Interesting. You ask what guitar you need in a studio, and everybody launches into solid body electrics. No acoustics, hollow bodies, semihollowbodies, 12 strings, classicals. Wow, that is so limiting. What makes a guitar good for recording? Intonation, tone, and playability. Often the jumbo body acoustics that work so well on stage are a little bass heavy in a studio, causing boom. Smaller body acoustics are often good for recording, and a really good pickup system can help, because some scenarios need a direct line out.
For acoustics, I like Taylor, Martin, older Gibsons, Froggy Bottom, Breedlove, Huss and Dalton.
For electrics, you need a good hollow body, a good semihollowbody, and at least 2 solidbodies to get the single coil and humbucker sounds. For hollowbodies, it's hard to beat
Gibson ES175 and ES125. Good older ones are very pricey. For semihollowbodies, I like Gibson ES335, Epiphone Casino, and Guild Starfire deluxe. For solid bodies, a Les Paul and a Strat work for most lead guitarists. Rhythm guitarists will often prefer a Telecaster or SG. PRS and Parker Fly make good compromises between the Gibson and Fender sound.
For classicals, there are 2 major types. Real classicals, which have high action, great tone, and no fret markers, and Flamenco guitars, with lower action and fret markers. People who usually play steel strings but need nylon strings for a song or two will usually prefer flamenco guitars. Real classisists will hate them.
Those are *types* of guitars. What makes one of those guitars rock in the studio is a straight neck with perfect intonation and no buzzes. Tuners, pickups, saddles, can be replaced, but it's hard to fix a guitar with a sucky neck.
I get pretty much everything I want to get done with a seriously tricked out Epiphone Les Paul Custom, an Epiphone Casino, an American Telecaster, a Taylor 710CE, and an Epiphone Selena Signature flamenco guitar.-Richie