The Best of
FEATURE
PremierGuitar.com’s
“Show Us Your Gear” 2010
We asked you to show us yours—your pedals, guitars,
practice spaces, and more. And you did. In droves. Here
we highlight some of the coolest, most esoteric, and most
mind-boggling pictures submitted to date.
BY REBECCA DIRKS
Loads of shiny, new gear comes through the doors of Premier Guitar headquarters every month.
We polish the pristine finishes, breathe in the scents of fresh wood and lacquer, and delight in
turning knobs and flipping switches for the very first time. But while we’ll frankly admit we’re in a
pretty enviable position to be able to go through this unboxing ritual just about every day of the
week, there’s something to be said for the romance and nostalgia of storied gear that’s served its
time. Whether it’s put to use on stages or in bedrooms, loved gear often means so much more
to us than the brand-new stuff. That’s why we introduced a new online feature this year called
“Show Us Your Gear.” These web-exclusive galleries give you the opportunity to peek into each
other’s rigs and see what’s being used in real life, not just on our review bench. And from the
response we’ve gotten so far, you enjoy these glimpses as much as we do.
So far this year, we’ve asked to see your go-to guitar, your favorite dirt box, your practice or recording
spaces, and your pedalboards. In the following pages, you’ll find some of our favorite submissions—
but there’s a lot more where they came from. We couldn’t possibly fit them all in here, so head online
to premierguitar.com to check out the rest and see how to submit your photos for future galleries.
#1 GUITARS
2007 Gibson Les Paul Custom,
Justin Pfeiffer
“I recently purchased this rare Gibson Les
Paul Custom in sparkle finish with the rare
‘Stinger’ on the back of the headstock. It’s
a 2007 Custom Shop model and is my new
favorite. The guitar weighs just shy of 11 lbs.
The pictures do not do this one justice—in
person it looks absolutely amazing.”
Artinger Guitars
Custom Hollow Sport,
“I’d been playing Matt’s
[Artinger] prototype Hollow
Sport model with my trio
(instrumental jazz/pop/rock), and
for some of the tunes I was writing I started hearing a Bigsby
and single-coil pickups. I started
talking to Matt and the idea for
this guitar took shape: start with
the Hollow Sport platform, add
a Bigsby, a pair of P-90s (in this
case a vintage pair along with
a vintage wiring harness), an
ebony fretboard with a 25.5-inch
scale length, and a transparent
green finish over a flame maple
top. The back and sides are
mahogany with a ‘warm natural’
finish. The underlying idea
was to take an ES-330/Casino
(personal references: Grant
Green and the Beatles) and
Gretschify it some, hence the
green color, logo, and inlays
(logo and inlays courtesy of
my designer friend and fellow
gearhead, Tom Kesel). For me,
it absolutely nailed the sound
and look I had envisioned.”
1983 Electra X935CS Pro Endorser,
Pete Palmeri
“This guitar is more like my best friend. No really, I’ve spent more
countless hours with it than most people I know. It’s my favorite (I
have 12) because, firstly, look at it, it’s just beautiful! It has never let
me down, it stays in tune no matter what I do to it. It was not my
first, but it was the first one that I really became attached to. It was
the only electric guitar that I played on stage during my ten years
with a working band. I don’t play out anymore, but I do play often,
and my Electra is always there.”
