Another Guitar Thread

[developer]

After my last request for some electric acoustic guitar advice I bought my son a Taylor 814CE.

I have to say, it's been spectacular, particularly when "plugged in", and he absolutely loves it.

Now to electric guitars.

He already has a PRS Santana, bought when he was very much into heavy/thrash metal a couple of years ago.

However, as he's grown, his tastes have grown and he now appreciates a wider range of genres.

I've seen Fender Stratocasters and Fender Telecasters and the like but don't really know one from the other.

Nowadays he might play some Lennon, some blues, or some indie type stuff along, with more classic rock.

Can you throw some light on what guitars I should be looking at.

I don't particularly want to spend the same amount as we did on the Taylor (just shy of £3K) but I would like to get him a decent "axe"

Help please guys.

 

[gbrand42]

For versatility and tone I don't think you can go far wrong with either a Fender Strat or a Gibson Les Paul

 

[developer]

For versatility and tone I don't think you can go far wrong with either a Fender Strat or a Gibson Les Paul

Thanks - what's the difference between a Strat and a Tele?

 

[gbrand42]

A Strat will have 3 single coil pickups, a tele 2 single coils or humbuckers. Plus the strat will usually have a tremelo (whammy bar). I personally think a Strat is the more versatile instrument of the two plus I'm not keen on the tele body shape and how it feels, but loads of folk would tell you the complete opposite. It's like Mercs v BMWs, we all know what's best but its a very individual thing. All I can suggest is he needs to spend a couple of hours in a good sympathetic guitar shop to try out his options.

 

[brucemillar]

Well if he likes John Lennon. It has to be a Rickenbacker. Preferably a 360 in either 6 or 12 string. You can also play them unplugged.

Possibly one of the best looking guitars ever made. Black with a white scratch plate and he is away.

Says me who just bought a mandolin (because I always wanted one) great fun things to play and listen too.

 

[TDE1]

We're looking forward to the next gig John, whether he's playing or watching

 

[developer]

We're looking forward to the next gig John, whether he's playing or watching

\m/

 

[Stratman]

All this is just my opinion, don't take it as fact.


Strats and Teles can be had from about £350 for a 'Made in Mexico' one, with a Fender Custom Shop made-to-order one at the other end of the price scale. They start at around £2k. Made in USAs start at around £700 and are good value. The contoured body of the Strat makes it extremely comfortable to play either standing or sitting.

Les Pauls start at around £1k for a contoured top model, around £750 for a flat top. Being made of mahogany they're heavy, and you know you've played a gig when one of them has spent two hours hanging off your shoulder.

Sound wise it's really down to personal choice. I'd say Strats are the most versatile. They'll go from super clean to hard rocking and cover all points in between. Teles are often, and very wrongly, thought of as country and western guitars. They do it well but they can do so much more. Jimmy Page recorded the electric guitar parts of Stairway to Heaven including the solo on a Telecaster. Les Pauls have (in my opinion) a huge footprint sound, like the loud bloke in the bar. They stomp over everything shouting 'listen to me me me me'. If you like the sound they're great guitars. His PRS has humbuckers so will give you an idea of the Gibson sound.

Don't dismiss other makes. Yamaha make some excellent instruments at reasonable prices, as do a plethora of others. Guild, Gretsch, Charvel, Jackson and Ibanez are all highly thought of and all have their rockstar devotees.

Play as many as you can and pick what you like.

The amplifier will have as much influence on the final sound as the guitar. Any plans?

 

[Mr E]

My experience from many years of gigging...

a Strat... (or one of the many strat-like guitars out there).

gave me all the sounds I was looking for, from clean and glassy through to full on rock/metal/thrash.

There are plenty of strat-type instruments that have humbuckers fitted as well, which can give a very good LP-type impression (and are very versatile if fitted with coil taps, basically turning them into single coil pick-ups).

To through a curveball into the mix, let him try one of the Gibson 335 types out there - these semis can produce some wonderful tones and there are some good versions to be had other than the Gibson (I've got a custom Aria 335-ish that sounds really good).

I'll throw Epiphone into the mix too. I bought one for Master E (black Les Paul) and have been seriously impressed by it.

As Stratman also intimated, think of the guitar and amp as a single instrument. Funnily enough, he may find a Fender "Twin" or similar gives him the versatility he needs (I really like those amps). Spend plenty of time playing with both guitars and amps - he'll soon find a sound that he prefers and you can narrow things down from there.

 

[Paul/]

PRS guitars were created to exploit the niche between Fender philosophy (epitomised by the Strat) and Gibson (by the LP)- blending the characteristics of both and produced to a higher level of quality than both for the same price point. I'm not up on the Santana, if it doesn't have a coil tap get a guitar tech to fit one- but, other than that, I'd have thought the PRS would be a better and more versatile guitar than the others (witnessed by the fact that it's named after Carlos but your son plays thrash with it).

