Most people play what their "heroes" played. If you read my personal point of view below, that's an example of how this works. True professionals will alter to taste, while neophytes and cover-band-players will try and copy a player's rig 100%. So let's talk about all the tweaks, mods, and stuff, you can do to a guitar from headstock to tailpiece.

Headless Guitars - THe first piece of debate is the "headless" guitar, and I call bullshit on all the critiques citing that a specific thing about "headless" is right or wrong. It's just pros and cons. On one hand, a headless guitar has huge advantages in the size department. A Steinberger GL style (the "Broom" style guitars) make EXCELLENT travel guitars, but also look quite stunning on stage, and sound great. You have a benefit of one axe that fits quite a lot of bills. If you want a full body, Steinberger made those too, as does Strandberg, and some other chinese companies. You can even build your own like I did, turns out the Atari logo is quite ergonomic, LOL.

Headstock - All the headstock is in actuality, is a mechanical piece meant to hold the machine heads, and give visual idenfiers as to who(se company) made the instrument. Tilt back headstocks such as those on Gibsons, or my Hondo Paul Dean II, have a serious benefit of not needing string trees because the breakover over the nut is plenty enough. However, Fender style heads can also be that good too. Some people like 3x3 machine head configuration because it's "traditional", while six-in-line Fender style is what a guy like me prefers, because it's more comforrtable when tuning the thing. Some people like a "reverse" headstock because it looks like "Jimi Hendrix" - who played right handed stratocasters upside-down and lefty (and Jazzmasters TBH). However, it can be aggrivating to some, people like myself in particular, who find it a bit awkward to tune because we're used to reaching for the tuners from the top, and not the side. Firebirds are interesting because they use Banjo tuners. The most irritating headstocks to me from a luthier standpoint are odd mixes on each side, like the EBMM 2x4 or First Act 4x2 tuners, because finding proper replacement sets with the right mix of each type is damn near impossible on the aftermarket.

Machine Heads - Tuners, Machine Heads, Tuning Machines...whatever ya' call them, have come a long way since the introduction of the solidbody electric guitar in the 1950's. Kluson to me, makes the ultimate units - the Kluson Revolution - a sealed gear machine head with the "Safe-T" post like a vintage Fender, and "bolt mount" bushings - there is a guitar god! Some people however, don't get it. For starters, the only visible part of the string "locking" mechanism of these machine heads, is the slot, so it makes people feel they are "unstable" - they don't see the hole in the middle of the slot that the prickly end of the guitar string is supposed to go in. I'm sure some people bitch about that design because of the need to cut all the strings to a specific length before putting the pointy end in the hole. What that slot/hole setup does, is it allows the string to be inserted into the middle of the capstan, bent at a right angle once, and then again around the slot...this locks the string in pretty firmly. No need for tying, and with a Floyd Rose, you can wind up a bunch of string so you have extra to let out to keep using the same strings on the same guitar for awhile.

Sealed gear is my ideal because the mechanism is enclosed in a pretty robust cast housing with a long term lubricant inside that seems to never go bad. Vintage Fender and gibson guitars had Kluson machine heads that required lubrication through apinhole in the back of the tuner body perodically, while cheap guitars either used what I call "diamondback" tuners - which are just stamped baseplates with a stamped metal backing with a rhombus shape to them, and multiples on a single plate which always seemed like they needed more lubrication and help, if they were properly designed to begin with, to last. Most current day import sealed gear machine heads are rock solid though. Outside of Kluson, I also like Schaller and Gotoh a lot. My Kramer has Schallers, and my Fender acoustic has Pearl button "gotohs" on it.

Locking Tuners, to me, people have missed the narrative as to what they are for. People THINK they are about tuning stability, but look who got elected? They are actually about FAST STRING CHANGES. That's why they are expensive, and that's why people look silly when they want locking tuners on their only guitar they only play at home on the weekends. It avoids having to tune up to pitch over 300 winds of string, by clamping the string in a central clamp inside the capstan, and then makes them safer by cutting the prickly bit off with a built-in cutter on some models. If you're having tuning issues, it's most likely the nut, or the strings aren't stretched out enough, the tuners are rarely the cause unless it's something like a 1960's copy of a Teisco or a 70's Asian import Harmony model of some kind.

Nut - The nut has one, or maybe two jobs depending on what the bridge is. It acts as the start of the scale length, the playable string, and maybe, if you have a locking tremolo system, it locks the "gross tuned" (as in tune as possible with the machine heads) string in place so you can do all the nutty things I do with it (though the need for it is negotiable).

