If you had to choose only one electric guitar, what would it be? Doesn't have to be Les Paul or Strat. It could be a PRS or a Hammer or Brian Moore etc...

You don't have to limit yourself to one amp but no changing pickups. It has to be bone stock. No money limit.

Always wanted a PRS McCarty.. have always been intrigued by the Peavey EVH guitar, what's it called?

Are you talking about the Wolfgang? That is an interesting guitar but I haven't had the chance to play one yet. They are also quite affordable. The median seems to be between $1200-$1400 new and $800-$1000 used.

As a recording bass player who often has to lay down scratch tracks so that other musicians have something to listen to and start from, I'd love to have a Line 6 Variax. Sure, they aren't great quality, but then, I'm not the one doing the final take. =P

Speaking of recording,I Just did a session using my Lakland Skyline Joe Osborne 5 taken both direct and miked through a '70s Bassman 10, and it sounded lovely using D'Addario Chromes flatwounds. The songs called for a Motown/James Brown vibe, and the JO provided it. We also did a Pink Floyd-like opus and it sounded good on that, too. Too band the Bassman's only 50 watts -- it'd explode if I tried to use it live.

I actually use an old Bassman 50 live pretty regularly. For jazz it's MORE than plenty, but for larger rooms, I just run it through a Markbass 2x10+tweeter and an SWR Goliath III 4x10+tweeter. That's usually more than enough power. Plus, the soundguy always seems to have an extra mic on hand.

Well, I'm running a 600 watt Genz-Benz halfway up and I still can't hear it sometimes. In a church band. And when I say we're too loud, I get strange looks.

Allow me to apply my intellect to that statement while I turn my head sideways and say, "Abuhhhhhhhhhhhh??"

That sounds...strange. lol

Believe me, I want to play softer. But I tried running the amp with only one cab at 300W, and if I got more than a foot away, it was lost. So now it's two cabs, 600W. And if I get more than two feet away, I can't hear it becasue of the drums, 3 feet waya, and the backwash from the vocal monitors, 15 feet away. Bass goes direct into the house, so I'm not worried about that. I'd write it off to playing with younger guys, but one guitarist is 51, the other 29. I guess. We have a 15-year-old kid who plays occasionally with his 100 watt Vox combo on a stand facing him ... and he claims he can't hear it. The guitarists' defense is always "I know I should play softer, but I'm used to hearing it loud." I don't think that defense would hold up even with Perry Mason as their lawyer.

To address the orginal topic, I'd favor some kind of Strat setup with a 'bucker at the bridge or neck or maybe a two-bucker setup with coil taps on each pickup. In Peter Gabriel's "Growing Up Live" DVD, David Rhodes uses some kind of modified Telecaster body shape with two humbuckers and it sounds wonderful. He's not what I would calla "lead" guitarist, but he adds some great atmospheric things to the tunes.

I also like Richard Thompson's custom Ferrington electric, which he describes here:

"The blue Ferrington has a P90 at the neck, an Alnico Strat in the middle, and a Broadcaster at the bridge. It has a 5 position p/u selector. Each p/u has a volume control, but no tone. In the blend positions, this gives infinite tone combinations between p/us, by backing off the volumes." You can see it at: http://www.richardthompson-music.com/gearandtunings.asp

It's a modified Strat shape body but it has that Fender clarity with added fatness as needed.

That Ferrington looks like a work of electronic art. Man, I'd love to have one of those. I'd add one tone control, though. Other than that, wow.

ESP EC1000. Active EMG pickups. Tonal possiblities are way up there. I do lots of effects and amp configurations. That guitar suits me to a tee.

I was playing a show for a theater company and my solder connections came loose on my pickup. The bass player happened to have a guitar in his car and grabbed it at intermission for me to use. It was a tele. I plugged it in and played with a few sounds on my pedals and played the rest of the show. I usually hate telecasters, but this one sounded different to me. It was a Mexican made hollow-body with humbuckers, I didn't even know Fender made such a guitar. I usually single coils on a strat, but this one seemed to be a good combination of humbuckers and hollow-body sound.

Some of the humbucking Teles sound very good. I favor them over the single-single ones. There's a fender Squier Vintage Modified Tele with a Duncan humbucker at the neck that is pretty nice -- and cheap. Fender made a Telecaster bass with a humbucker that sounded horrible, IMHO. There's also a Squier "Hello Kitty STrat witha 'bucker in the bridge position. Meow!