Cool Guitars You Own and Love, but Shouldn't

[Amp360]

I bought this guitar for a few hundred dollars on eBay during early COVID. I knew the price was right for a USA-made guitar, but it's a bit of an oddball.

Technically, I should hate this guitar. However, it's really well made, plays well, and sounds fantastic for more effect-type music or through a loud Marshall.

It's a pre-factory Jackson Soloist. From what I understand, these were made to order. This one has a weird color, Khaler, and humbuckers vs the SSH layout. All that said, it's a sweet guitar I usually wouldn't have given a second look to.

 

[Steven K]

There is no such thing as a guitar I love. but shouldn't. I own MANY guitars, over 30 and I will keep buying until I no longer can. I do not love them all, but I am a collector, assuming I love a guitar, there are no should's or should nots involved. I am a veteran retired touring musician, different guitars for different purposes, Same with my synths, steinway bg piano, and Hammond B-3 rig. I love the synths more yet the PITA to maintain Hammond and Leslies are collectors items and in pristine condition as they stopped making them nearing 50 years ago, and the Steinway baby grand was a reconditioned 1925 model and pristine. I do not care about brand name. although I own top brands. as well as other. There are lousy Gibson's and Fender USA guitars, and always were. yet all guitars have their own sound, I listen and play the guitar. not the label on the headstock. When I was younger there was nowhere near todays selection, and you had to dole out money for a good guitar, today there are excellent guitars for $300. I have played $250 guitars I like more than my LP custom. standard. and the specials. same with my AS strat. tele. Es-335. 175 etc.

 

[corpse]

Off topic-ish.
I turn 60 in this many days. I def should not buy a guitar. No reason to buy a guitar... wait- that's not a thing.
I saw a red Ric 620/12 and Tom Petty (RIP) on the cover of "Damn The Torpedo's" came to mind. That's why I would buy it- the album cover. But I hear the thing making itself know in practically every big song they had. I don't play any Birds style music, nor do I own a Vox. i detest the thought of changing 12 strings.
I also saw a Murphy Lab guitar that made the stirring.
I completely get the basis of this thinking. The internet mob tells us how to think when the internet mod gets its' opinions from another internet mob.
But I don't like anything with that much interrelated hardware ever since I owned a PRS with locking tuners. I didn't like how far i had to turn the tuner on the high E; it just looked unbalanced pointing straight down the neck.

 

[Danb541]

 

[ch willie]

You should like any guitar you like. "Shouldn't" is often born from cork-sniffing buttnoggins who learned their prejudices from other buttnoggins. Been there, done that, sold great guitars because of the scuttlebut-tocks.

I "ought not" love my Chinese Casino, nor should I say that it sounds as good to me as a Gibson semi-hollow. I'm sorry that it does. I'm sorry that I only paid $700 for it and that it's a beast. I'm committing a cardinal sin by loving my Fender AmPro II batman Strat, but it's the sweetest sounding Strat I've ever heard, and my other Strat with it's Mexican body and old AmStd, much abused neck, and its Seymour Duncan Dave Gilmour pickups--well I shouldn't love it, but it's got bigger balls than victims of elephantiasis. I reckon I got one of the first round of Les Paul Traditionals before Gibson took the Swiss Cheese Cutter to them. If Gibson did that to mine, it filled those holes with solid led. The guitar weighs more than an elevator full of Florida tourists before the creation of Ozempic.

I wasted many years thinking about guitars I wanted because Jimi Internetrix and Stevie Ray Forum said, "THESE IZ THE BESTZ AND NUFFING ELSE IS WORF A SHITE." I've got some "premium" guitars. I play them no more or no less than the ones I have with less respectable pedigrees.

I'm not a ranty guy. I'm just enjoying myself on a Sunday morning. What I've said, though, is true to my own experience. And parts. Geez I wasted so much money on upgrades over the years. Many of those went to the trash where they belonged.

 

[renderit]

I'll play.

Back in the day I never got along with Fenders. I think the problem is my playing is not clean enough to do them justice.

I have small hands and the slightly longer scale messes wit me 'ead.

(I have come to like them latter in life.)

I never liked screwed on necks though, always thought it was cheap and lazy.

So at one point years ago when looking for something different I found this ugly beast.

Set neck like a Gibby, top carve like a Gibby, but butt ugly.

Don't get me wrong, the finish and craftsmanship is sterling.

After passing by several time I decided to give it a go.

Super easy to get "quack" and tones from heaven.

Best whammy bar I have ever tried, stays in tune and just works.

Every time I pick it up I can't put it down.

Collings 360 in alder.

 

[ch willie]

I love that guitar, renderit. It's a meat and potatoes rocker for sure, though I'm sure it's fine for other projects as well. Good to see you posting. I haven't been on The Fender Forum lately. It's just about sputtered out anyway.

 

[guitar_199]

Well.... if a "confession" gets me thrown off of here.... so be it.

Back in about 2012 maybe 2013 ... I was in a local "hole in the wall" music store in my town (now closed and gone).
They had a black LP Custom guitar hanging on the wall that SAID Gibson.... but it was somewhat obvious that it wasn't.
I thought it was "cute" ... I thought somebody had just taken another cheap LP copy and made it LOOK close to a real one.
Just for giggles... I bought it.

Went home, saw the serial number and did an internet search on it..... and found out that there seem to be THOUSANDS of guitars with that serial number.

THAT is when my learning.... about this thing called a "Chibson" came about. I honestly had never heard of them and the whole "Chinese counterfeit" thing.

Did a level and crown to clean up the frets, gave it a decent set up and strings.

Did wind up taking it to one jam locally and watched people flip out and was constantly reminding them that it was a FAKE.

After that night.... I have never taken it to any live gig.

I don't know how others feel about it... but I just don't like the idea of anyone even THINKING that it is real.... so I don't take it out of the house. It is just a
hangar queen. It does play decently well and even sounds halfway decent... (has the Epiphone stamped pickups)..... but I have other guitars that do as well
so I take them out and only "once in a while" do I pull out the guitar that I have named.... "Faux Paul".

That's my story!
Bob

 

[Bob Womack]

I shouldn't love my ES-335 but I do. It has just abut everything wrong it could, according to the experts. The problem is that I chose it with my ears and hands, not my ego. It is an ordinary Memphis ES-335 DOT Reissue. I was nosing around the ES-335s and had my choice of about eleven to check out, if I remember right. There were custom shop Reissues, at least one actual vintage ES-335, DOTs, etc. There were bright ones, dark ones, hard ones, etc. I was unburdened by cost because we had no spare money at the time anyway so I tried them all. This one was the "sweetest," with a really sweet plaintive sound when I played lead.

It is heavy and the neck is set high and at a high angle so the bridge has to be high. The horns are wrong. It bowed to '70s tradition and came with Grovers. The "sixties slim taper neck" is wide but shallow with strong shoulders. But it sounds and plays fantastically and fits in a mix easily. The frets are huge. The fingerboard fits me perfectly. The guitar moved into my studio kit and just took over. I've played it on more sessions than I can count.

My wife somehow figured out that I was sniffing around the ES-335s. Even though we couldn't afford it, she made up a card and put it in a little box and gave it to me on Christmas Eve in front of the fireplace saying, "Let's go get that guitar you want."

So there it is.

Bob

 

[gitmohair]

2014 LP/MM with P90s. TV yellow. Wonderful guitar. Not exactly a "hang out with the R9 crowd" job, but it works for me, here it is with its mate: