My favorite guitars I've ever owned
Let’s keep it to just electrics.
Ibanez John Scofield signature, in custom gloss black. Only 30 ever made. This will forever be my all-time favorite, and to date it is the best guitar I’ve ever played.
Fender Eric Clapton signature, in black. I traded this one to be able to afford the Sco. I had really bonded with it, and while this Strat was pretty heavy, I loved it.
Fender Eric Johnson signature, in tropical turquoise. This is the one I ended up playing the most shows with and touring with, and it’s the one I should have kept.
After I sold everything I owned, I took a Squier Classic Vibe ‘50s Stratocaster and upgraded it to Eric Johnson specs. I ended up spending $2,000 to try and replicate the aforementioned $1,800, turquoise EJ sig.
A quick aside: The soft-V shape neck and rounder radius fretboard of the Eric Clapton Strat was night-and-day different from the D-shaped roundness of the Eric Johnson and Squier CV necks, with their flatter radius fretboards. I think I prefer the two EJ’s (one real and one built-to-spec) to the Clapton Strat, but the Clapton was also pretty comfortable, once you got used to it. I have another Strat build that I’m planning, and for it, I chose a middle-ground neck carve and an even flatter radius.
My 2007 Gibson Les Paul Jr DC, Limited Nashville Edition. This was my first nice guitar. I got it before I had figured out that I really like Strats best. Buying the Ibanez Scofield signature, with its Gibson scale-length, really felt like a return home to this guitar, the guitar I learned so much on and toured with. This was a Christmas present from my mother, and I’ll never forget that day, and then I went on to make so many memories with this guitar.
So why is it last in this Top 5? Well, because it doesn’t play well. It doesn’t stay in tune. The intonation is awful. I’ve beat it to hell. And a single P90 in the bridge position takes a lot of pick-dynamics to clean up and make sound more like the bluesy Strat-players I grew up listening to.