logo

Tim Henson’s first ever guitar was a $150 Squier Strat: “But it had a lot of mojo”

“It really made me want to pick it up and play it.”

Polyphia's Tim Henson

Image: WIRED via YouTube

When you purchase through affiliate links on Guitar.com, you may contribute to our site through commissions. Learn more.

Plebeians or guitar gods, we all have to start somewhere, and for Polyphia’s Tim Henson, that somewhere is a $150 Squier Strat.

The guitarist recently sat down with Wired, where he fielded some of the internet’s most burning questions… like whether or not expensive guitars are, in fact, a scam.

“I personally do not think that expensive guitars are a scam,” Henson said (to the collective disappointment of pricey-guitar-denouncers worldwide). Though he does believe that “after a certain price point, that’s about as good as the guitar is going to get.”

“You can find really, really great guitars with what I call ‘mojo’. Those instruments just have a great feeling, you can find those for under $500,” he explained.

“The $1,000 to $1,500 mark is where you’re going to have a fairly intermediate— it’s gonna be a great guitar. And then after $2,000 and up is kind of where you’re going to find really well-crafted guitars and they’re intonated better.”

And when pressed about what makes a “good” guitar, besides comfort and playability, Henson once again referred to the magic word ‘mojo’.

“I guess that’s the feeling — how much it inspires you to create. How much it inspires you to play,” the guitarist explained. “My first guitar ever was a Squier Strat.”

“It’s $150, but it had a lot of mojo. It really made me want to pick it up and play it.”

“Other than that a guitar can be good if it’s built really well. And how well intonated the instrument can be… And that’s the thing — it could be a badly built guitar but still have mojo,” Henson concluded.

Check out the full interview below:

Related Artists

logo

The world’s leading authority and resource for all things guitar.

© 2024 Guitar.com is part of NME Networks.