Ever feel like you aren't good enough for certain guitars?

GOHOINC

GOHOINC

Well-known member
Recently I acquired a prs hollowbody ii piezo. Beautiful guitar, played great, sounded cool, but ultimately I moved it on. I've only had one other prs, an 86 custom 24. It left me feeling similarly, I've come to the conclusion that I'm not a good enough player for prs guitars. Ive had a bunch of higher end and boutique guitars and feel I play pretty well for a guy whose played 30 years or more of his life. For some reason with prs guitars I hit "dead" notes. Not saying I don't land on the wrong note or miss things on other guitars but I've never noticed so many fret out or dead sounding notes on any other guitars than the prs I have had... Any of you notice anything like that with a specific brand?
 
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I wouldn't say that makes you "not good enough" for it...you just don't vibe with it. I think SG's are one of the coolest looking guitars out there and people make them sound killer, but I have never clicked with one...they just don't feel right to me.
 
I bought a real vai ibanez years ago when I was just out of high school making payments on it. Got it home and made a video of it on YouTube, which had just been invented, and learned at an early age not to read the comments - just tons of negativity saying my playing at the time didn’t warrant the guitar. I was still playing out in local bands at the time so it didn’t help my self confidence. Overall I just grew apart from the guitar from its sound and moved it on.

Today is a different story. I own extremely rare restored gibsons and I’ve learned my playing is my playing - it’s music that I love and I have guitars worth $125 and guitars worth $8000. There will always be judgmental people. I buy what I want to, and as long as I’m not unconsciously completely embarrassing myself with them or putting my family in financial stress (everything I own is paid for) then I buy it and don’t second guess it for a second. You can’t take it with you and life is way too fucking short.
 
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glpg80 said:
I bought a real vai ibanez years ago when I was just out of high school making payments on it. Got it home and made a video of it on YouTube, which had just been invented, and learned at an early age not to read the comments - just tons of negativity saying my playing at the time didn’t warrant the guitar. I was still playing out in local bands at the time so it didn’t help my self confidence. Overall I just grew apart from the guitar from its sound and moved it on.
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Hahahaha and about 10 years prior to that (‘97) I was 15 and getting my JEM7V for Christmas and my experience with that is why I never understood the “too good for me“ sentiment I see pop up sometime.

I was only playing for 3 years when I got it and, like most inexperienced guitarists, thought having a Vai guitar was going to make me play like Vai. When it didn’t, I was intimidated at first, but very quickly got in the mind frame of “Well now you have a guitar without any limitations, it’s up to YOU to make it do what you want” and I would not be the player I am today had I not grown as a player with that guitar, having that mentality.

Similarly to the AxeFX; I only cared about making high gain presets when I first got it, but within 6 months I bought a Strat and started getting into different genres and tones as a result of never playing through them before and finding I loved them. You can certainly grow into gear and I feel very strongly that if you look at gear with a “there’s no limits here”, there’s a ton of room to expand yourself in.
 
No it’s not “not good enough” it’s just whether it works for you or not. Some things you can adapt to but may not be optimal and some things may just be wrong for your hands/fingers and how you like to play. Some of us are more finicky than others but I tend to think the longer you play the more of a preference you develop just because you eventually begin to understand what works and feels better to you. Neck carve, fretboard radius, bridge type, weight and cut of the body, it all makes a difference.

Some guys like big and tall frets, some guys like them thin or small or barely there at all (they’re the ones who probably have skeletons buried in their yards).
 
Interesting subject. Recently played a buddy's Tom Anderson Icon. Love it. Play it well. It's more $ than I'd pay for a guitar. My gf heard me playing it. She brought it up tonight, said I sounded really really good playing it. I said my 335 was the most I ever spent on a guitar, and it's $2g less. She, wonderful devil on my shoulder that she is, said it'd be worth it to grab an Icon. It got me thinking....
Perhaps I should move on one of my Gibbys to afford a TA.

I once, late 90s, had a PRS C24 10 top. Loved it. Was afraid to take it anywhere. It was so beautiful, like antique furniture. Didn't want to risk a ding. Flipped it. These days, I'd have kept it and beat it up.

I dunno. I'm a hobbiest at best. Feel like I can squeeze the most out of a Squier or a TA. I'm not "good enough" for most of my gear. But I love it, and we only get one ride in this spinning rock. So maybe I'll get a TA. ;)
 
Reframe the situation for yourself.

