Guitars you've bought JUST because they looked cool

[hessodreamy]

I'm a bit of a GAS addict. Getting older and having more cash generally means I can be less careful about my guitar purchases. But sometimes I get a bit too trigger happy. Sometimes I can't help but want some guitar because I just looks so freakin' cool. Oftentimes I won't even do proper research like check out demos. Most of these were fine sounding andplaying guitars, but I wouldn't know because I was all about the looks!

- CIJ Jazzmaster in burgandy mist. I just HAD to have one with a matching headstock. And offsets are cool lately. Not sure I even had a clear idea of what they sounded like

- Cort Sunset. That retro vibe, bigsby, filtertrons, the curl of the white pickguard on the black. How could it fail?

- Telecaster classic player thinline deluxe. Telecaster, humbuckers, thinline. I'm sold! No matter how many times I'm left unimpressed by wide range pickups, I had to have it! I had hand-wound pickups and a bigsby (and new bridge) ordered before I'd even played the guitar.

- Fidelity double standard (prototype). Bit of an indulgence to go booteek (though it was reasonably priced). Had no demos of this configuration, just bought it on looks alone because I fancied a purchase.

 

[The Little Guy]

I’ve jokingly started referring to my collection as the museum. I’m thinking of giving up playing and moving into collecting, and I’m still relatively young. I think I’m about to a point, though, that I won’t have GAS again for a while. After my newest purchase arrives on Friday, that is.

 

[JayFreddy]

Guilty as charged! Lol

 

[srolfeca]

Exactly none, ever.

I seem to look with my ears and fingers- the headstock on my Parker Nitefly was an abomination, and my DeArmond Ashbory bass was worse.

But they both played and sounded great, so by the end of the first week, I thought they looked great.

 

[brookdalebill]

I'm guilty of being charmed by cool looking guitars.
I have purchased many guitars because of their appearance.
I guess I'm Shallow Hal.

 

[johnny k]

Guilty as charged! Lol

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is the Flamekat a nice guitar ? it sure loks good, but otherwise ? playability and sound wise ?

 

[AAT65]

My Shergold Masquerader SM-03SD is the nearest I have come to this — it’s the only guitar I own which I bought without playing.
NGD thread here — http://www.tdpri.com/threads/ngd-—-shergold-masquerader-sm03-sd.814433/
I was attracted by the Tele bridge combined with Strat middle and neck pickups (I know, I could have gone Nashville Tele, but something about that just feels wrong to me) and was interested anyway because I used to own an original Masquerader from the 1980s... but what tipped me over the edge was that it has an all-rosewood neck (rosewood neck, fingerboard and binding) which is rare anyway and vanishingly so at that price-point. When Anderton’s has a couple with £200 off I couldn’t resist!

 

[SixStringSlinger]

Never bought one, but when my friends and I first started playing guitar, we all lusted after one of these at one point or another.

 

[ricardo1912]

I have done that a couple of times. I recently bought an Obey Telecaster because it looked a bit different and I'd never seen one before. There was no way I needed another guitar but it was at a good price. Funny little thing with very raucous pickups that plays well after a decent setup.

 

[voodooblues]

I haven't, but I would so rock a v.

 

[jayyj]

This one definitely fits the description. I'd just sold an antique Kumalae ukulele for the equivalent of about $800 and the same day this Electra popped up on Olivia's Vintage for exactly the same amount. I'd always wanted a blonde 335, and this had the nicest top I'd seen on one, so I figured, what the heck. It's actually a really cracking guitar that stands up against my Gibsons very well, so it turned out to be a good purchase.



However, when it comes to cool looking Japanese archtops my holy grail was always the Yamaha SA 50, particularly the rarer Pearl series versions that had very cool metallic finishes - they're impossible to find in the UK so I had no idea if they were actually any good and I wasn't paying a four figure sum to find out, but a Pearl series one popped up on Ebay a few months ago for £500 and I took a chance. Again, turned out to be a very well made, good sounding guitar and you can properly dive bomb on that vibrato so I've been happily trying out Kevin Shields whammy effects on it for the last few months This is the Pearl Glacier version - the finish was a bit of a mess with a lot of bad touch up attempts but I've been gradually sorting it out by buffing out the added paint and it's coming up well, although need to rephotograph it now!

 

[JayFreddy]

is the Flamekat a nice guitar ? it sure loks good, but otherwise ? playability and sound wise ?

I love the pickups. Sweet and creamy just like a mini humbucker is supposed to be.

However, the image of the guitar is much more flamboyant than the mellow jazz tones that it produces.

The other observation/complaint is the square dice knobs take some getting used to. There is a reason for round knobs, just as there is a reason for round tires.

Mine actually has a genuine Bigsby tremolo, and with some Vaseline on the nut, it stays it tune very well.

So she's kind of like a girlfriend who looks like a dragstrip queen, but who just wants to stay home and make cookies.

Looks can be deceiving, but I like cookies...

 

[johnny k]

I love the pickups. Sweet and creamy just like a mini humbucker is supposed to be.

However, the image of the guitar is much more flamboyant than the mellow jazz tones that it produces.

The other observation/complaint is the square dice knobs take some getting used to. There is a reason for round knobs, just as there is a reason for round tires.

Mine actually has a genuine Bigsby tremolo, and with some Vaseline on the nut, it stays it tune very well.

So she's kind of like a girlfriend who looks like a dragstrip queen, but who just wants to stay home and make cookies.

Looks can be deceiving, but I like cookies...

Thank you !

 

[studio1087]

I bought an Epiphone Emily the Strange for drop D songs at gigs mainly because I thought women would like it.

It worked.

And then there's the cat and the penguin guitars.

 

[Tobias]

Yup. A schecter propaganda. Don’t have a pic handy, but Google.

 

[BigDaddyLH]

I haven't the money or the brashness, but I'm attracted to deconstructed guitars.

 

[Southpole]

I no longer have the Firebirds but I still have the 81 Gibson Explorer.

 

[DrBGood]

​

And then it didn't take long to realize that it also plays and sounds great. Like a few minutes ...

 

[Lawson]

Saw this thread right after I pulled the trigger on a '63 Framus acoustic by pictures alone. I have a seriously good feeling about it. Looks to be taken decent care of!

Edit: Well seems I don't know how to add a picture...

Here's a link anyway https://imgur.com/a/z0GedxY

 

[kafka]

Turns out I really like it, too.