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Sitting here bored waiting out the rain from the hurricane and thought this might be a fun thread for the forum to look back on how we ended up with the guitars we have today. I have been super fortunate to get to own some great guitars and be their caretaker for periods of time before moving them on to someone else in the endless quest of finding what we are all looking for. I consider myself primarily a player rather than collector and want guitars that serve a purpose for what I am doing musically. I also have wanted only 1 or 2 guitars to be my main instrument to bond and grow with and after a lot of moving parts in the last few years I now feel like I am there.
Bold guitars below are still around as I am now down to 7 (not counting the first broken guitar) and likely staying here for the foreseeable future:
1999: Epiphone Strat copy: My first guitar in middle school, compete with 80's style hockey headstock. Immediately covered with punk stickers and started learning Nirvana tunes. Currently broken. and in my basement for sentimental reasons.
2004: Brian Moore i8: Korean made model bought at a local guitar shop. I was very into shread at the time and it had a super fast neck. It took over as my main guitar in high school for awhile until I traded it for a Fender USA Pro Jr that I still own.
2007: Fender Eric Johnson Stratocaster: This became my main guitar for almost a decade, playing it in original bands, cover bands and blues gigs. Still own this one and probably always will, even though I don't know the last time it left its case in years. I was a one guitar guy until.....
2010: Gibson J45 Standard: bought on a whim at Guitar Center. When I picked it up and played it I knew I had to have it, financing it with a Guitar Center credit card (ahh to be young). I had a bunch of acoustic gigs at the time so it came in handy and paid for itself over the years, and it is still my only acoustic flat top and will be around forever.
2011: Fender Hot Rod Telecaster: I really loved this guitar. It and the EJ Strat went with me on every gig for for the next 5 years. Sold it to a buddy of mine when I got another telecaster below.
2014: Gibson Memphis ES-335: I worked at Guitar Center at the time so I got an absolutely smoking deal on it. Say what you will about GC, but the employee discounts are no joke even though you spend everything you make. Around this time is when I started to try and learn jazz and I wanted a full humbucker and its versatility let me use it on a bunch of gigs for years. It doesn't get played too frequently now but I do use it on pop gigs where I need its versatility. I will probably keep it around forever; I know as soon as I sell it I would want to have a 335 again.
2015: Gibson 1967 ES-330: Another GC employee purchase for an unbelievable deal. I didn't really need it at the time, but for the price I grabbed it. It was a CLEAN example that I later sold and made a good profit on with the recent uptick in prices. It was a killer guitar, but eventually I could not handle the small nut width anymore so I had to part with it. This was my first vintage guitar and gave me the bug....
2017: 1959 Gibson ES-175: I was really getting into jazz now and began studying it in school. I lurked around on this forum and got the archtop obsession. A clean 1959 came up for sale on this forum at a great price, with the body being the ONLY original thing about the guitar. Every other aspect of it had been gutted for Les Paul parts and were all repros. I wanted to love this guitar and have it be the one, but for some reason I never, ever bonded with it and continued to use the 330 and 335 on gigs so I traded it to my teacher for....
2018: 2006 Benedetto Bravo: My second archtop. I bonded more with the 2.5" width than the larger 175, but this was helpful in proving to me that I do not like a 1-3/4" nut width. Super well built guitar I used throughout school and on every jazz gig for years. Later sold when I found a new archtop below and didn't see the need in keeping around multiple 16" ones, especially since I wanted a 1-11/16" neck
2020: Fender Custom Shop Thinline Telecaster: I bought this on super sale at the start of the pandemic as a spring graduation gift to myself for finishing school. Sold some amps and my other tele above to fund it and break even. I don't really ever see myself selling this one. I use it on some jazz gigs, but mainly for pop, rock, blues, etc gigs along with the 335.
2020: 2006 Trenier Custom RW: My archtop obsession is now in full swing and I had to have a carved archtop. Being stuck at home without gigs led to a lot of forum and Reverb browsing. This came up online at a good pricing in the fall of 2020 and I jumped on it. I planned to try it out and either flip it if I did not like it or sell other guitars if I did. Ended up selling the Benedetto after I fell in love with the Trenier. I used it for the last 3 years on recordings and gigs before recently parting with it to a forum member here to fund another purchase below...
