Hey there folks… I know this isn’t a guitar forum but what the hell- thoughts I’d get some folks opinions…
I have been playing a standard telecaster for several years. While I like the look and feel of the Tele, the sound, while great for styles such as country, surf, rockabilly and jangle-pop, just doesn’t seem to cut it for meaty distorted guitar tones.
I was thinking either a)install a humbucker pickup in the bridge or b) get a new guitar…
I love the classic looks and feel of Fenders and Gibsons but they seem so overpriced. I really think you are paying a lot of money for the brand name in the case of Fender and Gibson…
I’ve been looking at Ibanez and even the super geeky but super practical steinberger spirits. I’m looking for something very versatile for around $500-800… or should I just pay a bunch of money for a humbucker and a routing job? Anybody have any suggestions?
I don’t know about you
but i love to have a few guitars with a few different sounds.
“Frankensteining” a guitar is amazing fun, BUT.
It always in the long run ends up being more productive
to have more than one style of guitar. You know?
I’ve got a Fender Tele-Scorpion.
Gibson Gothic Explorer
& an
Ibanez 1976 Vintage/Lawsuit Les Paul.
All three have uniquely groovy sounds.
One is great for twangy twisted shit
one is great for METAL BLACKER THAN BLACK METALLL
and the other is the warmest most powerful purr you could ever dream of.
I’m set for a LONG time… it took me years to find
this perfect combo of 3 guitars…
NEXT i need to get a reeeallly trebly/twangish acoustic.
get a gibson semi-hollow body. thick as hell and any $40 petal can give you a metal sound. plus you’ll look a shit-load cooler than playing any ibanez piece of shit. There are so many guitars now, but - there’s really only a few good ones.
but don’t buy any (or be fooled by) of the new Gretsch. since they were bought out by Fender they suck (altho i love fender). I was looking at a “white falcon” last year. price tag was $3,200 and the fucker had “made in china” on the back of the headstock. i lost all hope for modern equipment at that point. and the sales kid actually said to me with a straight face “oh that’s a good sign”.
personally my goal on my next guitar purchases (I currently own 5) are a USA Gretsch, 6 string Martin, 12-string martin. Then I will be complete.
with the technology the way it is today, there’s very little emphasis put on the manufacturing of guitars nowadays. its sad.
or you could go gibson SG its pretty thick. or you could get a strat with a humbucker. or a tele with a humbucker. i think you should stick with either fender or gibson. the classics. you get so much sustain tho out of hollow (or semi-hollow bodies).
Perhaps the root of my dissatisfaction with my Tele the shitty stock pickups. I’m sure replacing them with some hotter, better quality pickups would beef up the sound. I see they have mini-humbuckers that fit in the traditional tele neck pickup without any routing… perhaps that would be they way to go… although I would still like it to sound like a tele.
If your good at tuning the floyd rose bridge then either of these two guitars will do you fine for metal! If you aren’t so good at the floyd rose then the SA260 will do you fine. I have a couple of other guitars as well…
I have G10 bass which is beautiful to play. It’s almost just like playing a normal guitar. I have two Ibanez acoustics as well But they are so warm and deep toned I don’t suggest them for twangy. For twangy I would suggest a Pawn shop guitar for that! either that or just put Super light electric guitar strings on your current acoustic. I also have the blue epiphone les paul that was released this past christmas (swapped out the standard humbuckers with '59 duncan humbuckers unbelievable tone and fuzz!)
Goodluck
Late,
grmpysmrf
i’ve always been a fan of gibson, and to a lesser extent, the epiphone.
i have an epiphone les paul and it’s meaty as hell. (heavy too, took a few weeks to get used to playing it.) it’s ncie for really thick distortion rythym and such, and has a nice warm tone when it comes to lead playing.
i can only assume a real gibson would sound better. i like big bodied guitars for rythym/low shizz, but i can’t get enough of my crap tastic yamaha strat copy. got it for 100 bucks in 8th grade. still my favorite guitar.
i also have a cheapy ibanez, and rg something or other. it’s nice sound wise but i don’t like the 3 single core pickup layout. i personally like to have the room underneath the strings for thrashing, not slamming my knuckles on a pickup heh.
so i’d suggest trying out some epiphone’s at the store next time you have the means. you can get a nice epihone les paul, for example, for around 500 new. worth checking out.
