Owning the guitar you want!

[JimiH]

Weird question I know but here's a history of my guitar buying (Not that many )

All the guitars I've ever wanted was because I liked the guitarist.

Guitar one

Wanted - Gibson 335 (Wil Seargent, Echo & the bunnymen)

Got - Columbus Crest Gibson copy (My first guitar, still have it, Dad wouldn't pay for the 335, dont blame him now)

Guitar two

Wanted - White 70's Strat (Hendrix)

Got - Jap sunburst strat (They had no white ones in and I couldn't wait)

Guitar three

Wanted - Hamer Chap with boomers (Vernon Reid)

Got - Hamer Diablo (No chaps in and prob too expensive at the time)

Wanted - Gibson J200 (Oasis)

Got - EJ200, Epiphone version

So there you go.

Anyone done the same?

Cheers

Geoff

[django49]

Definitely. But I was happy when I was fortunate enough to be able to move up to "the real thing" after going the more affordable route early on in my "scuffling days".

[Punkavenger]

Not trying to sound like a hipster but It never even occurred to me. However when I bought my SG I did look up on the internet who played one (after I bought it) ... I'm always more interested in things like sound and playability, neck size, humbuckers or single coils, weight etc. Even color would be more important than who played a specific guitar. Of course I'm not in a cover or tribute band or even trying to sound like anyone specific. I do admire a lot of muscians like Hendrix and Trower, Eddie Hazel, Junior Brown, Peter Green etc etc but my playing is so shitty that I could never hope to emulate them.

[G Man]

Can't say I've ever bought a guitar based on someone else who used a similar guitar, but then again, can't say I've ever tried to cop someone else's sound. Looks like you've had fun going this route though, good on ya.

[velorush]

Not trying to sound like a hipster but It never even occurred to me. However when I bought my SG I did look up on the internet who played one.

Ha, got a mental image of Punkavenger in tights, horn-rimmed glasses, shaggy haircut, maybe a big scarf, vaping on an e-cig

To the original poster, if I get where you're coming from, about I've had two similar experiences:

1. when I purchased what I have deemed the worst guitar ever built, a Made in India Jackson Surfcaster as a Strat proxy. It was terrible, so I got rid of it and bought the Strat Punkavenger now owns.

2. when I had the best sounding guitar ever, a 1980 Hamer Special, but the neck was too small - of course, differing from your premise, I didn't know it wasn't the guitar I didn't want until I had it. What I wanted was that guitar with a large neck. I bought the Kiz Senior a couple of years ago and viola! There it is!

[cynic]

I didn't know it wasn't the guitar I didn't want

The rarely seen in public TRIPLE negative ladies and gentlemen!!

[Disturber]

Wanted - 1959 Gibson Les Paul

What I got - 1978 Hamer Standard

To me they are equal. Just wish I had the ´59 so I could flip it for cash and buy more Hamer's.

[velorush]

I didn't know it wasn't the guitar I didn't want

The rarely seen in public TRIPLE negative ladies and gentlemen!!

Yes! Two college degrees and yet I STILL EXCEL at STUPID! Sounds like congressional testimony!

Actually, I was at the time, responding to this thread, talking a new employee two states away through the process of connecting to our systems via MS Terminal Server, setting up his new email account on his iPhone and updating Java on a crappy notebook computer that had just landed on my desk. What on earth did I mean by that sentence?

Let's see, how to say that... let's try: "I was in great anticipation of owning the Special, having owned a Phantom A5. When it arrived, it was amazing except for the very small neck. This was unexpected. I decided what I really wanted was that guitar only with a larger neck - like, say, a vintage carve."

Is that any better? Certainly not as entertaining!

I retain my title as the undisputed Jester of Multi-Tasking!

[django49]

^^^^

"To me they are equal. Just wish I had the ´59 so I could flip it for cash and buy more Hamer's."

Ya got that right!

[veatch]

I didn't know it wasn't the guitar I didn't want

The rarely seen in public TRIPLE negative ladies and gentlemen!!

