Question for Twitter: What is the best guitar?

Maybe that wasn't the best way I could have worded that.  How about:

1. What guitar have you not been able to get off of your mind?
2. If any guitar could suddenly appear in your hands, what would it be?

Both of those questions should be qualified with "right now."

It may have looked like I was trying to start a twitter fight about brands, models, etc. but that was not my intent.  The question stemmed from a discussion I had with a friend over guitars a couple of weeks ago.  He recently started working at Gibson 5 star dealer and so began his dream of a Gibson J-200 True Vintage.  It was the pinnacle of tone and nothing else would do (paraphrased).  This was after he was really digging the weird 1930 Epiphone Model 0 I loaned him to record his debut album (Pete's Debut Album).  I had felt the same way about that guitar before as well.  There is still a soft spot in my heart for the huge tone that comes from a lightly picked fingerstyle blues on the old Epiphone.

In My Opinion

the best guitar is always the next guitar and I think that Pete would say the same thing.  There is nothing like the anticipation of an old guitar coming in the mail.  What will it sound like?  What weird features will it have that I didn't see in the pictures?

I recently bought a 1954 Epiphone FT-210 Deluxe Cutaway from a fellow in NY.  I had only seen pictures of these and could not wait to have it in my hands.  I knew that it needed work but I just didn't care.  It was the pinnacle of vintage guitars for the three and a half days that UPS had it, at least in my mind.  When it arrived I was ecstatic.  Among guitar forum geeks (such as myself) this is called an NGD or New Guitar Day.

What did it sound like?  Terrible at first, I'll admit.  I was so in love with it that I couldn't put it down.  After about two days of playing it, it really opened up and the tone was unique.  I love it now.

What weird features did it have?  It was ladder braced and had a weird compensated rosewood bridge/saddle.

The next guitar?

The Epiphone is still extremely cool only a week later but I've already got my sights set on another.  There is an eBay auction ending tomorrow on a Kalamazoo KG-12 with rare Maple back and sides.  It is a sickness!  The forum term for this sickness is GAS- Guitar Acquisition Syndrome.