I'm kind of the opposite. I
LOVE Customs ... I was a Fender kinda guy till I bought an Ibanez 70s Black LP Custom copy for $125 on a lark (sorry, sold it years ago, it was pretty worn out) and got into the groove of it:
1. Love the double binding. Love the headstock binding. Gotta have neck binding on my guitars. Okay, it's cosmetic and not really functional, but it's like my bicycles ... I like lugs on the frame and pinstriping ... I like old sports cars with wooden trim on the dash ... makes it more of a crafted piece of art than just an functional device like a Tele.
2. Love the big block fret markers and the one at the first fret. Not crazy about the trapezoid ones on Standards and the missing one on the first fret. I just love that jazzbox 40s-50s ornamental look to them, and all those diamonds on the BIG headstock. Dots are okay.
3. Love pickup covers.
Hate naked pickups, especially zebras.
4. Love pickguards, don't like it when they're missing.
5. A sunburst Standard I find ... well, too cliche. I like the solid colors or a darker burst like Tobacco (that jazzbox thing again). Love black,
hate white, blondes, gold (throw some 20-inch rims on it while you're at it) or lighter colors.
Hate 3-color bursts that look painted on.
5. Love the round Grover tuners,
hate the tulip Klusons on Standards.
6. Give me that nice thin neck on my ex-80s LPC with the wide fingerboard, (That's the one I should have kept and refretted, but did the 335 instead.) And keep that action low and "fretless."
Hate thick beefy necks.
7. I love single cutaways. Double cutaways turn me off. And, I'm sorry Mr. Gibson, did you invent the friggin' single cutaway guitar or the womanly guitar shape??? I don't think so! So let others use it too, okay?!?
8. Gold hardware, I kinda dig. That jazzbox vibe again.
Hate the fact that it doesn't age well.
9. I love rounded Florentine cutaways, not so much sharp Venetians. In fact, if any wooden part of a guitar looks like it can break the skin, I
hate it.
10. Given the above, if they can make a 350 thinline or Byrdland solidbody that weighs less than an LP, please do.
I do like the extra width and height of a wider body off my lap when I sit down to play.
Disclaimer: My Korean Ibanez Artist Reissue violates numbers 4 and 7, but I love it best of all my guitars. Maybe because it represents the biggest thumbing of the nose at Gibson back in the 70s?
And if anyone has a Custom-style guitar that offends them to no end, please feel free to let me take it off your hands and free you of your misery. Hey, I won't even charge you for this service. :lol: