What is the greatest guitar of all time?

Not guitarIST, mind you. Guitar. Electric or acoustic, hollow or solid-body. Name brand, knock-off or custom made. Maybe even one person's guitar in particular.

I don't have an answer, except that I know it's not either of the ones I own.

haha

imo its the gibson es-335 no contest, if i listed my favorite guitarists more of them would play that than anything probably

i don't have one, but i do have epiphone's "dot" es-335 knockoff, and i love it to death even if it aint a gibson

close second is, predictably if you know my tastes, the tele

I've got a Squier Strat that I've had for 20+ years, and it's been thrashed and beaten and taken apart and rewired and repainted a number of times and has had every conceivable combination of pickups (right now, a humbucker and two singles). I'm partial to it, but I know it's junk.

My other, which I've only had for about 4 years, is an Epiphone Special double cutaway. I bought it because it looks nice and it was underpriced and I've never owned a Gibson/Epiphone. I appreciate it, but don't really feel comfortable playing it. I definitely prefer Fenders b/w the two brands.

Over the years, I've had a bunch of different pawn shop guitars (a Tele knock-off, a 12-string hollow body by some Japanese manufacturer, and some others) and I even bought a Silvertone once, but it felt like playing a toy.

haha yeah my homie has a super old silvertone and like its cool that he owns a vintage silvertone, cause its a fuckin vintage silvertone, but its like playing a cardboard box

I'm especially partial to my Dot because, in the midst of some bad days, I pawned it--a little more than a year later, on a subsequent birthday, I came home to find it on my bed. My friends had tracked it down in a different city and pooled the money to buy it for me, and my gf-with-the-key snuck it into my place while I was at work, so I got to come home to a guitar I thought was gone forever.

It was kinda a big deal at the time, and I still love how I've used it to sit in with blues players, write bar rock songs & do my best to hang in jazz jams.

Old Black

I'm partial to it, but I know it's junk.

Sometimes they're the best guitars.
Not exactly junk, but I have a Strat that I put together from licensed parts, with the master tone mod and the 5 way switch replaced by three toggle switches (one per single coil pup). My favourite guitar by a long way. Particularly odd, as for a decade I refused to play anything but twin humbuckers. Also I have three homemade guitars which are increasing just taking up space/operating as dust traps.

anagram OMT.

http://www.thrasherswheat.org/gifs/old-black-cu.jpghttp://www.thrasherswheat.org/gifs/old-black-back-cragg.jpg

oh, ok then - fansite http://thrasherswheat.org doesn't allow hotlinking images, so here they are again:
http://i53.tinypic.com/aw9szl.jpg http://i53.tinypic.com/2lxcmbm.jpg

That one's been well-loved.

Trigger is another much loved guitar:

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2611/3696548223_2f818afb5f.jpg

brian may's red special

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b4/Brianrs.jpg/446px-Brianrs.jpg

the greatest guitar of all time at the present moment, for me, is the travis bean tb500. i've never played one, but the design of the body just looks absolutely perfect and i like to think they'd substantially heavy slung over my shoulder that they do slung over the shoulder of my mind.

http://i.imgur.com/QuyYa.gif

i also like es-335s alright enough to have let go all my other guitars but a shitty chinese copy that desperately needs a good set-up (or at least a nut replacement to stop the buzzing that i'm too lazy to do anything about but leave the capo on). also seems like every year i entertain '52 telecaster fantasies on craigslist, but that's just dreaming.

That looks like whatever it is that Steve Albini plays. Aren't they aluminium?

Stratocaster - I think it's the most versatile guitar. In the wrong hands, they sound thin and lifeless. In the right hands, they sound celestial (Alex Chilton, Jimi Hendrix, Richard Thompson)

Greatest single guitar of all time, probably Old Black (which is actually a Les Paul Goldtop painted black, with one Firebird pick-up in the bridge and a P-90 in the neck). In fact, lots of famous guitars are actually weird hybrids, from Springsteen's Tele to Van Halen's Frankenstrat. (Richard Thompson's "Strat" is also a hybrid, with a Tele pick-up in the bridge, strat middle and P-90 in the neck). But greatest model? Telecaster. Tele gets you Springsteen, Prince, Jonny Greenwood, Keith Richards, Syd Barrett, Jimmy Page (first two Zeps, plus "Stairway" solo), Graham Coxon, Steve Cropper, Robbie Robertson, PJ Harvey (eventually) , Joe Strummer, James Honeyman-Scott, Andy Summers and a bunch more iconic Tele players before you even get to the country guys.

Though I agree Strat may be the most versatile, for better or for worse.

