I've bought three that were not played first, and from an online source. One was accepted as a trade from my old bass player, and I had no say in the guitar used for the swap.
First was a 2013 Gibson '61 Les Paul Tribute. Even though the fingerboard was Plek'd, they never crowned the frets or finished the job. I finally leveled the frets, took them down to about .040" in height and crowned and dressed all the frets. After I was done with it, the fingerboard felt pretty slick. It still has the very wide fingerboard with a very thin neck profile. It is a fast neck to play on. I've also made adjustments to the sideways tremolo so that it would stay stable when playing it. You just don't want to actually use it. It has survived a few gigs, and is fun to play now.
Next was the 2019 Gibson SG Special which was ok, but nothing special. I've tried my best to make things better. It was bought from American Musical Supply, and this replacement was much better than the first they sent me. It does have a nice neck, and has a great feel when you play it. I'm not happy with bridge and intonation, even though I've made many improvements. It has the same profile as the 2013 Les Paul Tribute in the previous photo. The P-90s actually sound pretty good for the type of music I play. I just wish this guitar was wonderful. I bought it drunk shopping a couple days after my father died, and it has turned into a failure.
The next one after that was my Fender Eric Johnson "Virginia" Strat. I had been researching this guitar for a wile because it was one of the few options in a two-tone sunburst. After a couple of years of hunting, I was wondering if it was like Big Foot, and really actually existed. Finally, SweetH20 got four in stock. The one I bought looked like the only one with a one piece Sassafras body (it is). This is a dream guitar to play. After a few years I can really say that I do not like they way the wiring is set up. Eventually, I will get rid of the out of phase middle and neck pickup wiring, and make it so that you don't lose so much volume when using the tone control. I'd like to do the Rory Gallagher wiring mods on this.
The last guitar is my 2000 Rickenbacker 330-12. There's a big back story to this where my old bass player sold me his '67 Rickenbacker 330-12. It was beat when I bought it and set up a six string. After a couple of years, it was a great playing (and sounding) 12 string once again. Well, a few years went by, and he wanted it back. He traded me a new 330-12, even though I would have preferred a slightly used (and cheaper) 330-12V64. Anyway, I ended up with the 330-12. It is a very nice guitar. It doesn't have the sound of the '67, but still sounds great. It does have a narrower fingerboard which is tough for me. The irony is the first thing he did was cut 6 of the strings off of the '67, tweaked the neck, and then sold it because it didn't play well. I've used either of the two 330-12s on almost every recording I've ever done. I like to have both a 12 string guitar and an acoustic guitar hiding in the rhythm guitar tracks because they may make the recording sound so much more grandiose.
