Iconic guitars

[swarfrat]

whatever you call Prince's guitars  :dontknow:

Fugly.  But you have to honor his playing

The dude is certainly an enigma. How someone working in the genre he does, who's clearly a businessman 1st, showman 2nd, frontman 3rd, musician 4th, and guitar player 8th ended up with mad guitar skills capable of getting himself on the cover of all the guitar hero magazines and selling at least 37 records as a result.... is a mystery.  Talent smalent, I've got a cousin who decided to pick up the guitar as a teenager and was playing anything he heard within a few weeks - like almost savant level stuff... but raw undisciplined talent only gets you so far, and most people can throw a rock further than that.

 

[Re-Pete]

This is especially true if you're going to name "guitars that non-guitarists could recognize." 

If you include basses, I think it's hard to top Sir Paul's (left handed) Hofner violin bass.

By far.

Sir Paul's Hofner is VERY iconic, but every time I have thought of getting one, I see the reviews and back away. Fragile, Intonation shocking, electronics are not great... But without the hollow construction that bass is a  different sounding instrument. I saw him live with the Hofner, the sound doesn't hit you as much as it envelops you with a hollow thump effect (if that made any sense at all  :icon_scratch:  )  Mind you I think he had about 1000W Mesa Boogie Bass rig running when I saw him - or used the Vox Super Beatle head as Master & the Mesa stuff as slaves..

 

[Jumble Jumble]

whatever you call Prince's guitars  :dontknow:

Fugly.  But you have to honor his playing

The dude is certainly an enigma. How someone working in the genre he does, who's clearly a businessman 1st, showman 2nd, frontman 3rd, musician 4th, and guitar player 8th ended up with mad guitar skills capable of getting himself on the cover of all the guitar hero magazines and selling at least 37 records as a result.... is a mystery.  Talent smalent, I've got a cousin who decided to pick up the guitar as a teenager and was playing anything he heard within a few weeks - like almost savant level stuff... but raw undisciplined talent only gets you so far, and most people can throw a rock further than that.

Yeah, but Prince doesn't just have talent. He has TALENT. It's insane. He's written over 1000 songs in his life. Many of his recordings he's played every instrument. He can sing, he can dance, he's charismatic, blah blah blah. But if you ever hear him talking about guitar playing - yeah, he really worked hard on that, for years.

 

[AndyG]

This might be slightly subjective from my side but what the heck!

Adrian Smith Jackson strat  :hello2:

Rock N Rolf Explorer  arty07:

Rhoads V  :cool01:

Accept Flying V  :glasses9:

Kai Hansen ESP V  :guitaristgif:

André Olbrich red ESP  :blob7:

That list would have to include Phil Collen's Ibanez Destroyer ... if by iconic you mean associating the player with the instrument.

 

[Day-mun]

I still think Buck Owens' Red-White-n-Blue is winning, with EVH's Frankenstein close behind. -You show ANYONE those guitars without their owners, and they (musicians and non-players alike) will 99 times out of 100 be able to tell ya to whom they belong.

No offense to Prince (-or the artist formerly known as, or whatever), but I thought the milk commercial guitar was one of his.  :laughing7:

 

[john_p_wi]

Buddy Guy's polka dot strat?

 

[Fat Pete]

I still think Buck Owens' Red-White-n-Blue is winning,...

On behalf of the rest of the world - Buck Owens?  :dontknow:

 

[Cagey]

On behalf of the rest of the world - Buck Owens?  :dontknow:

It's a historical as well as sociological thing. At the time, he was considered pretty trick. By today's standards, he's just a piker. Kinda like Buddy Rich and drums. At the time, he was the whip. Now? Phbbt. Neil Peart could kick his ass on a scotch-fueled epileptic fit.

Credit where credit's due, though. Most modern players are standing on the shoulders of giants.

 

[SustainerPlayer]

Buck Owens is an American phenomenon. Noone in middel-earth knows of him.

But granted "iconic" doesn't need to be in all of the world ...

And to my knowledge most non-guitar players hardly knows the difference between a Fender and a Gibson anyway - so this is an exclusive thing for the nerdy bunch.

Maybe it's the Hank thing?  :icon_jokercolor:

 

[Day-mun]

Yes, like the Hank thing... most 'mericans would have thought that was a pic of Buddy Holly, -and that would have been out of the older crowd that remembers Buddy Holly.

