Common guitar stuff that's commonly disparaged but you happen to love.

I love my clip on tuners and capo. I don’t care if you think they look stupid.

 

I thought Japanese guitars hadn't been disparaged since the 1980s. Correctly so, as their quality is consistently high.

 

Solid state amps. Not sure I prefer them over tubes in general but I’ve had some great ones and I have zero reservations about using mine for gigs and blues jams.

 

Fender reissue Wide Range Humbuckers, like the ones in my 72 Telecaster Deluxe RI.

Love them.

 

Here is another one I love. Non-master volume, non-effects loop Marshall amps played clean with lots of ambient effects.

 

I like, and use, both pedal and (gasp) clip-on tuners.

 

I like cheap Squier's and Epiphones

 

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Love me a $50 beater guitar fixed up. Fretwork makes the guitar a player or not. Full fret level on a cheap guitar can be an amazing thing.

Relic guitars are dandy -- no worries about scratches. They don't need to live in cases.

Can't stand Gibson headstocks. They look too kicked back like a Lute, and fly off at the most inconvenient times, causing so much drama.

Poly finishes, extra thick, are no problem. I have a Tele that escaped the Fender factory paint department with thirteen layers, probably a sprayer system setup piece, a nine pounder, and it sounds just like all the others.

All maple necks with finish -- more stable tuning through humidity and temperature changes.

Solid State amps -- gawd I hate tube amps. Heavy, high maintenance with tube burnout and constant re-capping, and fragile. Plenty of pedals out there to give 'feedback feel' to picking dynamics. Peavey Bandit is a workhorse among the solid state amps.

I also like this clip



.

 

I like/love:

Tube Screamers.
All types. Prefer the TS9 and TS808, but give me any TubeScreamer and I’ll use it. And like it.

Strat middle pickups.
While my Strat’s neck pickup gets the most use, the middle ain’t too far behind.

Strat bridge pickups.
Yes, I use it the least on my Strat, but when I need to cut through a mix, I’m sure glad that thing is there.

Silverface/Master Volume amps.
I don’t like the ultralinear amps, but the early SFMV amps, especially the Super Reverb and Bassman Ten, were glorious and wonderful.

Non-reverb amps.
My first amp’s reverb function was broken (later fixed). My second amp had no reverb. I doubt I’ve used the (excellent) reverb on my beloved ‘63-reissue Vibroverb even 5% of the time. Built in Tremolo/Vibrato/Whatever is much more useful and important to me.

Low-gain preamp tubes.
I initially put a 12AY7 preamp tube in the NORMAL channel of my 63RIVV to cut down on feedback for harmonica microphones. When I accidentally plugged into that channel with a guitar, I figured out that it was a very sweet variation on that amp’s sound...I still have a 12AX7 in the BRIGHT channel, but the lower gain 12AY7 sure sounds good.

I don’t mind Poly finishes.

I like black guitars.

I like Jimmie better than Stevie (even though I love them both).

 

Seems like everyone wants a beefy neck these days. If you say its got a baseball bat neck, people start to swoon. Me, I like slim, 60s size necks. Love the neck on my Squier Tele standard.

 

Inexpensive acoustic guitars. Our nicest acoustic is a Taylor GS Mini-e, and I love it. $500 iirc, one of us plays it almost daily.

I like my Breedlove (Discovery CE mahog) a little less, but it's still a very good cutaway with electronics and a tight sound, almost like a compressor when you really whale on it. $350 on sale iirc. And our Suzuki nylon string classical... $100 in 2004, stays in tune. These latter two we bought back East and brought here to the very high desert, and neither have had humidifiers stuck in them... no issues with falling bridges or warping.

I dunno, I'm sure the $2,000+ Martins are really nice guitars (I've played a couple), but there's no way I could ever spend that much on one.

 

+1 for solid-state amp distortion; especially 1970s amps e.g. the HH ones used by Marc Bolan and Stuart Adamson (Skids/Big Country) from the days before “tube amps are better” became so much of a ‘thing’.

 

Reading through the comments reminded me of a few more:

-Zero nuts are awesome. Adjustable zero nuts (like on my 2015 Gibson) are even better.

-G-Force tuners. Again, my 2015 LP Jr. has them and I think they are kind of cool.

-Clip on tuners. I don't care that they make me look like a dork. Using a clip on tuner (for guitars that don't have G-Force tuners) means I have room on my pedal board for two Delays.

 

TLDR...

Has anyone mentioned the Telecaster bridge with the raised sides? Since my first guitar was a Telecaster when I was learning to play, it just feels natural under my hand.

 

1. Clear finish on figured wood.
2. In tempo pattern delays.
3. Shoegazing ethereal textures that are useless outside of my studio.
4. The Oxford comma.

 

I have an Antigua, a Blue Flower and a Pink Paisley. I'm not crazy about the vintage frets, but other than that they are tres cool.

On the commonly disparaged gear that I happen to love tip, I have a thing for Variax modeling guitars. I have a first gen model that I made good use of, as well as a newer JTV-69 model just like the one pictured below. I prefer the look and feel of my first Variax, but it does not behave exactly like a regular electric guitar, particularly when it comes to palm muting and harmonics. The JTV-69 behaves just like a traditional guitar, the locking trem is rock solid, and it has magnetic pickups if I want to use them (I never do). I generally don't use its pitch shifting capabilities. For instance, If I want open G tuning, I use a regular guitar tuned to open G. (You also have to make sure that you're headphones or speakers are loud enough so you don't hear the unamplified strings, or everything sounds out of tune.) But I will use the 12 string settings on occasion, even though I have acoustic and electric 12 strings. If the part calls for a Telecaster or another model I have a real-world version of, I try to use it instead of the Variax, but, often, I can't be bothered.

 

I got one of my daughters a Fender Mustang LT25 amp for Christmas, and that thing sounds great. I don't know how easy it is to tweak, but the presets are great.

I've been using Line 6 modeling pedal boards for years. Last fall, I upgraded to their Helix Native plug-in system. It's not perfect -- it's a resource hog and there is a bit of audio lag (the primary reason I've avoided VST amp sims), but it sounds good and it's great to be able to change amp and effects settings, post-recording. Also, I don't have to worry about effects tails when editing audio. On the downside, the catalog of shared user presets on the Line 6 web site is not as rich as it is for other models like my POD HD500, which I had to whip out recently when I needed to do a part with a wah pedal.

And why shouldn't they be? They're so cheap and simple.

Clip on tuners are the best thing ever -- easy to use, accurate and no volume needed. I'd be self-conscious about using one live, but I haven't played live in awhile, and I'm unlikely to do so anytime soon.

 

I really like guitars with headstocks that are always flying off at inopportune times

Vintage split shaft tuners all day, every day

 

I'd like to know the circumstances surrounding the implied opportune times.

 

I like:
Ceramic pickups

'72 Thinline RI non-revoiced WRHBs

SS amps

Antigua anything

Cheap guitars

Music stands with sheet music on them

Steel saddles

White pearloid, the more the better