Love finding new music with good guitar on it and do it all the time, as I'm sure we all do.
Now and then a special player comes along that's a step above "good" and makes it in to the elite, whose guitar playing is just so amazing, moving, enjoyable etc.
For me, with only one or two exceptions, it always seems to be players who primarily (or exclusively) play a Strat.
I don't jump to the conclusion that it's the guitar that's better than other guitars; I have no doubt that when these players play other guitars (and some do on some tracks) it's just as great.
But it's strange just how ubiquitous Strats are as the main guitar among players that become among my favourites.
Strats are also my own personal favourite guitar to play; maybe whatever brain connections / wavelengths etc. we share that make us both like Strats is also what causes us both to think the same musical ideas, parts, concepts are great.
Comments
The only guitar you'll ever need.
I do have a sort-of Strat, which is my favourite guitar to play, but to make it sound how I want it to I had to put much hotter pickups in it.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I was always going to get a Strat to have "in the arsenal" and the more I played it the more I realised it really was for me and that continued to now where I have 1 SSS and 1 HH Strat and am gradually getting rid of the other guitars, maybe even completely.
I've always found real Strats - and Teles - a little too big... possibly that's why my favourite 'Strat' is my Aria RS, which is a slimmer shape.
I'm also definitely a Rickenbacker player, guitar as well as bass - some of my favourite sounds were done on them*, they sound right when I play them, and they do fit me physically very well.
(*Although not REM's 'The One I Love', despite the video! Peter Buck says it was a Les Paul...)
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Now that I actually have been playing bass for a few years, I've still never touched a Rickenbacker but the look of it no longer appeals to me at all. Quite a drastic change.
Also, back then I thought the best looking guitars in the world were the Tele and the SG. Now I still think the Tele is beautiful but can't even understand why I liked the SG at all!
Second best is the Aria SB, which I first saw in the hands of John Taylor of Duran Duran, again before I even took up playing music - and is almost the same shape as my Aria guitar. So both my favourite guitars and basses are Rickenbackers and Arias... some things are just meant to be.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
The JagStang as it stood was never really a guitar he favoured. Whether he intended it or not, he used strats for most of Nirvana's big tours.
Did his Strats have humbuckers?