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Have you ever bought your “dream guitar”?
I’m getting ready to plunk down cash on a Gibson Les Paul. I’ve wanted one of these things since i was a 14 year old kid watching Jimmy Page “The Song Remains The Same”
Anybody here gone through buying and bringing home their cherished axe?
Within the first 2 years of me playing (as a combined birthday/christmas+extra present) I got to pick out an American Strat Deluxe with the locking nuts and fender lace pickups. I didn't really know exactly what sound I was looking for or what makes a good guitar but I listed after it. It turned out to be a God-awful guitar and permanently soured me on brand names and price as a determinant of quality. The guitar had a decent clean sound but using the pickup selector didn't change the tone much and the fender lace sensors are the worst! There's no interference or feedback but also no dynamics or character. The worst thing was that the pickups kept breaking and, while it was covered under warranty, the guitar spent the first year at the factory being fixed. Six months to get repaired and sent back, 2 weeks back, then I broke again, and spent another 6 moths getting fixed again. Fender has terrible support! My buddy had a Mexican made Squier that had some of the fake fret-inlay pieces come off, it still worked fine and ran+sounded much better than my guitar that cost 10x as much. Luckily years later I found an excellent technician who changed the pots and pickups to his recomm endation and it finally turned into the guitar I wanted (except for the locking nuts - those things add 5 lbs for a minor upgrade) and now it is my favourite. It was funny too, because the guitar guy told me he just had another guy come in a month before me with another Strat deluxe with the same complaint.
I think fender must have learned some lessons because a decade later I got a Korean version of their Gretsch remakes and it was/still is excellent. I got lucky with that one as I heard the Korean-made were the cream of the crop (after I bought it.)
The other dream guitar was a 1967 Japanese Teisco I got through an auction. When I got it the seller lied about the condition and offered to refund me but I still wanted it. The guitar technician who did an excellent overhaul on my Strat took it, got rid of those terrible accordion tone switches, put in new steel switches, and rewound the pickups. It turned into a spectacular sounding (but noisy) guitar.
Funny, I had a similar story but opposite outcome. I was taking lessons as a teenager and a guy the teacher knew had come in just before I was there to put his American Strat Plus up for sale. I bought it on the spot for $200 and IMO it’s been a great guitar and I like the sound, but I may not have a the best ear.
Fender made different versions of the strat plus. The fender lace sensors (on the one I had, they look like cheap and flat white plastic) were God-awful because they're not pickups in the normal sense. They're MIDI based which is the reason why they are zero-noise. It's also why they don't have character to their sound. They also had different generations of the sensor pickup. I had the Gen 1. They kept making them and I think Gen 2 were more reliable. Eventually I think they abandoned the original technology entirely and still make something similar-ish but entirely different technology.
At least the rest of the hardware of the strat is solid. Once I got a good set of custom pickups on mine it sounds like the guitar I'd always wanted.
I bought an epiphone les Paul recently as my first electric. It’s my dream guitar in the sense that I decided I wanted to play more electric after a decade of acoustic, and it was the guitar that I couldn’t get out of my head. All others seemed just weird or garish, something about it just feels right, and it’s wonderful to play. Maybe in another decade I might upgrade to a Gibson version, but I feel I’m more likely just buy a different style.
I bought an Epi Les Paul Traditional Pro II ($425 on sale new) over a decade ago and I prefer it to any Gibson I've played since. Maybe I got lucky, but the higher end Epiphones seem to be way better quality to price ratio.
I've got like 13 guitars, but even before I started playing I knew what my dream guitar was: a classic white Gibson Flying V. I bought one a while back (older used one with an ebony fretboard) and loved it, but needs some work and mods done, so I haven't played it a whole lot in recent years.
Honestly my fav guitar is still my first one, a MIM Strat my dad took me to pick out for my 16th birthday. It just feels right, worn in well, I prefer the longer scale length of Fender necks to Gibsons. But I have so many guitars and I just don't play as much as I should.
I always loved the tone of stratocasters. A couple years ago, I finally bought an American made strat. It sounds like everything I wanted.
But the fucking volume knob is in the worst spot. I accidentally hit it when strumming all the time. Never got used to it, no matter how often I play.
I now play my cheap acoustic more often.
