Jon writes:

My favourite guitar of the moment is my Hodson 503SR oval soundhole.  It is built in the style of the Selmer guitar played by Django Reinhardt in the 1930’s and 1940’s.  The first thing you notice when you pick it up is that it weighs almost nothing.  If you’re used to the American jumbo style of Martin and Gibson, it’s a real shock.

No other guitar I’ve ever played has anything like the dynamic range of this instrument.  You can play a punchy rhythm part on it at very low volume, then hit it hard and a lead line will sing out.  When you’re playing single note lines, it really responds to being hit by the pick “like a little hammer”, as the great guitarist Romane describes it.

It plays beautifully in tune all over the neck - a attribute to the maker David Hodson’s skills.  It’s the most expressive guitar I’ve ever owned.

David has his own site at www.hodsonjazzguitars.com.

Gibson 335 (dot reissue)

Just look at the beautiful quilted grain on this guitar!  As a piece of craftsmanship it is sensational.

However, as a guitarist, I’m most interested in how it sounds and plays.  It’s a schizophrenic beast.  Play it set on the neck pickup, with a clean amp setting, and it’s as jazzy as you like.  I usually roll the volume back a little to prevent the bass being “boomy” - as always the volume knob is the most effective tone control!  Dial in some overdrive, change to the bridge pickup, and it becomes a snarling bluesy animal of a guitar.  The scale length being shorter than that of a Fender, you can achieve a vibrato as wide as an ageing diva being driven over cobbles!  I’ve even started stringing it with 11s.  Never has a split personality been so much fun.

Fender Stratocaster (US manufacture)

The most famous guitar design in the world.  I remember seeing my first example on the cover of a Buddy Holly album.  It may be common place now, but at the time it appeared to have come straight from outer space. Leo Fender and Freddy Tavares’ design was almost perfect from day one.  This example has only two changes from the original. The pickups are special low noise design, and the tuning machines have locks.  This latter feature ensures a very short length of string around the capstan (less than one turn). Provided you remove all the stretch, you can fit a new set of strings and twenty minutes later play a gig!

Enormously versatile, combined with a good amp it can create a huge range of sounds. Any guitarist would fall in love with this instrument.

Gibson Blues King Electro

The worst named guitar in the world.  It’s an unusual model, and is basically a J-185 EC.  The electro aspect (a piezo pickup in the bridge plus Gibson electronics) is singularly unimpressive.  The Big Tone pickup in the bridge of my Hodson (see the top of the page) is infinitely superior, provided it’s connected through a good DI box.

But this is a gorgeous acoustic guitar.  Flat picked or finger picked, it sounds wonderful.  It records beautifully, which suggests that the sound for the audience is even better than that for the player!

I think this model, when used strictly as an acoustic, is hugely underrated.