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March 29, 2024, 03:18:57 PM

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Guitar recommendations

Started by chutnut, September 16, 2021, 11:42:50 AM

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Ferris


chutnut

Cheers yeah I do like the look of that too


Ferris

Just looking through that website in the 3-400 quid range, they all seem like good options for whatever my opinion is worth (nowt). I've always liked those Grestsch duo-matics.

Could be worth looking at gumtree (is that still a thing in the UK?) or equivalent sites for second hand stuff as well.

badaids

Quote from: FerriswheelBueller on September 17, 2021, 07:16:14 PM
This is a lot of guitar for the price as well

https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/squier-classic-vibe-70s-telecaster-deluxe-mn-olympic-white

I've got one of these but I got it second hand from the highly missed Rok Shop in Shrewsbury. £100 quid 15 years ago.  Fucking best guitar from the best guitar shop ever. . I painted mine banana yellow and left it in a room where it fell on the carpet while it was drying so it has also this weird furry heft to the patina. I've owned many guitars of many different types loads more but this is the one i always come back to.

Spiteface

Just wanna throw a Les Paul Junior in here, because I'm into this style of guitar at the moment:

https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/epiphone-les-paul-junior-vintage-sunburst

One pickup, two knobs. Sweet simplicity, but if you're prepared to exploit the volume and tone controls fully, more versatile than you would think.

Although if you want a neck pickup, then an extra 50 quid gets you one of these:

https://www.pmtonline.co.uk/epiphone-les-paul-special-tv-yellow

Thinking about getting one of these myself, as I like TV yellow guitars.

Also posting these as the quandry of single coils vs humbuckers came up. P90s are a good way to "split the difference" because they typically fall tonally somewhere between the two. Nice cleans but can get nice and fat with some gain of you want to go there.

Ferris

Quote from: badaids on September 17, 2021, 07:43:18 PM
I've got one of these but I got it second hand from the highly missed Rok Shop in Shrewsbury. £100 quid 15 years ago.  Fucking best guitar from the best guitar shop ever. . I painted mine banana yellow and left it in a room where it fell on the carpet while it was drying so it has also this weird furry heft to the patina. I've owned many guitars of many different types loads more but this is the one i always come back to.

My partscaster is based on one. Pair of Gibson p-94Ts and a fender slim profile neck but the rest of it is basically the same.

It's the guitar I've owned the longest, having had it since I was 15 in various incarnations.

chutnut

I decided to watch some YouTube demos of all of these (dunno why I didn't think or that before) and somehow it's making it harder to decide what I want. I like the sound of single coil and humbuckers in different ways to be fair.

That 70s telecaster is on the list now for sure, but as much as I like the look of those epiphones I think branching out into different brands now is going to make it harder still.

In fact the more I think about it at all the harder it gets, I don't think I'll ever be fully sure what I want so just need to bite the bullet really


kngen

Quote from: Spiteface on September 16, 2021, 02:48:42 PM
Epiphone underwent a bit of a revamp last year. New headstock shape (Still not the Gibson "open book" but a little closer to it), and the lineup is more closely aligned with Gibson model-for-model. I.E. If you want a Les Paul Standard with a 50s neck, but can't afford a Gibson, then there is an Epiphone in that spec, same finishes available, too.

Aside from some setup issues, general opinion is that they're really good. Bit of a price hike, though.

I wish they were out sooner though. Might have got an Epiphone Les Paul Junior rather than the Gordon Smith I bought last year. I do like the Jared James Nichols signature "Old Glory" Les Paul though. A Junior in custom clothing.

Oh, good to know. Ta! I might bring my much missed Epi LP studio back into my life (even though I absolutely don't need it) and it can sit on a stand gathering dust with all the others, because I'm a dick.

Ferris

Quote from: kngen on September 18, 2021, 05:37:39 PM
Oh, good to know. Ta! I might bring my much missed Epi LP studio back into my life (even though I absolutely don't need it) and it can sit on a stand gathering dust with all the others, because I'm a dick.

Yeah I didn't know that either. I had an epi les Paul made in 1982 that I suspect is a higher quality than anything Gibson put out these days but I swapped it for a telecaster in about 2006. No regrets, although yes some regrets.

I have a classic vibe 50s Tele and the build quality is astounding. If you lurk the Tele forums, you'll find them compared favourably to much more expensive guitars, though they have to be kept almost artificially cheap and that's done by filling it with cheap hardware and electrics. The bodies are pine so weight can vary quite a lot, but they sound like Teles, look gorgeous and go for about £240 on eBay.

I recently played my mate's Baja Tele, and that felt much better, but that's perhaps personal preference over sound and feel - and it is a much more expensive guitar. I do find it hard to imagine better bang for buck than Squier Classic Vibe though. There is some suggestion that the newer Indonesian ones aren't as good as the Chinese ones though, so possibly worth a bit of reading around before committing.