"What dive is he going to do?"

"The Triple Lindy."

[JimiH]

wow, amazed I haven't heard one famous guitar players name on this

Like

Wanted - Les Paul (Jimmy Page)

Got - Epiphone Les Paul

Even now I'm thinking I want a Jem, vai or a JS, Satch. also I do currently have a flirtation with Jazz and I want a Gibson ES 175.(joe pass)

Maybe its just me

Geoff

[Punkavenger]

yep, just you

[JimiH]

My brain tells me there are thousands of kids who have ESP's due to Kirk Hammet or JEMs due to VAI.

God knows how many strats have been sold due to Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix. Les Pauls due to Slash

blah blah blah. I'm a marketeers dream

[Tres Aardvarks]

I got into 12 string basses because of Doug Pinnick (King's X) and Monty Colvin(Galactic Cowboys), and after experimenting with a cheapo Galveston my wife got me my B12M. I wanted an Impact because I played one at a shop when I was 18 and fell in love with it(so I bought mine when I had the chance). I wanted a Californian because that same shop gave me the Action/Reaction catalog (and I kept it for years).

When I was in high school I wanted an Ibanez like a bunch of my guitar heros played, but never bought one. I don't copy people's guitars or their tones.

[Tres Aardvarks]

My brain tells me there are thousands of kids who have ESP's due to Kirk Hammet or JEMs due to VAI.

God knows how many strats have been sold due to Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix. Les Pauls due to Slash

blah blah blah. I'm a marketeers dream

Yes. That's why Ibanez was everywhere in the late 80s. Once they started pouring big $$$ into their endorser program (as Kramer did before they went belly up) the shape of Ibanez changed radically.

[Feynman]

Every time I see anyone famous or cool looking or just tearing it up, I want whatever guitar they have.

Then I buy it, realize I'm not them, and move on to something else.

Later I see the performer again and make the same mistake all over.

SRV/Jimi/DG -> Instant Strat lust

Jimmy Page (even Slash) -> LP

Any jazz hero -> jazzbox

Coolass photo by any HFCer -> pictured guitar

I'm a pushover. I love them all though.

[JimiH]

Yep

I remember first seeing those ibanez's with the stupid carying handle, thought how stupid they looked.

Then I saw steve via for the first time and thought I need that guitar

Maybe you're right, the mindset is "If I get that guitar I will be as good", if only

Geoff

[JohnnyB]

Every time I see anyone famous or cool looking or just tearing it up, I want whatever guitar they have.

Then I buy it, realize I'm not them, and move on to something else.

Later I see the performer again and make the same mistake all over.

SRV/Jimi/DG -> Instant Strat lust

Jimmy Page (even Slash) -> LP

Any jazz hero -> jazzbox

Coolass photo by any HFCer -> pictured guitar

I'm a pushover. I love them all though.

Really? I never knew that.

For me this thread better applies to drums. I started drum lessons in the Sept. 1963, just before the Beatles hit America. I didn't get my first drum set until more than a year later, and it was a Kent 3-piece with one cymbal. No hi-hat, no decent ride, a pedal so rickety I had to tighten the set screw holding the beater halfway through a song. Each of the drums had only six tension rods per head, even the 22" bass drum. After a few years its maple hoops were wavy from the far-spaced tension points. Here I was on Christmas Day 1964, the day I got it.

List price was $265 and my dad haggled it down to $185. But adjusted for inflation that's nearly $1400 in today's money.

Five years later in 11th grade this kit simply wasn't cutting it for the music I was getting into, and it didn't seem to be worth the a la carte prices of Zildjian cymbals and worthy hardware to accessorize these crappy drums. I needed a hail Mary and found it in the Cincinnati Enquirer classifieds, a 1965 (5 yrs old) Ludwig Super Classic with a full set of cast bronze Avedis Zildjian cymbals and all original hardware for $200 (<$1200 in today's money, cheaper than that first POS). I don't have a good picture of it but it's what I'm playing in my tuxedo in my signature pic.

