EMG....Those things make me want to barf. I have some in my kramer bass because my dad had them put in and it's too hard to replace them.I'd have to get all new electronics.

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I LIKE PIE!!!!!

IF I DO SOMETHING STUPID,DON'T SAY A WORD...

....Not so David Gilmour

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"Another day in paradise!"

Ha-ha-ha!! When I was about 15 or so I had a genuine No-Name ultra-el-cheapo Strat copy. I mean, the peghead was BLANK! No name, like I said. I think the damn thing was made out of plywood, or possibly particle board because when you tried to play a ringing chord it kinda just made a "Thunk" noise. Honestly, I think a jackhammer has better tone than that piece of sh** had!! Forget bending those strings -- they were akin to suspension bridge cables. There weren't a lot of choices in string gauges back in those hazy days of my youth -- you had Heavy and Extra Heavy and that was about it. The neck was so roughly made that I dared not slide up or down to the next note for fear of gouging my fingers with splinters. The only way to "set that neck on fire" was with a blowtorch! That thing would've had Jimi Hendrix crying with frustration, let alone a young kid who was attempting to learn to play.

And the amp wasn't much better. It emitted an especially irritating 60 cycle hum at ANY volume level (and I'm sure the "guitar's" cheapo pickups added to that as well!). At anything approaching the halfway level on the volume knob the hum turned into a steady howl. Wide open it would feed back wildly even if I stood in the hall outside my bedroom with the door shut!! In a word, "unplayable." I hung it up very quickly and didn't pick up another guitar until the mid-70's, when a pal helped me pick out a decent acoustic to learn on, showed me the basic chords all over again and had me playing songs almost instantly, thus saving me from practicing boring scales, ad infinitum. I've been playing ever since and have had a succession of good axes come and go.

That was my worse guitar ever.

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"It's about sound and sound alone. Looks are irrelevant. You can have the best-looking guitar on earth, but if the sound isn't there it is nothing more than a beautiful piece of trash. The sound it makes is the soul of any guitar."

Quoted for absolute truth.

The attitude towards 'vintage' instruments honestly leaves me baffled.

I have had the apparent pleasure of playing & owning some pretty old material. I can honestly say that the 1962 Strat I played was dire, the 1972 Tele Deluxe I got my mitts on was utterly underwhelming and the 1959 Les Paul Special I owned was perhaps the biggest dungheap ever. Hated it.

It really annoys me when people say stupid things like, 'if it's made after 1965 I won't play it' and so on... the guitars today are just absolutely sublime.

On the subject of atrocious guitars, there's the above LP Special... plus I owned a Les Paul Studio that nearly made me want to give up playing guitar... and the Lite Ash Telecaster. The last one mentioned was a bastard. Even after changing nearly all the hardware, it was still just a rubbish guitar. No escaping it. It had a new bridge, new GraphTech saddles, new locking tuners, GraphTech string trees, a full fret dress, I even reset the bridge because it was at a wonky angle... just piss-poor quality and no reward whatsoever. What made it even worse was that, at the time of owning it, my PRS was in another country being refinished by the Maryland bods and my Stratocaster was in many different pieces, in many different places... dark times.

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'01 American Deluxe HSS Strat.
'87 Japan HSS Strat.
'11 Custom Shop FMT HSS Strat.

"Without music, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines and dates by which bills must be paid."

The guitar who built my '62 Strat copy used to work for PRS. He quite after feeling that their quality was slipping. He also made a completely unplayable '72 Strat play and sound great.

All talk about owning these aweful guitars begs one question. How did we (skilled players) end up buying such poor specimans? In defense of the '72 Strat I bought that one from chrisguitars.com while I was deployed in Iraq. It needed a good set up and some work on the electronics, but over all it was a great deal at $750 for a hard tail. By the way Chris is a great guitar and has some really nice deals. Check his website at: www.chrisguitars.com.

Again; so how did we end up buying these monsters?

A guitar built your '62 replica?! Awesome!

All joking aside, it is a good question. I've had a pretty large amount of experience with setting up guitars, I've always taken an interest and done it myself. My red Strat plays like butter, has no choking frets and also has no buzzing issues anywhere. Even when I tried to work my magic on a guitar as broken as that Tele- not beginner's stuff- it just didn't pay off. Maybe some guitars just don't want to be played... hmmm...