2021: 1935 Gibson L50: Super cool guitar I bought on a whim when I found one nearby at a great price. Unfortunately its thick v-neck of the era really, really aggravated the thumb on my fretting hand so much so that I could not play guitar. Only owned it for a month or so before I traded it in along with an amp and a little cash for....
2021: 1953 Gibson L-7C: I love this guitar. So much fun to play, and sounds great. I mainly just play it acoustically at home and not gigs. It is far from a collectors model with fixed top cracks, repro pickguard, non-original pickup, many dings and scrapes, etc. but just a killer playing example of an L-7. It stays on a stand and I pick it up and play it almost daily.
2022: 1973 Gibson L-5CES: Like many here I held this up as the pinnacle of archtops, but I never had even played one before. One came up for sale locally, which is rare around here, so I traded the collectors quality ES-330 for it. Like the L-7 above it was definitely a players model and had some wear and tear. It did have that instant, smoky Gibson archtop tone I love, but I am a smaller guy and decided that 17" and wider than 3" guitars are not for me when it comes to playing 3 hour plus gigs. This was far too nice a guitar to be not gigged with for me so I sold it when I bought:
2022: Buscarino Corey Model: I knew this one was it almost immediately. The size was perfect, unlike the L-5. It was way more feedback resistant than the Trenier for louder gigs, and more versatile with two humbuckers and the center block for when distortion was needed. Painfully sold the Trenier, a Heritage semi hollow I picked up in a trade, and parted with the L-5 and this became my number one archtop. I don't really see that changing.
2023: Buscarino Starlight: I had been interested in this model for years and they rarely are available used. I decided to buy it and flip it if I did not like it. It is such a unique, versatile guitar. It sounds great, and is so, so comfortable to play. I think these two are the pair for me when it comes to jazz guitars.
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08-30-2023 11:37 AM
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Ok, let's see...I'll just do my electrics because that has a real progression...
1993, I got a Washburn Strat copy after I had been playing my dad's acoustic for a year. I played this until I found a Korean made 335 copy about 2 years later.
That guitar was a dud with a frozen truss rod, and I eventually came back to a Fender style, this time with a tele. I thought I wanted a nice Strat, but I didn't actually like any of them. Then I saw a shop worn 1996 American Standard tele sitting on a stand...it was love at first strum. I bought that with money saved from working at a grocery store in 1997.
I still have that guitar.
That was my only guitar for years...around 2006-07 I acquired a few more telecasters, with the intent of taking the parts I liked from each best and assembling a "super tele." That tele is still my main tele today, however, I went one step further and replaced the whole neck around 2011.
I was pretty much a tele only guy until 2010 when I got an itch for a more "jazz" like guitar. I began with a Hofner Verythin, which was an excellent playing and sounding guitar, but for some reason, I just didn't play it enough. I think it wasn't different enough from my tele.
Finally in 2012, I stumbled upon a "too good to pass up" deal on a 1996 Heritage 575. That guitar remains my "number one" jazz guitar to this day...though I have been playing my tele again as well...
Interestingly enough, the guitars I play around the house most often are two acoustics, a nicer Martin 000-15 and an inexpensive Yamaha NTX-1. Not much time to plug in, I guess. I kind of fell in love with acoustic guitar during the pandemic, and I'm still on the honeymoon.
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Very very cheap tele copy given too my parents when I was 14 I think.
Bought myself an Epiphone Dot about six months later.
Epiphone Joe Pass after that, which I played all the way through college.
My junior or senior year of college I got the Modern Player Tele that Fender did for a while (maybe still does?)
I then sold the Joe Pass and bought one of the first batches of D’Angelico 15” thinline guys. Wasn’t one of the very first but I remember having to keep checking Rudy’s Music to see when they would be there because it was still kind of a thing. 2013 I think.
Souped up the tele with a bunch of weird pickups then eventually sold that and the D’Angelico and got a cool tele style from Sadowsky. I worked there for a while and a friend built it for me. Probably the lifer.
