In love with a memory

rhinocaster · May 16th, 2008, 09:26 PM

"The best guitar I've ever played was a....."

I'm as guilty as anyone saying things like this. A guitar or amp haunts your dreams. You remember it as the best instrument you've ever come across, and you judge all other by the memory of this special one.

Of course, the reverse can also be true. You played a $400 or $4,000 instrument and it was the worst thing your ever tried.

A little story. In my early 20's I went on a fishing trip with my older brother. We fished for several days around Catalina Island. One evening I went ashore to get greasy cheesburgers and beer. I picked up MGD. We sat on the boat and watched the sun go down, and had THE BEST burgers I've ever had. I couldn't believe how great the beer tasted. On par with the best beer I'd ever had. Well, I've had plenty of MGD since that day and I'm here to tell you that it's not as good as I remember it from that day. It simply took part in a perfect moment and I assigned it a higher value than it deserves.

How much do we do that with an instrument that we haven't played in a long time? How can we even remotely compare it to the guitar in our hands at the moment?

I think that we're all nuts.

How good are my guitars right now? They're mighty fine instruments. I'm going to leave it at that!

J-man · May 16th, 2008, 09:37 PM

My guitar teacher's Jerry Donahue MIJ Fender Tele.. I played it way before I owned a Fender (I was 14), and it was the best playing/sounding guitar I've ever laid my hands on.

I don't know whether the guitar was that great, but to me it was.

Rumble · May 16th, 2008, 10:37 PM

Two guitars stand out in my memory, and neither one is a rare or high-end piece. One was a 1981 Gibson Sonex and the other was a 1995 Vintage White American Tele, both stock. Nothing special about either one except that they seemed to really sing when I played them. The Sonex had the hottest pickups and produced the sweetest distortion of any guitar I've ever played, and the Tele played like butter and sounded like lobster, if you know what I mean. I have nicer guitars now, a '79 Les Paul Standard and a highly modified Hwy 1 Tele and both sound awesome. But those two rather mundane guitars just had a sound I still remember.

rhinocaster · May 17th, 2008, 12:41 AM

We all seem to have those memories, but how much of that is colored by the single moment or period in which the experience took place?

The moment that we assign to the best guitar or amp could coincide with a sudden expanding of our sense of good tone. I really couldn't tell the difference between my first solid state Gorilla amp and a Blackface Deluxe when I first started playing. The day that I heard the difference between amps was a revelation. It would probably be a mistake to assume that the amp I was playing when the difference became clear was one of the best amps I've ever played.

If we don't have the instrument to compare to our new instruments, I think that our memory of the sound is suspect.

We remember the way we felt, but maybe not so much the actual sound involved.

Big John · May 17th, 2008, 12:13 PM

Yeah, it's the 'total package' isn't it ?
I played at the Silkeborg festival in Denmark when it was excruciatingly hot on stage, we stayed back after the gig and had a few beers and some food, the hotel was in easy walking distance so i made my apologies and left.
I got back, had a shower and just fell into bed and will always look on that as the absolute, best, never to be repeated nights sleep i EVER had !!
My bed was near an open window and my arm fitted perfectly so my hand just flopped out of the window, the bed was big, airy, clean, cool and comfortable and fitted me perfectly, the heat had gone out of the day but the air was just pleasantly warm, the stars were out and i tell you, i felt so good i didn't want to go to sleep !!

Well, thats how i remember it .......

On the other had it was a mostly drunk muso falling into bed and thence into a stupor but if i had got a $20 beater guitar in that room at that moment it would have been the best ever i'm sure.

drewsblues · May 17th, 2008, 12:24 PM

Kind of a different spin...

I worked in a music shop back in the early 90's and the owner order *one* G&L ASAT Tele, cherry sunburst, as a "test instrument" to see if his customers would be interested (he mainly dealt in school band rentals). That was, without a doubt, the best instrument I had ever played up to that time (I'd been playing for 3 or 4 years). I obsessed about it. It would be mine... oh, yes... just as soon as I saved up the $500 or whatever it cost at the time.