Take the volume knob off and put a circle of felt over the potentiometer lug. Put the volume knob back on and now it won't be easily moved by accidental bumps.
Of course you could also do the classic "remove a tone pot, make the remaining tone a master, and move both volume and tone down one spot"
Tried the first option, never felt right.
Thought about the second option. Little more involved than I want but I'll probably do it one day.
I do find it funny how so many people have this same gripe as me. At least I'm not alone.
I haven't found the volume knob to be that annoying, but the middle pick-up is almost always in the way of where my hand puts the pick. I lowered mine down all the way to avoid hitting it
Players take advantage of it by using that volume knob as a swell effect (like a volume pedal), but otherwise I agree, it can get in the way. But I played a Strat for a decade and I got used to it. Now I mostly play a Telecaster, and those knobs are quite far from your hand and nowhere near as convenient to reach as the Strat's are.
If you want a work-around for the volume knob, the dials come off quite easily. Just pull it slowly and wiggle it. I hated that mine had 1 volume knob but 2 tone knobs so I took one of the tone knobs off, then bought a 20-sided die, drilled a hole in the back and mounted it on top. Super easy job and I love the look so much more.
I purchased myself a Fender Jazz Bass about a decade ago. It was the first instrument I purchased and I did so after saving money for quite some time. At the time I didn't have any money left over to buy an amp, so I used it by connecting it to my then PC's sound card. It wasn't ideal as there was considerable latency but it was fun. The fun lasted a few months, and I stopped playing it again.
I still have the guitar and once a year I feel like playing again but I don't for whatever reason. Oh, and I still don't have an amp.
Dude, buy a decent, smallish amp and rock out!
Bass in particular needs an amp.
I know, I know. I could buy an amp but I honestly don't have the drive to play it anymore, nor, to be honest, the time. I'll get one eventually though, even if I never find my drive because I've always felt like I've disrespected that guitar by not using it properly, even once.
Until that time, it will have to remain a spectacular piece of display on my wall. 😊
You could try something like the Vox Amplug headphone amp (I have one for guitar and it's worth all the ~40 euros I paid for it).
Or if you want effects, get something like the Boss GT1-B (you can find it cheaper than Thomann's current price of 263 euros), it has headphone output and amp simulators so you can use it with your stereo.
Both support audio in so you can play to your favorite songs, although for that the easiest way is to use a small combo.
Once you get a satisfying sound you'll find the drive to play too :)
I know about the Vox Amplug, I believe it's a pretty old product. I could get that and if I don't like it, it's no big deal since it's small and cheap but I want to do it right the first time, if that makes any sense. When I get around to it, I'll probably get like a 15W amp (if I recall correctly Hartke make pretty good ones) and see if I like it. But since I have no interest whatsoever in playing again right now, it will have to wait.
Thanks for the recommendations though! :)
I wish I had the scratch to throw down for one of my dream axes. Been looking at a Spector Euro 5 string bass for quite some time. I just haven't been doing a lot of looking at 2600 dollars, lol
Yeah. Bought myself. A five string Thunderbird during the pandemic.
She plays exactly as I've wanted for all those years of pining for one. Shame I've no band! But I'll never regret buying her.
I've got a thunderbird too, although 4 string. It is a heavy beast but I love it. And also no band to share it with!
Great guitars right?
I fell head over heals when I could play both funk and metal without changing strings!
Yep it's great. When I was a teenager the first band I got heavily into was Ash, and their bassist used a Thunderbird and I wanted one for a long time since. Finally got enough saved up in my early 20s, and I've had it ever since - never really felt the need for another!
Do you love the neck dive? :p
I know this is a common complaint but it honestly doesn't bother me!
Totally fine! No beef.
Mine bothers me, and unfortunately... it is a design flaw that Gibson has never fixed. So I plan to change out the tuners to Hipshot Ultralites, move the strap nut to the middle of the neck pocket, and maybe the bridge to a SuperTone. That last one is burning money, since I think the bridge on my Epiphone is totally fine (even if shoddy).
Sounds like a fun project, best of luck with it - hopefully will make a difference for you
I’m an acoustic player and always loved the sound of Larrivee guitars when I’d played them. Not too bass-y, not too treble-y…just right. Finally got the money to order one and have it shipped to Texas. Love the sound.
