Ever have a guitar change you as a player?
 

My Avalon changed the way I approach guitar playing. Instead of concentrating on the mechanics of the dexterity and the end result is what it is, I find myself focusing on what I sound like to others. The mechanics then follow naturally.

What about you?

I recently purchased a pair of Martin dreads. I can't recall having ever owned guitars that are so strummable, and I find myself playing more songs that call for strumming and not finger style...

When I purchased a Classical guitar, I was forever changed. I don't play traditional Classical music but it's tone inspired my playing more than I could have ever imagined.

My Taylor GS Mini Koa. It basically converted me from an electric to an acoustic player. I've not pickup up an electric since I bought it.

Both my Avalon and Lowden cedar top guitars have had a similar impact on my playing.The sounds they both make in DADGAD tuning are magical to my ears. After 50 years of playing guitar, the past 3 years have been exclusively been dedicated to DADGAD fingerstyle playing (usually to accompany my singing). I admit that 3 years out of 50 may amount to a passing fad but I feel like my playing found a home thanks to these two guitars.

My introduction to Santa Cruz guitars and tuning my old Martin to DADGAD did exactly the above.
When I learned to "Listen" to the instrument it allowed me to "Partner" with the guitar instead of worrying about my shortcomings of technique.

Oh, ABSOLUTELY.

Most recently, I've been on a kick with a simple, $500 "Gypsy Jazz" guitar. I got it two summers ago, and it's still the guitar I reach for most at home. It's done a lot for my playing...for starters, it's worked wonders for my picking hand...you need to be consistent and not rely too much on legato playing on these guitars, because they're all attack--little sustain.

It's also made me a much better rhythm player, as there's a way to hit these things that sounds good--and a way that doesn't. So I'm focusing on something I hadn't in a bit--just concentrating on making a good sound.

Actually, this idea of a guitar "changing my playing,"--it's one of my criteria for buying anything else at this point. What can this instrument bring out in me that wasn't there before? And if the answer is nothing, then I'm just collecting and it's time to go practice.

My Kramer Bois de Rose Prairie Grass was the guitar that changed my playing. It is so balanced and well intonated all up the neck that it offered me the challenge of becoming a less sloppy player. I needed to make tiny adjustments to how I fret notes. Interesting enough it helped me see that I was applying too much pressure at times. As a result of this awareness, I play all of my guitars more cleanly and that has improved both tone and satisfaction of playing and hearing them.

It is amazing what a particular guitar can teach a player. Great topic for a thread.

Best,
Jayne

Yes the 1999 Taylor 810 I got in 2002 helped changed my playing dramatically. From just strumming to accompany my singing, to actually begin to try to become guitar player as well . :guitar:

1999 Martin 000-28EC. Changed everything. I left electric behind and start to get serious about my playing. Pretty lazy and lousy guitar player before that.

Almost every guitar I play changes the way I play. All guitars have limitations. These can come from an overabundance in some areas or limitations in some areas. So automatically gravitate to what I perceive to be a guitars strong points. To me the music I make is an alchemy involving all the factors at play in the moment.

Well stated, Mr J.

Best,
Jayne

This is me. When I bought my first Taylor (314ce) which was really my first good acoustic, it changed how I play completely. I'd been an electric rock player for 35 year prior to that. Some might say I still play similarly but I'd disagree. I still play a lot of the same music I played electric, but the acoustic is so very different and forces me to play differently. Strumming an electric (to me) sounds horrible. And without the sustain and thicker tone you can get from an electric, I have to play differently to get a sound I like. I don't see myself ever going back to electric. Never say never, but for many reasons I've come to love playing acoustic instead and like how it's changed how I play.

I have to say a Larrivee omv60 made me a better player -
I had it a couple of years and played it alot - it was fun to play .
Tonation was pretty much perfect - and it was easy on the old fingers -
Larivees are great guitars .

Well, yes!

After being shown a Martin D35-S (12 fret wide fretboard), I finally found the perfect neck width, profile, and tone - in my first Collings DS2h.

It enabled me to do the hammer-ons and pull-ofs cleanly and quickly that I hadn't been able to do with the thin 1 & 11/16" nut width Martins I had before.