Post your "anti-boutique" monster!!!!

this is my anti-boutique monster. it's a very pedestrian Gibson Les Paul Standard from 2003. it's stock other than strap lock buttons. there's no reason why it should sound as good as it does - there's nothing "custom shop" or "extra special limited" about it. but there is something very, very special about the way this guitar plays and sounds. i played this one live for several years and it's got some wear on it. this is one of my top five favorite guitars i've ever owned.

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I love it!
 
Most of my collection? LOL

Particularly this, though.

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Started life as a stock MIM Tex Mex Telecaster Special, a model that only lived for six months in '96. The neck warped out because my grandmother kept turning the heat off and on randomly in the basement, which is where my brother and I kept our gear and I had my bedroom (so, of course it should've been kept warm). I put an AllParts TMO-FAT neck finished with Tung oil on it. I also, before the neck swap, replaced the 6-saddle ashtray with a '52RI bridge plate, complete with somebody else's serial number (got it used off TDP, I think before TDPRI) as well as a Van Zandt Vintage Plus from around the same time. The neck pickup is stock and probably my most-used neck pickup out of ALL of my guitars. There's something magical, sweet, and bright about it. It's got a 5-way super switch (came stock) on it that splits the neck humbucker.

Outside of my Peavey Wolfgang and Franky (the repainted Fernandes LE-2 body with a Floyd Rose hacked onto it and a Customwoods banana headstock neck, which you've all seen), it's one of my most played guitars.
 
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107€ brand new, made in Czech republic, It was sloppily made and needed a bit of love. Pickups and pickguard are GFS and cost me $82 new.

Best 200 I've ever spent. I have to keep myself from playing it too often.
 
So I've always bought "higher/mid-priced" guitars... prs, gibson, fender american deluxes, ibanez jems, EB MM, Suhr, etc. A while back, I found a Fender Deluxe Player's Strat for $280. I snagged it up and spent another $35 or so on a drop-in pre-wired pickguard from Dragonfire Guitars.

I've owned tons of Fender Strats... mostly American Deluxe's and this one beats them all hands down!!!

It oozes mojo and plays better than any other Fender Strat I've played.

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How about you? what is your low priced boutique killer(no offense Doug and McFeeley!!! I'd love to try your stuff)?


That has got to be one sweet guitar, starting with the Deluxe Player as the base. I have a Deluxe Player, and I have been just amazed at how good the 12" radius fret board feels. Playing it is almost effortless.
 
this is my anti-boutique monster. it's a very pedestrian Gibson Les Paul Standard from 2003. it's stock other than strap lock buttons. there's no reason why it should sound as good as it does - there's nothing "custom shop" or "extra special limited" about it. but there is something very, very special about the way this guitar plays and sounds. i played this one live for several years and it's got some wear on it. this is one of my top five favorite guitars i've ever owned.

w03LPStandard-001.jpg


w03LPStandard-005.jpg


w03LPStandard-006.jpg


w03LPStandard-007.jpg
That's one of the prettiest LPs I've seen.
 
That has got to be one sweet guitar, starting with the Deluxe Player as the base. I have a Deluxe Player, and I have been just amazed at how good the 12" radius fret board feels. Playing it is almost effortless.
Those are great guitars. I bought one for my Dad several years back, so I guess it's technically mine now, but I just leave it at the house and play it when I visit Mom. Still think of it as his.
 
this guy here:



It's an Ibanez RG2EX1.

I bought for $150 a few years ago while working in The Bronx so I had a cheapo guitar to take to band practice. Over time, I installed a Dimarzio AT-1 and then an Air Norton. It now has the piezo bridge from a Peavey Generation EXP @mystixboi1 sold me a while back. I had bought that guitar for a student but the bridge was in the wrong spot (at Peavey's acknowledgement). I eventually bought him an Epi LP Standard and took back the Peavey, specifically for this project.

It's a monster, and is currently tuned to C# standard for maximum riffage.
 
i've posted this numerous times around MWGL.....and i need to take a new pic, cuz i changed the tuners to vintage style and put a real nut on (never liked the roller nut).
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Ok, I've got to throw up my new Brownsville guitar here. With out a doubt, this in now the most anti-boutique guitar that I own now.

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I have two U.S. PRSes and two really nice Taks (MIJ), but no real "boutique" guitars. My Am Std Strat (modded), G&L ASAT Special (also U.S.), and '69 Thinline Tele (MIJ and heavily modded) are all great electrics although completely different from the Custom and CE-22 maple top. The Godin A5 bass (fretted) is sweet just like my Morgan Monroe MMV-12CE...both unique instruments within my collection.

The guitar that has gotten the most play in my collection the better part of the last decade is an Ibanez Talman TCY-10. Bought to be a beater and the only guitar I'm comfortable leaving out around the 10 and four year old boys. I can't say it'll beat anything, but it's quite playable and I generally think it sounds pretty good...until I play one of the Taks for a few tunes. The difference is massive.
 
I don't post much on any of the forums anymore, but I love this type of thread. this guitar is the epitome of anti boutique. several folks here will recognize Roadkill

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i recognize this from the HCEG days. i personally think this is a prime example of boutique - it isn't something you can buy off the shelf anywhere and there isn't another one like it. boutique doesn't mean "corksniffer" or expensive, IMO. to me, it's small volume production. the dictionary defines "Boutique" as: "of, designating, or characteristic of a small, exclusive producer or business" (adjective). that is this strat and any other highly mod'ed instrument (IMO). regardless of price tag. Scott Abene, Clubber, Doug, Mark - they're all boutique builders. viva la boutique!
 
i recognize this from the HCEG days. i personally think this is a prime example of boutique - it isn't something you can buy off the shelf anywhere and there isn't another one like it. boutique doesn't mean "corksniffer" or expensive, IMO. to me, it's small volume production. the dictionary defines "Boutique" as: "of, designating, or characteristic of a small, exclusive producer or business" (adjective). that is this strat and any other highly mod'ed instrument (IMO). regardless of price tag. Scott Abene, Clubber, Doug, Mark - they're all boutique builders. viva la boutique!

WOW! never thought of it that way!
 
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