Ibanez IC400, looks great, sounds great.
Good for heavy chugging.
Combined with Guitar Rig 3 I’ve been getting some mad, fucked up tones out of it. That’s more to do with Guitar Rig than the guitar though.
It takes a bit of getting used to the way it hangs though cos of the position of one of the strap pins. It’s on the back of the body by where the neck meets the body rather than on the side of the body above the neck. Kinda feels like you gotta hold on to it.
Apart from that, great piece of woodwork.
Ok, let me try to respond to everyone who’s been kind enough to give me suggestions on an individual basis-
A_Merrick - “Frankensteining” a guitar is indeed fun as hell.
I’ve taken a Fender Musicmaster bass, gotten rid of the shitty mid-pickup and installed a huge Dimarzio humbucking pickup @ the bridge. It’s the ultimate “dub machine” as a luthier working at the shop commented. I am about to install a Fender American pickup at the neck so the bass will have the phat gibson bass sounds and the uprighty sound of a Fender Jazz bass!!! This is MY baby/project and it’s gonna be my perfect bass when it’s finished
And I agree with you about having different guitars to fit different bills.
Slacklove, you have good advice as well… there is a reason people still play the classics and it’s not just image…
Catgoat - I agree about the Gibsons/Epiphones… I had a Les Paul copy way back when at while it was heavy as all hell, it had a beautiful tone.
As my middle-aged beer gut coninues to form, I think I could truly balance a Lesw Paul style geetar these days…
grmpysmrf - yeah, some of those ibanez’s look cool, but fuck the floyd rose… not many people can make a whammy-bar shine… I’m interested though in brands like Ibanez/ESP and their take on classics like the Les Paul… THought those horrible metal strat copies are sickening…
S.L.U.G. - the Iceman is too metal for me… bet it gets some great sounds… never played one… I don’t have the living space for those extravagant rock/metal guitars
I’ve got a Standard Tele with a Seymour Duncan SLSD mini-humbucker in the bridge position.
It’s been my main guitar for about 10 years. Needless to say, I like it a lot. There’s something to be said for Teles. They’re very expressive. You can dig in and change the tone with your fingers and with the way you attack the strings especially if you put some heavy strings on it. Other guitars feel mostly like mush to me. The only problem with Fenders is they don’t take that well to alternate tunings. If you play in drop D, the low string can get a little floppy because of the scale.
My son has a nice Epi Les Paul, a Standard Plus. That’s the only other guitar I’ve played lately that has some depth to it. He also plays with heavy strings and is usually in drop D or DADGAD. Gibson scale guitars are better for lower tunings.
Throw your guitar in the rubbish bin and buy two turntables, a mixer, a bunch of Reggae records, a bunch of Hip Hop records, a bunch of Funk records, a bunch of Dubstep records, a bunch of Drum’n’Bass records, a bunch of Afro-Cuban-Brazillian records, a bunch of Blues records, a bunch of Detroit Techno records, a bunch of Hip Hop battle tool records, a pair of Adidas shell tops, some baggy pants and a Yankees baseball cap and you’ll be in business!
You’ll also have shit-loads of girls wanting to shag your brains out if you follow my instructions dude! [cool]
Throw your guitar in the rubbish bin and buy two turntables, a mixer, a bunch of Reggae records, a bunch of Hip Hop records, a bunch of Funk records, a bunch of Dubstep records, a bunch of Drum’n’Bass records, a bunch of Afro-Cuban-Brazillian records, a bunch of Blues records, a bunch of Detroit Techno records, a bunch of Hip Hop battle tool records, a pair of Adidas shell tops, some baggy pants and a Yankees baseball cap and you’ll be in business!
You’ll also have shit-loads of girls wanting to shag your brains out if you follow my instructions dude! [cool]
He didn’t say he was talentless.
Besides, nobody gets laid more than guitars players…except guitar players who can sing.