This was all the pro-quality drum set I ever needed--the same kit played by my drum hero, Joe Morello. I did later upgrade the hi-hat and cymbal stand, and added a 24" heavy ride when I started playing more rock. But this kit largely put me through college and provided a lot of fun for a few years after. I have a good Slingerland kit I cobbled together from random vintage pieces, but I miss the simple elegance and monster tone of that old Ludwig. The small pic is a shell pack of a 1965 Super Classic in Sparkling Pink Champagne, which is what I had. Below it is the catalog page for that kit in white marine pearl, though mine had the keystone badges with serial numbers; otherwise everything but the color was identical. Mine came with a pair of 14" hi-hats, a 16" crash, and 20" ride (all Zildjian) plus a 10" Paiste splash. And I got the cowbell as well. Total score, especially when you look at the new price w/cymbals in the catalog.

[Never2Late]

I didn't know it wasn't the guitar I didn't want

The rarely seen in public TRIPLE negative ladies and gentlemen!!

"What dive is he going to do?"

"The Triple Lindy."

"MELON! We need ya!"

[Guest gearwhore]

I have to say my first guitar was 81 special and didn’t know what I had until it was stolen and I have spent a life time trying to replace it. I, as my name says, am a gear whore not out of choice or hoarding ,but never being quite comfortable...So I buy and try...sell what I really hate and live with what I kind of hate and just still pine for my first. I have bought guitars because of players not because I necessary like their playing but because we are the same size and if their guitar works for them maybe it will work for me. Like I have Angus young sg because we are the same size…and be darned his signature guitar fits real nice in my small hands. But it does not sound as good as a $2000 guitar should….I play my too big of neck 1959 les Paul jr because it kills in tone…nothing else like it.

[a.bandini]

I've got an enduring weakness for f-holes and 335-shaped guitars because of Bill Nelson's sunburst 355, and spent my entire net worth ($701.50) in 1979 on a 335 tobacco sunburst, and $110 in 1980 on a Fender Champ hoping to sound like him. (It didn't work, and still hasn't.)

Other than that, I can't say I've ever pined for or bought a guitar because a certain pro played them. Well, maybe I still want a sunburst strat because of Buddy Holly.

Yeah. I do.

[polara]

Well, sort of. I became aware of Hamer because Cheap Trick was my favorite band in high school but I didn't own one until... 20 years later and it wasn't a model any of the guys in the band played to my knowledge. My favorite players include Johnny Marr, Kevin Shields and J Mascis but I never had any particular yen to have a Jazzmaster.

[BTMN]

Joe Perry Mockingbird, it took me 14 years to stumble upon one like it I could buy.

Rick Nielsen Hamer Standards bought one in 1982 but it took me 19 years to get my second and 10 to get my next 4.

Ibanez Destroyer - 1997 Hamer Standard

[Nathan of Brainfertilizer Fame]

I just got a guitar I fell in love with 15 years ago, and have wanted ever since seeing it in a brochure...see this thread.

[FrettyMcgee]

Well, my remaining collection might as well be named "I fucked the 80s", so I should be happy with what I've got.

EVH = Anything Kramer/Floyd related

The Hamer GET SERIOUS Cali ad = took me years to track down a lefty. Yep, the freakin' ad worked on a 15 year old, lol.

Nuno = N4 done!

Gilbert = Ibanez 560 rocketship

Ibanez Iceman = Chinese knock off my brother found for me.

But there is still a couple of relics that make me sigh.

Like a Warlock from a 1984 ad. I was still a little whippersnapper in elementary school, saw it, and immediately NEEDED to have it. I think it was the very first case of GAS. But alas...I've never found one like it.

The other - stay with me - was a black and white semi-striped Jackson Soloist Bruce Kulick had around 1985-86. I used sit and draw it in English class, rather than listen to Miss Wylie yammer on about some short story.