What do the pros use?

[frquent flyer]

Recently,in the acoustic section,in a thread on nashville stores,I read that most pros buy and use VINTAGE instruments. As an old bluegrass player that fact was no surprise.My question is "What do the pros buy and use in electric instruments?;vintage,standard production,or custom new stuff?

[Berto]

Many of the guys I like use PRS guitars, and more PRS guitars are new.

But I'm sure there some that use vintage. John Mayer I've seen with newer stuff. BB King has had "Lucielle" rebuilt... they age it and make it to his specs.

[dspellman]

Recently,in the acoustic section,in a thread on nashville stores,I read that most pros buy and use VINTAGE instruments. As an old bluegrass player that fact was no surprise.My question is "What do the pros buy and use in electric instruments?;vintage,standard production,or custom new stuff?

All of the above. Individual preference, and I doubt that there's a clear preference. Music style will have something to do with it; Dino Cazares has custom built Ibanez 8-strings (the only thing Ibanez about it are the stickers). Brad Gillis uses an old, comfortable, completely trashed superstrat. Neal Schon has an array of what look like production guitars from PRS, Gibson, Yamaha, Fender (his endorsement deal with Gibson has run out and he's in shopping mode), all of which have been extensively modified, both physically and electronically. And then you've got the rockers who are just into cool old guitars and who haul them out because they've got the money to replace or repair them should anything go wrong.

Those are at the top end of the scale. Then there are the working pros who do studio sessions, wedding and bar mitzvahs, bars, clubs, sock hops (they still call them that in the midwest, even though no one's worn socks in the gym since 1961), mixers, corporate events, yada yada. Mostly production guitars, with an occasional tweak of pickups or tuners, etc. Vintage and full-on custom stuff happens occasionally, but rarely.