This, I absolutely agree with, Steven's drumming is an essential part of that appetite sound.

This however... Matt is perfectly capable of replicating Steven's appetite groove and energy. On the songs where he wrote the drum parts, there's a distinctly different energy though, that's for sure.

I could imagine Axl having written the lyrics to Sorry post 2000, or even after the first Chinese Democracy tour where he was confronted with all those "where's Slash" T-shirts...

Yup, love him or hate him (he's way too 'enthusiastic' for my tastes... ), but his company makes some kick-ass guitars.

All great points Neemo, and I'm happy that you love your guitars. Also, 'm not trying to make you regret spending the money , but I do think it's important to state for people in the market for a guitar that quality wise there's nothing wrong with the better specced Asian guitars. I don't want to perpetuate the myth that if you don't buy an American made guitar you by definition end up with an inferior product.

Regarding handmade products, you're kind of confirming my point with the quirks you'll find in those guitars. Ending up with a guitar with a slightly scalloped fretboard might be a nice surprise for some, but it could ruin the feel for others. Machine built guitars are predictably reliable and cheaper.

I'm in the market for a T-shape guitar right now, and I've looked at some Fenders, but even their Modern Player guitars still have a fairly chunky neck. The radius is a bit better and the heel is ever so slightly leaner, but the width of the fretboard is still too narrow for my liking and the pickup setup is 'meh'... Then there's the Telecaster HH guitars, which unfortunately come with the classic neck profile. The other brands don't fair much better either. ESP has tele's with a humbucker in the neck position (why??) but single coil in the bridge, or with two EGM's (which I already have in my LP, so I'd rather have something a bit different sounding). The chapman ML-3 comes superbly equipped and the bolt-on neck joint is beautiful, but they've arch-topped the body which looks atrocious on a tele-style guitar.

I don't know, the only reason I'm after a Tele shape is because I love the look of it, my wish list kinda reads like an SG type guitar in a Telecaster type body anyway...

I don't care too much about the wood since it only affects the look, weight and acoustic tone of the guitar (and perhaps the sustain a little bit in some cases). Pickup's only react to the magnetic field, so the amplified tone can't be affected by the choice of wood. And typically, wood that is glued together is stronger at the glue joint and less susceptible to warping, it is actually better to make a guitar out of multiple pieces of wood glue together than to make one out of one or two big chunks (and a lot cheaper too ).

My main guitar currently is an LTD ec-401fm, which looks slightly more aggressive than a Gibson styled Les Paul (http://im4.woodbrass.com/images/woodbra … TBLK-1.JPG). I've had it for 5 years now and it feels, sounds and looks brand new. I guess like with every brand (just look at the list of complaints about Gibson you listed yourself) you can have a bad one once in a while. I was actually looking to buy a Gibson Les Paul Standard when I bought the LTD but after playing both in the store the LTD played and sounded nicer to me. I payed about 600 EUR for it (so around 800 USD in those days), including tax. The Gibson would've set me back twice as much and actually comes with the exact same hardware (Grover) as the LTD. The EMG's in my LTD typically retail for 20$ more than the Seymour Duncans in the Gibson.

That's kinda my point though, I think those are overpriced as well. The only reason they are so expensive is because the production process is more expensive and they are produced in more expensive places (US and Japan respectively), not because there' anything inherently better about them.

I fully agree with that, but I'm not really about buying a brand, I just want to buy a great guitar with the features that I'm looking for. For me that's a not too aggressive looking set neck or neck through guitar without tremelo and two aggressive-as-fuck sounding humbuckers. I should clarify, I love Gibsons, I have a 1979 Gibson The Paul (sort of a cross between a Les Paul and an SG) that for the longest time was my absolute favorite guitar. But honestly, with the price hikes in recent years, the difference between US made guitars and others is simply not worth it.

I'm not a Fender guy to begin with, they don't really make guitars that meet my preferences. The radius of the fretboard is too big, the width of the fretboard too narrow and the neck itself too think. Plus, that neck joint man... way too much wood down there for comfortable soloing in the high registers.