That white Epiphone Crestwood deluxe that Fred Sonic Smith used in the MC5 and Sonic's Rendezvous and then was sold to Deniz Tek who used it in Radio Birdman.

Two quite different players did wonderful things with that same instrument = can't be a bad guitar imho. :-)

Flying V

I never knew the Crestwood's name, thanks!

http://www.hyperguitars.com/image/main/im425100049068682.jpg

whoaaaaaa

having never played a jaguar in my life i love the way they look and the residual cobain cool tbh

i had this really mistaken idea that squiers were like the 'high school garage band' brand, are they really worth dropping a dollar on if you want to gig from time to time?

That looks like whatever it is that Steve Albini plays. Aren't they aluminium?

yep, that's the one. aluminum neck, you betcha. tim midgett from silkworm plays a slightly different model (and a baritone bean in bottomless pit). bright, crunchy, near-infinite sustain. beauts.

i had this really mistaken idea that squiers were like the 'high school garage band' brand, are they really worth dropping a dollar on if you want to gig from time to time?

i've always thought of them as nothing but jokes that don't stay in tune, guitars that you buy to break at the end of the set basically, but a buddy of mine says these new "classic vibe" squires are fairly decent for the money and you can find one for about $150. i think they all have bolt-on necks though? which is uncool but whatever, price is right.

if i'm not mistaken, there was a disposable-squier legend surrounding and you will know us by the trail of dead, apparently they would buy squier strats in bulk just to smash 'em up every night? courtesy of jimmy iovine

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_bBDnaiOY84c/TOm9kqO665I/AAAAAAAAAko/JNqfT0AhDPs/s1600/Tito+%2526+Tarantula+-+Undead.JPG

Most of my favorite guitar music has been made with 335s and Jaguars.

lmfao @ latebloomer

i like these

http://i.imgur.com/XaSXv.jpg

n.b. have never used one iirc

This thread has been done before several times iirc.

I always wanted a lucite Ampeg Dan Armstrong (a la Keef ca. Let It Bleed/Altamont or Greg Ginn)

― i love you but i have chosen snarkness (Steve Shasta), Monday, November 29, 2010 6:56 PM (4 months ago)

a bandmate had one once, years ago. he hated it -- bridge problems -- went out of tune like crazy.

parlor Gibsons are so fuckin awesome - simple sears catalog jobs like the LG-1, were cheap then and are (relative to other guitars of similar age) cheap now, and just give & give & give. the late Les Pauls from right before the end of the Kalamazoo run are incredible too - I've played a '78 and own one of the 79s, one of the last 1500 after they fired the factory back up one last time (the Les Paul KM, which was supposed to have been a replica of the '59, but isn't.

I think the best sounding guitars I've ever played are a '30 Gibson (iirc...old a fuck, anyway) & a '67 Martin, both rentals from a Chicago shop. The high end on the Martin had this crystalline ring to it, remarkable.

. i think they all have bolt-on necks though? which is uncool but whatever, price is right.

Um, they're Fenders. They're supposed to have bolt on necks. Nothing wrong with that.

I think the greatest guitar of all time just from a design/technology/historical/philosophical point of view is the Strat.

for some reason i thought for the longest time the bolt-on was the domain of the squier imprint exclusively. pardon my ignorance and thank you for setting me straight wk, you are a good person.

I've always had a gibson SG fetish, considering it the quintessential gtr in the fields of acid rock or metal or w/e. Don't own one though (another owner of a cheap ES-335 copy here)

Gibson SG, Melody Maker or Les Paul depending on what tone I feel like, Fender Telecaster -- they cover everything I generally need.

oh man i shouldnt even get started here

jjjusten - what's the greatest guitar that you sell?

hahaha it feels kind of like picking a favorite child or something, let me think about it.

i mean at the moment i am most enamored with a 1963 Supro Martinique, but it is obv not for everyone.

SGs are cool, but I could never vote for them as the greatest guitar because of the design flaws, shady history, etc. They're like the Corvair of guitars.

I've got one of those '61 reissue SGs and it's been a blast to play. The SG is a pretty versatile guitar all around, identified so strongly with garage, metal and hard rock but pretty smooth when need be and/or played clean. When I got it, the dude I got it from had made these stupid mods. He put in locking tuners, which was dumb, since it has no tremolo and they just made the neck heavier. Then he deactivated the neck pick-up (as in, totally cut the wire), in part to make room for the battery to power his lame active pick-up in the bridge. He said he hated the sound of the '57 Classic PAFs in there, which came off ridiculous to me. Why get a guitar built to '61 specs then change all the things that made it what it was?