I have that, the old classical guitar I played in college, and an amazing 1975 Yamaha I got for $150 which I kind of love.
(I like teles)
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„GEAR HOUND“ would be an apt description for me - I‘ve gone though 90 guitars during the past 50 years ?! Now I own 13 instruments and that number will hold up I think. The second one I ever got (from my parents) is still in active duty, a Yamaha nylon string that is in-destructible. Got my first good one, a 1963 ES-345 , from a paper ad when I was 16 and habe been trading, swapping ever since, it’s been a lot of fun and has taught me many things. There were 5 different Super-400CES models, 3 L5CES, an L7C, several Ibanez GB10/20‘s, 2 Johnny Smith, a Benedetto Fratello, a couple of Gretsches, Suhr, Tom Anderson, a Stephen Andersen, 3 Collings steelstrings, 2 Martins, 2 Santa Cruz, …
Right now I own 3 archtops, 3 nylonstrings, 3 solidbodies, a steelstring, a bass, a plectrum banjo and a ukulele !
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1969 Eko 3/4 acoustic
1973 Eko Ranger 12 acoustic (12 strings)
1974 Welson SG copy (my first electric guitar)
1983 Suzuki classical (nylon string) guitar
1984 Hondo 335 copy
1986 Ibanez JP20
1986 Yamaha SF 400 solid body
1987 Ibanez GB10
1994 Heritage H 535
2004 Buscarini JBF (luthier Luciano Buscarini from Italy)
2007 Buscarini "Barberini Jazz" model
2011 Ibanez AF55
2012 Buscarini "Venus" (Les Paul size hollow guitar with no f holes)
2014 Buscarini hollow guitar with a Hofner Club 40 shape and size guitar
2015 Fender Mustang (Mexico)
2022 Ibanez AF2000 (waiting for it)
2023 Danilo Bacherini "Dani Guitar" (Italian luthier) headless solid body travel guitar (waiting for it).Last edited by frabarmus; 08-30-2023 at 02:24 PM.
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I have posted this before somewhere on the forum:
In order of acquiring them, though the exact years are beyond my memory:
'80's:
Yamaha acoustic flat top (bought my first guitar with the $ from the sale of my last motorcycle.)
Ibanez Strat copy
Alvarez flat top
Sigma D style flat top
Guild GF50 flat top
Alvarez Yairi flat top
'90's
Fender Squire Telecaster
Heritage H575
Fender American Standard Telecaster
Heritage H576
Started playing some jazz & took lessons during this period.
2000's
Fender ‘62 reissue Stratocaster #
2004 Gibson ES335 Dot
Gibson ES135
Gibson Faded Les Paul Double Cut #
Martin 000-16SGTNE
Taylor T5 Custom
Gibson L4CES #
2008 Campellone Standard 16”
2000 Gibson ES175
Takamine classical
2010’s
Taylor GS6
2006 Gibson L5 CES
Breedlove Bossa Nova electric nylon string crossover
2012 (?) Gibson ES 335 Block #
Eastman E6OM LTD#
Benedetto Bravo
2015 Gibson ES 175 ‘59 Reissue VOS#
Fender Strat MIM
Godin Multiac nylon string
D’Angelico New Yorker (Korean reissue)
Eastman T386
Eastman T486
‘60’s Gibson C-2 nylon string
Alhambra 9P classical
Partscaster w/ Vintage Vibe bridge p/u and Lollar Charlie Christian neck P/U
1981 Alvarez Yairi CY125 (converted to flamenco guitar)
Republic “Clarksdale” Tri-Cone
Martin 00016 Custom*
2019 Hermanos Camps Primera Blanca Flamenco
2020’s
Fender MIM Classic 50’s Lacquer Telecaster w/ Biltoft Vintage Vibe P/u’s installed
Eastman T64VT GB
2019 Jose Gonzalez Lopez Flamenca Negra*
2011 Trenier Model E*
2021 Mijail Kharash CD/IR classical*
2019 Mijail Kharash Blanca*
2022 Mark Campellone Standard Custom 17” w/Biltoft floating CC p/u*
Eastman El Rey D’Ambrosio 7 string*
*Currently own
#Wish I still owned
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Ugghh! There should be a down vote option for the disgusting amount of the word 'Tele' appearing in this post
Originally Posted by mr. beaumont
You and that Julian Lage fellow, should get a real jazz guitar! (bar humbug)
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- S. Yairi classical, made in the early 70s; got it around age 13. Donated it to a music school ca. 2017.
