Guitar sound or comfort of playing?

[Jx30510]

Comfort, playability, and feel of the guitar are what I search first. I play 99% electric guitars, and I've found out that most of the sound come from the amp and pickups.
I've been searching for a "jazz" guitar for a few months, and that's why I'm leaning towards a thinline, lightweight, and easy playing instrument first. Maybe a Heritage H530, or a Dangelico Excess Soho..
In my current guitar collection, the very best that ticks all the boxes for me is a Fender American Vintage 59 Stratocaster. Supremely comfortable, a breeze to play, and last but not least it sounds absolutely wonderful. For jazz included.

[JCat]

This is a common question, but the premise is false. We are led to believe that there's a choice between playability on one hand and tone on the other, but this is misleading.

For example; the paradox "it's got the tone of angels, unfortunately it's unplayable" won't happen, simply because if it's "unplayable" it'll obviously sound horrible. Note that a guitar that cannot be tuned won't stay in tune and consequently will sound horrible.

In reality and for all practical purposes, the sound is a result of playability, i.e the better the guitar responds to your playing, the better it'll sound.

Here are a few facts for you to consider:

• The choice of string set will greatly influence the response. The real question is how the subject guitar reacts to your string set of choice and how it'll respond to another string set once properly adjusted.
• The setup of the guitar is critical, i.e the guitar must be adjusted to accommodate your strings of choice. Note that intonation is the ultimate goal and purpose of the setup activity.
• The guitar must be structurally sound in healthy condition, or setup and intonation won't be possible. This includes but is not limited to; truss rod adjustment, fret level and crown, nut and saddle slots, neck angel (vertical and horizontal), bridge radius and string spacing.

A guitar is good enough only when you like playing it. Only when it feels right it'll sound right, because in reality tone and feel is part of the same entity: response.

Ergonomics is a specific topic that rarely makes or breaks a guitar even though this could be critical for an individual player due to physical constraints. A guitar could be too large or possibly too small (too narrow perhaps), too heavy, unbalanced (neck heavy), neck could be too fat or too slim (neck profile causing carpal tunnel pain etc.). But fact remains; if you don't like playing it, it's not good enough.

[JazzNote]

Both, sound as well as comfort, are features of subjective perception.

[Zigracer]

Success at anything in life is about balance. Why should this be any different?

[Bob_Ross]

What is your priority when choosing a guitar:is it good sound or comfort of playing?

I'm not sure it is an either/or decision

...but I will say that I have let a few guitars go because they didn't feel great, but I have never let a guitar go just because it didn't sound great.

[Bob_Ross]

It may sound vain (or even somewhat insecure), but a pink guitar would not be comfortable for me.

Man up, dude!

Plug damn near anything into a good tube amp or a polytone, and it'll get the job done.

One of these days I'm going to have to start a thread How Do You Set The Controls On Your Polytone? because I've been using a Mini-Brute III since 1980 and the only reasons I haven't replaced it are A) it doesn't totally suck; B) it works great on bass; and C) it hasn't died yet, I can't kill it! But man, to my ears there is nothing magical about the sound of that amp.

[bluejaybill]

I'm not sure it is an either/or decision

...but I will say that I have let a few guitars go because they didn't feel great, but I have never let a guitar go just because it didn't sound great.

Seriously? I have let many guitars go for either reason.

Surprised to hear this.

For me it is about equal, uncomfortable and/or bad sounding guitars don't last long around here.

[Bob_Ross]

Seriously? I have let many guitars go for either reason.

Surprised to hear this.

For me it is about equal, uncomfortable and/or bad sounding guitars don't last long around here.

Well, if a guitar truly sounds "bad" it won't last long in my arsenal either...but there's a vast grey area between sounding "not great" and sounding "bad".

Guitars in that grey area often lend themselves to styles/genres/applications that I may not have originally expected, intended, or imagined. E.g., my Ibanez Artcore AF-75 doesn't sound nearly as good as a Gibson L-5CES when plugged into an amp and set to the neck pickup. I was really hoping that axe could be my Poor Man's Wes Montgomery machine. I'm disappointed that it doesn't quite cut it for that application. However,
- it sounds fabulous acoustically!
- it sounds surprisingly unique in a very cool-and-usable way when set to the bridge pickup and played through a slightly grindy overdriven amp.
- it is remarkably comfortable; probably the most comfortable electric guitar I own, even though the others cost 2X or 4X what the AF-75 did.

So I'm keeping it. Doesn't do what I originally wanted it to do, but it is far from being a "bad" sounding guitar.

[Rickco]

And theres the "older" player point of view...comfort is supreme and hearing loss takes the other considerations off the table