Larrivees are beautiful. I used to order catalogs from Larrivee, Breedlive, and Santa Cruz just to gawk at them. I've always wanted a hand-built acoustic by a local woodworker but never had the money. Once I had kids I quit playing as much, and now that they're grown and I have the time, the fingers have forgotten everything. I should start playing again but it's so daunting.
Just like when you learned years ago, the key is consistency. Even if it’s only 5 minutes every evening, the skill will come back. You can do it!
:)
I wish! Maybe when I'm rich. When I eventually save up £1500 and the choice is between a MusicMan Stingray and a fucking car, I think you know what wins out.
The MusicMan Stingray!
(obviously, the car)
Fender 2017 American Professional Jazzmaster. Used, seafoam green, in a Guitar Center. But it was a birthday present so yeah!
Best dream guitar ever tbh. I love it to the death, and I need to play it more.
Jazzmasters rule, I shared a completely different guitar entirely in this thread but I do have a pair of Jazzmasters on the side, one a pretty traditional configuration as my most obvious second / backup, and one with a more experimental pickup arrangement of a wide-range humbucker in bridge, a goldfoil middle, and tele neck pickup.
Have you looked into the Mastery bridges yet? They're so good for getting a solid setup on these guitars with low action, no shim, and strings not jumping out the saddles. I have 3 of their bridges total, love their products so much.
I would prob go with a Staytrem bridge. I hear those are the gold standard. Mastery seem cool, but aren't individually adjustable if I wanna intonate.
I really want to get Fender's new Panorama offset tremolo, has the biggest divebomn action and better design over stock tremolo. After that, a Teflon tone cap and then switch out the pickups for a set of Cycfi XRs.
The way I see the intonation thing, its kind of along similar lines to a vintage telecaster bridge with the 3 barrel saddles, where each pair of 2 strings share a saddle with 1 adjustment screw, so no angle adjustment, just forward and back.
On those, intonation is also a compromise of our best efforts between 2 strings at a time. For years and years some of the best music ever performed and recorded were done on instruments with those compromises, and if it was good enough for them then the Mastery's 3-string saddles with 2 screws going through pivoting inserts allowing saddle angling should be good enough for me. There is always the Halon Jazzmaster Bridge with 2 strings per saddle, like a Tele, and it has compensated slots that can be flipped for the reverse compensation on the reverse side of the saddle, but once again like the vintage Tele bridges, 1 intonation screw per saddle, so no angling.
Telecaster barrel saddles with 2 strings per saddle have given me trouble with the D/G strings sharing a saddle, I still get it within a tolerance that I can accept, but they're typically the two that are the most unruly or won't both land in a good spot together. When working on those, I choose to err slightly flat if I have to compromise somewhere, as I think I remember hearing somewhere that a listener is less likely to notice or take offense to a slightly flat note due to an intonation issue, but idk if that's actually true or proven in studies or anything, and I'm no longer using a bridge of that type on any of my personal guitars anyway.
I will say that in the case of my guitars with mastery bridges, I've been able to get them close enough that it gets hard to even tell if it's not exactly perfect on my polytune 2 mini in strobe mode, which supposedly has up to +/- 1 cent accuracy, but for me it would be an issue with the "resolution" of strobe speeds in the display - has it truly stopped or is it just so extremely slow that the LEDs aren't changing yet? Hard to say, and it's been a while since I last had access to one of those rack mounted tuning units in a studio to trust more deeply.
That's not to say that there's anything wrong with Staytrem, I'm not that experienced with their products, I never bought from them because my first Mastery product was the Mastery's M4.1 model, which I chose for my bigsby tele setup, and Staytrem doesn't offer an equivalent. Most Tele bridges that accept bigsby, other than that Mastery, are pretty cheap models. Anyway, after being a satisfied customer with that Tele bridge, when it was time to shop for an actual Jazzmaster, I was already sold on Mastery, personally. That said, if you're certain you need the six saddle individual intonation, Staytrem's probably the best option.
Try before you buy.
Listen to the guitar, each pickup, roll the tone knobs and listen for real tone change.
Roll the volume and listen to the tone and how it breaks up. Compare the volume string to string.
How loud is it?
How sharply does the note hit?