Either way, I've worked out now that I'm not a Tele man. I love the look, but the sound and the way they play does nothing for me. A Strat is where it's at. But not a vintage one.

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'01 American Deluxe HSS Strat.
'87 Japan HSS Strat.
'11 Custom Shop FMT HSS Strat.

"Without music, time is just a bunch of boring production deadlines and dates by which bills must be paid."

Thanks for catching my gaff. I meant Luthier. I've been a Strat player for almost 20 years. Funny thing is that about month ago I got my Andy Summers inspired Tele back and I fell in love with it. It sounds very unique. Not like your run of the mill Tele. I can't quite explain it. It just sounds cool. I still love my Strats the most. I really feel like they bring more of your personality out.

Worst?

Other than real bad, old cheap copies that were made in thee 60s (and played in the 90's)
I'd have to say, the Gretsch SuperAxe--awkward, bulky, confusing controls, uncomfortable, etc.

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It wasn't Willy-Nilly, it was at crows.

My first guitar was pretty horrible for playing,it had a flat fingerboard,the action was almost 1/2 inch and it was strung with the heaviest strings that Black Diamond(remember them?) ever made.It paid off in the long run because when I got my first "good" guitar-a'66 Harmony Archtone-playing it was just a breeze and my ability to play improved about 5 times over seemingly overnight.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I absolutely agree that we live in a very good time for us guitar players. A very good reference is Pual Balmer's Stratocaster book. In it he said that his '67 Strat was almost impossible to set up, and that his reissue '57 made in '96 is way better. With all of these steps in manufacturing, guitars are better built. Something that I like however is the "hand" going into the guitar. There is a fine line between a machine and human quality. For isntance the CNC machines, CNC just cuts with a predestined route. A human could cut the wood in a way that blemsises would be cut out when the body is being cut. Machines can only take it too far, I hope for everyone's sake guitar building does not become completely automated. I see instruments as an extension of your soul, if no human input is put into it, how are we expected to put out human expressions?I saw a great video on youtube, Fender's factory line in like 1959. Really great stuff. No CNC machines here! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nswcAPvH0P8

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1965 Fender Precision Bass, 1994 Fender '54 Reissue Precision Bass, 2007 Applause Celebrity, 2011 Fender American Special Jazz Bass, 2012 Squier Vintage Modified Jazzmaster, 2013 Fender American Special Stratocaster, 2013 Gibson LPJ

my worst guitar ive ever played was a Ashton AG132 strat copy i got off a mate it had seymour duncan bridge humbucker witch sucked and the single coils were ok on the neck pickup with the tone rolled off and with Distortion it sounded like blues! i wanted to swap the squire's neck pup for the ashton's neck pup! even tho it was a strat knockoff i hated its bridge it had a floyd rose on it

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Musos can be a pain!!!

But if you have 15,000 they will give you free Fenders

Hi i my frist guitar many moon,s ago was a thing called a saki. looket like a thin sg one pick up near the neck was rosewood i think. not much fun to play thinking about it know But back then i reckoned it was the bees nees..Cheers..From..Aus...

+1 Even the frets are painted plastic. They're horrendous.

First Act and Lyon guitars come in a close second, but at least the frets are made of metal.

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Website: http://www.rebeccalaird.com
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Touche"

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The blues ain't nothin but a good man feelin bad.

Funny you should mention the Epi Sheraton (which BTW is made by Gibson!). I couldn't afford a 335 so I picked up a 2nd hand but immaculate blond Epiphone 1989 Korean Sheraton II last year. I just replaced the stock p/ups with a matched set of Seymour Duncan SH1 '59's which are awesome and have turned my Epi into as near a 335 clone as you can get without dropping £2,000! Looks & plays fantastic! I know this is a Strat forum but what the hell - it's a pretty looking guitar so here's a pic anyway! LOL



To be back on topic re the WORST guitar I've ever played, it would have to be an electric guitar sold by Woolworths about 35-40 yrs ago that was the worst piece of *!"* you've ever seen, complete with warped neck & loose switches as standard! LOL

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"I started out with nothing ...and I've still got most of it left!" (Seasick Steve)