How has your guitar taste changed?

Will · Post by **Will** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 6:35 pm

I started on a 1/2 size Yamaha acoustic. After that, it was a black and white MIC Squier Strat, which I actually played pretty consistently from the age of 10 to about 16.
The first guitar I ever actually chose for myself was my Ric 330 cause I was (am) a massive Beatles fan. I paid a whole year of babysitting money for that guitar when I was 12. I ended up selling it cause it was too big, heavy, and delicate for me to be comfortable with. Then I got into the whole Zeppelin classic rock shtick and got a Les Paul copy and a Gibson SG. Those saw me through for a fair bit - I sold the SG because the fretwork was crap and it balanced horribly. I still have a big callous on my thumb from where the fret ends used to cut it up. The Les Paul got traded for my first decent acoustic.
Somewhere around 8th grade I got into TEH KURDTZ and got my hands on a 1970 Kalamazoo KG-1 with a hotrails. It was a sweet punk guitar. I decided to get something a little nicer so I hit the 'bay. I remember that simultaneously there was a 1970 comp stang, a jag-stang, and a '67 Duo-Sonic all for sale. I ended up with the '67 Duo-Sonic because it was the cheapest. This began the great era of Fender love. I think I had the DS, a Fender Bullet, strat, 2 Teles, and probably some others.
Somewhere in there, I got burned out on electric and switched to acoustic blues for 3 years. I mostly played some janky old dreadnoughts and a really nice Liberty Resophonic, which I still have but needs a new bridge.
When I got back into electric 3 years ago, it was mostly through Sonic Youth so it was still Fender love. I got my Mustang and some funky old copies for alt tunings. About a year ago, I started to get burned out on the distortion/fuzz thing and started looking for cleaner sounds. Lusted after Gretsch for a while, but settled on a '66 Eko 290, which sounded better then any Gretsch I tried. Then I started getting more interested in the jazzy, muted sounds but also wanted TEH CAT POWERZ. I got a '64 Silvertone 1448 and a U1 reissue, which I've started using for everything. I still keep the Mustang in use for jangly sounds, though. Then I bought a '57 Dano U1 night before last - the obsession continues!
For amps, I tried a Marshall once but have always gone back to Fender sounds. Nothing else seems right.

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 8:00 pm

Excellent thread.

I picked guitar up in 1991 at the age of 20, after watching bands on the Uni circuit like Sonic Youth, MBV, JAMC, Spacemen 3, etc. I did'nt know anything about guitars at all so i went down to a local guitar store with around Â£120 and told them i wanted to sound like The Jesus & Mary Chain.
So, they pulled out a Westone Superstrat equipped with a seymour duncan Invader. It was actually a nice guitar and did work well with distortion.
Then i thought i needed something better after a year and bought a Tokai gold wing Strat over a US Fender Strat lol. After about 8 months i got sick of its thin sound so off i went again and traded it in for a Gordon Smith Explorer.
I kept the Gordon Smith for about 8 years but swapped and bought different backup guitars along the way like; Ibanez Roadster II, Ibanez EX Series, Colombus Les Paul, Samick 335, Gibson SG Special, Japanese Flying V, Hohner ST Scorpian, Ibanez RG550, Fenix Telecaster, Fernandes Stratocaster, Squier Telecaster x 2, MIM Fender Stratocaster to name a few.

After around 8 years of playing the Gordon Smith with others i decided to sell it upon seeing a Fender Jag-stang, it was the closest thing i'd get to a Jaguar i thought so i went for it. It was awfull, i traded it in for a Patrick Eggle Berlin which was one of the best guitars i owned.
About a year after i got an Epiphone SG400 and fell in love with it, so i thought i'd trade the Eggle in for a real Gibson SG... MISTAKE!
I never got on with it.

After playing guitar around 10 years i called it a day and went to work away from home and concentrated on raising a family and stuff. I hardly picked my guitar up in 5 years.
Then i got a call from an old Punk friend to start a band up with just my Flying V to my name and later a Gibson LP Junior.
We had a 2 year stint playing around pubs and during that time i discovered the internet (yeah, late i know), Ebay and guitar forums. From there my interest exploded and so did my collection.
Since then i have owned; Fender Jaguars (red, green, black HH, sunburst and burgundy mist), Fender Jazzmasters (surf green, sunburst), Squier Jagmasters (red vista, black), Fender Jag-stangs (red, sonic blue), Fender Musicmasters (white, black), Fender Stratocasters (MIJ white, clear), Fender Toronado, Squier Stagemaster, Squier Stratocaster, BC Rich Warlock, Peavey Raptor, Westbury Standard (black, sunburst), Ibanez Artist, Westfield Les Paul, Tokai Les Paul, Yamaha SG, Ibanez GAX, Fender Mustang, Gould Firebird, LP Junior copies (tv yellow, sunburst), Gordon Smith GS1.5....... are all i can remember at this point.

