The best guitar ever ?

Voxsupertwin

has to be the Telecaster, so simple, so versatile, so easy to play….
sure there are others that offer humbuckers, vibrato arms, split coils, 3 or 4 pickups, but for a workhorse got to go to geeetar….the Telecaster is the one.
Pedigree, sound, price, reliability…..it has it all ….

of course you disagree…..well let’s hear it !_

OilCityPickups

It is the only answer - the Telecaster is the Hammer of the Honkytonk Gods'. 

Voxsupertwin

I’m with you man !!!!!!

OilCityPickups

My own personal number one Tele these days ... 

Tannin

D-28 all day long.

But theTele is pretty damn good for an electric. 

JerkMoans

Oh you sweet summer children. Never to have tried an original Ian Elson...

guitars4you

The Tele is a wonderful guitar - Even more remarkable in that it was never designed to do half the things it does - Maybe that adds to its potential as one of the best guitars ever - Probably not a stage in the world, or a style of music that has not seen a Tele

But best guitar ? - I only say that as many other guitars have attributes the Tele doesn't - Maybe the best guitar ever has not been invented yet - But if I had to sit on a desert island for 6 months I'd probably take a Tele

Philly_Q

guitars4you said:

But best guitar ? - I only say that as many other guitars have attributes the Tele doesn't - Maybe the best guitar ever has not been invented yet - But if I had to sit on a desert island for 6 months I'd probably take a Tele

There's electricity on your desert island then?

hollywoodrox

The shorter scale and fat humbuckers makes the Les Paul a dream to play
  the wide flat neck and ergonomics of the Jackson soloist 
  The all round comfort & utility of a strat 

how do you chose ?

tony99

Do you mean best after the flying V?

WBT2079

It has to be the tele, it’s just a great guitar. I never really gelled with electric guitars until I got my first tele. I now have a variety of styles of guitar but it would be obvious at first glance that I love my teles.

ICBM

Nah... it's the Strat. The Tele is great, for sure - but the Strat is the most versatile, most influential, most recognisable, most iconic electric guitar design ever*. It's not without its faults, but they're easily solved.

It's also true that the Strat wouldn't exist without the Tele, but that doesn't diminish it.

(*The Flying V is No. 2.)

Sassafras

The best guitar is always the one you've just bought.

TTBZ

The correct answer is a P90 Les Paul Custom. Teles get too "wirey" under heavier gain for me and the P90s cover everything better. Enough twang and clarity for lower gain and beasty with the gain wound up

Roundwound

Does a tele beat the DGT? Fender/ Gibson rolled into one. Coil split. Contoured body (vintage teles are planks). Upper fret access. Tremolo option. Flatter than vintage radius and larger frets….

OilCityPickups

TTBZ said:

The correct answer is a P90 Les Paul Custom. Teles get too "wirey" under heavier gain for me and the P90s cover everything better. Enough twang and clarity for lower gain and beasty with the gain wound up

Too wirey? 
Never heard Steve Zodiac of Vardis then 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UpxhRBHXdT8

Voxman

I do like Teles, but I have to go with the traditional SSS trem Fender Stratocaster. IMHO it's the most versatile and comfortable guitar ever made. The unintended 2 and 4 position tones are just unequalled.  The delta tone on my Limited Edition USA Standard gives a no load tone control to the bridge pickup that adds to it's versatility.  But even without it, nothing sounds like a strat.  And it's curves just make it more comfortable to play than a Tele.  

Both are great designs and great sounding guitars which is why I have both.  Whichever one you prefer, you won't go far wrong.

Fenders of course are not for everyone and in the Gibson family the SG Standard is also a wonderful workhorse, light, comfortable, great upper fret access and with a lively more open and warmer sound than a Les Paul.  I came to the SG late but am really happy I did.  

Needless to say every guitar has it's charms and shortcomings but I think with these 3 guitars you can cover everything you're likely to need. But if I could only have one, it would have to be a Strat. 

OilCityPickups

To be fair my guitar rack has amongst other stuff ... a Gibson Les Paul two Strats but four Teles ... I love em all, but my ash bodied Tele with four way switching is the one I will always reach for if I just want to kick back and enjoy myself. If there's a second choice it would be a Strat. I tend to feel I sound more like me on a single coil guitar. Les Pauls make me play in different way because of the scale length (I always play tuned down a half step if I'm gigging). 

For metal this was my favourite by a mile ... stupidly I sold mine.  

 

Rkphilpot

Strat

Now fight me in the comments!

Winny_Pooh

As played by the best guitarist ever so logically we can infer....

OilCityPickups

Winny_Pooh said:

As played by the best guitarist ever so logically we can infer....

Well when you talk acoustics ... I have a pretty  low end Gypsy Jazz guitar sat in the corner of my lounge ... it's my 'go to' noodling acoustic guitar. Only comes alive when you spank the living daylights out of it with a pick like a tombstone ... but then it sounds lovely ... just wish I could play it better.