What guitars mean to you

Andy Balham · Post by **Andy Balham** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 5:38 pm

In my current drunken moment I find myself thinking that I would never perform live with my Les Paul copy (which is a lovely guitar), as my memories of Jimmy Page and Slash pervade my mind. For the moment, I shall stick to my Nashville Tele.

I was just wondering what other peopleâ€™s preconceptions of certain styles of guitars are. For instance, although a big blues fan, for some reason I have always denigrated the veritable Strat.

Rant onâ€¦

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 5:51 pm

Obviously the sight of a Rickenbaker always makes me think "pretentious twat" - but apart from that they're all just bits of wood with strings attached.

jack · Post by **jack** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:05 pm

Caravan Ray wrote: they're all just bits of wood with strings attached.

you're fucking nuts dude. you think B.B. King named his guitar after a woman for nothing? hell know! the shape of the stratocaster oozes sex appeal. when you strap one on, the way it sits on your body, and the way you play it, it's fucking sex man.

guitars are sex dude. they reek of sex. they get guys laid.

i love my stratocaster. it's a 96 american standard, tobacco sunburst, and it's a piece of art. people look at it's beauty in awe. i've got nothing against gibsons (other than the fact i think les pauls are way too heavy) but i'll always have a soft spot for my strat, and would never part with it.

that's the thing for me. i don't think i could ever sell any of my guitars. there is just too much personal meaning and value in all of them.

Heather. Redmon. · Post by **Heather. Redmon.** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:20 pm

jack wrote:
guitars are sex dude. they reek of sex. they get guys laid.

Then Phil should open a porn shop, cause our house is covered in guitarts!

jack · Post by **jack** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:22 pm

Heather. Redmon. wrote:
jack wrote:
guitars are sex dude. they reek of sex. they get guys laid.
Then Phil should open a porn shop, cause our house is covered in guitarts!

you play music together. you've got 2 kids. i rest my case.

Heather. Redmon. · Post by **Heather. Redmon.** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:33 pm

tee hee! I wrote guitarts! Like Tartpop! Funny! Yeah, I must admit, he wooed me many years ago on the bench outside of Pizza My Heart in Santa Cruz. He borrowed a homeless guy's (his name was Chuck) guitar and played a wonderful rendition of "Lonesome Town". I melted and there was no question that I was in love. I guess you could say it got him laid!

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:42 pm

jack wrote:
Caravan Ray wrote: they're all just bits of wood with strings attached.
guitars are sex dude. they reek of sex. they get guys laid.

Absolutely - I don't disagree with that - but I've always been of the opinion that it's not what you play, how you play it or what you play it on - so long as you sling it low and wiggle those hips you'll do OK.

As far as I can recall though - sex is also all just bits of wood with strings attached...

(FWIW: if I were pressed to name a guitar of choice - I likewise would go the Strat every time)

pegor · Post by **pegor** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 7:18 pm

Andy Balham wrote: I was just wondering what other peopleâ€™s preconceptions of certain styles of guitars are. For instance, although a big blues fan, for some reason I have always denigrated the veritable Strat.

Rant onâ€¦

They are icons of attitude and time. My mom bought me a cheap copy of a gibson dove when I was a teenager. Me and my friends passed it around and played I IV V and the intro to stairway to heaven. When ever I see a gibson acoustic I think of being a teenager.
After I got a job and some money I bought a bright red Yamaha electric with a floating tremolo that just begged for 80s finger tapping and eddie vanhalen worship. I look at it now and it looks like the big haired noisey solo 80s.
now that Im a old fart I've got a limited edition (yeah I know) American strat with a finish like a tele - that I dont see anywhere else. Makes me think of the venerable and classy strat gods like clapton and gilmore.

Some day I learn how play instead of just buying more toys.

WeaselSlayer · Post by **WeaselSlayer** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 7:31 pm

Folk singers don't get laid, period. Not these days anyway.

Hoblit · Post by **Hoblit** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 7:42 pm

I don't have a 'real' guitar right now...

However, I did once own a cream yellow telecaster with a white plate... that got a lot of punk rock played on it. I always loved that classic guitar sounded when cranked. It wasn't too hard and I played sloppy punk rock..and it just sounded great to my ears.

Now, before I die...I would like to have a cherry sunburst Gibson Les Paul. That would be the perfect guitar for me now.

*Hoblit goes to bed with sugar plums and chery sunburst gibsons dreams

Bjam · Post by **Bjam** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 8:27 pm

Guitarists = Sexy.

