What makes a guitar a keeper?

Okay, here's the premise:

You are allowed one guitar (yeah, right)

Anyway, why do you keep your choice?

Not so much interested in brand/model, but what makes a keeper a keeper?

ON EDIT:

Thought I had a poll attached, I guess not.

The categories were:

Tone

Feel

Sentimental value

Investment value

Originality

Other

Yes.

/emoticons/default_ph34r.png

Seriously, mostly the first two, but i have some sentimental favorites, too.

Overall, my favorite guitars are the ones that challenge me to play better/different/whatever.

For example, i got the Howard Roberts when i was still pretty much a (very poor) shredder. I knew when i first played it, it was a keeper, because i approached that guitar very differently than i did the Cali or the Soloist i had at the time.

Same with the Duotone.

The Studios and the Artists all just sound great and fit very comfortably.

Great topic. /emoticons/default_ph34r.png

Yes.

For me, it's not a single factor, it's a combination.

A "keeper" has to resonate naturally and sound good unplugged. I need to feel it in my chest when I play it.

It also has to sound good plugged in through a variety of amps.

I've found that a guitar that sounds great through an old Fender amp with absolutely no distortion will sound good through just about any other combination of amp and effects, so that's my primary test.

It also has to look cool and make me look cool when I play it -even if I'm by myself in my basement /emoticons/default_ph34r.png

Oh, and it can't be a Peavey.

Okay, I'll pee in my own bed.

I gotta go with feel.

With all the pedals/effects/modeling amps available, I think I can recreate most any sound I need.

But if the guitar doesn't feel right to me, I'm not gonna reach for it as much.

Just my $.02....

Primarily tone then feel. Feel can eventually be overcome if the tone is phenomenal. I dont keep pretty guitars if they sound bad or have fatal issues.

specialk said:

Okay, I'll pee in my own bed.

I gotta go with feel.

With all the pedals/effects/modeling amps available, I think I can recreate most any sound I need.

But if the guitar doesn't feel right to me, I'm not gonna reach for it as much.

Just my $.02....

Click to expand...

I have to admit, it is feel with me also. I have owned many guitars. Some I bought on eBay or "not touched" for what ever reason. (Rickenbacker - John Lennon, Red Special - Brian May, etc) or I just always wanted "that model" or whatever.

I have kept my '81 Hamer Special and my Ernie Ball EVH thru out the years and they were the ones that just felt right. Also my Ovation Breadwinner feels great although it doesn't sound as good as the other ones.

Feature set, feel and tone would be the primary factors (in that order) at this point, but that's because I'm not sentimentally attached to any of my guitars. If I had a guitar that my wife or kid bought for me, that would be the last to go (I don't encourage my relatives to involve themselves gift-wise in my guitar hobby for that reason).

-Austin

For me a genuine keeper has to score well in a number of areas. I'm not bothered by investment value; nor do I want to pay a premium for arbitrarily decided collectibility or bling. I begin by looking for quality of construction and exceptional woods (so that I don't pine for the next one I see that comes up for sale). Because I buy online most of the time, I then test for tone and feel when the guitar arrives. Some people talk about a honeymoon period - my new guitars go through a boot-camp phase, and if they come up short they will invariably be resold. Repeat this process enough times and you end up with some irreplaceable guitars.

Don't you love it when they turn out to sound and play as well as they look? /emoticons/default_ph34r.png

I have a Yamaha SBG200 that I have less than 200 bucks in. I'll probably never let it go due to the fact I couldn't buy something of equal quality for that price.

Feel

I bought my second Wolfgang and even though I loved my first one it just didn't feel as nice for some reason. Literally from the day I got it the my first Wolfgang went unplayed. So down the road it went and I've had that second one for nearly 10 years and it is still my number one guitar. I've probably gone through 100 guitars in those 10 years probably over a dozen Wolfgangs and just late last year I found another keeper. Strange cause they're all CNC made with very little human craftsmanship to them.

As for it sounding good through a variety of amps.....no way, I've never seen a guitar that can sound like heaven through one amp and pure shit through another, like a Wolfgang. It hates Fenders and I used to love my Fender amp. Now I play Genz Benz another keeper.

Tone and feel for sure

First, I have no business being in this thread.

With that out of the way, I feel like I have a keeper now.

I think I'm going to have to vote for "wow."

I used to look for features, thinking that if I owned only one guitar I want it to do everything (trem, frets, splits, piezo, LEDs, waffle iron).