So a week before I've got enough rolls off nickels, dimes, and quarters to get the thing, my buddy goes in and buys it. That b@st@rd! I was so depressed, I went out and bought a Stratocaster.

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, he called and mentions that he's not interested in playing so much, now that he's got the kids and all... did I want to buy it from him? So I went and played it again, for the first time in years.

Meh...

It's a nice guitar, but not nearly what I remembered. It just kind of lost its mojo, I guess.

Maybe I should buy it anyway...

JNE · May 17th, 2008, 01:48 PM

Well, this topic is very actual for me at the moment, since I just have found my dream guitar.

I had fell in love with the looks of '70s Telecaster Deluxe when I first saw a picture of it in Duchossoir's Tele bible (the Wine Red one). I also fell in love with the sounds of Deluxe was close to buying a '75 around 2000, but in the end couldn't afford it. Then during the years I had tested a '78, another '75, a RI and a '76 but never had the money, but the mojo was always there, even in the RI (regardless of the wrong body shape compared to the original

).

Then I got the G.A.S. for Deluxe again a few months ago. I was frequently checking Ebay and also our local musicians network, even though you very seldom see Deluxes for sale here in Finland. But lo-and-behold, last week there was an add of this '74 Deluxe in our local site, and I knew I had to check it out. Before the test session I said to myself "If this Deluxe has the same mojo the other ones always seemed to have, I'll get it". Long story short, when I picked up the guitar and strummed it for the first time the mojo was instantly there! There was no turning back

CatfishStudios · May 17th, 2008, 02:09 PM

Hell yeah, don't we all have these story's? My wifes Uncle has a 1969 Gibson Les Paul Custom Black Beauty Fret-less Wonder ....I know its long, but thats what it is...this thing weighs a ton and a half, has tone like nobodies business..and plays like hot buttered Teflon.This is the guitar I long for..or one like it...It sits in a case collecting "value" because he plays a MIJ Tele or Squire Strat, .....

When I was young and knew everything, around 13 years old, I thought Telecasters and finger-picking, and jazz,country,blues was for geezers. The first 5 years of playing, I was all about Stratocasters..but..I finally picked up one of the ugly misshapen bastards ... and played it through a Twin Reverb...BANG! No wonder so many good players carry these ugly planks around!The Tone! The Feel! The subtle undertones and clarity! Punches through the mix like no other! Now I'm 32..and saying a Tele is ugly is fightin words! They are a gorgeous blend of form and function, which I just couldn't see at first..kinda like the taste of coffee...

On the flip side...I always LOVED the look of Paul Reed Smith guitars...and had this craving for one for soo long..took me at least 3 years of playing a bunch of them to realize I DON'T REALLY LIKE THEM! The ones Ive played are so muddy sounding..kinda sterile, soulless tone..with AMAZING necks..but for 3500 bucks..man I want it to look good, sound good, play good, and be durable. PRS just doesn't seem worth the asking price...the realization was kind of a let down. I can get a custom built axe, of superior wood and quality, with superior tone, from local luthiers for 2/3 the cost. Marketing almost got me!

May 16th, 2008, 09:26 PM	#1 (permalink)
rhinocaster Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Oregon Age: 44 Posts: 1,352	In love with a memory "The best guitar I've ever played was a....." I'm as guilty as anyone saying things like this. A guitar or amp haunts your dreams. You remember it as the best instrument you've ever come across, and you judge all other by the memory of this special one. Of course, the reverse can also be true. You played a $400 or $4,000 instrument and it was the worst thing your ever tried. A little story. In my early 20's I went on a fishing trip with my older brother. We fished for several days around Catalina Island. One evening I went ashore to get greasy cheesburgers and beer. I picked up MGD. We sat on the boat and watched the sun go down, and had THE BEST burgers I've ever had. I couldn't believe how great the beer tasted. On par with the best beer I'd ever had. Well, I've had plenty of MGD since that day and I'm here to tell you that it's not as good as I remember it from that day. It simply took part in a perfect moment and I assigned it a higher value than it deserves. How much do we do that with an instrument that we haven't played in a long time? How can we even remotely compare it to the guitar in our hands at the moment? I think that we're all nuts. How good are my guitars right now? They're mighty fine instruments. I'm going to leave it at that! __________________ Just because I "Don't" get it doesn't mean I "Won't" get it!