How long does it sustain?
Does it resonate bassy or trebly?
Does it twang, crunch, or growl at high volume?
How far do do yo have to push the strings down?
Is the guitar heavy?
Pick you guitar for sound.
Try to get one that is light but very stiff, but most of all sounds good.
And it could be any guitar.
I dreamed of a Les Paul for the exact same reason. Played a LP Studio for years, then a Strat for a decade, strayed off into a lot of acoustics for another decade, and then finally bought the sought-after Les Paul. I rarely play it. I love to look at it and it's gorgeous, but for whatever reason I don't really jibe with the guitar. During pandemic lockdown, I ordered a cheap Squire Telecaster (the cheapest one they offer), modded it a bit with pickups and electronics, and it's now my most-played guitar. Funny how that turned out.
I have several cheap guitars and several moderately expensive guitars. Last year I thought "fuck it, been playing 20 years, I'll buy myself a top of the line strat".
I bought a $3300 Fender Ultra strat. It is quite simply a thing of beauty. It's it perfect? No. There was fret buzz, the pickups are a fair bit quieter than my cheap guitars (necessitating the need for a boost pedal), and the action can't be lowered. It plays well and sounds great, and while it is better than my $500 epiphone, it's not "$2500" better.
I don't regret buying it, as it really is better than any other guitar I've owned. But I think a strat was not the best choice.
Currently like and play 3 electric guitars and 1 acoustic as regularly as I can.
My first electric is an Epi Les Paul quilt top no pickgaurd. I got it as a birthday or christmas present from my parents when I was 11 or 12. It played well and was mostly well built. I've modded it since and replaced the broken plastic jack plate and hardware for some black colored metal hardware, changed the pickups and upgraded the pots and caps with high end components. The upgrades were about $350 and the original price of the guitar was ~$500 + w/e accessories. I honestly can't say I've played a stock Gibson Les Paul that feels better or sounds better. The biggest down side is the guitar is heavy, at least compared to my other guitars. I believe it's mahogany body/neck, maple top, rosewood fret board.
My second electric is a stock Reverend Sensei HB. I don't know why they discontinued the HB model which just had Reverend made custom wound humbuckers instead of the current RA model that has railhammer pickups. I tested a dozen Reverends when I bought this and the HB pups sounded better than all the railhammer ones. What really stands out on this guitar is the wiring setup: 1 Volume pot with treble bleed cap, 1 Tone pot and 1 Bass Contour pot. There are a lot of different great sounding tones you can achieve with just these and can really dial in some perfect sounds with fuzz and distortion pedals.
My third electric is a custom shop Dunable Gnarwhal baritone. Swamp ash body, maple neck and fretboard with the pots setup the same as the the Reverend. Even though this is the largest of the 3 guitars it is the lightest one and has a very resonant sound just playing it acoustically. My only downside is the Neck pickup that I chose might not have been the perfect choice for blending with the bridge pickup which I like a lot. This is probably the closest I'll come to "purchasing" my "dream guitar".
From this point on I have devoted myself to building my own "dream guitars". Mostly that I am going to be only building 1 off custom designs of my own even if some of them turn out to just be showroom pieces because they might be too fragile to play with otherwise. I currently have some body blanks, neck blanks and fretboard blanks and enough hardware for 2-8 builds. So I just need to find the time and motivation to finish them.
I keep drooling over Kiesel guitars but not sure I'd ever bring myself to spend that amount of money on guitars (like $1800-3600 kind of range), especially since it's just all a hobby and that's a lot of money for me to throw at something like that. I think I'll stick with the mid-3-digit prices for the most part if I ever consider new stuff... like Jackson or something, or even browse used stuff and local pawn shops
I decided to go to guitar center to pick up a Sterling Ray34 since I had a first job paycheck and wanted to splurge. Couldn't afford a proper Musicman, but I tried one anyway... It must've had a shitty setup or something, but I could not get the same crunchy tone I was looking for in that vs the Sterling. The Ray34 became my dream bass guitar and it was miiine. Bought it, beautiful sunburst color, don't play quite as much anymore but I do not regret it.
Absolutely, I bought an Ibanez S Series on credit from Sam Ash about 7 years ago and it’s the only purchase I ever felt I needed for a guitar. I saw it when I was window shopping at a Guitar Center and just immediately knew I wanted it.
