Have you Ever Been Embarrassed by your Guitar?

[RP]

Originally Posted by Andyrondack

I think I sometimes embarass my guitars.

Ditto...........

[Nymuso]

Well, I'm embarrassed by the picture of my 13 year old self playing one of those "Stella" student guitars, yeah.

[Mark Stone]

Originally Posted by JohnW63

I play Ovations....

Need I say more?

Ha!!! Good one! (I've had an Ovation or two - great instruments, but unique looking -- )

[Mark Stone]

Originally Posted by SalFromChatham

My playing… yes. Never by what I play.

But to your point, we spent too much time on the Gibson forum!

I had a Songwriter in the late 90s… pretty much the same guitar. It sounded great. As does yours. Lots of nice features yours has… but you know how it is. Gibby? U need a Bird, J45, or LG2

We all get caught up in traditional guitars. Martin folks do as well. The Performing Artist line has worse resale and cache than the a Standard Series.

Good post.

[warfrat73]

I mean, once in a while I tell someone that I have a Bourgeois guitar.

And they're like, "we'll, I guess that's probably nicer than the guitars that proletariat get." And I'm like "Well, yeah, it probably is. But it's also the name of the guy that made it."

[UncleJesse]

Originally Posted by s2y

I took a nice Bob Thompson Brazilian OM to a local jam session. A guy snidely commented, "Nice Martin clone" with much sarcasm.

Crazy. If anything I've been embarrassed to be playing some of the high-end instruments I have at a jam session since most of the players are playing stuff that cost well below $1000. But no one ever said anything and I wouldn't either. Who really cares that much?

[swampyankee]

Originally Posted by Mark Stone

Not because it was a bad guitar, but over something silly? I have. About a decade ago I had a Gibson model called the Gibson Hummingbird Pro. The guitar itself was beautiful and had a tone to die for - Sitka over Hog. It was based on the Ren Ferguson designed Songwriter, but it was mahogany instead of EIR.

What was so embarrassing? The name. It was nothing (and I mean nothing) like a real Hummingbird. I remember the name being mercilessly mocked here at the AGF. People walked up to me after a gig and would make faces when they heard the name.

Don't get me wrong - the guitar was a tone monster, had a lot of power, and was drop-dead gorgeous. But I just ended up calling it "the Gibson". If they asked what model, I'd say "Just a Gibson."

Why was it called a Hummingbird Pro by the "Boys in Bozeman"? It was exclusively built for Guitar Center, and the name was chosen by GC as a marketing gimmick.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

Didn't think so

That looks very similar to my old Norlin-era non-slope shoulder J45. It was probably not the tone monster yours is.

Maybe I don't run in such elitist circles, but the guitars I see out there being played by local working musicians are typically some Alvarez cutaway dread or something. I also saw the guitarist in the Irish duo Scannal completely slay it on an unidentified 00 cutaway acoustic.

It's not what you play but how you play it.

[tbeltrans]

I was shamed when I walked into a room full of Somogyi guitar owners and all I had was an Olson.

Tony

[jricc]

Maybe...I've never had any "nice" expensive guitars. For years I gigged Ovations, nothing wrong with them, super solid, but not a Martin, Gibson etc. I always felt a little embarrassed when I knew other musicians were in the audience...

Even now, I use a Rainsong CH-OM b-stock and a Gibson G-00, nice guitars that I like, but not thought of as great guitars.

[rsmillbern]

I have a National Thunderbox, which I was promptly informed, by my girlfriends family in Cornwall and an AGFer, was also the name of a portable toilet in the UK...

Not really embarrassed, but I do tend to refer to it as a National M-14T now ;-)

[Rosewood99]

I'm surprised that you were mocked AGF forum members. I see nothing wrong with the name Hummingbird Pro.

[jklotz]

I once grabbed the wrong gig bag heading out to a gig (electric, not acoustic). Showed up to a classic country gig with a PRS. That was a little embarrassing. To me anyway. I don't think many other folks really cared though.

[boombox]

Originally Posted by s2y

I took a nice Bob Thompson Brazilian OM to a local jam session. A guy snidely commented, "Nice Martin clone" with much sarcasm.

Similar story, though for not quite such a special guitar. Turned up at a band practice with a Collings OM2H and a bandmate said "it sounds OK, but it's not a Martin, is it?" However, I wasn't embarassed, in the same way as when I turned up to another band practice with a lovely Peavey Classic 30 amp and proceeded to blow the same guy's Marshall 100W valvestate out of the practice room.

[rllink]

I got into some informal jamming with some local Blue Grass and Old Time Music people and all I had was my GS Mini and a Yamaha short scale concert. They weren't mean about it or anything but they kept "encouraging" me to get a dreadnaught. I wouldn't say I was embarrassed, more I felt inferior. I traded the Yamaha for my Guild dreadnaught and I started taking that. But for some reason I've gone back to the Mini. But Just having the Guild is enough to keep me from having a complex and once in a while I take it to prove I still have it and to stifle the innuendo.

[srbell]

I can't say I've ever been embarrassed by the guitar I was playing. I'm the kind of person that would have no problem with playing my cheapest all laminate guitar in about any situation (hey, it doesn't sound bad!). Only other guitar players seem to have any interest in my gear anyway. I'm far more concerned with my ability as a player than which guitar I'm playing.