In general anyway. Obviously there are exceptions.

Rabid Garfunkel · Post by **Rabid Garfunkel** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:06 pm

Exception #1: Anyone who plays a Burns Steer, heh. A green one, no less.

That and a Gibson Blueshawk are my

babies. Warm fuzzies all around (especially when someone who can really make them sing picks one up and has at it).

Post by **Lunkhead** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:24 pm

Last Labor Day I got a brand new Gibson Les Paul Studio with an all mahogany body and a natural finish. It is a truly beautiful guitar in all ways. Yay! I hope to keep it a long time and attach a lot of sentimental value to it. I also still have the "HR" (for "hard rock", I think, meaning it came with a humbucker and whammy bar) Strat I got in 9th grade. That's got lots of sentimental value to it, and though I'm not playing it so much these days I wouldn't ever want to sell it.

fodroy · Post by **fodroy** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:32 pm

it's not sexy to play a crappy peavey acoustic guitar that you got when you were 16 so you could take guitar lessons. it's especially not sexy if you've only changed your strings once since you got the guitar.

8)

WeaselSlayer · Post by **WeaselSlayer** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:42 pm

fodroy wrote:it's not sexy to play a crappy peavey acoustic guitar that you got when you were 16 so you could take guitar lessons. it's especially not sexy if you've only changed your strings once since you got the guitar.

8)

I beg to differ. Beg.

HeuristicsInc · Post by **HeuristicsInc** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:54 pm

did i ever mention this? here is my guitar:

i like it! it is one of my noisemakers.
-bill

Rabid Garfunkel · Post by **Rabid Garfunkel** » Fri Oct 28, 2005 10:19 pm

You're a lefty, bill? And goddamn, but that axe hurts my brain. My fingers ain't long enough to even try to flub a barre chord on that thing!

bz£ · Post by **bz£** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 12:41 am

Rabid Garfunkel wrote:My fingers ain't long enough to even try to flub a barre chord on that thing!

Y'aren't supposed to, right? That looks like a Chapman stick-a-like... wasn't there a thread about weird instruments a while back where we all had a good laugh at some dopey looking old men with their fifteen-string guitars? Might have been another board, though, but, well, just picture Bob Ross sitting in a chair, looking all happy and needing a haircut (and not dead) and holding one of those in his lap. Good times!

Bjam · Post by **Bjam** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 1:56 am

fodroy wrote:it's not sexy to play a crappy peavey acoustic guitar that you got when you were 16 so you could take guitar lessons. it's especially not sexy if you've only changed your strings once since you got the guitar.

8)

Boy, go change your strings.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 3:15 am

My Steinberger lost much of it's sex appeal when the trans-trem bearings wore out. With that things, man, lots of nice things happened. At least I like to think I have a fall guy for what's happened...

Dan-O from Five-O · Post by **Dan-O from Five-O** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:39 am

WeaselSlayer wrote:Folk singers don't get laid, period. Not these days anyway.

Someone needs to explain that to Allison Krause and Union Station then because I think they're breaking the rules. Their bespectled slide guitar player had women acting like they were at a Beatles concert when I saw them.

Anyway, Jack hit the nail on the head IMO. Guitars=sex. Watch the way Jimi Hendrix played his guitar and argue that. Look at a Gibson 335 and tell me it doesn't resemble the curves on a woman (sorry if that sounds sexist). My wife regularly tells me that I show more attention to my guitars than I do her. At some points I really think she's jealous of them, until I oil her up and polish her down too and then all is well. (Information overload)

Having said that, sound plays as big a part in the mix as anything else. I've seen great looking guitars that sound like shit and they don't hold my attention. Conversely, I've seen ugly guitars that sound great and in my minds eye they're suddenly the most beautiful instruments I've ever seen. SRV's main axe barely had a finish on the lower half of the guitar and those goofy looking mailbox letters on the pickguard but the sound he got out of it was unbelievable.

As for the original question, my main axe on stage is my Strat followed closely by my Gibson ES 335. I have others that I bring like my Telecaster, but with those main 2 I can get just about any sound I'm looking for. That doesn't mean I would think of never playing any of the others. I try to play of all them regularly because they all have different feels and tones and those differences make for good practice.

c hack · Post by **c hack** » Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:47 am

http://www.stellaguitars.com

my life will be complete when I own one of these

What guitars mean to you

What guitars mean to you

Re: What guitars mean to you