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What guitars mean to you

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 5:38 pm
by Andy Balham
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 people’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 on…

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 5:51 pm
by Caravan Ray
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.

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:05 pm
by jack
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.

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:20 pm
by Heather. Redmon.
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!

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:22 pm
by jack
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. :)

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:33 pm
by Heather. Redmon.
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! :oops:

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 6:42 pm
by Caravan Ray
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)

Re: What guitars mean to you

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 7:18 pm
by pegor
Andy Balham wrote: I was just wondering what other people’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 on…
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.

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 7:31 pm
by WeaselSlayer
Folk singers don't get laid, period. Not these days anyway.

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 7:42 pm
by Hoblit
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

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 8:27 pm
by Bjam
Guitarists = Sexy.

In general anyway. Obviously there are exceptions.

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:06 pm
by Rabid Garfunkel
Exception #1: Anyone who plays a Burns Steer, heh. A green one, no less.

That and a Gibson Blueshawk are my :twisted: babies. Warm fuzzies all around (especially when someone who can really make them sing picks one up and has at it).

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:24 pm
by Lunkhead
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.

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:32 pm
by fodroy
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)

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:42 pm
by WeaselSlayer
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.

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 9:54 pm
by HeuristicsInc
did i ever mention this? here is my guitar:

Image

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

Posted: Fri Oct 28, 2005 10:19 pm
by Rabid Garfunkel
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!

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 12:41 am
by bz£
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!

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 1:56 am
by Bjam
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.

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 3:15 am
by roymond
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...

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:39 am
by Dan-O from Five-O
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.

Posted: Sat Oct 29, 2005 9:47 am
by c hack
http://www.stellaguitars.com

my life will be complete when I own one of these