Leaderboard

For years I bought into all that "palette of sounds" bollocks until I realised I just don't love me no humbuckers, I'm' not a big Gibson guy at all, and I'd rather have three Strats with minimal differences that I regularly played than six completely different guitars most of which ended up wall-hangers. The thing is, though, player experience is a big deal. I'm equally crap on every guitar I lift, but I'll stand different with a Strat or a Tele or a whatever. Even a different colour can put me in a different headspace (hell, how and what I play is as much about the shoes I'm wearing and how rock and roll I feel. As a wise man once said, "Like Trousers Like Brain"). Difference is in the feel under the fingers rather than the sound - and I agree, sometimes just feeling a difference under your hands is all it needs to try something else, new, different, seem to improve. On the matter of PRS, while I absolutely admire their quality and skill, only the Mira and the Starla actually really appeal to me. I'm not a figured woods guy, or a HB guy. I do rate an SG over a Les Paul, so that might well help. I'm unlikely to buy any of them, but those are the ones I could see me lifting to try given an opportunity. Were I putting together a 70s-punk project, they're the kid of guitar I'd go looking for - a step away from the obvious classics, SG-like (an SG is the only type of guitar I've ever managed to get that big 'Steve Jones' Bollocks Les Paul sound out of) but with enough of a difference to not be beholden to trad guitar hero imagery... almost an edge of the Soviet era Russian electrics you see on youtube. Stuff in a couple of pickups with a bit of a Brian Setzer feel and possibly a Bigsby for that agricultural equipment as weapon vibe.... The other PRS I really like visually is that run he did on the Strat as a sig model for that young fella - Meyer? (No feelings on him either way, never heard any of his stuff tbh). Clearly built on the old 90s era EG bolt on range that were PRS' first shot at a budget line (how I chuckled at a 'budget' guitar at £900 in 1994!), but with a closer Fender look. I can't say I'd buy one (at that sort of money I think I'd rather a Fender Custom Shop - not so much for the brand as the control over the spec), but I'd love the chance to play one, and I actually really enjoyed seeing someone else so passionate and knowledgeable about guitars show off their take on such an established classic. I have no doubt the Fender CS team quickly acquired and dissected one to see what they could learn from an objective take like that. PS OP: If you like it and you won't miss the money, just buy the damn thing and enjoy!

I’m starting to come around on the Mira, especially in the frost blue metallic (although the black and tort is nice too). The slider switch still grates, though.

One of my favourite basses was a Dano '63, with a (most likely) plywood frame and a Masonite top / bottom. I think historically the frame was poplar but modern Danos have a plywood core/frame. I don't know much about Masonite, but it seems like it would be quite green and sustainable in the same way that ply is!