May 16th, 2008, 09:37 PM	#2 (permalink)
J-man Moderator Poster Extraordinaire Join Date: Apr 2004 Location: North Wales/Scarborough Age: 20 Posts: 6,261 9 Photos	My guitar teacher's Jerry Donahue MIJ Fender Tele.. I played it way before I owned a Fender (I was 14), and it was the best playing/sounding guitar I've ever laid my hands on. I don't know whether the guitar was that great, but to me it was. __________________ Write a wise saying and your name will live forever. - Unknown "The large print giveth and the small print taketh away." - Tom Waits

May 17th, 2008, 12:41 AM	#4 (permalink)
rhinocaster Tele-Afflicted Join Date: Sep 2006 Location: Oregon Age: 44 Posts: 1,352	We all seem to have those memories, but how much of that is colored by the single moment or period in which the experience took place? The moment that we assign to the best guitar or amp could coincide with a sudden expanding of our sense of good tone. I really couldn't tell the difference between my first solid state Gorilla amp and a Blackface Deluxe when I first started playing. The day that I heard the difference between amps was a revelation. It would probably be a mistake to assume that the amp I was playing when the difference became clear was one of the best amps I've ever played. If we don't have the instrument to compare to our new instruments, I think that our memory of the sound is suspect. We remember the way we felt, but maybe not so much the actual sound involved. __________________ Just because I "Don't" get it doesn't mean I "Won't" get it!

May 17th, 2008, 12:13 PM	#5 (permalink)
Big John Friend of Leo's Join Date: Feb 2006 Location: Suffolk UK Posts: 4,655 35 Photos	Yeah, it's the 'total package' isn't it ? I played at the Silkeborg festival in Denmark when it was excruciatingly hot on stage, we stayed back after the gig and had a few beers and some food, the hotel was in easy walking distance so i made my apologies and left. I got back, had a shower and just fell into bed and will always look on that as the absolute, best, never to be repeated nights sleep i EVER had !! My bed was near an open window and my arm fitted perfectly so my hand just flopped out of the window, the bed was big, airy, clean, cool and comfortable and fitted me perfectly, the heat had gone out of the day but the air was just pleasantly warm, the stars were out and i tell you, i felt so good i didn't want to go to sleep !! Well, thats how i remember it ....... On the other had it was a mostly drunk muso falling into bed and thence into a stupor but if i had got a $20 beater guitar in that room at that moment it would have been the best ever i'm sure. __________________ If you are going to be a bear, be a grizzly !!

May 17th, 2008, 12:24 PM	#6 (permalink)
drewsblues Tele-Meister Join Date: Apr 2008 Location: Southern California Posts: 260 9 Photos	Kind of a different spin... I worked in a music shop back in the early 90's and the owner order one G&L ASAT Tele, cherry sunburst, as a "test instrument" to see if his customers would be interested (he mainly dealt in school band rentals). That was, without a doubt, the best instrument I had ever played up to that time (I'd been playing for 3 or 4 years). I obsessed about it. It would be mine... oh, yes... just as soon as I saved up the $500 or whatever it cost at the time. So a week before I've got enough rolls off nickels, dimes, and quarters to get the thing, my buddy goes in and buys it. That b@st@rd! I was so depressed, I went out and bought a Stratocaster. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, he called and mentions that he's not interested in playing so much, now that he's got the kids and all... did I want to buy it from him? So I went and played it again, for the first time in years. Meh... It's a nice guitar, but not nearly what I remembered. It just kind of lost its mojo, I guess. Maybe I should buy it anyway... __________________ -- Drew

