I don't see where you should make any compromises on either attribute.

You should be able to easily find a guitar, of almost any model, that will fulfill all of those points.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

It's pretty much all sound and playability for me. A shiny guitar really don't ring my chimes.

Both. It's what I've wanted with every guitar that I've bought. But if I could only have one........then it would be feel and playability.

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"I won't be wronged, I won't be insulted, I won't be laid a hand on. I don't do these things to other people, and I require the same from them."-John Wayne

I can usually make the thing play nice if not sound nice, without spending more than £5 on it in most cases. Anyone with a half hot soldering iron can put a set of pickups and pots in. Give me as much paint as you like, i cant make a ugly guitar look nice. Some can, not me.

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No no and no

When I bought my guitar, it played awesome, the tone was good...but I knew I was eventually going to buy a replacement pick up for the bridge. I could have bought the same model with the humbucker in it, but they did not play/feel the way mine does. I knew as soon as I picked mine up, it was the one for me, and that was before I even plugged it in.

When I knew which pick up I was going to use to replace my single coil bridge pickup, I knew I would have to change the pickguard. Well, what a perfect opportunity to totally customize my guitar. So I started thinking about how I wanted my guitar to look.

For me playability was the key why I purchaced my guitar. Then came fixing the tone (voice) of the bridge pick up only. I still love the neck and middle pick up for tone, so nothing to change there. Next was the face lift.

Even though I bought the pieces backwards, I knew that this was the end result I was hoping for.

Back to the orginal question:

Playability--80%
Tone--15%
Looks--5%

I have to admit I love the way my modification turned out. Sounds just as hot as it looks, and not a bad learning experience to boot.

RK

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RK

2007 Fender Highway 1
2012 American Deluxe
2015 MIM Dave Murray HHH
2010 Fender Blacktop
1987 Fender Avalon Acoustic
2012 Marshall DSL 15 watt head

I would say both because:

1) I paid good money for my guitar and would want to keep it in tip top shape for a long time.

and

2) The guitar should feel comfortable and sound awesome as well

playability number 1

first and foremost i have had nashville power tele with
tex mex pickups that sounded awesome a fishman power bridge
and ran a y cable could do all kinds of things it was candy apple
red (discontinued color for that model ) with a tortoise pickgrd
but i didn't like that slow playing rosewood lifeless neck
so i traded up for american standard with maple neck
different world now i will probably add a third pickup and5-way
switching because i liked those sounds but thats easy enough to
come buy but if you can't play a guitar because it doesn't feel right
it doesn't matter how it sounds or what it looks like hence i do
not own a les paul any longer no offence but the finishes on the
les pauls are imho way more beautiful then the finish options
for strat but i hate the way a standard neck feels

no guitar on earth feels as good in my hands as my american
deluxe strat

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1956 Gibson CS Lemon Les Paul
1957 Fender CS Aged Cherry Strat
1958 Gibson CS Pg 85 Les Paul
1960 Fender CS 3tsb Strat
1961 Gibson SG Wildwood Pelham blue
1966 Fender CS Firemist Metallic Silver Strat

I'm all about the feel of the neck. The finish/colour of a guitar has never been that important to me, personally. If the pickups don't suit you, you can just change those as well.

I'd have to say that how a guitar looks is the last thing to enter my mind when I'm considering buying one, or even just playing one.

Interesting comments.

Keep 'em coming...

We don't need no stinkin' guitar polish either.

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

Hmm...a 'Devilcaster'

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Being able to play and enjoy music is a gift that's often taken for granted.

Don't leave home without it!

I'm all about the sound. Don't get me wrong I'd rather not have an ugly guitar, but if I found a guitar that I thought was ugly but it played and sounded right for me then I wouldn't care about the looks. I had a les paul but sold it as it just didn't feel right after I started playing strats. It was too big, too heavy and the neck too wide, and I couldn't get the clean sounds I like. I think they are beautiful guitars though. Shame about most of the rest of the Gibson range.... Getting off subject now!

I gotta say I need both to really like a guitar. Same reasons already stated; if it's ugly, who wants to play that? Why would you go to the music shop and think to yourself "I want to find a guitar that looks like $@! but sounds and feels really cool"?

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60th Anniversary AD Strat, Deluxe Nashville Tele, Player's P Bass. Mesa/Boogie Mk IV combo, Marshall JCM800, 1960A cab, Genz Benz El Diablo 60, Genz 2x12" cab, too many neat little practice amps and kit projects!

I would have to say both.

For me, I think it's a mix of all three...looks, feel and sound. I guess I'd have to say that "feel" comes first. When I bought my '96 MIM Standard, I had actually been looking at a second Strat which was a "50's Reissue" or something. The other Strat looked great (tobacco sunburst) and the sound was really awesome but it just played like a piece of crap. I just couldn't stand the feel. With my MIM however, the color was wrong (Lake Placid Blue...I really wanted a sunburst) and the sound...well...let's just say it was typical of those Mexican pickups. However the feel was simply awesome. In the store I just sat there and closed my eyes while I was playing her and she felt like "an old friend". I knew I could change the sound...and now she's got Duncans in her that just rock. The color...well...over the years, the Blue has started to grow on me (especially now that I've gone with black trim). So really, I have no regrets at all.

That said, "looks" do run a very close second in my book. To me, this is quiet analogous to looking at women. When you see a woman in the mall or something, you're not usually attracted to her because you think she might be "smart", right? There is an aesthetic appeal that comes in to play first. This was the case with both my Squier Standard and my Seagull S-6 acoustic...in both cases, there was something about the looks that caught my eye just as soon as I walked the the door. In the case of my Seagull, I had in fact been looking to get an Ovation that day but this Gull just called to me. Now of course if either one had of played like crap, I would haven't bought either...both of them played as lovely as they looked.

Now with electrics...or more specifically Strats at least, I guess that "sound" is probably at the bottom of my list believe it or not. One of the lovely things about electrics and particularly Strats is that if they don't sound good, it's generally very easy to change and you can make those changes over the course of time. New pickups here...new bridge or trem block there, etc.. Sometimes it takes a little bit of trial and error (for me at least). For example my MIM has actually been through a few sets of pickups before I settled on the Duncans. With the number of guitars I own, there is also something of a "trickle down effect". For example I had a set of Fender Vintage Noiseless pups in the MIM for a while. They did sound good but it wasn't the sound I really wanted for that guitar. So again the MIM has the Duncans now and the 08' Squier Standard (the Pretty Strat) inherited the VN's. The stock Alnicos from the Pretty Strat will probably work they're way into the Bullet at some point, and so on. For better or worse, I tend to suffer from "tinker-itis" so it's not really a big deal for me to play around with things until I get them exactly the way I want them. In my mind this also makes each instrument much more "personal"...I doubt there is another '96 MIM Standard out there that's exactly like mine. She's -my- Strat and I made her that way and I'm damn proud of her! I know there are folks out there who simply look for that "one perfect instrument", but that's just not me. Even if I were to purchase a Custom Shop Strat, sooner or later I'm sure I would change something. I always look at buying a new guitar as the beginning of the journey, not the end and to me it's not always the destination that's important, it's the journey and all the little things you discover on the way.

So I guess to sum that all up, for me it would be about 40% feel, 35% looks and 25% sound.

Peace,
Jim

'Mostly with dgonz and Strataholic; it has to be a total thing including appeal, vibe, playability, sound, quality and frankly, 'am loath eo compromise on any of them.

To risk going into personification or getting too "cosmic,", a guitar is here a friend / companion / playmate / confidant / confessor / mystical vehicle.

"You are my lover, you're my best friend, you're in my soul." (Rod Stewart)