I can’t really tell you what draws me to it so much, but I will say that it’s an extremely lightweight guitar and moving around on stage is easy with it. Beyond that, I just had to have it but don’t have a specific reason why lol. I have gotten a single new guitar since, but it’s still an S-Series, it’s just Seafoam Green. Here’s the original one I bought if you’re interested
https://reverb.com/p/ibanez-s670qm-spb-s-standard-600-series-hsh-quilted-maple-electric-guitar-w-slash-tremolo-sapphire-blue?hfid=10472702&utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=17683198501&utm_content=campaignid=17683198501_adgroupid=143800496092_productpartitionid=1682313739580=merchantid=101081897_productid=10472702_keyword=_device=m_adposition=_matchtype=_creative=608998621630&gbraid=0AAAAADRxZYVh8OtkzD72Xi0riExMm6M4Y&gclid=Cj0KCQjw1rqkBhCTARIsAAHz7K25GeGNeGnsbSJYVE8azdVhlJurXyNohS6JILWrlb-9LEYjYMT4ekUaAr5rEALw_wcB
I'm a bass player, but in 2019, I walked into a music shop in Panama City Beach and saw the guitar that I must have. It's nothing super fancy, but it spoke to me. It's a Gretsch G2622T Streamliner, in a gorgeous green, and after playing with it in the shop for half an hour, it came home with me. It's what I learned to play on, and it's still beautiful. Here are some photos, if anyone wants to see it. https://www.instagram.com/p/B1R8IGUpqYn/
My dream guitar was not really a specific model in particular, but instead I was obsessed with the idea of the "Telemaster" - basically a Telecaster in a Jazzmaster shaped body. For all intents and purposes it's just a differently shaped Telecaster, a bit more ergonomic with a shaped body with cutaways, contours, and a bit more aesthetically interesting for my tastes.
Until quite recently, it was something hobbyist builders were doing, not something Fender was making themselves, so for a long time it was out of reach for that reason. Eventually they started releasing them, calling them Offset Telecasters, so you can find official models of these now, but I still didn't go the legit route. Instead I basically assembled one out of parts, using a Warmoth body to achieve my goals.
Here's a photo: https://i.imgur.com/LBfM6tH.png
So, body and pickguard is Warmoth, neck is from a Squier Classic Vibe but with upgraded tuners and nut, the bridge and string tree are Mastery (you might've heard of as a popular aftermarket bridge brand for Jazzmasters), pickups custom made by a friend of mine, who also did all the wiring and electronics, most of the metal hardware like the knob caps, control plate, neck joint plate, the output jack cup, - basically everything metal besides the bridge and bigsby - is typically the "fender replacement parts" ones.
Anyway the thing has basically no serious value except for the sum of a few of it's parts, but to me it's my #1 ride or die, plays like a dream somehow, sounds great to boot, comfy, stylish, looks great, the whole deal by my standards. Got a couple dings on it cause I've gigged it but that's normal in the life of used, gigged, workhorse guitars that don't live their entire lives in cases and in the house. I pretty much only posess and would shop for other guitars for the things they do spec-wise that this one doesn't, or they've been borrowed or I'd bring one as a backup to my last band's gigs or the like, but yeah this one's the one I pretty much always reach for first.
It was a Tradition Jerry Reid Telecaster. It played better than more expensive guitars I’ve played and was a beautiful guitar. It was stolen years ago when I was working out of state. I knew who stole it but was never able to recover it. Haven’t been able to find another.
I don't have a dream guitar. I have many dream guitars. I do have the first one on the list, though.
There's the dream superstrat. The dream superstrat with a floating trem and no locking nut. The dream telecaster. The dream pointy guitar. The dream headless guitar. The dream P90s guitar. The dream hollowbody. The dream Jerry Auerswald guitar.
When I got a particularly large paycheck not so long ago I bought myself a ICHI10, it's an Ibanez headless guitar. It's probably the most expensive thing that I didn't need that I ever bought. I am not the biggest on signature models and stuff like that -- I definitely won't be able to play anywhere close to how Ichika plays because of his guitar, and I am also not even that much of a fan (I do watch his YouTube though), but I absolutely loved how it looked and I always liked headless guitars. Before this guitar I had a really cheap Ibanez that I used since I first started playing guitar, and I felt like after all this time I could use an upgrade (just like 5 years or something, so not that long haha, but I am self taught and didn't start playing until I was an adult).
