Bonding with an instrument...

[gwEm]

Here's my fave (hence the username) 1979 Guild S-60, maybe it's the fact we were born in the same year that makes me gel with this guitar so much. It's been gigged, dropped, used and abused but still plays like a dream.

love that body shape!

[PhilKing]

I'm in the Philly camp with names, though I tend to add the year too, like 60 LP Spec, 71 LP Custom or the maker if they are custom made guitars (Wez Junior, Bravewood 58 Strat [I have 4 Bravewood strats so I have to differentiate them!])

[Philly Q]

1984 is not a fine year according to V experts. The body is alder and the neck is maple. Also the neck shape is unsophisticated and the Dirty Fingers are somewhat gruff. At first I hated the Johnny Winter signature. Then one day I was playing a show with it and I realised it was a really awesome guitar.

I had no idea Gibson were making alder-bodied Vs (or indeed any other alder-bodied guitars) at that time, really surprised by that!  :o

The SGV is for me kind of like a strat (I'm really into strats these days), but its got enough Gibson features (scale length and frets) to make it easy to pick up. Also it looks wild, where as strats look boring. Its my strat alternative for live playing. For some reason I really like the neck on it, though it is unremarkable.

I should one day get an expert to measure my favourite necks so I know what I like about them :)

I don't know if there's any consistency at all in Yamaha neck shapes, but about 20 years ago I had a Pacifica 604.  Didn't have it very long at all, I swapped it for a Strat, but I do remember really liking the neck on it - it was rounded, fairly chunky (although perhaps not so much compared with the guitars I buy now!) but narrow at the nut, probably 1-5/8" like a vintage Fender.  I think I like that kind of deep-but-not-wide shape, the complete opposite of a "speed" neck.

[rotpunkt]

Hmm, I love my strat (which is why I bkp'd it) although I'm not really a strat fan... I went out to (probably) buy a tele... but it's my favourite.

I have a vintage 52 hotrod tele that I had to special order... and I've never really bonded with it. Breaks my heart, was my most expensive guitar by a long way!

My Tokai Loverock was bought over the Internet (it looked the nicest out of about 20) and was reasonably cheap. Love that one too! Felt nice straight 'out of the box'.

Couldn't name them though, then again I don't go in for naming things (I did name my last mountain bike but that was an exception/brain phart)

[Lew]

I've owned so many guitars that it's actually a bit embarrassing, if I kept one for a few months that would be an achievement. Looking back, I was practically a trader rather than a player for a long while (which is why it's embarrassing to admit), always searching for the one. I kept trading guitars upwards getting more and more expensive each time.

I had a bit of an epiphany when I got a beaten to death RG550 off another forum for under £200 and realized I was having infinetly more fun with it than all the expensive stuff I had knocking about. All those guitars helped me find out what I didn't like more than what I did like.

Got there in the end, though - I'm practically married to my Daemoness and it's been the only electric I've owned for a few years, it's so cool to see the guitar age  8)

[gwEm]

1984 is not a fine year according to V experts. The body is alder and the neck is maple. Also the neck shape is unsophisticated and the Dirty Fingers are somewhat gruff. At first I hated the Johnny Winter signature. Then one day I was playing a show with it and I realised it was a really awesome guitar.

I had no idea Gibson were making alder-bodied Vs (or indeed any other alder-bodied guitars) at that time, really surprised by that!  :o

yeah, I assume everyone said how Gibson's standards were dropping, not using the right woods, bolt-on neck guitars (M3, Corvus), MDF guitars (Sonex) etc. I imagine it was a bit like now really!

In fact I rather like those 84 Vs, or my one at least. The action can go very low, and to be honest its better put together than my '79 V.. and it has a silky ebony fingerboard!

The SGV is for me kind of like a strat (I'm really into strats these days), but its got enough Gibson features (scale length and frets) to make it easy to pick up. Also it looks wild, where as strats look boring. Its my strat alternative for live playing. For some reason I really like the neck on it, though it is unremarkable.

I should one day get an expert to measure my favourite necks so I know what I like about them :)

I don't know if there's any consistency at all in Yamaha neck shapes, but about 20 years ago I had a Pacifica 604.  Didn't have it very long at all, I swapped it for a Strat, but I do remember really liking the neck on it - it was rounded, fairly chunky (although perhaps not so much compared with the guitars I buy now!) but narrow at the nut, probably 1-5/8" like a vintage Fender.  I think I like that kind of deep-but-not-wide shape, the complete opposite of a "speed" neck.

It is fairly chunky, and the nut width may indeed be a smidgen narrow - I should measure it.

I think its a misconception that thin neck = fast, thick neck = slow. Obviously there are limits, but you can go pretty thick and still play rapidly. I don't mind a Fender Modern C, but any thinner and I don't like it very much, probably end up playing slower then to be honest.

[38thBeatle]

I have two guitars that I have had for over 30 years and I bonded with them many years ago- my old Strat and my Precision bass. But I also have one that I bought for next to nothing, a Fender MIM Tele which hung around the house and was used for noodling around. Until one day when I picked up the wrong Fender case and got to a gig with the Tele. having no option I played the gig and bonded with the Tele (it has country boys btw). That was about 2 to 3 years ago and it has been my main gigging guitar since though I did take my old Strat out for an airing at a gig recently and fell in love with it all over again. So I have 3 guitars  that I love- and love is not the wrong word. My MIJ Strat is nice but I really don't feel the same about it as I do about the others. My Gibson 339 is almost there though. I haven't quite bonded with it yet but I am getting there.   

[JJretroTONEGOD]

I only own ONE good guitar so the bond I have with it is quite special, rather like jimmy page and his 'no1' or his wife as he calls it. When you have less guitars but they are much higher quality it makes the relationship that bit more special. I never give guitars names though!  :lol:

[_tom_]

I never give guitars names though!  :lol:

+1, its just weird! I know some poeple who name their bikes as well which is also odd.

[Twinfan]

Nowt wrong with naming guitars  ;)

Like gwEm, I've bonded most with my two main gigging guitars.  My 'eureka' moment actually happened with my first PRS McCarty - as soon as I picked it up and played it I realised immediately that this was the feel, vibe and tone I'd been looking for in 20+ years of guitar playing.

[bucketshred]

I fell in love with all of my Gibson's as soon as I picked them up. No naming them here for me.

Paddy

[Alex]

It was my wife's idea partly to name my guitars :-)
I call the ESP Eclipse "Goldie", because of the gold hardware, and the Voodoo "Claire", although I don't even remember exactly why.

I think the Voodoo Les Paul is the only guitar I've bonded a bit with... all the other ones are in theory replacable tools for me.