Today I’ll talk about the guitars that kind of rotate in and out of play. I guess that would qualify them as my favorites.
First, the one that has been my primary player for the last year. It’s one of those Epiphone Inspired by Gibson Custom Shop ES-355 models. I got it right at a year ago as a “happy new job” present. Love it!
Here are the things I like about it. The neck is perfect on it. It’s a satin red instead of gloss. It has Gibson CustomBuckers in it. The neck pickup, by itself, sounds A.Mazing. Having gone through a couple of other Epi 335s and Gibson 335s, this is the version of those that I think I always wanted.
My primary player before I got the 355 (and still could easily be) is my Epiphone Standard 50s Les Paul. Weirdly, I bought it on a whim. I always thought a gold top LP looked really cool. I had just been through the great gear purge of 2020, so I had some extra gear money laying around. I saw this one on AMS as a blem for like $150 off. So I bit.
I have no idea why it was a blem. It was perfect when it came in. The ProBucker 1&2 that were originally in it sounded really nice (especially the 1 at the neck). The neck on it is what sold me on the 355 I have…I think they call it the 50s C. Whatever it is, it’s the perfect handful for me.
I eventually swapped the ProBuckers out for a BurstBucker 1&2 just to see if it sounded any different. I didn’t like the neck as much, but the bridge sounded better. Also, the BBs were a tad hotter than the PBs. I have stuck with the BBs. This is the guitar that I generally grab if I’m playing out and I’m playing an electric.
One more to go into a little detail, and then a couple of honorable mentions.
Next is my PRS Custom 24 SE. I got it for 2 reasons. First and foremost, it’s hot pink. I think the official color was bonnie pink or something like that. But it’s hot pink. And that’s my second favorite color in the whole wide world, so I had to get it. Second, I had always been curious about PRS guitars.
So I picked it up a couple years ago. It’s a great guitar. Changed out the knobs to be bright yellow (my favorite color in the whole wide world), but that’s all I’ve changed. Out of the box, it was as good as I could imagine. Honestly, the fit and finish were (and still are) impeccable. It plays really nicely. It has coil-splitting. Weirdly, I have never used coil-splitting on any guitar I’ve had that included until this one. The humbuckers on it, to me, just sound average. They don’t stand out in any way. But do the coil split thing, and it’s the first humbucker guitar that, split and in the middle, kind of leans in that Strat-spanky sound. Also, did I mention that it’s hot pink?
Now for the honorable mentions. These get pulled out occasionally, but always end up getting replaced by one of the others.
My Gibson ES-339 in caramel burst. I actually really like this one. The size of it is great, and it sounds really nice. I think my biggest problem playing it is that it took my soooo long to find it (seriously – a couple years of looking) that I’m afraid I’m going to mess it up. It looks good. It sounds good. I’m not sure what else to say about it.
My Fender Road Worn 50s Telecaster in purple. I, honestly, think I got the last one of those that was available new (which is a story I think I’ve talked about before). I never really loved it. I had the same problem with it that I had with the Telecaster I had before it. It just sounded so…generic. Then I swapped the pups out, and it came alive. The neck on it is like a toothpick. Otherwise, I’d probably play it a LOT more than I do. It’s another one that I would gig with just because it’s not going to hurt my feelings if something happened that dinged it up.
My Epiphone ES-335 Traditional Pro. Got this one and really liked it. The jack fell into the guitar, so I took it to a luthier to fish it out. While he had it, I had them replace the Alnico Pro pickups with coil-tapping out for a regular set of 57 Classics that I had sitting on the shelf. It honestly doesn’t sound that different. But it’s the 335-type that I played until I got the 355.
Those are the guitars that I play regularly or on a somewhat regular basis. In the closet I’ve got at least a couple Strats, a Parker, a Gretsch, a couple of other Teles, a Dano copy of a Mosrite, and several acoustics. All of them are great guitars. I guess anyways. I don’t seem to play any of them often enough to know for sure.