- Early '60s Silvertone/Danelectro 1442 short-scale bass (given to me by a friend of my dad's; sold it in 2020)
- Epiphone ET-270, don't know the year. Got it in 79 high school and sold it after about a year to help fund the SG below
- 1979 (?) Madeira by Guild acoustic (cheap-o copy of a 000 style Martin it basically self-destructed over a period of about 3 years)
- Gibson '72 SG Special (with mini-humbuckers). Traded it away for the Samick below.
- Early 70s strat on long term loan from a friend who gave up playing; wound up not liking it and gave it back after about a year.
- 1969 Gibson Blue Ridge (got it 1983 and kept it until 2020).
- 1989 American Standard Strat, bought it new and still have it.
- 1994/5 Samick HF 650 (traded the 72 SG and an MXR Distortion + for it). Sold it here (IIRC, in 2014)
- 1998 Gibson Les Paul Studio DC (bought it new, sold it IIRC, 2012-13)
- 2005 D'Angelico EX DC (bought it in 2011 still have it, most likely always will)
- Godin Fifth Ave Kingpin (got it here in trade for a couple of pedals, gave it to a relative in 2021)
- Gitane D500 Gypsy jazz (don't know the year; sold it earlier this year)
- Seventy Seven Hawk Jazz Deep (I think it's a 2015). Still have it.
- 2020 Hadean U-bass (still have it)
- 2021 Yamaha guitelele (still have it)
- 2021 Recording King Dirty 30's Series 7. Donated it to a school.
- 2021 Eastman ar308ce (bought earlier this year; still have it).
The net is 4 guitars, 1 U-bass, and 1 guitelele. I try to stick to a 1-in-1-out policy. However, I can't really see myself selling any of the guitars I've got, so if I get something else, I'll either have to finesse it by calling the guitelele a guitar, or break the rule. Tough call, though I'm not actually jones-ing for another guitar right now.
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not enough bandwidth here.....
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2020: 2006 Trenier Custom RW: My archtop obsession is now in full swing and I had to have a carved archtop. Being stuck at home without gigs led to a lot of forum and Reverb browsing. This came up online at a good pricing in the fall of 2020 and I jumped on it. I planned to try it out and either flip it if I did not like it or sell other guitars if I did. Ended up selling the Benedetto after I fell in love with the Trenier. I used it for the last 3 years on recordings and gigs before recently parting with it to a forum member here to fund another purchase below...
Hey Paulie 2- Great to see the progression of your guitars, especially as I'm the lucky dude that got the Trenier. Both the Buscarinos look wonderful. I feel better seeing the guitars you have bonded with and I officially have no guilt "taking" the Trenier away from you!! (And glad to see you put the profit on her to such good use
) Play long and well......Peter
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Don't want to go through it all but bought my first real D'angelico Excel a 1953 blond non cutaway in February of 1980. I was still 18 years old. Since then, always been blessed to always have a real D'a to play. A year before that I bought my 1971 Barker guitar from Bill Barker via friend, and it still gets plenty of playing time. I went up in January to Chicago to get it and was a complete blizzard and white out conditions driving home. At 17 I had drove in the snow enough to know you just go slow and steady on the interstate. I believe the normal 2 hour drive back then took 4.5 hours. But when I got home I got the guitar out and played the rest of the night.
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In the 53 years that I have played guitar, I have owned over 100 guitars and presently I own 20. In the same time period, I have been intimate with over 50 women and am currently intimate with only 1.
It seems that I have commitment issues when it comes to guitars.
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I am the original owner of all the guitars I own currently, except one, a Sadowsky Jim Hall. My main guitars I commissioned two separate luthiers. The JH I drove down to Champaign Urbana on a cold winter day a few years ago to buy.
