1 Guitar to rule them all? (Page 3 of 4)

This is a great example. Now I need to find "my" petrucci.

Having worked in the guitar business for 21 years and having owned 100+ guitars, I can assure you that there is no such thing as the perfect guitar. Some come close but in the end each model has it's own voice and feel. 

Voice is the way it sounds, on stage, loud.
Different voices will help you discover your own guitar style.   

Feel is the way the guitar interacts with your body, how it resonates, how it feels in your hands. Different 'feel' makes you play a little different and force you to re-think your playing style, reaching new levels of inspiration.

Certain models will just want to make you play certain songs or licks. Give me a Strat and I wanna play Hey Joe or Texas Flood. When I play a Les Paul, Sloe Gin or Since I've been loving you usually come to mind, Give me either one and I can still play each song.

A Strat sounds brighter than a Les Paul and it might be easier to get a chick'n pick'n country sound from a Telecaster then an ES 335, it can still be done on both. It all comes from you.
   
Like most of us, I started out with strats. It took me a couple of years to discover my own style and how to get it from an amp and pedal. After 10 years playing strats, I finally figured out I had been using all kinds of pedals to make a strat sound like a Les Paul. It took some time but I finally got used to the feel and voice of a Les Paul, it also freshened up my playing style.

Right now, I play my Teye guitars most of the time. I just love the feel, I love the voice, I love the look, I even love the smell and all that inspires me to play anything I want. I can make it sound like a Strat or a Les Paul by changing the 'mood' of the guitar and changing my own mood. So it works for me, not against me. All that makes the Teye come pretty close to my perfect guitar but I still love my Strats and Les Pauls and if I need to record a twangy Hendrix inspired SRV lick, I'd still take my beatup '64 Strat!

So there's no such thing as the one to rule um all but finding your perfect guitar is not so hard once you know what your looking for.

Your going to miss them when they are gone.  Unless its an upgrade or your just broke... I'd keep them.  I've had over 30 guitars over the past 13 years and I have to say I miss every single one of the ones that are gone.  They all had a little something that made you grin. When I started my family we had all our kids really fast 3 under 3 for 2 months of it.  As my family grew so did all the bills.  I was glad I had something that I could at least trade in or sell to help out over the years but it hurt every time I sold one.  Plus I have a 5 person family living on a single income of less then $50,000.  Its very hard to do, but when you gotta sell you just got to.  Family first.  But I am a living proof that if you sell all you got your not going to be happy and your going to buy back more stuff.  I mean your on the Bonamassa gear page, that explains a LOT about you! lol.

If one guitar could rule them all, there wouldn't be so many out there, and my pocket book would take less of a hit cause I'd only have one guitar!

- Nic from Detroit... posting on JB's Forum since 6-2-2006
Ask me about my handwound Great Lakes Guitar Pickups
Since 2010, Bonamassa fans have taken advantage of my JB friend discount = my cost + shipping.

Curious how that works out.  I actually took the tremel-no out of my suhr because it was buzzing and rattling.  I replaced with a new unit and still had similar issues, plus it made setups a lot more time consuming (for me).  Maybe just my lack of skill installing it, or maybe I got unlucky and had two bad units... I know other folks that have them and love them - no issues at all - but it didn't work well for me.

I've sold quite a few guitars (and amps) over the last 5 years and don't regret any of the sales.  The money - fortunately - all went towards new gear that I wanted more.  You might regret a sale if you just flitter away the money, but if you sell it specifically to finance something better, go for it.  If you sell it because you have to (family or whatever), that's a different story obviously.

Obviously no single guitar is going to sound and feel like a Les Paul, a tele, a strat, and a 335... but there are certainly really versatile guitar that cover a lot of ground.  To me, that's what this thread is about.

That's what I am looking for, something that covers a lot of ground. The DGT is getting me close. I can describe it has the perfect blend of tele and les Paul. In split coil it's like a tele on roids and in hum bucking it can do the les Paul sounds. It's missing the strat neck pickup tone but I'm now wondering if I can get there with an EQ pedal.

Could you put it through your effects loop possibly?