May 16th, 2008, 10:37 PM	#3 (permalink)
Rumble Tele-Holic Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Georgia Age: 37 Posts: 943	Two guitars stand out in my memory, and neither one is a rare or high-end piece. One was a 1981 Gibson Sonex and the other was a 1995 Vintage White American Tele, both stock. Nothing special about either one except that they seemed to really sing when I played them. The Sonex had the hottest pickups and produced the sweetest distortion of any guitar I've ever played, and the Tele played like butter and sounded like lobster, if you know what I mean. I have nicer guitars now, a '79 Les Paul Standard and a highly modified Hwy 1 Tele and both sound awesome. But those two rather mundane guitars just had a sound I still remember.

May 17th, 2008, 01:48 PM	#7 (permalink)
JNE Tele-Meister Join Date: Mar 2003 Location: Jaervenpaeae, Finland Age: 34 Posts: 141	Well, this topic is very actual for me at the moment, since I just have found my dream guitar. I had fell in love with the looks of '70s Telecaster Deluxe when I first saw a picture of it in Duchossoir's Tele bible (the Wine Red one). I also fell in love with the sounds of Deluxe was close to buying a '75 around 2000, but in the end couldn't afford it. Then during the years I had tested a '78, another '75, a RI and a '76 but never had the money, but the mojo was always there, even in the RI (regardless of the wrong body shape compared to the original ). Then I got the G.A.S. for Deluxe again a few months ago. I was frequently checking Ebay and also our local musicians network, even though you very seldom see Deluxes for sale here in Finland. But lo-and-behold, last week there was an add of this '74 Deluxe in our local site, and I knew I had to check it out. Before the test session I said to myself "If this Deluxe has the same mojo the other ones always seemed to have, I'll get it". Long story short, when I picked up the guitar and strummed it for the first time the mojo was instantly there! There was no turning back __________________ "If you can't sound good with 1 pup, how you gonna sound good with 2?" - furrfurrfurr

May 17th, 2008, 02:09 PM	#8 (permalink)
CatfishStudios Banned Tele-Holic Join Date: Jun 2007 Location: Portland, Oregon , United States Age: 33 Posts: 727	Hell yeah, don't we all have these story's? My wifes Uncle has a 1969 Gibson Les Paul Custom Black Beauty Fret-less Wonder ....I know its long, but thats what it is...this thing weighs a ton and a half, has tone like nobodies business..and plays like hot buttered Teflon.This is the guitar I long for..or one like it...It sits in a case collecting "value" because he plays a MIJ Tele or Squire Strat, ..... When I was young and knew everything, around 13 years old, I thought Telecasters and finger-picking, and jazz,country,blues was for geezers. The first 5 years of playing, I was all about Stratocasters..but..I finally picked up one of the ugly misshapen bastards ... and played it through a Twin Reverb...BANG! No wonder so many good players carry these ugly planks around!The Tone! The Feel! The subtle undertones and clarity! Punches through the mix like no other! Now I'm 32..and saying a Tele is ugly is fightin words! They are a gorgeous blend of form and function, which I just couldn't see at first..kinda like the taste of coffee... On the flip side...I always LOVED the look of Paul Reed Smith guitars...and had this craving for one for soo long..took me at least 3 years of playing a bunch of them to realize I DON'T REALLY LIKE THEM! The ones Ive played are so muddy sounding..kinda sterile, soulless tone..with AMAZING necks..but for 3500 bucks..man I want it to look good, sound good, play good, and be durable. PRS just doesn't seem worth the asking price...the realization was kind of a let down. I can get a custom built axe, of superior wood and quality, with superior tone, from local luthiers for 2/3 the cost. Marketing almost got me!