My Pride and Joy

This is my Gretsch Electromatic Pro Jet. My pride and joy.
You know when you pick up a guitar and it just fits so perfectly? This does that. When I played it in the shop, I just knew this was my guitar. I 've had it 3 years, I've gigged it to death and I've never had a problem with it.
It keeps in tune no matter how I abuse it. The action is fantastic, and it has an amazing tone no matter wether I play it clean or dirty.
Not the most expensive guitar ever made, or even in the Gretsch range, but playing a guitar isn't about price, or even brand names, it's about the guitat itself, the vibe, the mojo.
I sold an Epiphone Les Paul to buy this. I had the Les Paul for years, but I could never bond with it. No idea why. The guitar looked fantastic, beautiful tiger stripe, cherry sunburst. But it just never felt right, I persevered for a long time, I really wanted the guitar to work, but it just never felt right. This isn't to say I don't like Epiphones, just that particular one.
But with the Gretsch, it felt right as soon as I picked it up. This is a guitar I'll never part with.

The only modification I've made, if you can call it a modification, is a Vibramate spoiler on the bigsby. I love bigsby's, on the right guitar it looks as cool a f***. But restringing a bigsby, especially mid gig, is a royal pain. The spoiler changed all that, takes seconds to change a string and I'd highly recomend them to bigsby users.

The above photo shows a wee bit of damage the guitar sustained at a gig. I'm still not sure what happened, no one saw it happen. The guitar was knocked of it's stand at a gig, just before we were due to start. A chunk was taken off the finish on the neck, at the third fret. I was so distraught! The guitar has a couple of dings here and there, but at the time I thought this was the worst thing ever. The first couple of songs we played were a bit rubbish cos I was so upset about this. I've got over it though, the way I look at it now is that I'll always be able to find the third fret without looking :-).

So anyway, the point is, you'll know when you find your perfect guitar, and the make and price are immateriel, but then.........it is a Gretsch