, the most distinctive and timeless body design ever--what more could you want?

― matthew m., Sunday, 29 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

FRAMMIS, EKO, HOFNER the holy triumvire

― sean o'reilly, Monday, 30 July 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ovation UKII,those clearbody Dan Armstrong things...

― Damian, Wednesday, 1 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I hope that's not one of the curved plastic Ovations you're talking about, Damian. Because those are evil.

― Tracer Hand, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think the ugly one you are referring to was the Breadwinner...yuk.The UKII is the guitar Josh from Queens Of The Stone Age uses...chitarra bellissima.A lot like a Les Paul,only nicer.

― Damian, Thursday, 2 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

four weeks pass...

Well, I usually abuse a bass, and I am a total sucker for headless ones (Cort Steinberger rip-offs actually have some style and shape to the body). Gotta admit, nothing sucks worse than a Steinberger headless guitar, except maybe that other type of Steinberger headless with the weird body shape. Those look like they are broken.

I adore B.C. Rich Mockingbirds, anything Tiesco Del Ray (too much time in pawnshops, I guess), Gibson SGs, and the axe of my dreams, the Japanese Fernandes Mockingbird copy with the Sustainer.

As far as the Chapman Stick...damn thing intimidated me! Then, right after I concluded it was not possible to play the thing, my old bass instructer picked it up and played tearjerkingly beautiful classical guitar style riffs. I immediately purchased a kazoo and went home.

― Richard, Friday, 31 August 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Vaccaro guitars are played by everyone. They look like Danelectros but sound like Mosrites or Gibsons or something sweet, anyway! Quality guitars.

― Nude Spock, Sunday, 2 September 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

one month passes...

I have just aquired an antoria musicman with a fancy curly headstock lots of mother of pearl in blonde. Can anyone tell me anything about them? Year made etc.

― michael kozak, Saturday, 6 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Ha!!! To-day, I put down a beposit on an epiphone/gibson TWIN-NECK!!!! top neck=12-string, bottom = 6-string. Now I RoX0R PH34R my 3|2337-|\|355!!! (etc, etc)

― Norman Phay, Saturday, 6 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

my friend Jake just scored something very similar, a doubleneck SG with BASS and guitar. it's performance pragmatism, honest, ma!!

― Tracer Hand, Saturday, 6 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Tell Jake he should buy some Moog Taurus bass pedals too and then he'll be in the big leagues.

― Jack Redelfs, Sunday, 7 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

six months pass...

I'd have to chime in with a preference for Fender Jazzmasters and Jaguars. Mmmmm. The My Boody Valentine look and you get a really fantastic tremelo system well -- the transtrem is really smooth.

― robb monn, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

this look slike an ancient thread that got resurrected but anyway, i like Goya electric guitars (very mysterious imort brand moslty made by other companies), micro-frets are pretty cool, and for you brits a number of Hayman guitars are very nice.

― g, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't think I can add much of interest to this thread, other than to say a nice looking guitar =! a nice sounding/nice to play guitar.

I've found Rickenbackers to not be very versatile (although I adore my 610) and Danelectros don't sound that great (although the oldies do). Jaguars are a bitch to keep in tune.

The best guitar for sound/playability/look is completely the Telecaster. The black and white Tele in the Elastica "Stutter" video gave me goosebumps.

The best looking basses are the Gibson 335-shaped ones, like wot Naomi Galaxie 500 plays.

― electric sound of jim, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh, and Vox are indeed extremely sexy, but the sound SHITE

― electric sound of jim, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

there's a gibson es model I really like, don't remember the number but the body is a lot smaller than the 335 but it is still hollow

― Ron, Tuesday, 9 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

DAISY ROCK!

― bob snoom, Wednesday, 10 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

First place: Gretsch White Falcon

Runner-up: vintage Gibson J-200's

Honorable mention: early 60's Fender Jazzmaster in Lake Placid Blue

― bryan, Monday, 15 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

ANY GUITAR WITH A NAKED LADY PLAYING IT.

― Poops McGee, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Even if that lady is .... courtney love?

― Dave225, Tuesday, 16 April 2002 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

four months pass...

Has any one ever played a MAYA Les Paul, with a few mods it is like a Les Paul Standard 59, giving all the same colour and feel . They are one to look out for, the one with the bonded neck, not the bolt on. If any one wants to sell one give me a call.

― Adam, Tuesday, 27 August 2002 12:57 (twenty-three years ago)

yeah! DAISY ROCK and HEARTBREAKER guitars rule.
(www.daisyrock.com)
i have a heartbreaker

― lil missy, Tuesday, 27 August 2002 13:37 (twenty-three years ago)

I play a moog liberator keyboard guitar. Or at least Kool and the Gang plays one. All sweaty and high on blow. Disgusting.

― paul b, Tuesday, 27 August 2002 17:35 (twenty-three years ago)

Daisy Rock RULES. Any guitar played by Dee Dee Ramone, Suzanna Hoffs, Robert Smith, Nina Hagen and Nancy Wilson has got to be TEH R4DD357.

― N0RM4N PH4Y, Tuesday, 27 August 2002 18:34 (twenty-three years ago)

I love my Silvertone guitar w/amp in case.

― mike a, Tuesday, 27 August 2002 18:36 (twenty-three years ago)

Must chime in with the Jaguar as well. Mine is sunburst w/tortoise-shell guard (Kevin Shields and Sonic Boom ripped me off!). But it looks so good in other colors too. Second place is the Gibson ES-335 which, in addition to looking great, sounds so warm-tastic through a Fender Twin Reverb.

Also, I think Douglas Hart used to play that 335-lookin bass in the Jesus & Mary Chain. It's called either EB-1 or EB-2.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Tuesday, 27 August 2002 23:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Everything that Matthew said above about Rickenbacher basses is wrong, by the way.

― Colin Meeder (Mert), Wednesday, 28 August 2002 07:03 (twenty-three years ago)

with symbol inlays!

― chaki (chaki), Wednesday, 28 August 2002 07:49 (twenty-three years ago)

http://smithsonianlegacies.si.edu/photos/126.jpg

― chaki (chaki), Wednesday, 28 August 2002 07:49 (twenty-three years ago)

four weeks pass...

I transformed a cheap Korean acoustic («Anjo« or something) into an electric - out of necessity - and it turned out great. Two humbuckers (from another cheap fake Les Paul) and two more single coils were put in, screwed in a metal plate where the hole was. I had to change the bridge and cut a fairly large hole in the back for access to wiring (and it also abled me to fix up some kind of a block or big square of wood in the middle part of the body to resolve some unwanted feedback). It stays in tune for about two songs, and gives a me jazzbo/countryish tone (I don't use a pick). A guy I know that does paintings on cars painted a small «Sunset On Alien Planet» kind of image on the front!

― O. Schwartz, Wednesday, 25 September 2002 13:45 (twenty-three years ago)

well then post a picture of this six-string frankenstein!

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Wednesday, 25 September 2002 14:49 (twenty-three years ago)

two weeks pass...

Does anyone recall the 4-necked guitar (they stuck out of all 4 sides in the shape of an "X") that the lunatic music-teacher/shredbanger from NITRO played? Talk about a guilty pleasure, but just seeing him play it was revelatory to be sure. He tore that shit up.

― matt riedl (veal), Sunday, 13 October 2002 14:37 (twenty-three years ago)

Oh dear! The other day I saw this sweet-ass acoustic with this two-headed dragon being ridden by handsome naked ladies painted on! It was the sweetest sight I have beheld.

― A.V. Alexandre (Keiko), Sunday, 13 October 2002 15:05 (twenty-three years ago)

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