No regrets. Happy as a clam, but please no clams.
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I’ve always bought the best (not necessarily the most expensive) guitars I could afford. One at a time for many years, always trading up. After a while I didn’t have to sell one every time I bought one.
I don’t want guitars that I’m not going to play regularly, so I try to limit it to one of each type. It’s going to be hard to beat these:
Acoustic archtop: 2016 Rancourt
Acoustic flat top: 1936 Martin 000-18
Electric Archtops: 2013 Comins Classic, 2023 Campellone Custom EP
Semi-Hollow: 1964 ES-335
Solid Body: 1973 L-5s, 1982 Greco “Cougar”
And, of course, a 12 string, a Tele, a classical, a bass, two mandolins, a charrango, a saz, and a couple of keyboards. My needs are simple!
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Wow, my history of guitars is modest by comparison (and my history of women, it would seem).
1978 Takamine F-140S... still have it
1981 Ibanez GB10... still have it
1985 Yamaha classical... traded it for my first amp, that's gone too
1971? Fender Pro Reverb... still have it, my second amp
? G&L F-100... traded the amp for it later sold on consignment, very sorry it's gone
1989 Warmoth Strat partscaster... still have it
2006 Matt Cushman 17" archtop... still have it
Takamine EC-132C... still have it
2003 Squier Affinity Telecaster... still have it
1990 Rick Turner RN-6... still have it
2012 Tele partscaster... still have it
2 long term girlfriends... don't still have them
1 wife of 29 years... still have her and hoping to stay that way.
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1966 - Futurama II
2022 - '63 175
2023 - Aria FA71
Quite a few in between to follow
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Bold indicates current instruments.
- ‘79 Gibson ES 335 - First instrument after finishing college and getting a decent job. Tobacco burst
- Late 50’s ES 175 - The PAF’s had been replaced (At the time I didn’t know what a PAF was.). Refinished natural.)
- Early 60’s ES 125 TC - Cherry guitar, Cherry finish.
- Fender D’Aquisto Elite - Tobacco burst
- Ibanez Johnny Smith copy - Natural. Single floater.
- Ted Megas Athena - 18-1/2” tobacco burst w/ floater
- 1996 Fender American Standard Strat - Tobacco burst. Replaced single coils w/ Seymour Duncan Lil 59 HB’s
- Kiso Ribbecke Archtop - Designed by Ribbecke, built in Japan. Natural finish, single floater.
- Benedetto Fratello - One of the first Guild Benedetto builds.
- Ribbecke Monterey - 17” Blond finish
- Two Ibanez GB 20’s.
- Gibson Super V - Single built in HB. Tobacco Sunburst.
- Tele Partscaster w/ single CC style pickup
- Mirabella Jazz Modern 17” Noncutaway. Natural finish.
- ’64 Fender Mustang
- Eastman 16” Acoustic archtop (No pickup)
- Eastman T145 SM Thinline Hollowbody w/ single humbucker
- 2016 Baker b3 Phoenix (Tele style with two Bill Lawrence single blade humbuckers)
- Forshage Headless
- Grimes Kula Rose Oval-Hole archtop (With flat back). Natural finish.
- Mirabella JBF Hollowbody Strat. Two humbuckers.
- B & G Crossroads Lil Sister - Tobacco burst. Two humbuckers
- Ibanez GB 15 Single floating humbucker. Transparent Red
- ’96 PRS Macarty. Natural finish. Two humbuckers.
- Eastman 486 Goldburst (ES 335 copy)
- 2018 Gibson Legrand
- Trenier Jazz Classic - 17” Natural finish
- Trenier Jazz Special
- Wilkie Acoustic 16” Archtop (In progress)
Last edited by AKA; 09-02-2023 at 02:39 PM.
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Being a gigging rock guitarist comes with some excellent fringe benefits in the female department. Often, you will find company in your bedroom after the gig. Originally Posted by Cunamara
Being a gigging jazz guitarist works out best if you have a wife at home. Otherwise you will be sleeping alone.
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