I’m most curious about the opinions of NON guitar players, but anybody can…errr…play. Just please note if you’re a player. edit: and as noted, I’m really just interested in what you think looks better, and not what you think may be a better guitar.
Darn. I forgot you guys don’t do images on this forum. Ok. I’ll link the images…
But I am talking about what looks cooler. It depends on what you’re playing.
Funny you should mention average bar bands. I’ve played bass in that type of average bar band. I’ve played with guitar players who used Les Paul, Gretsch Country Gentleman, and even this plugged directly into an amp without the synth. During most of that time I played a Kramer Duke. In that type of band the only thing that I think would look “bad” would be maybe something pointy or too flashy. The Roland was maybe pushing it, but the guy who had it only played it in a couple of gigs to see how it worked as just a guitar.
I play guitar (although the wife and neighbors may strongly disagree with that)
The Les Paul looks better.
I would take the Gretsch myself for no other reason than I already have a similar Gibson guitar (SG) and I’m more into exploring the tone of a guitar over it’s looks.
If there’s rockabilly in the set, then its the Gretsch. (“Coolness” needs an environment. Shades never looks cool a pitch dark winter night; a cowboy outfit won’t work on a teacher; the Gretsch will never look good on Eddie van Halen doing Jump, etc, etc.)
Using the criteria of looks alone, I prefer the Gretsch hollow body with the whammy bar. In fact, I would probably prefer it in most other ways too. I used to play guitar a lot, but I’m a ukulele guy now. I have probably the only solid body electric baritone ukulelein Oregon.
I own a hollow-body bass guitar that looks and sounds beautiful, but alas I have not yet learned to play well enough to do her justice. Although I can play a smidgen of bass, on a guitar I’m pretty lost.
I do think guitars are one of the more beautiful instruments. Just hanging on the wall my bass is a work of art. In the OP’s pictures, they both are nice, both classic and clean. Neither would look out of place on almost any guitarist playing almost any type of music. The hollow body just looks like it sounds better. The Les Paul looks fine, but I’ve seen cooler ones, IMHO. It does have a better body size-to-neck length ratio.
I also wonder if perceptions are affected by the vertical/horizontal orientation of the guitar in their respective picture.
On cool scale only (I am not a musician or know anything whatsoever about musical instruments) they look the same to me, pretty much. I just kind of did a double take on one having the holes cut in it and one not. You don’t see holes often, so A if you want to look hipster cool and B if you just want to be plain cool.
You’re comparing a sunburst hollow body electric with a single venetian cutaway to a sunburst solid body electric with a single florentine cutaway. I’ll break it down by looks only.
The sunburst on the Gibson is subtler than that on the Gretsch. I’m not a fan of sunbursts, so on that alone, I’d lean towards the Gibson.
B- I like the looks of a venetian single cutaway better than the looks of a florentine single cutaway. So, Gretch wins.
III) The hollow body is bigger than the solid body. I like that look. And it goes with the venetian cutaway. So, Gretch wins again.
But B and III sort of blend together, yanno? So it’s close. Since we’re judging on looks only, not sound or playability, I’d rather have the Gretsch hanging on my wall on display than the Gibson.
Mr. Natural, is that what you wanted? Hey… you’re not THE Mr. Natural, are you?