Looking for the final guitar

[PB+J]

i own a tele and a 175. i much prefer the feel of the 175 (scale length maybe?) anyway my question is why do so many of the same people love the tele and shorter scale archtops when they feel SO different? i like my tele fine, but it feels very foreign when i pick it up

I've never had a guitar with a scale length under 25 inches that I liked. no idea why. 25.5 is the place for me

[Papawooly]

... I bought my "final guitar" about 10 guitars ago... It's a relative statement

[redwater]

2000€


how much is that in normal money

One used Gibson ES335...

[Robertkoa]

The existence of the final guitar is a myth. Many people believe that it must exist somewhere out there, but it has yet to be proven. Get one that really speaks to you and go from there.

Maybe with an even longer Headstock than Heritage or Eastman there can be a company called ' The Final Guitar' - with a name like that they would HAVE to be good.

[Musgo Real]

Maybe because I am older and starting playing guitar just four years ago, my finale guitar would be a new or used Gibson L5 CES, also because of its price.

[rpjazzguitar]

Final guitar is defined only in retrospect.

The "perfect" guitar requires thinking fourth dimensionally. It changes over time.

That's because your skill, physiology (hands and ears), musical taste and finances change over time.

My experience is that guitars that sound terrific when other people play them don't feel comfortable to my hands. Telecaster necks, for example, feel too big and I can't get used to them.

Big, thick, archtops don't feel comfortable to play. I prefer a smaller instrument.

Two nights ago I took a Stratocaster to a rehearsal, playing mostly funk. It worked really well.

Last night, I took the same guitar to a jazz octet playing straight-ahead jazz, and I was very uncomfortable with it. Different amps may have had something to do with it, but I think it was single coil vs HB that made the difference.

To my knowledge, there is no guitar which can sound like a Strat, Tele, 335, L5 and a 175.

There's no good answer. If there was, there would be a lot of people on here who have been playing just one guitar for years -- and I bet that is the exception, not the rule.

On the other hand, you can hardly go wrong. Great jazz has been played with all of them.

[radiofm74]

You’ve had a lot of good advice. Based on the description you’ve given, +1 for the advice of looking for a solidbody (tele) or a semi-hollow (335). I’d go hollowbody only if you were after a more “straight ahead” jazz sound, and in particular a lot less sustain than you get from your current ones.

But in reality, my advice is "I’d take my time". You have a strat and a LP. Both can be made to work very well for modern jazz and cover a broad palette of sounds (especially if you fiddle a bit with the volume knob). This gives you the time to try and understand what it is that you’re missing (if anything) with your current guitars. Once you understand that, it will be a lot easier to choose your next guitar.