I love how light it is. love how it looks, and I really enjoy playing it! Having better gear doesn't really make too much off a difference in the end, but it's a really nice quality of life upgrade over the previous one I had -- it does stay in tune so much better and being lighter is super nice for me, I felt like the previous one was too heavy and it was a bit uncomfortable playing it.
A few of my friends told me that they don't understand why it doesn't have a headstock and that they preferred how the old "default" black super strat I have looked, but I don't care, I absolutely love how it looks! I feel like I will not ever need a new guitar again, if not that then definitely at least 5 years.
I feel like the PRS silver sky is giving the Fender Strats of the world a run for their money. I’m a big John Mayer fan so these guitars are super appealing! I just don’t play well enough or often enough to justify upgrading from my MIM Strat.
https://prsguitars.com/electrics/model/silver_sky_rosewood_2023
I don't really have one dream guitar, and it's going to be a while before I add to my collection, as I'm up to 7 at this stage. However, I would like to someday also have:
I'm sure I'm missing some of my list, as it can't be just 4 that I'm coveting! Possibly one of the troublemaker teles at some point.
I have sort of an opposite story. I HAD my dream guitar, a Gibson Les Paul Standard. The thing was gorgeous. Candy apple red, gold hardware and pickups, and a cream pickguard. I ended up having to sell it pay rent sometime in my 20s. Still makes me sad to this day. I've found guitars like it on Reverb but they're currently going for $4000-$5000.
I think I'll eventually get another Les Paul Standard, but probably just a new Gold Top.
Ever since I was a kid, I wanted a Les Paul, so I got one, once I entered my first job. Back then the Les Paul looked like "the proper original guitar" for me, while a Stratocaster appeared to me like a cheap breakfast board with strings knockoff.
It was an original Gibson Les Paul Tribute and played .. awful. I didn't know it at the time, because I was a poor player and couldn't see it. But I lost big interest in playing because even the frets were not properly filed and sometimes cut my finger. The sound just wasn't great either. The G-string constantly mistuned after a short time.
Back then I did some work with my Dad on it, and made it better. But I was still very disappointed. It was an 800€ Guitar after all.
Only after getting a Squier Telecaster(Contemporary Telecaster RH Pearl White) I knew that cost doesn't always equal to quality. The 350€ guitar plays and sounds so much better than the Les Paul and is way lighter too. The Les Paul is now still collecting dust while I'm playing the Squier regularly.
I will not buy after a company name ever again, that's for sure. My friends Les Paul from Epiphone was nicer to play and sounded better.
I count myself lucky to generally prefer Fender style instruments, since most of their guitars feel at least somewhat attainable. Prices have definitely gone up over the years, but my main guitar has been an American Vintage Reissue Jazzmaster that I bought nearly a decade ago for I think $1500 CAD, which sounds and feels better for me than any other guitar I've played.
The only dream guitar of mine outside of the Fender or Fender adjacent world would be a Gretsch White Penguin. I had the opportunity to play one once and it was really something special. And asthetically, there's something I love so much about a guitar that is so unabashedly over the top, with gold binding and all, and then just has a goofy looking penguin on the pickguard. It's like a White Falcon that manages to take itself slightly less seriously.
Edit: Oh I forgot a disappointing dream experience as well: for years, I had seen the AVRI '72 Tele Custom and thought it was the coolest looking thing in the world. I decided that that was my dream guitar, and I'd be able to get any sound out of it I wanted between the Tele bridge pickup and the wide range humbucker in the neck. I couldn't find it in my local guitar store, so I wound up ordering it sight unseen (only time in my life I've bought a guitar without playing it first). It finally arrived, I plug it in, and I hate it. It plays nicely and feels great, but it just sounds completely dead. I tried to convince myself for years that I liked it, but it just didn't work. Even replaced the pickups in case that was the issue - still sounded bad. I did eventually wind up selling it to buy a Jaguar that I love, but I still miss it occasionally, even though I definitely made the right call.