A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

So, a few days ago, I ordered my 10th (yes 10th!) Strat-style guitar. $60 off Temu.

Then today I went to my storage space, and brought home my Les Paul-style guitar. An Agile AL-2000. And as soon as I started playing it, I thought "Damnit! I'm a Gibson guy after all!!!!"

Truth is...my first electric guitar...the one I learned on...was a Les Paul copy. A Hondo II.
One of these:
And as much as I hate to say it, the Les Paul feels like home.

Yep, I know exactly what you mean.

Several times in my journey as a guitar player I had settled down for extended periods of time with either a Strat or a Les Paul, being convinced that 25 1/2 " scale length (or 24 3/4" as the case may be), was my true native tongue. But then some jarring event would occur which shoved chocolate into my peanut butter.

How I feel about it now is that with the low cost of good quality, cheap import instruments, why force oneself to choose? Today you can have the best of both worlds without breaking the bank.

This still leaves open the question of Teles and the 25" scale length PRS. To be brutally frank and confessional, I have never truly bonded with a Tele, and I only own them out of a sense of obligation. As for PRS, they've always just been "meh" to me.

toomanycats wrote: ↑Wed Jul 02, 2025 3:30 pm Yep, I know exactly what you mean.

Several times in my journey as a guitar player I had settled down for extended periods of time with either a Strat or a Les Paul, being convinced that 25 1/2 " scale length (or 24 3/4" as the case may be), was my true native tongue. But then some jarring event would occur which shoved chocolate into my peanut butter.

How I feel about it now is that with the low cost of good quality, cheap import instruments, why force oneself to choose? Today you can have the best of both worlds without breaking the bank.

This still leaves open the question of Teles and the 25" scale length PRS. To be brutally frank and confessional, I have never truly bonded with a Tele, and I only own them out of a sense of obligation. As for PRS, they've always just been "meh" to me.

I have one Tele. Bought it long ago. I like it, but not as much as other styles of guitars. I actually need to put it back together. It's been in pieces for a few years!

I like jumping around between a ton of different types. To me, that keeps it fresh. My ears usually appreciate the tonal differences of a guitar I haven't played in a while, and my hands just seem to be fine with different scale lengths until I get into the really crampy 22" or 23" zone. I never had a particular guitar hero I wanted to emulate, or I might feel like that artist's guitar was part of the magic recipe. So yeah, I'd say Strat when you want, LP when you want, go as far outside a minimal comfort zone as you still enjoy.

Once I went Gibson I never went back. I got the old Tonebender Tele out of the closet a month of so ago and took it to rehearsal. It sounded amazing and the guys in the band loved the tone, but it is just too heavy. At my age the 3 extra pounds makes a world of difference over a 4 hour gig. I am not ruling out taking it for a couple of songs. I built that thing to fit me like a glove. The body is ash and it is heavy. I will say, I kind of prefer the Gibson scale length. It's not that big of a difference but once you play the Gibson scale for a long time it is noticeable.

BatUtilityBelt wrote: ↑Wed Jul 02, 2025 5:35 pm I like jumping around between a ton of different types. To me, that keeps it fresh. My ears usually appreciate the tonal differences of a guitar I haven't played in a while, and my hands just seem to be fine with different scale lengths until I get into the really crampy 22" or 23" zone. I never had a particular guitar hero I wanted to emulate, or I might feel like that artist's guitar was part of the magic recipe. So yeah, I'd say Strat when you want, LP when you want, go as far outside a minimal comfort zone as you still enjoy.

I'm with you Bat!

Variety is the spice of life!

peskypesky1 wrote: ↑Wed Jul 02, 2025 2:44 pm So, a few days ago, I ordered my 10th (yes 10th!) Strat-style guitar. $60 off Temu.

Then today I went to my storage space, and brought home my Les Paul-style guitar. An Agile AL-2000.
20250702_131555 copy.jpg

And as soon as I started playing it, I thought "Damnit! I'm a Gibson guy after all!!!!"

Oh wait,,,it's not aprl 1st .....

I sold my AL3100 after I realized that I just don't mesh with LP-style guitars. An LTD can work for me, but Strat-style guitars and their variants are just more comfortable.

Perhaps a PRS would split the difference for me.

Rollin Hand wrote: ↑Fri Jul 04, 2025 12:00 pm I sold my AL3100 after I realized that I just don't mesh with LP-style guitars. An LTD can work for me, but Strat-style guitars and their variants are just more comfortable.

Perhaps a PRS would split the difference for me.

If Rondo still had the KY1/ISIS/SIS which was 25" scale, I would suggest you try one of them. Actually, if you can find one used, it still might be worth a look.

Hard to find here in Canada.

I need to sit with a PRS SE for a little bit to.see how I feel about it.

The analogy for my Fender style guitars is oregano. Not right on every dish, but perfect on some. They are the most likely to give me a bit of a fight when playing

My guitars during my advancement in guitar playing was a 1949 Gibson ES125 and a 1968 Gibson Hummingbird. So naturally, Gibson style guitars are my meat and potatoes. If it has been a while since I played or I want a no effort gig, I grab my main LP and go.

10 years ago I had a vintage white Strat clone (HSS). I was in an uncertain living situation as I did not know when my teaching contract ended where I would end up or even if I was going to stay in Thailand. So I sold it. 5 years after that I purchased the same brand (Maya) (SSS) but they didn't have any vintage white in stock so I got Surf Green. Now I love playing the guitar, for a cheap clone, it does everything a Strat can do, especially after installing some extra springs to stabilize/block the trem and make tuning quite stable.

But I've never been a great fan of the Surf Green and have yearned for a vintage white guitar on the wall. I looked at some Teles, some Revstars, and some other shapes but to me nothing wears vintage white better than an SSS Strat.

I noticed that Maya now has an upgraded vintage white model (Alder instead of Basswood, Rosewood instead of maple FB, better hardware, etc) for not much more than the original spec. I decided that either I'm gonna dump the old model for cheap after cleaning it up -or- make it into a HHH hotrails config. But that vintage white model will soon be on the living room wall in its place. The old model for the $200 I paid for it has given me so much I don't feel like I'm losing anything even if I give it away to a school or temple. So, the Strat is coming, in the vintage white I always yearned for.

Traveling back to the USA in October, so after that trip, going to pick up a Tokai ES-78 335 in transparent Cherry finish too. What could complement a vintage white Strat more than a cherry 335 next to it on the wall ?