My conclusion is none really. I love 'buckers into a Marshall but the crystalline clears of Strats and Jags are unbeatable, the Floyd Rose system is brilliant yet i love the tone and simplicity of the wrapover bridge.
So, i try to have all eventualities covered with my collection. To achieve that with one guitar would be impossible for me.

bamonte · Post by **bamonte** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 9:41 pm

Started off with a squier strat of some kind with humbuckers.
Then I got a jag stang which I didn't like very much at all but i got it bc of the whole Nirvana thing, I eventually sold it.
Then I got a Fender MIM strat.
Eastwood airline, which I no longer own
Epiphone Dot
And now Im satisfied with my latest purchase, my Fender MIM Jaguar.

Post by **Hurb** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 9:49 pm

My post needs pictures to demonstrate the changes.

My first guitar I got bought out of argos or some catalogue with out really chance of ever playing it really...it was a stupid thing to buy. I didn't get any lessons or how to books, and I ain't a genius so it sat idol. which is probably a good thing as it was ugly as fuck. I bought it because at the time I thought it looked bad ass I guess

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Few years passed, and I a mate at school was getting a guitar...and I guess jealousy and a wanting to actually learn since never learning properly before I managed to get another. I picked it because I thought it looked nice.
I dunno if this is the exact one, I remember it had a flat top and I played it until the neck bolts gave way and the neck kept coming off. It NEVER stayed in tune.

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Next up I really was in to oasis and so after I came into some inheritance. I bought this guitar along with a fender deluxe amp and a zoom 505(start of my love for effects anyone?) nick d now owns this geet fiddle.

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Next up I can't remember which dano I got first, but they were both with my own money and pretty close together. I got em because I thought they looked cool

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I guess I started getting into the look of jazzmasters and jaguars(mainly) but couldn't afford one so I got the next best thing

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what a pile of shit guitar that was...it could of put me off offsets for good.
then I really had to get teh kurdz, I didn't really want a white guitar but before internets I was very limited in colours.

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I was really confused by the guitar and without internet I had to figure it out myself, bridge took a lot of working I tried all sorts of crazy ideas with the setup. I consider myself an EXPERT NOW THO! I had to have full rock powers so I got it routed for a humbucker in the bridge. I was still in noobville you see.
I had a few cheapos I picked off of ebay after that guitar like

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Not exactly like that one but you get the idea.
I guess my next geet must of been the duo-sonic

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I was looking for a mustang really, and came across this one and was like wtf is that! must have. I thought it was awesome and had plans of buying loads of em.
I also bought my guyatone univox copy after that...still have it after selling it nickd for a bit. I do love the tones You get out of this guitar, although It took a load of work to stop the pickups microfeedbacking.

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after that It was where my heart lies to this day I bought a home put together copy of a jazzmaster

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This despite being very little of a real fender, sealed my fate I love offsets I love jags and I love jazzmasters. And I now have a few of each.
I have tried along with a hagstrom which I liked, but when I needed money there was no question the offsets had to stay and the hag had to go.
I also fell in love with the neck of nicks tele which I bought and although it sounds awesome and that neck is swell...It just ain't a offset and I don't see me ever changing my love em.
The trem is amazing for me they sound great and they are so comfortable and just fit with me. I may mod em and build my own. but they are always a fender offset in there genes.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:07 pm

jesus christ... is that what the duo was like when you bought it? i know the old style saddles are a bit shit but why would anyone do that??

Post by **Hurb** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:09 pm

stewart wrote:jesus christ... is that what the duo was like when you bought it? i know the old style saddles are a bit shit but why would anyone do that??

nah thats not our duo. I couldn't be arsed going through my photobucket for pictures. I only realised the fucked up bridge in the pic after I posted it.

James · Post by **James** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:10 pm

It's not the same PG so I'm assuming it's a different one.

James · Post by **James** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:11 pm

Boo Hurb. Too fast for me.

stewart · Post by **stewart** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:15 pm

phew, thank god for that! it's in its case in the other room, i couldn't be bothered getting it out to do a comparison.

