The "This guitar makes me a better player" thread ;-)

Hey folks,

I bet everyone of us has experienced the following situation. You get to a point where you feel like not improving with your playing. You start thinking what could be the reason and soon you find out that it is another guitar that you need ;-) A "better" or "different" one. You plan on making a clear cut and become a better player on guitar x or y. After more than two decades of playing the guitar, I came across this situation two times - no big secret. I would like to underline that of course not every buy is out of the above mentioned motivation/reason!

When I look back I can track two guitars and one amp that really opened the door to better playing. To me it were the following:

1. ESP Custom Shop Mirage
This was my 3rd guitar and man, coming from a cheapo chinese Strat copy to a Custom Shop guitar was unbelievable. Playability and tone inspired me. The feel of that instrument was perfect and it suited my style very well...the style I played at that time.

2. Jimmie Vaughan Strat
It was the first Strat I bought back in 1997 I think. I was seriously getting into playing SRV and Jimi stuff. Still the ESP was my only guitar, my number 1, but it didn't offer the sounds and the feel for the music I was diving into. Soon the Jimmie Vaughan Sig became my new number 1. I highly doubt I would have hung in there with the ESP only.

3. Line6 Flextone I amp. I was buying pedals and multieffects regularly. Put them in front of my Marshall transistor amp, but I was never satisfied. I was a poor boy, really, had to work day and nightime jobs to afford a new amp, but still I had not enough for a real tube amp. I then checked the Flextone and it was love at first sight. This thing gave me all sounds I would ever need and I could jump from Blues to Country to Metal within seconds. Now there were no more sound boundaries. Guitar playing became three times the fun it already was and together with my new Strat I was ready to hit the road for the Blues :-)

How 'bout you guys? What was your ticket to better playing?