A Guitars Soul

Might seem an odd topic, but i've been thinking over the past couple of days, what makes a guitar and gives it its soul.

(I hope its not just me) But there's always something about your number one guitar which makes it that, it might not necessarily be the best guitar in the world, but to you its perfect.
But with literally everything about a guitar being customisable or can be changed, how far can you go before it looses what it originally was and what made it special. Is it a neck replacement, a body replacement, Pickups, etc etc.

The reason i've been thinking this is with my Strat. It started off in pieces, and when it came together it felt amazing, i've changed virtually everything on it since then, apart from the neck and body, and it still feels the same to me since that first play. I've toyed with the idea of changing the neck &/or body, but never have, even if it was an improvement, i just don't think i could.
So to me, its the neck/body wood which makes that guitar special. Just wondering how everybody else felt

Hopefully I won't seem to wierd with this one and someone will know what I mean haha.

Thanks,
Tom.

I know exactly what you mean. I have two SGs, both apparently identical except for the finish, but the cherry one just feels better than the naturalburst one. I have no idea why. I've set them both up exactly the same, and yet I'm sure I could tell which one was which blindfolded. I think you can detect subconcisously fairly minute differences in dimensions and differences in the feel of the guitar due to minute differences in the flexibility of the wood (someone once described it as "zingyness", which the engineer in me deplored but the artist in me understood!). Then I guess there are all the other psychological issues involved, like all the memories attached to it, how you acquired it, what your influences were in buying it, even whether you liked the shop assistant who sold it to you.

Or maybe it's just that guitars do, indeed, have a soul and you just have to find your soul-mate ......

Eh?

I think that value is irrelevant when it comes to how it feels, tone/quality etc maybe, but thats debatable with a lot of things.

A real connection can come with any guitar, many people love high end fenders (£1000+) where as others will hate it and prefer a guitar half its value. Half the battle with a guitar is being happy with how it feels, if your fighting your style, technique all the way, then your not going to be happy.

Granted its set up may have something to do about it, but like Screaming Dave said, two guitars can be identical and yet you'll still prefer one of them, for no apparent reason, it just happens Its its soul

I think a good example of this is Malcolm Young's old Gretsch. It's only got one of the original pickups left in it and would probably be considered a right dog by any dealer, but he's been using it for donkey's years. Gretsch did a beautiful single pickup Malcolm Young model. Anyone ever seen him actually playing one? Nah! Because those ones don't have the soul that his one has.

Personaly I'd put it all down to your experiences with the guitar! Almost like your relationship with it talking about two guitars being identical but one just feeling more... right... compare that to someone looking identical, even as far as being a "clone" of your, lover...mother... best pet or whatever, the one which you've had the relationship and experiences with will be the better and more "right" feeling one. (Hope that didn't sound to weird ) I have a well aged encore strstocaster that's a real mess, covered in stickers and all sorts of junk, hardly ever had the strings changed and I've had that since I was 11, learnt just about everything I know on it and now I play a heavily upgraded MIM Fender worth a whole load more! the Encore some how still feels like home for my hands when it comes to writting, jamming or learning though. I even played my final exam on it over the Fender! It's like grannies home made soup to me. Nothing special, but always hits the spot.