I must confess though to owning multiple electric guitars- though most of the time I prefer to play one of my earliest, which was a quality lowish budget model of its day (Westbury Standard)- which has been firtled by a luthier and to which I've added several wiring options- it sounds at least as good as some much more expensive guitars, and feels better to play (to a certain extent because I grew up with it, so to speak).

 

[geoff19]

Adam Rose guitar maker in e/sussex will make him one to his spec for around 1500

 

[grober]

Rasmus by Suhr range[ Chinese made with American/European materials] seem popular featuring a number of different pickup combinations? Worth a look maybe. Nothing protects second hand values like the Fender Gibson name though.

 

[Stratman]

The 335 suggestion made me think a bit. If he like playing Lennon and blues style together with the classic rock, to be honest the PRS has got that covered, especially if it has/can get the coil tap switch.

A Gibson 335 will set you back from £1600 upwards. John Lennon himself played the Epiphone Casino, a 335 lookalike, and now Epiphone have their own take on it, the Epiphone "Inspired by Lennon" 1965 Casino Outfit in Vintage Sunburst for £699, which if it's even half as good as my Epiphone Les Paul Junior will be a seriously good guitar.

Having read the advert more thoroughly, the spec is pretty good. P-90 pickups are one of the twentieth century's truly great inventions, Switchcraft are a good make and you get a hardcase as well in the price, which he'll need if he's going to take it gigging.

'Tis a bargain.

 

[developer]

Thanks for all the replies Guys - I haven't been able to read through/digest them all yet (this evening is catch up time).

You've got me thinking that maybe his PRS is suitable, just not set up or amplified correctly.

He has a Peavey amp, but it's one of those multi bells and whistles types with about 30 different modes. Even on clean it doesn't sound particularly "Fenderlike" to me.

I'm afraid that pick ups/humbuckers/coils is a bit to tech for me.

 

[Stratman]

It sounds like a better amplifier and coil tapping (if the PRS doesn't already have it) would achieve what you're after.

Modelling amps, which it sounds like your Peavey is, use a DSP (digital sound processing) chip to simulate the sounds of other famous amplifiers. In my opinion they don't do it at all well. If you want an AC30 get an AC30, not something that tries to sound like one.

Something like the Fender Hot Rod Deluxe or if you fancy pushing the boat out, a Fender 65 Twin Reverb.

Bear in mind these are powerful amps made for gigging, and for home practising turning up the volume beyond 3 or 4 will remove your windows. The problem is that to get the wonderful overdriven sounds that make these amps famous you need to wind up the volume. The answer is to buy an overdrive pedal, which will start a whole new thread. It will go to at least two pages and nobody will agree, so to save time just get a Fulltone OCD and be done

 

[developer]

From my research I believe this is his guitar:
Paul Reed Smith: Santana SE Guitar

 

[Stratman]

Looking on t'interwebs it seems it doesn't have coil tap switching. It's an easy job for a guitar tekky to replace one or both of the controls with push-pull pots, or even push-push ones (push to split, push again for two coils).

Using just one coil (a humbucker pickup has two coils) will give you Strat-like single coil sounds.

 

[developer]

Looking on t'interwebs it seems it doesn't have coil tap switching. It's an easy job for a guitar tekky to replace one or both of the controls with push-pull pots, or even push-push ones (push to split, push again for two coils).

Using just one coil (a humbucker pickup has two coils) will give you Strat-like single coil sounds.

Can you show/tell me what coil tap switching is please?

I now think it's an SE II.

 

[Stratman]

Single coil pickups have, as the name implies, one coil. They give a particular type of sound but are prone to picking up interference like mains hum and dimmer noise. A humbucker has two coils in series, wound in opposite directions. This cancels out the induced noise and would also cancel out the guitar signal if it were not for the fact that the magnets in each coil are also of opposite polarity, north-up in one south-up in the other.

Because a humbucker has two coils in series the guitar signals add, making the output level higher than a single coil. The humbucker also covers more of the string and is affected differently by harmonics compared to a single coil. This makes them sound different to single coils.

The single coil sound is very popular and it can be achieved on humbuckers by coil tapping. The point where the two coils join is taken to a switch and grounded via that switch. This shorts out one of the coils and leaves just a single coil to produce the signal.

You can coil tap both pickups or just the one (usually the bridge).
If you're charged more than £50 including parts you're being done.

 

[verytalldave]

If you live within a reasonable distance of central London, I would suggest a visit to Denmark Street.
A very good friend of mine plays and collects rare early electric guitars and he is always up there window shopping.