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| which guitar should i get |
| joe81 - Feb 28, 2004 |
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Myname | Feb 28, 2004 | |
None of 'em. Get a Telecaster  | |||
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joe81 | Feb 28, 2004 | |
| i just want a good guitar for around 350 | |||
. Teles have the dirtiest sound going, no other guitar can sound so heavy whilst also shredding you eardrums. Strats are far too clean, no matter what amp you put them through.  |
Gallstaff | Feb 29, 2004 | |
| I've never bought a videogame soundtrack in my life, but telecasters still suck and stratocasters sound way cool | |||
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Myname | Feb 29, 2004 | |
| Tell Jimmy Page that Teles 'suck'. Different guitars are good for different things. I don't like certain makes (like Ibanez as an easy example, though I do concede they might have their uses if you're after a particular sound), but just saying that they 'suck' does nothing but make you look like an idiot. | |||
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Jedi Master Thrash | Feb 29, 2004 | |
| Choice D: ESP www.espquitars.com... A lot of guitar/music stores don't carry them, so check the dealer locator. Here's a clip I just recorded to show the beautiful tone and deep sound. Losfer Words (short)... I have the ESP LTD M-207. It's a 7-string, but I can't record anything to show that becuase all I have is a shitty computer microphone and it doesn't pick up bass well at all. The best thing is about it is the feel. It's just the perfect weight, shape, size. I've got big hands, and the thick 7-string neck and extra-jumbo frets are perfect. And the whole guitar vibrates against your chest while you're playing at just the perfect resonance to give an amazing feeling. | |||
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Mask of Destiny | Feb 29, 2004 | ||
I've been pretty happy with my Squier Stagemaster HSS. It has decent tone and the Humbucker/Single Coil combo gives it a nice variety of sounds. It's held up well despite abuse and I only paid somewhere between $100 and $150 for it (don't remember exactly).
I'd be interested to hear what it sounds like without any effects. | ||||
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PUNJABEE | Feb 29, 2004 | |
| Yeah I like squire. I have a little Bullet, with stock everything, 3 singlecoils, and while its not as nice as my SG, its a good little guitar for the $100 I spent on it. A good beater. | |||
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Falstaf | Mar 1, 2004 | |
| 7 string Ibenez = Steve Vai model. For $350 your looking at a Mex Strat. I have found them to be very individualistic in terms of tone and construction quality. Try before you buy. And one quick tell all if an electric guitar will sound good plugged in is to play it unplugged in. If it has a good sounding tone unplugged, then you can always change the pickups to get the desired plugged in tone your after. Remember, an electric guitar is not just about the electronics, it's a combo of that and the quality of the woods and construction used to make it.( You can change the pickups and pots over and over again, to get the sound you want, but it is impracticle to chande the body or neck.) Why else do they use such expensive woods (maple, mohoghany ECT) then paint over them, if not for the tones they give (mohoghany = warm mids, maple = crisp highs) to the sound of the instrument. Check out garage sales, rumage sales and their like for bargains. Pawn shops are rarely a good place to shop as most owners have educated themselves on, in particular, vintage guitar pricing, as some old fender and gibson les pauls can go for tens and even hundreds of thousands of dollars. Ibanez makes a nice guitar, starting at their mid-range and up. Peavey is another good maker that gets overlooked a lot, as does Carvin. Do your homework and you might find a good, low priced '60's' guitar like a tokai, hangstrom or framus (early japanese and euro brands). As always, check the construction quality and for any needed repair work before you buy. PM me if your want any info on a particular model or make, or info on vintage gear. I still have a whole library of reference work on guitars and still look for the odd bargain that I sometimes use to turn a quick profit. | |||
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joe81 | Mar 1, 2004 | |
| thanks and welcome back from where ever you were falstaff | |||
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Jedi Master Thrash | Mar 7, 2004 | ||
I'd be interested to hear what it sounds like without any effects.[/b][/quote] Ok, I finally got around to recording some clips without any effects. This first one is recorded acoustic. I put my shitty computer microphone smack up against the guitar: Nothing Else Matters... The next two are recorded as clean tone through the amp with no effects besides amplification*. The shitty computer microphone doesn't capture the bass well, so everything sounds a bit twangier than it really is. And there's a pleasent 85hz static from my monitor and the 12 computer fans nearby. The first one is done with low "birghtness", and the second one is a different section done with high "brightness": To Live Is To Die 1... To Live Is To Die 2... Pardon my butchering. I was playing all night last night, and had trouble holding all the strings down tight at once becuase my fingers were sore. Not that it would have sounded that much better anyway. The last one is plain distortion through the amp with no other effects. The first half is with the neck pick-up, the second half is with the bridge pick-up. Powerslave... Definitely doesn't sound quite the same as my clip with a bit of reverb and delay in it: Losfer Words... But I guess it helps compare apples to apples. I've found that it takes a good original acoustic/clean sound as the input in order to be able to get a great sound post-effects. My wife has an Ibanez, and it doesn't sound the same post-effects. I think Ibanez are just popular because all the big-wigs (Petrucci, Satch, Vai) use it. But I personally don't think it has much character. And as I mentioned in my first post, the non-aural qualities matter a lot too. The weight distribution, size, and feel of my ESP is just unmatched by the Ibanez. My ESP is a lower-end model. It was the cheapest 7-string they make at about 600$. The H-207 I think was like 2000$ or something. According to my spec-card, the body is Basswood, neck is Maple, and the fingerboard is Rosewood. And there are 2 Duncan-Designed humbuckers. I've been thinking of upgrading those to the active EMG I heard a lot about. Here's a pic of the M-207:  Except mine is gunmetal blue instead of purple. They make some sweet-looking basses too:  Holy sheet. An anime guitar...  *And I know the amplifier does make a big difference in sound. For what it's worth, it's a Peavey TransTube Studio Pro 112. I tested out many amps, and this one produced the best clean-tone sound (for under 500$) Fender amps on the other hand, no matter what guitar I plug into one it sounds like a rusty record. I guess those are only for people who appreciate that "vintage" sound. | ||||
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Falstaf | Mar 7, 2004 | |
| The problem with a lot of the new "vintage" rerelease fender amps is the solid state pre-amp. Not a great lover of solid state amps. My best sounding amp ever was a '58' Ampeg with a 12" Celestion blue label speaker. Great sounding amp, very warm. I even used to coax Mesa Boogie type sounds (think early Clapton) out of it by imitating the cascading pre-amp with three seperate amps feeding into one another. The first two would be overdriven and the last on the chain is where I controled the total output volume. Sounded very creamy. I usually drove this setup with a hotrodded strat (my own work), or my PRS CE. What I appreciated on the mid to upper scale Ibanez guitars, was the incredibly fast neck. Nice and slim and very easy to get around on. I have to agree that they are not well balanced, though. And the pickups they used (cheaper Dimarzio's I think) were not the best. And I have to say, I have never likes the choice of almost exclusively using Floyd Rose locking nuts and trems. What a pain in the ass, cheap way of not just building the guitar right (with straight sting pull) in the first place. You almost always have to have an extra axe with you at a gig as it takes about 30 minutes to change a string. Nice looking guitar Thrash. ESP's are real popular with a lot of the metal crowd. EMG pickups? not a fan. Always sounded dry to me. But to each his own. | |||
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Jedi Master Thrash | Mar 8, 2004 | |
| (In response to falstaff) I'd have to agree about the Floyd Rose locking tremolo system. It seems like it's almost the only option if you want a floating bridge. But i personally think it's the worst part on my guitar. I'd never give up having a floating bridge, but the tremolo bar connection isn't great. It wiggles a little bit, so as you transition from a pull-up down to a push-down, it crosses that neutral barrier and has just a bare amount of slack at that moment which causes it to re-hit the bridge on its way down which makes the rest of the strings start to vibrate and loses the note. Also, it is held on via a screw-cap. So anytime you twist the wammy bar counter-clockwise you unscrew what is holding down the bar and it becomes loose. Horrible design. I don't know how they let that get out the door, or had the gall to charge to put the "licensed floyd rose" stamp on it. Newer models of the floyd rose now have a rubber floating-ring system in the wammy bar which allows you to rotate the bar without unscrewing the cap. It can still unscrew, but not as easily. And it's a little tighter so that it doesn't get quite as loose in the neutral position. But still not perfect. I actually broke my original wammy bar the night before a performance. Broke right off at the base of the cap. So I scrambled to some guitar stores, and ended up buying one of the new bars that has the rubber floating ring, which is good since it's much better than what I had. The only problem was it was about 1/2in longer (which also would have been good because it probably would have had much less slack in neutral). So I had to saw about 3/8in off the end so that it would fit in mine. But in the end it works quite well. But i'd still like to replace the system with something that meets my expectation of "perfect". When I was first researching for what new guitar to get, all the reviews for the ESP LTD series were raving about it, especially it's robustness (people claimed dropping it down a flight of stairs without a scratch and still in tune). But the one thing that the majority of the people said was that they didn't like the Duncan Designed humbuckers. And the first thing a lot of them did was modify it to take the EMG active pickups to get more kick (have to dig out a hole in the back to place the battery). I've never tried one. I was just going by reviews. But I'll definitely make sure I give it a listen first if you think it's not all it's cracked up to be. | |||
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Falstaf | Mar 9, 2004 | |
| As in all things that have to do with individual perception, hearing in this case, it really depends on what you like personally. What is the end result that comes out of you amp speakers, after your effects chain has processed the original sound of the guitar? (I am assuming you are processing your sound in some way beyond the defacto reverb most amps offer.) I am very old school in my sound, the guitar straight into a nicely burned in tube amp. So my unprocessed sound has to please me first. EMG's were really made to be processed and that's why they, to me, sound a bit dry. They figure they are going to be bent and warped by an effects chain or multi processor anyway. To me, there is no better sound then a vintage pair of soap bar p/u's into an overdriven tube amp. Give the EMG's a listen, especially through your amp and effects chain and then judge for yourself if they are what you want. On the tremelo question...I have not tried the new Floyd's yet. My all time favorite trem is the PRS. Very smooth with a good throw range. Modeled on the old Fender style. But then I also appreciate a good hard tail (no trem) guitar. You broke yours? Hell, what style are you playing? | |||
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