Guitars: The first 3 in my arsenal (guitarsenal)

My buddy @steevc had the idea of posting about his guitar collection or his "guitarsenal". I though it a jolly fine idea so will post about my collection. Instead of a video I've taken some photos.

The first in Part 1 of my collection is my Benford, a guitar custom made to my design by Steve Benford of Benford Guitars, USA. I was looking for a Gibson Les Paul shortly after my father passed away as my first 'forever' guitar, but couldn't find one that I was happy with. This was around 2009/2010 an the build quality seemed pretty questionable. So, I went to Steve, told him what I fancied and this is what he came up with and I LOVE IT.

Sapale body and neck with a birdseye maple cap. I think the fretboard is ebony bit can't say for sure. It has locking tuners and the pickups are made by Searcy String Works also in the USA. A full custom for under 50% of the price of a Les Paul and that's after shipping and import duties!

Next we have my Mexican Made 2012-2013 Fender Stratocaster in Arctic White. It's starting to yellow a bit now which I really like. I think the body is made from Alder and the neck is most certainly maple as you can see. I'd love a USA Stratocaster as I'm a complete gear snob but it's very difficult to justify as this Mexican model is just so good.

Finally we have my Line 6 Variax 600 and you'll notice it's odd in that it doesn't have any visible pickups. That's because it's a modelling guitar and uses a piezo pickup underneath the saddle which then allows you to select from a bunch of different guitar sounds. These include Stratocasters, Telecasters, Les Pauls acoustic and resonators. There are some 28 different models. It also allows to you change the tunings of the guitars without actually retuning the guitar. Dead clever.

I thought the Variax might have been a bit of a gimmick when I bought it but it's actually a pretty serious guitar and one that I'll replace if it ever gives up on me. The modern versions have traditional pickups as well.