I also only bought guitars at great prices, as I was going to sell them sooner or later (mostly sooner).

I wanted mint and pristine, all original without mods or significant work.

I wanted (and still want) them to look cool.

I feel pretty darn sure my Sunburst is a keeper. I love it. I say "wow" every time I play it - heck, every time I see it. It meets almost none of my former criteria.

- I paid significantly more than market price

- I then had it refretted (adding even more to the price)

- I replaced a pickup (more $)

- It has only (egad!) 22 frets

- no trem

- no coil splits

- much finish checking, nicks, cracks, wear

At this point I'd lose my ass if I tried to sell it, but I have absolutely no desire to anyway.

So, I am calling this my keeper. I think it's the "wow" thing, as I've had resonant, great looking, great playing guitars in the past and have been able to sell them with no regret. Any reasonable person would be thrilled with any guitar I have owned; all top notch.

So, ummm, "wow" is my answer.

Oh, and it can't be a Peavey.

Gotta Say "Hamer" on the headstock. Tone and Feel. I really want to grab Camstones Standard but I decided to Logoff and wait it out. I went and pickup my 91 Standard, plugged it in. It was still in tune. 2 Minutes into jaming the amp when down. I spent 20 More minutes jamming to songs on that guitar unplugged. It rings like a bell. So does my Monaco and my 77 Sunburst. They have that extra, whatever it is.

Response. My old Les Paul responds exactly as expected. It's like an extension of my pea brain. I had a Studio that I loved the feel of, but regardless of what I did with pickups and settings and whatever, I couldn't get it to respond the way I needed it to. It hurt to sell that one, but after 2 years of trying, it just wasn't gonna happen.

I think if a guitar stays in tune well, typically all the other

things (tone, resonances etc) falls into place. Some guitars

are just different than others. I do believe there are guitars

that are stunningly beautiful that can be dogs.

That said, sometimes a guitar can fool you. I just bought a

tele with callaham tuners and expensive glendale saddles. I

couldn't believe someone who had such good taste about cool

vintage repro stuff could set up a guitar so badly. I swapped

everything back to original and put on .010's and the thing slays...

BadgerDave said:

For me, it's not a single factor, it's a combination.

Click to expand...

+1

I play my best looking guitar the least. It feels great to my hands, but it just doesn't sound right to me. And I paid more for it than I paid for four other guitars that I play more often combined. None of 'em look as good. Two of them are more ergonomic (the other two less). But all of them sound better.

So yeah, I've got a $150 Korean made Dean that I play more often than a $3K+ Hamer USA. My Eclipse, Artist Korina and Newport all jockey for #1.

-Jonathan

Sam said:

For me a genuine keeper has to score well in a number of areas. I'm not bothered by investment value; nor do I want to pay a premium for arbitrarily decided collectibility or bling. I begin by looking for quality of construction and exceptional woods (so that I don't pine for the next one I see that comes up for sale). Because I buy online most of the time, I then test for tone and feel when the guitar arrives. Some people talk about a honeymoon period - my new guitars go through a boot-camp phase, and if they come up short they will invariably be resold. Repeat this process enough times and you end up with some irreplaceable guitars.

Don't you love it when they turn out to sound and play as well as they look? /emoticons/default_ph34r.png

Click to expand...

Well said. This is why I go through so many guitars. What decides a player/keeper is how it feels and the tone must be felt in my chest as Badger Dave states.

In this order:

1-Looks

2-Weight

3-Neck "feel"

4-Ditto on resonating acoustically.

I know what I like and I measure all guitars against that standard. Using this, I was able to eliminate solidbodies altogether, because I came to like chambered guitars better. From there, it's just a matter of mating the guitar with the right pickups, and judging playability.

Looking at my stable, what makes each a keeper:

Studio Custom - my 40th birthday present from my wife. That. plus the cool trans orange finish over quilt, and it has a monster fat tone.

Artist Korina Custom - weight, and the fact that the corroded gold hardware makes this one nigh impossible to sell, IMHO. Still looking for the right pickup combo for it, it seems to be my rotating pickup test bed.

Artist Korina P-90 - noticeably heavier than the Korina Custom, this one flat out rawks with those rude SD P-90s. Plus it has a nice trans yellow finish, not TV yellow but a true trans yellow, that livens up the natural Korina perfectly.

Studio Custom - the trans black flametop I got recently is still getting pickup tryouts - but it plays better than any of my others, and it's the only one with an ebony fretbord. Right now it has a WCR Fillmore in the bridge. Might try a Rio.