What's the best sounding guitar you ever had?

[thunderbyrd]

i own, at present, 7 guitars, plus i've got one i've rented, plus a p-bass. i probably couldn't count how many guitars i've owned, probably in the 40's or 50's. i know there's guys and gals here who have owned many, many more that that.

but of all of them you've had, or still have, which one just plain sounded the best? it might have played awful, or wonderful, but just had a sound and a presence that really stood out/stands out?

of all that i've had, the one that really stood out was a Gibson ES-339. i've owned LPs, Firebirds, SGs, and one ES-335 and they were all really good, but that 339 was impressive. it was FAT. it was LOUD. it commanded the space were ever it was. that is the only guitar i ever played for P&W and the leader asked me to turn it down. it was, for reasons i never figured out, the hardest to play Gibson i ever had in my hands. it was stubborn! it was a not particularly good looking sunburst. i do not know why in the hell i let it go, traded back to the guy i got it from. it is the only guitar i ever sold/traded off that i regretted much.

the 339 is some kind of blessed middle ground in between a LP and 335. the one i had was fatter and meaner than any LP i've had and more than the 335 i had. if you intend to play a whole lot of Cream, get you a 339: big old blues rock nirvana, IMO.


i presently have a Heritage H535 to do my Gibson thing, but this guitar of mine does not sound like a 335, it has it's own thing, a delicate upper midrange that i have never heard anywhere else. it'll get fairly Gibson-fat if i get after it a certain way, but nothing like the 339.

so what you got?

 

[Texsunburst59]

I was told by an old veteran musician when I was in my early 20's to NEVER EVER let a great guitar go. Do what ever you have to do to get money to eat, pay rent, get gas, etc......, but NEVER EVER sell a great guitar.

I listened to this musician, and over the years when I was in a bind and really needed money, I found another way to get it instead of selling any of my instruments.

To finally answer your question, I still have ALL the great sounding guitars/basses in my guitar collection.

I've been lucky to never have any regrets.

 

[cometazzi]

My first guitar, a 1960s badge-engineered Teisco. I'm a staunch disbeliever in 'mojo devices', but something about this guitar is simply magical. Be it the original gold foil pickup, scale length, dried out Japanese wood or something else. These days it's unplayable above the 7th fret and can't really be intonated, but down below the 7th fret it's got the loudest, warmest liveliest sound. It's a one-trick pony but it's a sweet siren.

 

[Stanford Guitar]

For me, this 2006 Ernie Ball is one of the best sounding and best playing electric guitars (with humbuckers) I've ever owned or played. I've played hundreds, if not, thousands of vintage and new grail guitars. This one blows nearly all of them away. I bought it used, surprised someone actually sold it.

 

[smoothrecluse]

My 90’s Telecaster Thinline, when my uncle played it.

 

[thunderbyrd]

I was told by an old veteran musician when I was in my early 20's to NEVER EVER let a great guitar go. Do what ever you have to do to get money to eat, pay rent, get gas, etc......, but NEVER EVER sell a great guitar.

I listened to this musician, and over the years when I was in a bind and really needed money, I found another way to get it instead of selling any of my instruments.

To finally answer your question, I still have ALL the great sounding guitars/basses in my guitar collection.

I've been lucky to never have any regrets.

that old veteran was right. i also owned an SG which was a great great guitar and i sold it. i always have trouble with the strap button on the neck on gibsons, my round belly makes them face the floor. but this one SG, for reasons unknown, hung exactly the way i wanted it to. and it had an excellent big neck. i was trying to raise money for a LP i thought i wanted and sold it. bad decision. but i don't regret parting with it as much as the ES-339.

 

[medownsouth]

A hondo II blackguard tele clone. I rue the day I let that one go.

 

[richiek65]

My first guitar, a 1960s badge-engineered Teisco. I'm a staunch disbeliever in 'mojo devices', but something about this guitar is simply magical. Be it the original gold foil pickup, scale length, dried out Japanese wood or something else. These days it's unplayable above the 7th fret and can't really be intonated, but down below the 7th fret it's got the loudest, warmest liveliest sound. It's a one-trick pony but it's a sweet siren.

Slide?

 

[Old Deaf Roadie]

I had a 70's era SG that I was once fond of & rue the day we parted company.

 

[Matt Sarad]

My '57 TV Special with the '62 ES335 very close.

 

[cometazzi]

Slide?

Not a big slide player, but If I decided to try it out, this is the #1 candidate.

 

[RowdyHoo]

I currently have 7 electric guitars (4 teles, 2 Strats, 1 Les Paul); probably owned a dozen other ones over my playing career/life. My 2020 Fender Performer Tele is my favorite playing and sounding electric guitar.

I have 4 acoustics (Gibson J-200, Taylor Classical, Eastman D40, and a Martin D-18) and my fav (best playing and sounding) is my Martin D-18.

 

[985plowboy]

Martin HD-28V.