Justin J · Post by **Justin J** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:24 pm

i started playing guitar when i was 13. i had been playing bass for a while (and viola even longer before that), but i had a friend who also played bass and we wanted to play in a band. so i went to sam ash in canoga park and bought a squier telecaster. at the time i knew that i wanted a fender and was only aware of strats and teles. for some reason i went with the telecaster. i guess it seemed more exotic to me. they only came in black and red, so i picked red. that was in late 2000/early 2001, i think.
some time later i played a jaguar at guitar center and fell in love. i wanted one all through high school, but was too lazy to get a job so i stuck with my telecaster. after high school i went off to college, thought it was lame, came home and got a job. i had saved up quite a bit of money and was watching ebay for jaguars and jazzmasters. in june of 2006 i was torn between a brown stained '61 jazzmaster and a green cij jag. i eventually went for the jaguar 'cause it was cheaper than the jazzy (which i think went for $1100 or something way cheap like that) and it was green, not brown. (actually, i just found a picture of that jazzmaster. i can't believe i passed it up.)
since then i've pretty much been into shortscale fenders and have owned a few. i sold my green jaguar to sublimedo and bought a refin '62 which is so amazing it makes all my other guitars look like idiots. lately, though, i have really been wanting a non-fender solidbody. i'm currently looking at either a gibson sg, an aluminum-neck kramer, or a rickenbacker 620 (in midnight blue).

Reece · Post by **Reece** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 10:33 pm

My first guitar was a classical argos jobbie, it stays in tune and intonates well even today so I must have gotten one of the rare decent ones. I then borrowed someone's squier strat (I haven't ever given this back, it's still on my wall

).

This made me realise that the path to teh kurdtz (which i had a mega case of at the time) was humbuckers. Fuck knows why but I walked into a music shop and bought an ibanez artcore, the complete opposite of what I wanted.

I used this for a long time and it was still my main guitar when I bought my tiny terror, although at this point it had new tuners and a new bridge pup. After I got the TT, cowbell put his jazzmaster in the classifieds for a MEGA DEALZ price and I jumped on that.

Then after going to doogfest and realising I had a bunch of money doing nothing I decided I wanted to buy a baja tele, a guitar I've been lusting over since 2007 and before that I really wanted an MIM tele (thank fuck I didn't pul the trigger on that one). I almost bought one in a shop until I decided to check out web prices first. Then about 2 days later fran put his jag up in the classifieds and I couldn't resist. Offset, shortscale and single coils killed a lot of birds with one stone.

I will eventually get a telecaster, it's just taking me ages.

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Mon Sep 22, 2008 11:44 pm

Squier Strat --- > Epiphone G-400 ----> CIJ Jag/Jag-Stang (aquired around the same time, js fell out of favour quickly)----> Martin 00-15 ---> AV Strat ----> Seagull 12-string acoustic ---> Gibson LP 50's neck Standard

I've left out a few guitars to focus on styles I was going for. I also had a squier standard tele I liked very much (signature tele sound and a reallllly slim neck) after the AV strat. Every time I've bought a guitar it's because I've been going after a different style to be my main bag, more or less. I've gone for nicer versions of stuff I've had before at times, but never when I would have both. My epi SG is now modified to hell while the les paul is my stock doublebucker, and I hadn't had a strat for 8 years when I bought my AV, but wanted those clucky in-between sounds again.

I now use my Les Paul and Jag mainly, got the AV strat out the other day, had forgotten how nice it is. Will probably go for a tele at some point.

My amps are a different story. I've gone from Marshall to Marshall to a clone of the 2nd Marshall.

soma89 · Post by **soma89** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 2:13 am

Awesome thread.

For me, my first guitar was a Fender Mini Strat (for kids) when i was 8. I stopped laying untill i turned 14 and bought my self a very crappy Stagg Telecaster...It lasted for about 5 months untill it started to literally fall apart and then i just sold it for 50 bucks (what was left of it). After that i bought myself a cool 1994 Fender Mustang MIJ in sonic blue. I liked it but as time went on i thought it just wasn't the right tone for me, so i sold it. I then got a 60s Fender Coronado for only about $550 with a replacement neck. I think i bought it because it was my chance to get a "Vintage Fender" at a very affordable price. As time went by I liked the tone more and more. It was a very cool guitar...Now i got a 1963 Silvertone 1457, Gibson les paul Special with p90's and diggin' them.

hendrix1234 · Post by **hendrix1234** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 3:20 am

ok here we go.
ive been playing for about 9 years, started late high school.
my first guitar was a crappy japanese tele copy thing form the 70's by audition that my uncle gave to me, it served me well( those plywood bodies are awesome to smash, so many layers),then i bought my first guitar and amp(strat copy with 10 watt park amp), i then had a lefty strat copy and Hawk 70's Sg copy, a couple of les paul copies and some other ones that i can remember.
then i bought a jagstang from my mates brothers friend

and about a year later i bought another jagstang from a pawn shop for i think it was 500AUD which was pretty cheap. i sold both and regretted it but luckily i was able to buy one back as i sold it to a mate;)
i also bought a refinned 1972 sg deluxe from a pawn shop around the same time, for 600 AUD(really nice guitar, sold it to some guy and he ended up buying a MIJ jazzmaster i got later on.
i asked him how the sg was going and he said the neck snapped off

i then had a 83 squier stratocaster i stupidly traded for an epiphone flame top lespaulwhich i then sold not long after.
had a epiphone gothic explorer.
ive also had and epiphone es135,fender mexi deluxe strat,another mexi strat i put together,70's aria 180t? i sold all these 4 to a mate of mine so i can still play them

ehheh

now i have

im pretty much a fender guy, ive tried gibsons and stuff but fenders just seem to fit my playing better.