The quality of the guitar you have doesn't reflect how good you are or how good you think you should be, it just reflects how much you like playing guitar.
 
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Yeah I don’t really give a shit about that. But, funny enough, most guitars that are very expensive I tend to just not gravitate towards. Things that add price (not value) like gold hardware, binding, fancy wood tops, just don’t really do it for me.
 
LPMojoGL said:
Interesting subject. Recently played a buddy's Tom Anderson Icon. Love it. Play it well. It's more $ than I'd pay for a guitar. My gf heard me playing it. She brought it up tonight, said I sounded really really good playing it. I said my 335 was the most I ever spent on a guitar, and it's $2g less. She, wonderful devil on my shoulder that she is, said it'd be worth it to grab an Icon. It got me thinking....
Perhaps I should move on one of my Gibbys to afford a TA.

I once, late 90s, had a PRS C24 10 top. Loved it. Was afraid to take it anywhere. It was so beautiful, like antique furniture. Didn't want to risk a ding. Flipped it. These days, I'd have kept it and beat it up.

I dunno. I'm a hobbiest at best. Feel like I can squeeze the most out of a Squier or a TA. I'm not "good enough" for most of my gear. But I love it, and we only get one ride in this spinning rock. So maybe I'll get a TA. ;)
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Not to throw gas on the fire but here’s an old thread worth a read

Thread 'Played a Tom Anderson Guitar Today...'
https://www.rig-talk.com/forum/threads/played-a-tom-anderson-guitar-today.84607/
 
I kinda have at times, until I read a post here yesterday on speaker break-in. Dude said he refuses to play a speaker that hasn't been broken in to his tastes. This man has set a new standard as far as I'm concerned, and now I believe I'm superior to everything I own or ever will.
 
I've got a couple of guitars that I have to fight a little, or a lot, to really make them sing. They're not my normal go-to instruments, but it benefits me to put in some practice time on those pretty regularly, so when I pick up one that plays like butter I can really appreciate it.

I like that type of guitar a lot for writing and coming up with new ideas, they force me to stay focused and not get distracted noodling and overplaying.
 
I get what you are saying that's it's not about being "good" enough. But in my mind it kind of is. I can play the prs and it is fun, not like I can't play it. It's more that my technique isn't clean enough, like rock vs. jazz. I love the sound of "happy accidents" as my man Bob Ross would put it. The prs I have had forced me to try and play more like a clean technique jazz player to sound good, whereas my Gibby's and bolt ons accommodate my sloppy technique and generate these happy accidents instead of dead notes or noise I noticed from the prs. I've heard this before with some amps being more "honest" forcing the user to play with cleaner technique... With the guitar it's such a weird phenomenon to me though, few thousandths of wood thickness here or there changes the way I need to play the instrument to get what I want. Fundamentally it shouldn't be any different should it?

Maybe that's why tgp leans prs. Pressed Tan pants and clean technique...
 
GOHOINC said:
I get what you are saying that's it's not about being "good" enough. But in my mind it kind of is. I can play the prs and it is fun, not like I can't play it. It's more that my technique isn't clean enough, like rock vs. jazz. I love the sound of "happy accidents" as my man Bob Ross would put it. The prs I have had forced me to try and play more like a clean technique jazz player to sound good, whereas my Gibby's and bolt ons accommodate my sloppy technique and generate these happy accidents instead of dead notes or noise I noticed from the prs. I've heard this before with some amps being more "honest" forcing the user to play with cleaner technique... With the guitar it's such a weird phenomenon to me though, few thousandths of wood thickness here or there changes the way I need to play the instrument to get what I want. Fundamentally it shouldn't be any different should it?

Maybe that's why tgp leans prs. Pressed Tan pants and clean technique...
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I don’t know man, if I bought a very expensive guitar the number one thing I expect out of it is great playability. Beyond things that are preferential like neck carve and fretboard radius, we’re primarily talking about how well the nut is cut, how good the fretwork is, and what kind of setup is obtainable based on how well the whole thing came together.

If I were to go into a store and try out a real pricey guitar and feel that I play worse on it than on something cheaper, I don’t think it’s because I’m not good enough for it. But for instance to me one of the hardest types of guitars to play is probably a strat with a round radius. They always have higher action and for whatever reason a lot of tension on the unwound strings. I fumble around with those and it wouldn’t matter if it was a $500 import or a $5000 custom shop piece.
 
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