 

[thunderbyrd]

My first guitar, a 1960s badge-engineered Teisco. I'm a staunch disbeliever in 'mojo devices', but something about this guitar is simply magical. Be it the original gold foil pickup, scale length, dried out Japanese wood or something else. These days it's unplayable above the 7th fret and can't really be intonated, but down below the 7th fret it's got the loudest, warmest liveliest sound. It's a one-trick pony but it's a sweet siren.

Man, that is just so cool! my 1st electric was a beat to death tiesco.

 

[VWAmTele]

I've got a lot of different guitars - none play better or sound as good to me as my 2012 AVRI 62 Custom Tele. If somehow I could have owned this 20 years ago, I'd have a lot less guitars.
Crappy pic and you can't see the double binding - but it looks like every other AVRI surf green tele out there.

 

[stxrus]

My second SG through a late ‘60s Deluxe Reverb. Almost anything sounded great through that amp.
I’ve had many guitars that I would love to play through my 18w Reinhardt 1x12 combo

My MIM tele, current SG, LP special, and my lonely strat sound good or great through this amp.

 

[GoldDeluxe5E3]

WARNING: SCARY HALLOWEEN STORY:

Not the best sounding guitar I ever had, but the best sounding guitar I ever played.

It should be of no surprise, but it was a faded cherry 1958 Les Paul.

My up and coming band was opening for the big boy band at the Freakers' Ball in the Rubber Room of the Mayflour Hotel in Akron Ohio on October 31st of 1974. The local legend lead guitarist of the big boy band was feeling magnanimous that evening and watched us as we played our set. To my big surprise, he came up between songs with his '58, and asked if I wanted to use it for a song. That '58 was in itself a famous entity all over that region of the state.

I put down my '73 Les Paul Deluxe immediately. My LP was fresh from Lay's Guitar repair with a fresh spit and polish job and played as well as any guitar ever - at least so I thought.

I strapped up the '58 and we launched into Alex Harvey's "Faith Healer" at high volume. I want to stipulate here this is a fond memory of mine, but is in no way a delusion.

That guitar bit and snarled. It moaned and whined. It thumped and crunched. It told a story of its own as I played. It was perfectly balanced on my shoulders. Its neck was thick but only to the point of inspiring confidence. Fingering seemed to be facilitated by an unseen force. There were three different pickup positions, and none of them was wrong for what I was doing.

I don't remember returning the guitar, just strapping my Gold Top back on. The '58 is the only inanimate object I've ever encountered that I could swear had a soul.

 

[cometazzi]

Man, that is just so cool! my 1st electric was a beat to death tiesco.

This one's pretty beat to death. I bought it for $20 in 1988 from a guy who got it for his twin daughters (friends of my younger sister). They didn't really have an interest in it, and when I went to pick it up it was leaning against a shed outside in the rain.

The action is like three feet off the neck, and if you lower it the strings will buzz out on the pickup screws (the one under the big E string has all its chrome plating beaten off from me playing surf and metal tremolos), The tone and volume pots seem to have the shafts pulled out, the bridge has slightly collapsed and the truss rod adjustment spins freely. It's been missing pickguard screws for as long as I've had it.

One time I had it in the corner of my room and the roof leaked. It got soaked. I took off the pickguard and a pint of water poured out.

 

[StrangerNY]

I had a '61 Strat for a while back in the late 70s that sounded perfect. Everything you'd want a Strat to do, it could do it.

Acoustically, I had an old Red Label Yamaha that sounded better than any acoustic I've ever had.

Currently, the best sounding and most versatile guitar I've got is my Trussart Steeltop. The Arcane humbuckers have an amazing amount of detail, and each pickup has a coil tap that gives me a pretty credible single coil tone if I want it.

- D

 

[stxrus]

WARNING: SCARY HALLOWEEN STORY:

Not the best sounding guitar I ever had, but the best sounding guitar I ever played.

It should be of no surprise, but it was a faded cherry 1958 Les Paul.

My up and coming band was playing for the big boy band at the Freakers' Ball in the Rubber Room of the Mayflour Hotel in Akron Ohio on October 31st of 1974. The local legend lead guitarist of the big boy band was feeling magnanimous that evening and watched us as we played our set. To my big surprise, he came up between songs with his '58, and asked if I wanted to use it for a song. That '58 was in itself a famous entity all over that region of the state.

I put down my '73 Les Paul Deluxe immediately. My LP was fresh from Lay's Guitar repair with a fresh spit and polish job and played as well as any guitar ever - at least so I thought.

I strapped up the '58 and we launched into Alex Harvey's "Faith Healer" at high volume. I want to stipulate here this is a fond memory of mine, but is in no way a delusion.

That guitar bit and snarled. It moaned and whined. It thumped and crunched. It told a story of its own as I played. It was perfectly balanced on my shoulders. Its neck was thick but only to the point of inspiring confidence. Fingering seemed to be facilitated by an unseen force. There were three different pickup positions, and none of them was wrong for what I was doing.

I don't remember returning the guitar, just strapping my Gold Top back on. The '58 is the only inanimate object I've ever encountered that I could swear had a soul.

Great story. Thanks