Color and finish, deal killer over Sound, feel and play?

Sound and feel win every time~ but ugly guitar really won't get played much.

 

This is my boat!!! When my bass was in the shop I played the guitar player's, daughter's bass - Daisy rock, rock candy - Awsome pink sparkle - with Dimarzios - I loved it and went looking for one!

It was light, SPARKLEY, great neck and sound.

While I love color - playability and sound trumps it every time for me!

 

Playability is most important to me however if I don't like the look of it in the first place I am probably not even going to pick it up to try it out. Saves me from having to make a difficult decision regarding my own aesthetical hang-ups.
That said, there are very few colors that turn me off. It's more about the shape....for example, I would be real picky about an off-set, no matter how good it felt.
I may need counseling.

 

As long as it's not completely broken, I'll take it.
Well, actually I do like broken guitars too.

Color doesn't matter, if I don't like the color or anything else, I'll change it.

I wonder what color Jeff Healey's guitars were (in his mind)?
Or Doc Watson, Blind Will, Jose..., or if any blind guitarist would even care of such things.

 

It's gotta look great "in its own way" which means it doesn't need to be a 10. I have bought and sold a lot of Gretsches because I LOVE the way they look, like the way they play, but can't get into the filtertron sound like other guitars I own. But yeah, some colours are deal breakers.

 

Looks, playability, sound in that order for me.

 

It would have to be something special for some really odd shapes or colors for me, even if I love the feel. That aside, I'm not picky about color etc. There just some weird things that I just dont need that bad! Like maybe a Warlock, or teardrop shape E Ball etc.

 

I think, obviously, playability is paramount. If a neck doesn't feel right, there's no point in going beyond that. However, if playability and comfort are there, the "appearance" factor can sometimes be overcome. My #1 (avatar) was some kind of fire engine red, which I can't stand. But when I bought it (almost twenty years ago) the price was right, and I was looking for a Telecaster to "mess around" with. The neck felt OK, and I was younger so the weight didn't bother me as much as it does today. I got it home, and immediately took it apart, both to clean it up and to strip the red down to natural. It's been like that ever since, although EVERYTHING has eventually been changed (some multiple times) so that the only original parts left are the body, control plate, and the strap buttons. I "grew" to not like the slimmer original neck, so that, too, got replaced. I LOVE the way it looks and plays now. (except for the eight pounds weight )

 

Something funny happens, at Guitar Factories. The workers slack off when the guitar they are working on is putrid green or pimpin' lilac or Hello Kitty pink. Those guitars only turn out as good as they do, against long odds. The better feeling and sounding guitars so often happen to be coated in a finish the assemblers LIKE.

I this way, I think the very question posed by the O.P. is a little self-ordained.

 

I think I'm in the same boat as many here... if it feels good and plays well, I'm all about it.

That being said, I am drawn to "weird" guitars... you can keep your '57 Sunburst Strats and '59 Les Paul Goldtops; give me a good Vox XII Acoustic Teardrop or a Micro Frets Spacetone.

But they must play well, costs and names aside... I have two Squier Bullet Strats that play far beyond their price tag, and have sold two Taylors because they didn't feel right to me.

And yes, I own and love an Antigua Tele and a Steinberger bass. Hate away...

 

I've kept plenty of guitars that I didn't really bond with just because I thought they looked cool.....A Firebird that was a neckdiver that I could never get to play right but I continued to struggle with because it looked so badass...a Jazzmaster that had a bridge rattle that I couldn't get rid of but I enjoyed looking at it so much I kept it for years without playing it...

I have to be attracted to a guitar's looks before I'll even think about picking it up to see if it's a good player or not.

 

How can you be sure that guitar workers don't like Antigua? I think that's an unfair and uneducated assumption to make.

If you follow Jay Nelson (jncolor) on Instagram, you'll see that he is an amazingly talented painter for Fender, and he frequently states that Antigua is one of the most difficult finishes to spray.

 

I try to be a good son.

My sisters; my Mom's friends never had the knack, so I would grab my wallet and take my Mom clothes shopping. Not really sure why, but we really got things done as a team on this. 50% of the stuff in her wardrobe, came from our trips. And these are the outfits that stay, as other stuff comes and goes.

What I noticed a lot was, the suit might look great on the manikin, but my Mom's complexion is very light and her hair has been brilliant white for decades. And she's always taken it real easy with the foundation and makeup. We had to cross some outfits off the buy list, because when she tried 'em on, they rendered her head invisible - in appearance.

Where am I going with this? We all have seen guitars that appear to look just great, but when we put a strap on it and stand in front of a mirror, there's a mismatch. Could be the guitar is too large or too small. Could be the color makes us look like a Circus Clown. Or makes us look washed out. So, always think in terms of how you are gonna look playing that bass or guitar.

Unless you're buying the instrument for your Mom. :^)

 

Antigua is difficult to get right. All the more reason why the workers hate it. Find me the workers who like something they find extremely hard to do well.

You think I'm unfair and uneducated? Where's your list of references, of these supposed workers who like this finish? Don't you understand that Nelson has found a diplomatic way of diverting questions about his true feelings about this finish? This is exactly what I do when I don't want to disclose how much something does or doesn't disgust me. I talk about how rare it is, or how difficult to accomplish it is. Changing the subject. I like to compliment people here for their new guitars in some way, even if I am left nauseous by viewing the instrument - that's what nice people do.

Your attack is personal. And it is derived 100% because of your emotional connection to this finish. Think about it.

I didn't tell you, in any of my previous posts, how I felt personally about Antigua. I said something about Putrid Green. You filled in the blanks, not me. Something else to think about.

 

Whatever, man... didn't mean to offend. There are more important things to get fired up about than a paint color.

If it truly upsets you, I will remove it... geez.

 

Color has never put me off a good guitar.
Funny shapes can put me off though.
Plenty of finish options annoy me, mostly the highly decorated guitars like some of the cowboy motif styles, though they look fine behind some players.
I'm not a cowboy so leather and rope don't belong on my guitar.
Bright colors are fine though and I even have a pink paisley Tele, so not much for color options get more odd than that until you go Hello kitty, which I think I could deal with if the guitar was really good.

 

Sound wins for me. I can get along with the feel of just about any neck. I have preferences of course. But if something sounds great, I can usually deal with the feel. Of course it has to be within range of being playable...and not dedicated to slide. Ha. Past that, I love to consider the finish!

 

Wood, color, and finish can't be changed - at least not easily. Playability is all down to level frets and a proper setup, which is something I can easily address.

So, I want it all, but only some of it must be built in. I rarely buy a guitar for it's pickups, either, as those affect sound so much, and are easily swapped.

 

I have to like the way a guitar looks before I'll even consider picking it up. However, no matter how much I like the way it looks, if I can't get along with the feeling of the neck, it has to go. This happened to me when I bought an Epi Les Paul Custom in Wine Red. I LOVED the way this guitar looked. One of the players in one of my favorite bands played one and I always thought it looked so cool. The one I bought even had a really cool grain underneath the red color. BUT, I couldn't get past how I hated the profile of the back of the neck, it just didn't work for me. Maybe one day I'll find one that I can get along with the feeling of the neck. I sure hope so, because I love the way they look.

 

Sorry, Lefty...

-tbln