What's the best 'feeling' guitar you've ever played?

I don't go into music shops much - I get a bit embarrassed

But I've played several guitars on those rare occasions when I've overcome my shyness, and do you know which guitar felt the best to me?

Yamaha Pacifica. Yes, that's what I said! It felt as though it had been made to measure. It felt bloody fantastic, actually

Didn't buy it, though. I felt a bit embarrassed

A green 1967 telecaster. It played like the strings were rubber bands

A Godin Multiac.   When I came back to the store to buy it a couple months later, it was gone.  But it fit my hands and played like a dream that first time I tried it...

For me it is a Gibson ES-137 Custom with ebony fingerboard.

It has a neck similar to my Les Paul but the bigger body is much more comfortable for long hours of practice.

Believe it or not, the best feeling and playing electric guitar I've played is an early 80's Ibanez Roadstar II Strat copy.  I've found Ibanez guitars in general are great to mod and customize into something pretty sweet.

One of the best acoustics I've had was a Washburn D100M, sold by Mars Music many years ago.

These are both inexpensive guitars, but good build quality.  There are certainly plenty of better guitars of course, but these just felt, "right."

Mostly I've found price and brand name don't always mean a whole lot.

I too loved those era RoadstarII's. You don't see many of them for sale or trade either. I've an '81 Strat that I bought new which I love as well..But for the right 2 Roadstars...(Yeah it would take 2) I'd do a swap.

My guitar which is a Ernie Ball Music Man JP series. Very comfortable playing guitar.

probably my trussart steelphonic... neck was incredible

i no longer have it... sold it to fund recording gear

Back in the late 90's, at Herb David Studios in Ann Arbor, there was an old (late 50's?) Tele on consignment that was just heavenly.  Unlike any Tele I've ever seen, it had the body bevel.  I suspect that was added later.  It was maple finish, maple fingerboard (though I generally prefer rosewood or ebony).  And I believe the radius was fiddled with at the top, because I could bend notes way up there without fretting out, which I don't know how anyone does on those old 9" radius necks.  (I suspect it had been changed to compound radius.)  The pickups sung like nobody's business.

Due to what I suspect were more recent mods, I doubt it was worth much as a collector's item, but the price tag said $1700, which was a bit above my pay grade.  On the other hand, if I'd sold some stock to pay for it, I'd be better off today, and I'd have that lovely guitar hanging on my wall with the others!

Ah, regrets, regrets.  And there was that petite brunette ... oh never mind.

Gibson ES335. Love playing that thing!

A friend of mine has a 335 that's super sweet, and incredibly lively. I've played some that are just good, but some are really great.

The best feeling guitar that I own is a 1979 Ibanez Custom Agent, which is a Les Paul type of body with a nice bevel on the back so there's no edge digging in to me.  It may just be familiarity as it was my only electric for many years, but I love the shape and size of the neck.  I need to have some work done on the electronics or, more precisely, I need someone to redo the work I did, so I don't play it as much currently.  The nicest feeling and sounding guitar I have ever played is a '63 Gretsch Tennessean that a friend of mine owns.  I don't believe that my fingers even need to touch the strings to get it to play and sound just right, at least it doesn't feel like they are.  He doesn't offer to let me play it very often though.  He's either afraid that I will run off with it or he is saving me from the deadly sin of guitar lust.

String height and relief are key items on any of my guitars. I usually target a .009 relief and a string height of 3.5/64 on the high side and 5.5/64 on the low string with a perfect radius of the rest of the strings over the top fret.

Any lower and fret slap kills the string sustainm and it's usually too difficult to bend strings, especially on a fender maple neck using standard frets.

If the strings are above 4/64 and 6/64, playing barre chords for long periods of time becomes fatiguing and sliding barre chords loose too much sustain so you wind up having to jump positions more. Of course playing slide is better on the high side.

I ususlly have guitars set up for leads and chords differently depending on how flexable the neck is. A thicker neck I can just set it and forget it. On thinner necks, A barre chord can make notes go sharper than single notes. The tension pulling 6 strings down causes the neck to bow by a few microns more and it can be enough to get some sour notes.

If you set the intonation to play well with Barre chords, then single notes tend to sound flatter. You can get it in between with a good strobe tuner, but then you can be dealing with notes slightly sharp or flat no matter what you play. This isnt a big deal playing live, but when you're recording and playing along with some keyboard parts, and other instruments that have their own temperd tuning tolerances, you can wind up with allot of string beating.

String beating is like chalk on a blackboard to me. It completely destroys my confort playing a guitar and I cant get anywhere near hanging 10 on the riffs so long as its there. I'd rather be playing a boat neck and the body digging into my ribs so ling as the intonation and action are dead on. I'll struggle to get to the notes if need be but sour notes just destroy the feel of it. 

A chord must sound like a single note with no sharps or flats and leads must hit all the tones from first to last fret and be within a cent or two. I can nean on the neck or pull on a string to get the note in the rest of the way from there. If I have that, I could care less how a guitar looks or physically feels because I know whats being produced has a confort level beyond the physical and can hit that plane above pain and forget where I am for awhile.

An old Japanese-made ESP Horizon.  It felt like it played itself.  Most ESP guitars were and still are ugly as sin, but damn, they were the ultimate guitars for metal back in the day, better than all the other "metal" guitars: Ibanez, Kramer, Jackson, etc.  Who knows where they're made now.  Probably China.

For me, most comfortable guitar to play for extended periods of time (1+ hours) is probably a strat. Granted, they come in all shapes and sizes when discussing the neck but I`ve always leaned more towards the 60s models... a semi-round neck. A tele is also comfortable.

With that said, I enjoy playing a Les Paul much more... the combination of weight, sustain, and tone really resonate with me. 

Gibson RD Artist. I play a strat now but the Gibson was way cool. As a wide body guitar it didn't shimmy around like a Porche on an oil slick. It was more like a Cadillac on a straight run.

My 1980's Kramer's and Jackson's has unbelievable feel, I could bend the hell out of them and they won't fret out even with the super low action. My 71 Gibby "V", Gibson and Epiphone Les Paul Customs .... same thing  

I've ordered Kramer guitar necks from Victor Litz back in the late 1990's, from Guitar Parts on Line and Warmoth that I put on some extra guitar bodies I had laying around and man you talk about fretless feeling !!!!

I have a Strat copy made by "Memphis" that has the best feeling neck I've ever played. They are not made anymore and it is uncertain who made them as far as I can find out.

Hands down the Cort G250. I know... not the most desired brand for sure but it is the best playing and sounding guitar I own- and I have a lot.

My '91 Alvarez-Yairi DY45. It was like the neck was carved to fit my hand. I've pondered someday taking it to a luthier and having an electric custom-made with the same neck measurements.

The Heritage H-535 which is a ES-335 style semi-hollow made by a company with ex-Gibson luthiers. I don't love the feel of a large body, but the neck is like butter. I had it setup by Gary Brawer's shop and it may have gotten plek'd. (I don't remember)