Dunno why anyone would not want a bolt-on neck, btw. They're practical for lots of reasons, and also let you get away with bending the neck a little bit. Glue-on necks are mostly cosmetic, and also (esp. with certain Gibson models) prone to damage and breakage if your guitar falls or gets dropped. Fenders take a licking and keep on ticking. Gibson electrics, for all their iconic status as "rawk" guitars, are ultimately pretty wimpy in the construction department.

I also have a surprisingly well-made Epiphone '56 Gold Top Les Paul I got for a steal, with great sounding P-90s, but my personal fave all around is a Telecaster with a humbucker in the neck. Kind of the best of both worlds. Lean, mean, twangy and tough, all in equal measure.

yeah honestly a semi-hollow tele with a neck humbucker is, in my mind, the best thing ever

I feel like demanding a set neck goes hand in hand with changing out all your hardware for stupid heavy brass, including the nut, and finding the heaviest plank of wood you can get. In other words, some misguided '70s quest for TONE and SUSTAIN that doesn't have much to do with the actual physics of how a guitar makes a sound IMO.

Fenders take a licking and keep on ticking. Gibson electrics, for all their iconic status as "rawk" guitars, are ultimately pretty wimpy in the construction department.

Opinions vary. Both companies make rugged instruments, it's just you may feel worse when the Gibson takes a beating. I've had decades old instruments which I've played constantly. They can take it.

re: Squire, i really wanna try those new Jazzmasters w/ the Seymour Duncan pick ups. i wonder how they measure up to the ubiquitous 90s MIJ models?

Vicki Peterson, too. That's a Carvin in "Hazy Shade Of Winter."

mine is a prototype one, so it has the first test generation of the lace sensors. so the preamp is active but the pickups are passive. i am def not down with active pickups in gereal tho.

Cool. The bassist in my old band had a green one with a white pickguard/pickups, same electronics, same gold hardware.

I much prefer active pickups on a bass. If I was using a passive bass regularly I'd need to use some sort of external pre-amp. I suppose it's all about what you're used to, but I can never seem to get the definition, presence and cut-through I want with a passive bass, no matter how much tweaking I do.

to be clear, im making a big distinction between active pickups and an active preamp here - i am down w/active preamps in basses - and this is a distinction that people get kinda confused by, which is why im bringing it up again.

yeah honestly a semi-hollow tele with a neck humbucker is, in my mind, the best thing ever

― BIG HOOS aka the steendriver, Tuesday, April 26, 2011 1:44 AM (2 days ago) Bookmark

u guys

on the craiglist i found a semihollow 72 thinline deluxe with a p90 and a humbucker in the neck

O_O

otoh g&l

or the jtk4

fuck

wait wait, so it is modded for a p90 in the bridge then?

confused

asking this question knowing full well that i was just going to sleep and prob will not have any clarifying answers until tomorrow.

also just fyi if a hoos tries out and wants a g&l email me, will hook a hoos up

oh i misread the ad & mistook the soapbar for a humbucker :/

2 p90s aint a joke tho

hmmm? 2 p90s are not stock in a thinline so

huh

wanna email me a link/post it? maybe i can decipher

wait is it maybe this: http://www.altomusic.com/shop/Fender-Squier-Tele-Custom-P90-Antique-Blonde_pid103357.am

also so semihollow tele w/humbucker in neck - G&L tribute bluesboy (god i hate that name) worth looking at.

http://www.glguitars.com/instruments/TributeSeries/guitars/ASAT_Classic_BBSH/index.asp

Yeah, re my "active pickups" comment above, by bass with active p/ups I just mean an active bass. Sorry for any misleading impression. I'm not making a distinction between active pre-amp and active pick-ups. I assume my basses have active pre-amps rather than active pickups.

jjj here is the ad

http://washingtondc.craigslist.org/nva/msg/2344661939.html

i'm not so hot on the cosmetics at all buuuuuut i am diggin it otherwise

hmmm

body looks pretty cheap (i mean from the photos, the sunburst is a pretty fast transition and also i dont see the flame hes talking about), and i am not crazy about that price for a partocaster. i might try to nail him down on what kind of p90s they are - if they came w/the body i would proceed w/caution, because i keep looking at it and thinking ive seen it before on a kinda no name low rent made in china thing.

i would def play it before buying, theres a lot that can go wrong when you start slapping together bits from multiple guitars. but shit if it plays well and sounds good plugged in, who cares what its "worth".

where is the love for mosrite?

man reading through this thread makes me realize I'm not crazy for owning like 5 cameras. ya'll just own guitars instead.

It's a totally comparable metric on the collector sickness scale (cameras vs. guitars).

