Hey!!!! I know that guitar!!!!! I think…

Posted by Chris 8 Dec, 2007 

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I know this isn’t an Iceman. OK!!!!
Now here is a list that is an absolute crock of excrement. Blender.com recently published a list of the 28 Most Recognisable Guitars and I have to say it's pretty obvious they were running out of ideas towards the tale. The way the list has been done is very cool, but the contents is off the mark in several ways.

To me, the guitar is classed as recognisable if you see it and instantly associate it with a particular performer, and no other. Here is the list below, and I've bolded the ones I agree with:

You can read the complete article at Blender.com.

There is a real difference between recognising a guitar as the type a particular artist uses, and recognising the exact instrument that was played by the artists, or seeing a guitar and thinking of a musician who's identity is synonymous with the instrument. An example is that Lots of people play Les Pauls, but there is no confusing which one Zakk Wylde plays. Seeing a black fender Strat is not going to make me think of Eric Clapton instantly.

There are a few guitars that I think are missing from the list, like an Cracked Mirror Ibanez Iceman (Paul Stanley). Can anyone else think of a guitar missing from the list?

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Viewing 9 Comments

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    I'm surprised you take issue with the inclusion of Bo Diddley... how many other guys do you know who play a shoe-box-with-a-neck-guitar?

    It's apparent that they picked the number 28 ahead of time and struggled to meet that quota when they actually started thinking of guitars... they should have kept it to a list of 10 and left out all the fluff.
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    Whoops, that was one of the ones I meant to bold. I went over the list about 5 times making sure I didn;t miss any and I still did. Good spot.
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    There's so many ways to interpret this list, depending upon your viewpoint.
    Imagine if you walked into a room where all of the guitars on the list were hanging up on the walls, and you had to name each guitar's owner...

    That's one way to look at it.

    Another would be if the names of guitarists were listed, and you had to name their main guitar...

    Hey, where's John Lennon's black Rickenbacker? Or Merle's Bigsby? Or Charlie Christian's ES 150?


    In the end, it's not really worth arguing about.
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    "Imagine if you walked into a room where all of the guitars on the list were hanging up on the walls, and you had to name each guitarÂ’s ownerÂ…"

    Thats exactly where I am coming from. But you are right. It's not really that important, but makes a damn good discussion topic, that's for sure.
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    uhh Jack White's airline is pretty recognizeable...
    also suprising that they didn't include Steve Vai's Jem
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    It is, but when I see it I don't instantly think Jack White, whereas I'm sure a lot of people do. The Jem however is a good call. I would think it doesn't make their list because outside the guitar world Vai isn't exactly a household name.
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    Joe Strummer's Tele. Sunburst spraypainted black (poorly) with the black (and in some places, the sunburst) worn through, with a sticker that says "Ignore Alien Orders". Wonderful.

    James Burton's Tele: Pink Paisley. Fender thought they'd sell 'em to hippies, but the only folks I've ever heard of playing 'em are country guys.

    Waylon Jennings' Tele: Covered with Black leather with white figures sewn on. As much a part of the opening to Dukes of Hazzard as the orange Dodge Charger.

    Clarence White's Tele, then Marty Stuart's Tele: A late-50s sunburst Tele, with a Strat pick in the neck, a German griffin sticker behind the bridge and a whole freakin' other body bolted on to hold the B-Bender hardware. Leave it to a hot country picker to play a double-wide.

    Springsteen's Esquire: Retrofitted with a neck pickup. Black pickguard, blonde body. The black-and-white pick on the cover to Born To Run made it iconographic.

    Jerry Garcia's later customs (to prove I'm not only a Tele fan): Beautiful rich rosewood with gold appointments. I can't look at things like some Ibanez S series guitars without thinking about a Steal Your Face sticker behind the bridge, even if their actual shape looks more like a BC Rich take on a Stratocaster.

    Lonnie Mack's Flying V: He had a V. He wanted a tremelo bridge. He found a Bigsby, but it was a tailpiece Bigsby. So he connected the wings of the V with a metal rod to hook the tailpiece to. Nobody's rockin' a Flying V like this one!
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    And I forgot. George Lynch's Mr. Scary: You could give George Lynch a bog-standard Strat or Les Paul and film only his right hand, without sound, and I would say, "Hey, that's George Lynch!" And he has had a few notable paintjobs on his superstrats. The Kamikaze. The tiger stripe. But Mr. Scary is the skull and bones. Scary halloween art with a neck. It's him.
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    Now those are some great suggestions. Another one I thought of was Rory Gallagher's strat where he had rubbed the entire finish away.

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