its crazy when you look back and u started with some crappy guitar and now you have all this awesome gear. Just think of the money

Ninja Mike 808 · Post by **Ninja Mike 808** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 4:00 am

I did some stupid stuff with guitars.

I had a Martin Acoustic (worth about 800 after my guitar teacher set it up).
Then I went to an Ibanez S Series (I wish I still had, it'd've been a cool fixer upper) sold
And then to an Ibanez RG (which i hated) sold
Then i traded it for a Jackson (POS) sold
Then I got a Gibson les Paul (about the quality of an Epiphone, though, only cost 500) sold
Then I got a BC Rich Warlock bronze series 9cause I was an idiot metal head, and I felt bad for making my dad buy the LP) sold (along with what ever little Fender amp I wish I still had)

Somewhere a long the line, this girl gave me my 'Stang, which sat in a closet until I got tired of people asking to buy it from me. A few months back I bought an Epiphone Les Paul Studio. Those are the only 2 guitars that I have that work, but I got a strat knock off that I wanna turn into something awesome.

Stan Kwervo · Post by **Stan Kwervo** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 5:51 am

my brother attempted to learn to play guitar. he failed and kept his Epiphone special II in his closet. i got grounded from video games sophomore year so i tried playing it and sure enough i learned how to do power chords. I learned from friends that Fender and Gibson were the good brands and I refused to like or think any other guitars were cool. it was Gibsons and Fenders for me.

on my 16th birthday i got a Gibson Vintage Mahogany. this is kind of stupid cause i had been playing for less than a year so I in no way deserved that guitar. 2 months later i got an epiphone dot studio. i ended up disliking it in a week, took it back, and scratched my fender itch with a mim standard strat. so i had my 2 les pauls, epiphne and gibson, and my strat. then that year my gibson broke its headstock so i played my strat ALOT. then it got fixed and life was good. then come january headstock got broken again. guy used old glue. he realized this and fixed it again for FREE!. at the time i eyed mustangs. so i saved money and sold the strat before it's 1 year anniversary. and 2 weeks later got an olympic white mustang '69 reissue. glad to say i didnt even have teh kurts when i got it, though when i started out i had "teh tomz (the blink-182 equivalent of teh kurtz. thank god thats over).

then i wanted a 25.5 scale to complete my circle of scales, 24 3/4, 24, then 25.5. i was super excited when the mim Jazzies came out, but couldnt get enough cash at the time to buy one without blowing all my money. at the time i was beginning to accept that squiers and epiphone can equally kick as much ass as fenders and gibsons so i started looking at Squier '51's. i found out all the info about them, common problems, what was good about them. then a month or 2 ago i found out that you can find "secret" things on ebay by misspelling squier as squire. then i got my '51 by sniping with 7 seconds left. and "wah-lah". i have a '51.

so my guitars consist of gibson les paul VH, epiphone special II, fender '69 mustang, squier 51. but that Jazzmaster itch is back so im back to job searching.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:20 am

Hurb wrote:My post needs pictures to demonstrate the changes.

My first guitar I got bought out of argos or some catalogue with out really chance of ever playing it really...it was a stupid thing to buy. I didn't get any lessons or how to books, and I ain't a genius so it sat idol. which is probably a good thing as it was ugly as fuck. I bought it because at the time I thought it looked bad ass I guess

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hahaha

My little cousin totally had that guitar. The neck was AWFUL

Post by **Hurb** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:28 am

Mike wrote:
Hurb wrote:My post needs pictures to demonstrate the changes.

My first guitar I got bought out of argos or some catalogue with out really chance of ever playing it really...it was a stupid thing to buy. I didn't get any lessons or how to books, and I ain't a genius so it sat idol. which is probably a good thing as it was ugly as fuck. I bought it because at the time I thought it looked bad ass I guess

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hahaha

My little cousin totally had that guitar. The neck was AWFUL

It does have robroes though...thats kinda starting on the right foot.

Post by **Mike** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 7:41 am

Everything else is the wrong foot though, unfortunately

benecol · Post by **benecol** » Tue Sep 23, 2008 8:45 am

Wotsit fretmarkers ftw.