What’s the best feeling, most effortless playing Electric you’ve ever played?

I’ve owned a fair amount of instruments ranging in price from entry level mass production to upper tier boutique. And been fortunate to have played some beautiful guitars featuring brilliant detailed craftsmanship.
It seems like more often than not around here what people want to know or talk about is tone. I’m into that for sure.. But over the years, and many, many long hours working to elevate my creative expression and equally-physically develop highest levels of facility on this instrument I’m capable of.

*So I’ve come to realize that the instrument itself can be either a tool for expression, OR it can limit one’s ability to reach the highest technical level they’re capable of.
The closest I’ve come to finding that on an instrument was on 2 occasions;

-The first was a custom Don Grosh Retro Classic T one of only an extremely limited number of models featuring special flame maple and tone woods.. Basically what you’d expect a “best I’ve ever played” guitar to be AND with a price tag to match!!
-The second was less typical of what you might expect; A used G&L Asat Classic custom “S” (Kinda like a typical asat but with 2 Strat style pickups and a classic bridge mounted Tele pickup). It played absolutely wonderfully, low action no buzz & the most consistent even flat radiused board.. And the best part was the bridge/nut were carved to bring the outside strings in away from the edges of the fret’s (something I really struggle and grow frustrated with at times) it was like a sigh of relief, I could JUST PLAY! Long story short, I came back the next morning to buy it and it had been sold shortly after I had left the night before..
Tell me your best of experiences!!

 

Self playing electric piano

 

For me it's not a specific guitar so much as specific neck profiles. The Reverend neck works very well for me, that's a big reason my Sensei Jr is my #1 (and I built my partscaster with a neck as similar to that as I could get). The PRS pattern regular neck is another one, especially on S2 models with the satin finish. Things like action and fretwork are all in the setup, I can get that how I want it on any guitar. It's the neck (width, thickness, profile, fretboard radius) that makes or breaks a guitar for me.

 

My '00 Fender MAI Standard Stratocaster.

For some reason the neck on this guitar makes me feel like I can play better and my fingers always feel at home on this guitar. I have updated the pickups on the guitar and out of all my guitars, some much more expensive, this is the one that is the most precious to me.



In 2000 My buddy had been looking for a Stratocaster for a while and we stopped in our local guitar center. They had just gotten a selection of new Strats in and he was trying several out. I was handing him guitars off the wall to try. He seemed to find one he liked and was playing it when one of the staff suggested he try one they had just unboxed. I went over to check it out and played it unplugged and the neck was fantastic. I think this was the first year Fender did the rolled fingerboard edges. I brought it over to my friend and he really liked it too and bought the guitar. A couple of months later he started to developed some had issues and swapped the neck for a custom shop neck. He then traded me the neck for Telecaster neck and some parts I had. I put the neck on a Fender GK Strat that I was playing at the time and it immediately became my #1 guitar. A couple of years later my friend traded me original body for some other parts and now the guitar is 'whole' again.

 

I agree about the neck profile and specs matter alot. I don't have giant hands so a compound radius neck is what feels effortless. But some guitars are worth the struggle. I'd love it if 1 guitar really could do it all, but I'm quite happy having different ones for different styles and sounds. Sometimes the shred friendly neck shape works against me when changing complicated jazz shapes, but a bigger wider neck slows down max ability. Argggg

 

The last one I set up, but I also spec'd everything and finish-shaped and finished the neck myself. I do all that basically because I can't get that off the shelf and it would be incredibly inefficient and costly to chase via ordering unplayed etc.

I'm pretty at home on most things Martin is releasing these days though.

 

Any Fender with Small/vintage frets! And anything with either a 7.25 or 9.5 radius. I really dig the shorter scale fenders so I’d say probably my mustang, but sometimes My Jazzmaster even though the scale length is longer, the body contours make up for it when sitting down at home. Live, the adrenaline is pumping and I’m focusing more on putting in a show, singing, cueing the drummer etc… so live anything reliable, but yeh at home it’s a tie between my Jazzmaster and my mustang.

 

My ES-335

 

2008 American Standard Strat, bought new & my number one since I was 15.

Currently with Seymour Duncan JB Jr. pickups in neck and bridge and Schaller Straplocks, but those are the only mods done to it.

The candy cola finish is awfully hard to photograph so it's not an Instagram guitar exactly. There are a few dings and scratches on it, of course, but it's holding up well.

Out of my 25, it's the only one with any fretwear to mention, and I guess that speaks volumes.

 

My JEM and then my Gilmour Strat for a close 2nd.

The JEM was built to be effortless (for Vai, anyway) but it didn’t start off that way for me. I had only been playing 3 years when I got it and had no clue how to set up a Floyd. I fought with that thing for quite a while until I learned about string tension/neck relief/how many springs to use, etc. But it was quite literally designed to get out of your way when playing it. The extended lower horn cutaway + frets 21-24 being scalloped lets you get up there with ease and not slip off the strings when bending.

It’s still my main guitar for tracking leads, regardless of the tuning or genre the song is in.

All the while, my hands were having a constant argument over less string tension and having a really heavy picking hand. Somewhere along the way they stopped bitching at each other and found a compromise.

 

Im a les paul player by decades and could never bond with strats but the easiest and effortless playing guitar I ever tried was a fender stratocaster: it was a maple fretboard sunburst model with a 3 pieces body were the outer parts were from a different wood than the central one, memory is not serving me well, it could have been made anywhere from 2009-2012, if someone can help on the model I'll appreciate, I foolishly did not buy it but maybe one day I'll get one...

 

My Frampton Phenix and Murphy Lab R8 Gibsons. Hands down easiest to play.

 

I’ve never, ever played a bad American made Ernie Ball Music Man, bass or guitar. They’re all slinky-feeling and very easy to play. I think it has something to do with the headstock shape and tuner orientation.

I have a 2012 Albert Lee SSS and a mid-2000s American made SUB stingray bass and they’re both pretty much perfect instruments as far as playability is concerned. I’ve played several others over the years and they all feel just as good. That company knows how to build a very consistently great instrument.

 

My PRS Custom 24. It’s a 2004 model that I bought secondhand with a wide-thin neck. Love it.

 

Another vote for neck profiles, plus weight and setup. I'm not a particular helpful info source on this, because I only play slide on electrics, but I like V profiles, and best I ever tried was a one-piece V neck Fender Am Dlx. The best I've owned is a very cheap maybe-MIK Peavey Raptor Plus Exp, which has a low profile C neck with good frets, and weighing about 5 1/4 lb.

 

I have had 5 Tom Andersons, 1 Suhr, a Gibson Les Paul (late 80s) and 3 Heritage that would all probably be virtually tied.

If I could pick only one, it would be the Anderson Hollow Atom CT which I have now had as my main electric for 10 years.

 

My Squier Toronado...seriously.

 

TOM ANDERSON

I've owned over 160 guitars. TA guitars, with no doubt, are the best feeling/playing guitars built by anyone. Suhr and Grosh would be closely behind TA.

 

For me it's probably my Player's Strat. I'm more of a LP type of guy, but for some reason, every time I play my strat, the bends are just effortless. I'm sure it's because on this Strat I have the trem floating instead of decked.

 

a friend's 1960's vintage Gibson ES-330. Played like a dream...effortless.