Different guitars make you play differently?

Alnico

Yes.
 @stimpsonslostson said what i thought about this, it's the bloody Telecaster that did it to me too.
Years of playing a decent tele and also playing mainly rhythm guitar has given me a weapon of a right hand technique and if anything, now it goes against me a lot of the time while trying to learn to play lead guitar.
The heavy-handedness also doesn't work well with a Floyd Rose set up with 10-46 strings so again, i'm constantly having to temper my right hand.
It's been a good exercise in control and now i've developed a way of playing the Jackson to get the best i can out of it without involving Thor-The-Wonder-God and his pick of Crushing Doom, so yes there is a way i play the Jackson that's totally different to how i would play any other hardtail guitar, especially a Tele.

If you gave me a Tele now i would thrash the life out of it. It would be like letting me off a leash.

It's been a long while since i owned a Les Paul or an SG but i would imagine the LP to feel a little more refined than the SG and again, would need a slightly tempered hand but let me loose on an SG and i would at least go looking for that limit that it can take in terms of being hit properly and then probably exploit it as much as i could.

I tend to see semi-acoustic / 335's / Gretsch's etc as guitars you pluck at with some delicacy (or picked using fingers) and more 'Feeling' than actual power, maybe the same way i see a Les Paul. Dig in by all means but it's not a guitar that i would spank too hard.

Telecasters and SG's etc just beg for it and sound / play so well when you do.

My old man used to say i would never be happy with a Telecaster because i would get bored without a Tremolo (It *was* the 80's !). From the first time i picked up a Tele, some years later i Got it. He couldn't have been more wrong and i've spent more of my playing life on Telecasters than any other guitar. This is the first year i haven't had one or another somewhere in the house and i'm actively trying to keep away from them for a while. They have a certain effect on me and the way i play that is way cool but tends to not fit with everything i want to play and if i spend too long on a Tele, i lose the sort of spatial awareness of music and just end up thrashing "Keeerraaaaang" style chords and riffs for hours. Sounds great, feels better but goes nowhere. Telecasters can be quietly harmful but get a good one going in full flight with the right band and there's few better drugs out there.

Rather more worryingly, if HMRC / Lloyds bank ever do actually materialise this tax rebate they keep dangling in front of me, i'm buying an SG with it. It's actually sitting at Coda Music right now waiting for the Corporate wankers to just give me the F'kin money and it's maybe agitating me a little bit. Been waiting since 25th August, known all along it was buying a new guitar, sick of F'kin waiting now !

*Apologies, Rant over*

I think i might have found a new drug in the SG but obviously i dont know yet because it's not here yet ! It will be really interesting to go between a Jackson Soloist and a '16 SG std. T' to see how differently i do actually play this time. I've had only the Jackson since June so now i want to see how wild my right hand gets with the SG, or will i find some temperance with the Gibson that i just have no hope of finding on a Telecaster ?

It's going to be fun finding out.
NGD Soon,.................apparently !
(Precisely when is a mystery).

Sassafras

Alnico said:

*Apologies, Rant over*

I think i might have found a new drug in the SG but obviously i dont know yet because it's not here yet ! It will be really interesting to go between a Jackson Soloist and a '16 SG std. T' to see how differently i do actually play this time. I've had only the Jackson since June so now i want to see how wild my right hand gets with the SG, or will i find some temperance with the Gibson that i just have no hope of finding on a Telecaster ?

It's going to be fun finding out.
NGD Soon,.................apparently !
(Precisely when is a mystery).

After that rant, I think it's altogether different drugs you need.

slacker

To answer the question yes and no. I currently own a Les Paul, two Rics (330 and 360) the ES in my avatar, and an Ovation (as well as some basses). I'm currently playing in an acoustic duo and a covers start up.

So to actually answer the question, if I'm noodling at home the guitar I play will inform what I do. If I'm playing in the duo the style and song will inform my playing (finger picking, strumming, slide etc). If I'm playing in the covers band I'll play my parts, regardles of guitar. 

As someone stated previously improvising will be informed by the guitar but for me not much if I m doing it in a band context. Without getting all new age, the moment often informs my playing. I have done a lot of playing with a rotating membership (it was in a church but it's about music which is why it was mentioned) and I would play differently depending on the bassist and drummer. There was one rhythm section that would make me play better, regardless of what guitar I was using. 

I've been working on a covers band and for 5 months been practicing at home with the drummer (we were both rusty and wanted to get it right). So we added a bassplayer last night and I dont play my Ric 330 much so I took it to be perverse even though the LP is a better fit. It went fine and I wasnt conscious of playing a Beatles guitar. 

Alnico

Sassafras said:

Alnico said:

*Apologies, Rant over*

I think i might have found a new drug in the SG but obviously i dont know yet because it's not here yet ! It will be really interesting to go between a Jackson Soloist and a '16 SG std. T' to see how differently i do actually play this time. I've had only the Jackson since June so now i want to see how wild my right hand gets with the SG, or will i find some temperance with the Gibson that i just have no hope of finding on a Telecaster ?

It's going to be fun finding out.
NGD Soon,.................apparently !
(Precisely when is a mystery).

After that rant, I think it's altogether different drugs you need.

After that rant, what do you *think* i went and did to feel better ?
(Actually it was a little way beforehand).

Corvus

Absolutely, mine are different in style and pickup character & output. The whole reason for having them is the different ways they respond & sound.

Voxman

Corvus said:

Absolutely, mine are different in style and pickup character & output. The whole reason for having them is the different ways they respond & sound.

+1 - that! 

Cabicular

I sometimes take a Gretsch instead of a les Paul as I want to challenge my fingers to a fight 
I have to really think harder when I'm playing a more challenging guitar and it does me good
but depends on the gig as well

thomasross20

richardhomer said:

Yes - the dynamics of a Strat suit me better than humbucking guitars - I think I play less subtly on Gibsons, generally.  

By the way, we want to see vids of this awesome guitar!

snakemanStoo

No.  I play like me no matter what I'm playing according to Mrs. Stoo.  The only thing that really changes is I can't get to the dusty end playing an acoustic. 

artiebear

bloody well hope so, or I have to go through the existential reasoning for putting a whole lot of ads in the classified section 

kin

No, not really . I bought an Ibanez Rg 24 frets, Floyd etc to give me something totally different to my Godin icon.

The guitar feels slightly different and gives me options the other doesn't but I don't play in a certain style because of the style of guitar.

edited to remove useless imformation.

thermionic

Absolutely. In theory I can play any type of stuff on any guitar, but:

Strat - Buddy Guy/Hendrix neck pickup blues cliches.
Tele - Wiry punky or twangy alt-country.
Les Paul - Riffs, powerchords and Manic Street Preachers songs.
Jaguar - Smiths, jangly/noisy experimental things.
Taylor dread - Big strummy Neil Young stuff.
The Loar LH-200 - Fingerpicking blues.

I know, sooner or later, I will get a Rickenbacker and I'll just play Smiths, and early REM songs on it.

impmann

Yes. 

I tend to to slip into cliches playing Les Paul's... it's too easy for big wide vibrato bends etc. 
Perfect example - Nels Cline is currently rocking a Les Paul GoldTop in Wilco. He previously spoke on YT about keeping away from cliched vibrato, and yet on Jools Holland last week there he was with Les Paul and wide vibrato...

I think certain guitars encourage certain styles of playing. I guess then it becomes a case of players who won't/can't play differently finding those guitars that encourage different playing styles uncomfortable or "shit" (sic).