 

[Cagey]

And to my knowledge most non-guitar players hardly knows the difference between a Fender and a Gibson anyway - so this is an exclusive thing for the nerdy bunch.

Perzactly. "hardly" is being pretty generous. For most folks, if you can nail roughly the right chords at roughly the right time, you're golden. Particularly if you know the words to the song. All the terror of nailing the right "tone" is strictly a player fear. The audience couldn't care less. Can they dance? Then all is right with the world.

Not that I advocate such behavior. I'm as guilty as the next player for wanting to be the CD version of what I'm attempting to play. But, that's a personal hell I have to live with rather than any real-life situation.

 

[dmraco]

you can almost hear it sustaining

 

[TonyFlyingSquirrel]

Waylon Jennings Tele?

 

[Jet-Jaguar]

Buck Owens is an American phenomenon. Noone in middel-earth knows of him.

But granted "iconic" doesn't need to be in all of the world ...

And to my knowledge most non-guitar players hardly knows the difference between a Fender and a Gibson anyway - so this is an exclusive thing for the nerdy bunch.

No, I disagree. I think a lot of non-musicians could see the Frankenstrat and identify it with Eddie. I think if you showed people Buck Owen's guitar, most people would think it belongs to Garth Brooks. 

I barely remember Buck Owens, and I'm 45.

 

[mayfly]

I still think Buck Owens' Red-White-n-Blue is winning,...

On behalf of the rest of the world - Buck Owens?  :dontknow:

You, sir, do not deserve that Tele.  :doh:

 

[swarfrat]

I'm 44 and still remember Buck Owens, and have almost managed to forget Garth Brooks. Thanks for bringing it up again

 

[bagman67]

Speaking of Clarence White, his old Martin D28 is something of an icon as well, both for Clarence and for its subsequent owner, Tony Rice, who plays said axe with skill that verges on the miraculous:

 

[Cagey]

I'm not sure what's "iconic" about that guitar. Anybody can buy a D-28. We're just impressed by those players. If you see a D-28, do you immediately think of Clarence White or Tony Rice? Of course not. Lotsa guys play D-28s. Didn't you say you had one yourself? I know Al DiMeola plays one, and he can rip most guys a new icehole on the thing. John Lennon and Paul McCartney both played them. Neil young, Hank Williams, Elvis the Pelvis, Joni Mitchell... the list is long. Chick next door to me had one back when I was a grasshopper.

Should probably have married her. She'd have made a good ex-Mrs.Wagner

 

[bagman67]

What's unique about the White/Rice pre-war D28 is Mr. White enlarged the soundhole and replaced the fingerboard with a bound, non-inlaid one that extends down into the soundhole - so as D28's go, this is a very non-standard specimen.  Plus he ran over it with his car, and Tony Rice almost lost it to a hurricane - and still it lingers on.  I'd characterize it as iconic because of its association with the two prominent artists who have owned it.  Kinda like the white Strat with which Hendrix is often associated - Like a new D28, anyone can get one off-the-rack, but only one was played at Woodstock by the man his ownself.

 

[Re-Pete]

I still think Buck Owens' Red-White-n-Blue is winning,...

On behalf of the rest of the world - Buck Owens?  :dontknow:

You, sir, do not deserve that Tele.  :doh:

I'm in my early 50s and barely remember anything about Buck Owens.
He was only on a TV show that run for a short time here in Australia in the 1970s (?) called Hee Haw, ran on a Saturday I think.

You'd have more chance of Hank Marvin being known by folks a bit older than me than Buck Owens, in Australia. The Shadows (Hank Marvin's band) were huge just prior to The Beatles. Prior to Mark Knopfler, if you showed someone a year or two older than me a red Fender Stratocaster, they might've said "Hank Marvin" or "The Shadows".

Most folks who followed Country Music in Australia at the time (1960s - 1970s) were a conservative bunch. Bakersfield Sound was probably classed as a close cousin to Rockabilly by those folks. Slim Dusty, Reg Lindsay, Tex Morton...all straight up and down country strumming balladeers were the flavour in Australia.

Buck Owens might have been heard of, but maybe overlooked as "too American". Some of his records might have enjoyed some rotation on country stations through the regional areas of Australia, but it was clearly a different sound to what most in Australia were doing. As for seeing a guitar and going "Ah Buck Owens!", nope, that wouldn't happen around here.

My Dad was a country fan - you'd go away into the country for a weekend away camping back then, and that's all he'd allow on the radio! Drove me nuts.  :tard: