Sentimental Guitars

Every guitar player has guitars that have sentimental value. I had three, and now only have two, a frankenstrat and a Steinberger wannabe.

My First Electric Guitar: Frankenstrat

My first electric guitar is a 1987 Squier Stratocaster in Lake Placid Blue with a rosewood fretboard. Originally, I wanted a Kramer with a humbucker, a Floyd Rose and a maple neck similar in setup to Eddie Van Halen's guitar. My dad convinced me that a Stratocaster is a more well rounded guitar to have as a first guitar - pointing out the sound of Jimi Hendrix, Mark Knopfler and Stevie Ray Vaughn. I agreed, but I really wanted a maple neck. Instead of being patient for two weeks for new stock at Mainly Music in Calgary, I wanted a guitar that day, and am now forever cursed with the a strat with the rosewood neck I didn't want. My dad was right though. The Stratocaster was the right choice.
Lesson 1: Be patient. Get the instrument you want and make sure it's going to be worth keeping.
The good thing was, this Strat was the guitar that kept me interested in playing, the Kramer would have died with the end of the 80's hair band era. Foolishly, after having the guitar for nearly 20 years, I put a humbucker and a Floyd Rose Tremolo on it, bastardizing the guitar to being half-stratocaster, half-shred machine.
The frets are worn from decades of use. Rather than re-fretting it, I am going to hang it on the back wall of my office as an art piece.
Lesson 2: Don't ruin your first guitar so you can get something different out of it. Just buy another guitar.

Steinberger Wannabe

Back in 1992, when I was playing gigs, I wanted a Steinberger for the tremolo and the light weight. I bought this cheap Honer Jack guitar, because it had a headless tremolo system, but the fretboard was not very good, it was not a Trans-trem system, and the non-active EMG Select electronics were garbage. Fun to play, but not exactly the right instrument I intended to buy, which was a Steinberger GM1-TA. I played many stages with this thing, and I still keep it around for fun.

The Guitar that Got Away

In 1993 at the peak of my professional rocker era - I bit the bullet and bought a Gibson Les Paul Studio Lite. It was quite expensive for a 19-year-old, unemployed musician. It had a beautiful blue stained maple top, crown inlay and black hardware. The pickups were very hot. The construction was perfect. It came in a brown Gibson case with pink interior. I loved this guitar. This was the best guitar I would ever own. The photograph to the right is of me playing this guitar on a massive outdoor festival stage for the Highwood Music Festival in 1993. This guitar was iconic. After the romance of the rock scene died for me in the mid-90's, and I needed cash to buy synthesizer gear, and I sold the guitar to a workmate.
One of the biggest regrets of my life.
Lesson 3: Be careful what you sell. It might be worth more to you than money.