Help me find my ultimate guitar

  • Thread starter Thread starter thebigcheese
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thebigcheese, would you please clarify what guitar(s) you have now and what guitars you AREN'T interested in.
 
I don't particularly want to spend the money involved with having a ton of guitars for different tones, and I don't think it's very convenient to have multiple guitars, either. I'd like to have one guitar that gets me the sounds I want, and I already realize that it will not sound exactly like the tones I am after, but as long as it is similar, that's fine.

Right now, I have my Gibson The Paul and a friend's Squier Strat. Both sound good enough to use, but what I'm really looking for is my personal uber guitar, one that has everything I want in one package. I really like the tone Johnny A gets from his custom Gibson, but as far as twang goes, I would like something very rocky, like Blink-182 or Stevie Ray Vaughn (well, maybe he's not rock per say, but you get what I mean). I realize that those two things may not be completely compatible since part of the Fender sound is based on its lack of fullness, whereas the Gibson sound is based on being very full, so... I guess I'm looking for something that can compromise between those two. I want something flexible, basically. Something I can get those rock twang tones with, but also some nice, smooth clean tones and some good metal tones (both of which seem to come from Gibson sounds). So really, just something that can play any style. A real gigger's guitar, just like people consider Mesa amps to be flexible gigging amps. I can find and post some examples of the tones I'm looking for if you'd like.
 
I see. As I suggested earlier, check out an Ampeg Dan Armstrong (AMG100 specifically, way cheaper than the ADA6 only because AMGs are wood bodied and ADAs are plexiglass). They have interchangeable pickups, they just pop in and out after undoing a thumb screw. They have humbuckers and single coils that you can switch out whenever you'd like also the guitar has a tone switch that does some crazy shit to the guitars tone, almost like a coil splitter, you'd have to listen to it, it's hard to explain.

The only downfall to these guitars is that they only have one pickup and it's in the bridge position, if that doesn't bother you than you might have a winner.
 
ez_willis said:
this is SO weird. Usually we came come together as a group and give someone A SINGLE recommendation that is perfect for their needs. you'd think it was subjective or something?? :laughings:
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We have already given the correct answer though. That's what makes them subjective and us teh awesome.
 
You may eventually find one guitar that wins your heart, but you'll never find just one that does it all.

I recommend collecting. :D
 
Much to Greg's dismay, I think a Tele may actually be what I'm after. I went to GC today and played around with just about every brand of guitar. I wasn't that impressed with PRS; I like my Schecter bass, but the guitars are meh; LTD was kinda meh... most of the stuff was kind of uninspiring. There was a really nice Gibson Les Paul Supreme that was a little twangier than I expected an LP to be, but it was also extremely expensive. The Telecasters seem to have the right balance of Fender twang with just a bit more full of a sound. The humbucker models aren't as buzzy; I'm not sure if the buzziness that was there was by virtue of being at GC or if would still be there. Even the LP has a little bit of buzz. The Tele is still a little more "dry" than the LP, but I think that would be fine for most things. Not sure how it would handle metal, but I guess if I was going to do a metal show, I could just bring my Paul, which is quite a champ for that, even if it's not the greatest clean guitar. Here's the one I played that I really liked:
http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=0137402321
The '72 semi-hollow body. Standard Teles are kind of ugly in my opinion, but I like this one. Anyone have any thoughts on buzz or how it handles different genres?
 
thebigcheese said:
I mean, if a single coil has the sound I want, then whatever, I'm just assuming that since all Les Pauls have humbuckers in the neck position, that's part of what that tone is. I definitely want them to be noise free, though. The single coils on the Squier buzz entirely too much for me, but the humbuckers on my Paul are whisper quiet.
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That's a product of pickup design. Singlecoils sound nice and bright and airy, but are susceptable to 60-cycle hum. Humbuckers, meanwhile, use two out of phase coils to "buck" the hum, but it changes the sound (in some ways for the better, in some for the worse).

Another option - installing a coil tap on your The Paul would allow you to get singlecoil-like sounds out of the guitar you already own.
 
I don't really want the neck to be single coil. I like the neck to be nice and full. I'd only want the bridge to be single coil, but given how much they buzz, I'm not sure I'd want to do that (not that it's ever a standard option).
 
The largest tonal shift from a humbucker is not the bucking of hum, it's from the doubling of output (and thus output impedance). Get an underwound humbucker, and you're 80-90% back to single-coil tone.
 
thebigcheese said:
I don't really want the neck to be single coil. I like the neck to be nice and full. I'd only want the bridge to be single coil, but given how much they buzz, I'm not sure I'd want to do that (not that it's ever a standard option).
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I've got a tele with that combination.
 
Yeah, I see that another of the Classic '72 line has that very combination. I might have to go check that out. There's also a slightly cheaper Deluxe version of the guitar I was looking at yesterday, the only major differences between the two being Jumbo frets versus "Vintage" frets and more knobs. Well, and color choice, I guess. The neck seems to be the same width and the frets the same distance apart. Does "jumbo" just refer to how thick the neck is? Or does it refer to the actual size of the metal frets? I've gotten used to my Paul's frets, which seem to be someone small, so I might prefer that. And fewer knobs is nicer, in my opinion...

Edit: Oh, well I guess the other two guitars aren't semi-hollow, either. What's the difference between those, tonally?
 
"Jumbo" refers to the size of the fret wire itself. It supposedly makes a difference in playability, like for bending and such. But I've never quite understood the logic behind it. My old Charvel 475 had jumbo frets, and it was built for shredding. My current Les Paul has regular frets (if there is such a thing) yet I think it plays fast enough. I don't shred anymore, but its fast enough for anything I might try to do.
 
For me, it's more about comfort than speed, though it seems like my Paul probably has medium jumbo frets, as does the Squier I've been borrowing, and those are fine. We'll see. I have a list of ones to try out.

Is it possible to have single coils that don't buzz? Or really, is it possible to get the stock ones to not buzz?
 
Fender does make "noiseless" pickups that they put in their American Standard and American Deluxe guitars. They're called Samariam Cobalt Noiseless pickups. I haven't heard too many good things about how they actually sound, but they suppedly do combat the noise issues that most single-coil pickups suffer from. But of course, there are some who love the way that they sound. That's just part of how subjective guitar tone is. I think that if you've played any American Deluxe Fenders, then you've played the SCN pickups.

Do-it-yourself shielding will help cut down on the buzzing of single-coils, but I'm not sure that it will eliminate it. Go to www.guitarnuts.com and look at their tutorial about DIY shielding. If you get a Fender without the SCN pickups, it's probably a good idea to shield it if you run into noise problems.
 
Say, what's the difference between the Jaguar and the Telecaster tonally? They seem to also offer the Jaguar with humbuckers, so I could be interested in that.
 
Huh, today I was having a lot of trouble figuring out what the difference between that Classic Thinline I linked to and the Deluxe were. The tonality is very similar, but just enough different to make it a tough decision. But now I see that they actually sell a guitar that is a combination of BOTH! The convenience of the switch placement, the extra knobs, AND the semi-hollow body! That may need to be the one I get, though I did like the nice dark red color of the regular Deluxe.
 
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