Do photographers value cameras that are beat to hell?

oh hell yes - jim marshall's M4

http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4129/4835042419_3edfb08791.jpg

you've probably seen quite a few of the photos that were taken with this thing...

is that camera Road Worn™ ?

fender japan have some cool new guitars. hollow body Jaguar with f-hole !

http://30.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lfwn1hph9d1qa21aao1_500.jpg

^^^ WANT

lol do guitars come pre-worn? :/

btw jim marshall is that guy

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_PR44LkYoxMM/S6uUVi8S4nI/AAAAAAAABnA/52ay1jafP3c/s1600/artwork_images_113308_150355_jim-marshall.jpg

lol do guitars come pre-worn? :/

sort of...
stupid Fender "Road Worn" gimmick

goes well with your distressed jeans

OMG WANT JAG U AR

yeah the hollowbody jag is pretty swank

honestly i have also always wanted a jaguar partially just so i could pronounce it british style

Bit late to the Tele talk, but I recently got a Squier Tele Custom and it's fantastic. The neck on it is a dream, and plays just as well as a friend's Fender Tele Deluxe. I'm not 100% sure about the twin humbuckers yet - I'm tempted to go for the Howe Gelb set up eventually, with a single coil on the bridge, a P-90 just above it, and a humbucker on the neck. That's real nice.
I'd love a proper 72 of course. Ben Chasny plays em, as does Haino from time to time - although last two times I saw him (at ATP and a couple of weeks ago with Brotzmann) he was rocking the SG again. Split the signal between a Fender Tweed and a bass amp. Awesome sounds.

Weird, I thought the weak-ass necks of SGs had turned Haino against them forever.

I recently got a Squier Tele Custom and it's fantastic.

this is v good to know!!

A pal used to have the Squier Tele Custom II with P90s, but he broke it during a gig, the big numpty. He loved the sound of it and swears by P90s now. Either way, the neck is beaut and they look great.

idk if i've ever played a p90

what do they sound like?? i mean, are they strat single-coily or

They're pretty versatile. And what the hell, another excuse to post this:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0l8xRRDAOQ

http://minneapolis.craigslist.org/wsh/msg/2353225547.html

Did a HOOS ever get his new guitar?

not yet! my concentrated research took a backseat to some other things, but i've decided i'm gonna def go for a squire tele custom and somewhere down the line get myself a g&l

this is the greatest guitar of all time dudes
http://www.xigre.com/articles/music/guitars/20070530-Weird_guitar_Cinque.jpg

http://onmilwaukee.com/images/articles/tw/twvod011509/twvod011509_fullsize_story1.jpg

also i would echoo what others have said regarding SGs and Les Pauls

I suspect that it's my recessive Orange County genetics, but I've vastly preferred Fender over Gibsons - most of my fave guitarists use Fenders and oddly enough, my fave songs by dedicated Gibson players are ones where they use a Fender (Zeppelin's "In The Evening" - Verve's "The Sun, The Sea" are the two examples that come to mind)

Did own a SG for a long time. Sold it off and never regretted it.

The first guitar I ever owned is a bog standard '75 Telecaster - used it to record most everything I've done. "Favorite guitar" doesn't seem to adequately cover it.

idk if i've ever played a p90

what do they sound like?? i mean, are they strat single-coily or

Like the pick-ups in Strats, they can do a lot of things, depending on the guitarist, the amp and the EQ.

They deliver brash rock 'n' roll, great for biting powerful rhythm. They're great for twang, too. And you can do Brit invasion very nicely. I record with a Gibson Melody Maker, which has one bridge P-90, quite a bit. They let hum and electrical noise through which isn't the liability it may sound.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_0ng3aDRkSyU/S-rYXbPt5II/AAAAAAAADGw/3x-8_a3tU_M/s400/pikasso1.jpg

http://cdn.mos.musicradar.com/images/Product%20News/Guitar/apr09/14-more-feature/present-arms-460-100-460-70.jpg

came across this thing in a shop three weeks ago, noticed the tag said it was custom-built for duane denison, and decided it was pretty much the coolest guitar i'd ever seen. the one in the shop was #1, apparently duane was unsatisfied with it and ended up taking #2. 100% aluminum semi-hollow body with a bigsby on there. a beaut! in his blog, david wm sims calls the body shape a cross between ES-335s and travis beans, and considering those are like my two favorite kinds of guitars, it's really no surprise i instantly fell in love with this thing.

http://www.davidwmsims.com/WPTooBigToFail/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/electricguitar21.jpg

that is gorgeous!

www.electricalguitarcompany.com is the maker, I think. very desirable.