Just play the damn thing...

As a guitar repairman and sales associate at a guitar shop I am often confronted by people who are quick to discredit any guitar that doesn't bare the name of an established and distinguished company. My response is always "Hey man you just have to play it." I only speak the truth folks. I watched a man try to convince another guy that the guitar he was testing out was a "crappy, imported, fender knock off." I almost broke out laughing because the guitar in question was a G&L. You know, G&L, as in LEO FENDER AND GEORGE FULLERTON! Before I got the chance to chime in the guy with the guitar in his hand started riffing away and after a few minutes the "hater" walked away clearly defeated. Now I know that guitarist who are well in the "Know" would never question the pedigree of a G&L, but its still a good example of the kind of close minded and stubborn thinking that can lead guitar players astray. Personally Id rather be surprised by a budget guitar than be disappointed by a big time company instrument. This has been the case for my guitar collection. I own one top notch Fender and I built an extremely nice kit Telecaster, but most of my other instruments are second rate companies (no other way to describe it). Despite this fact I wouldn't give them up in a hurry for anything. A few of them are works in progress but as a guitar tech and aspiring luthier, thats all part of the fun! I think you need to work with what you have and keep your expectations low, because ultimately when it all boils down, the only thing that matters is how the guitar feels and how the guitar sounds. When Eddie Van Halen made his "Frankinstrat" he grabbed the body out of a discard bin because it had a knot in the wood. He also wrapped the guitar with tape and painted it with spray paint himself and cut the pickguard out of a sheet of vinyl with a pair of scissors. That guitar ended up creating Van Halen's first two records. Who would have thought something so ugly and haphazardly put together could change so much? No one.... No one... -G