Most nuts are made out of plastic, or bone, and glued in place with some kind of superglue. Not all nuts are the start of the playable string too, Steinberger, some Harmony, Mosrite, and some really cheap sixties copy guitars, all have what's called a "Zero Fret" in front of the nut - which is usually a taller fret that acts as thebeginning of the strings. Zero Frets have a benefit for the builder in that being as it's a taller fret than the rest on the guitar, you don't need to fiddle with files and extra sculpting work on the nut to get the strings to match the fretboard radius and be at the right height. But on the flipside, it's one more fret to install, and some people don't like it because the nut becomes a string guide, and it just doesn't feel "right"

The second function appeared in the 1980's when Floyd Rose and Kahler's trem systems came out. These were nuts designed to lock the strings in place after they are tuned. Originally, they were meant for the strings to be 100% tuned, however,

My choice of guitars was highly influenced by two people and one decade: Kurt Cobain, Paul Dean, and the 80's. Basically, Cobain introduced the idea of a cheap guitar with a skinny neck that was easily accessible to a beginner (Jaguars, Mustangs, Jazzmasters, etc), that looked interesting and different than your run of the mill strat/tele/les paul. However, Cobain also introduced me to how fame influences the guitar market and drives prices up - so Jaguars, Mustangs, and Jazzmasters weren't "cheap" anymore, you had to fork out at least $500 - $200 more than Cobain paid for his lefty, vintage sixties, and already quite well toured Jaguar with a Flight Case - for a Japanese reissue.

Enter the 80's. Paul Dean was a part of this equation, as was Edward Van-Halen and Ritchie Sambora. 80's guitars were the Jaguars, Mustangs, and Jazzmasters of the 90's. Cheap, filling the bargain racks, and easily affordable. You could bag an American 1980's Kramer Baretta for $250 in 1993, even if it had an Edward Van-Halen stripe paintjob done by Eddie himself on it in some cases. EVERYONE in the 80's played Kramer guitars at some point: Elliot Easton, Paul Dean, Eddie Van-Halen, Ritchie Sambora, the guys in Kiss, Howard Leese and Nancy Wilson of Heart, Mick Mars of Motley Crue - that's NEw Wave, Pop, and Metal, all in one shot - and Edward Van-Halen + his association with Floyd D. Rose were the reason why.

But in the 90's, the 80's were "g*y" according to the macho Grunge people who missed the boat of what Nirvana was about entirely...I had a different reason for following both.

At the top of the heap is the Fender Jaguar. The Fender (or Squier) Jaguar is my #1 favorite off-the-rack guitar. They are loud, they have a good bite, if you tweak the bridge with my mods, they get great sustain on .009s, they play with feedback well, never go out of tune. Even with weak pickups, something about that variation of the Strat design has some raw power without the ohms...possibly due to the pickup claws. The Squier CV 70's Jaguar and VM Jaguar are my #1 goto if I were to be in a band touring and travelling, if I needed to replace a guitar on the road, the Squier vintage-style Guitars are IT. They are also under $500 (especially when used), and easily obtainable as long as there is a guitar center around.

Next is a tie for the Jag-Stang and Hondo Paul Dean II. The PAul Dean II is my goto "hardtail", while my #1 is a Jag-STang with EMG pickups. The Jag-Stang with EMG pickups is the ultimate sonic weapon...you have this cute pastel blue guitar that looks wimpy, and then you toss in a set of EMG's, and it's a fire breathing monster. It's a lot like if Carol Shelby

My go-to at my most desparate, is an HSS Stratocaster type, and Kramer made these by the dozens in the 80's. AT the top of the shelf is the American Pacer Deluxe, with a close runner up with Paul Dean's model (surprise surprise). HSS, Floyd Rose, and the Paul Dean has an advantage the Pacer Deluxe doesn't in having the ability to have any pickup combination including all three, or all off.

The Pacer Deluxe had a more affordable, mid-tier variant known as the Focus 3000, made in Japan by ESP (Matsamoku originally). The Focus 3000 models were basically just a "Japanese Pacer Deluxe". Classic strat style, but HSS, with a Floyd, and a pickguard. This was my first electric guitar, and I still have it, though mine looks like an HSH, it's an HSS, the second coil in the neck is a sustainer. Mine has a Paul Dean pickup switching scheme, with the third switch from a Jaguar, an approximation of a maxxed out Jazzmaster Rhythm circuit usable with all three pickups, treble bypass, and 500K Pots for a little more bite and scratch, especially with a Duncan Detonator 17.5K Bridge pickup in it.

Next down was the "Striker" series, which in that line is the 300ST Striker model. These were made by Samick in Korea (who also made the cheaper Hondos), and were pretty good quality. They were pretty much the same as a Focus 3000, just with a X14 and 2 X13 pickups in it, and a Floyd Rose II. If I found one of these, I'd just toss a Guitar Manaics Pickup set in it (Hexbuckers usually), and a Floyd Rose Special FRT1000 series unit with a reinforcement bracket.

Next down is anything else HSS. I've played tons of these: Crates, Squier Affinities, Squier Standards, Memphis 302 series strats (Samick/Matsamoku both), Palmers, Hondos, Arbors, or anything else, Asian and oddly named. Just slap in a good set of cheap pickups and a Floyd Special, and I have the baseline set for a "anytime cheap guitar".