Bongo_Christ

Quote from: chutnut on September 18, 2021, 03:14:45 PM

In fact the more I think about it at all the harder it gets, I don't think I'll ever be fully sure what I want so just need to bite the bullet really

Seems to me the best thing you can do now - and excuse me if you've already done this, or it's not possible for one reason or another - is get a few of these in your hands and see how they feel.

You can compare stats and videos all day long, but most of the time when I've been choosing an instrument the deciding factor has been seeing them in the flesh and getting them in my hands. It might be the way one looks, the way it feels under your hands, or the sounds you can get out of it when you twiddle a few knobs, but there's no better way to at least narrow it down than to play a few side by side and see what happens.

You might even walk in with a list of Fenders on your mind, and walk out with a beautiful Gretsch, becuase it just grabbed your eye and felt right!

sevendaughters

you could, as I usually do, go second hand. guitars don't fall to bits and you might find yourself with a played-in guitar worth twice your budget if you look around. i've got a nice Samick SAM450 (which is basically an Epiphone Sheraton, they're made in the same factory and iirc Epiphone sued Samick to stop production) that I didn't have to do shit to for under half of what it is worth (seller had CPT, shame).

Rizla

+1 on the Epiphone love. I've got 3 and they're all great. A J-160 copy (the jumbo with pickup that the Beatles used), J200 copy, and best of all Firebird VII, from a time in the early 00's when Gibson weren't interested in selling original spec 'birds, so they gave Epiphone free license to built them - mahogany set-neck body, gold-plated hardware the lot. Quite hard to come by now, but here's one for sale - in america! https://reverb.com/item/1812953-1963-epiphone-firebird-vii-reissue-2003-brillant-red

Definitely check out the 2nd hand market, it seems to be pretty decent right now for some reason. My local facebook instrument buy and sell page is always full of excellent bargains - right now a bloke's selling a brace of beautiful vintage Hagstroms for £400 each, and there's a peach of a Burns Marquee sitting in Coatbridge for £300. (I also know a man who wants £350 for a 1976 Shergold like the one Bernard Sumner used to play, sorely tempted by that).


Ferris

Yeah I have an early '00s Korean epiphone dot and it is completely solid (if a little uninspiring, I very rarely pick it up these days).

Bently Sheds

I 100% definitely recommend trying things in person. I went into a shop determined to buy either a Squier Precision or a Jazz bass, eventually walked out with a shortscale Squier Jaguar bass because it sounded & felt so much better than anything else in that price range.

chutnut

Yeah to be honest I've known that realistically I should be going and trying them out in a shop rather than trying to work it all out online, it's just hard to find the time (got a 2 year old) and I'm still trying to avoid unnecessary touching of anything in public if I can help it. I should just do it really though shouldn't I, might be able to get down somewhere in a couple of weeks
The only thing that puts me off buying 2nd hand is the lack of any warranty/finance options

kngen

#46
Seeing as there are a few Fender/Squier advocates on here, how do Squier P-basses rate? Thinking about getting one for home recording, but don't want to get saddled with a clunker.

Edit: Just re-read Sherman Krank's awesome rundown on the vagaries of Squiers/Fenders - I presume the same applies for basses. Might be a classic vibe for me, then.

Sherman Krank

^ If anything the Squier basses have an even better rep than the guitars. I've seen a few bass players on youtube who've bought a Classic Vibe and a Player series and say they prefer the CV.


They're currently doing three variants of the P in the Classic Vibe series

50's - Based on the original 1951 'tele' bass, these have Pine bodies (like the originals), the distinctive 'two horn' pickguard, a straight single coil Alnico pickup (based on a tele guitar pickup) and a Maple fretboard. 

60's - Based on a typical 1960's P, they have Poplar bodies (Fender would use Poplar in the 50's and 60's when they ran short of Ash and Alder), a single split P pickup (technically two double pole pickups acting as one and with one coil being reverse wound to cancel hum) and a Indian laurel fretboard (instead of the more traditional rosewood).

70's -  Based on a typical 1970's P, much the same as the 60's but with a Nyatoh body (some retailers are listing it as Nato but that's a completely different species that's similar to Mahogany) and a Maple fretboard with block inlays.

All other specs are standard across the three ie. Alnico pickups, 34" scale length, 9.5" radius, 'C' neck profile, narrow tall frets, real bone nut and a gloss finish all over.

It's gone from Fenders website now but they were also doing a late 50's model but it just seems to be a 60's but with a Nyatoh body instead of Poplar.

With the Affinity series they only do the one variant which is a PJ (a Precision with an extra Jazz type pickup in the bridge). It come in Black or Olympic White with a Maple fretboard or Lake Placid Blue or Charcoal Frost Metallic with an Indian Laurel board.

The main specs that differ from the CV series are Poplar bodies, Ceramic pickups,
satin urethane finish on the back of the neck, synthetic bone nut and medium jumbo frets.

If I was buying one I think I'd go for an Affinity with a Maple board as the Players I've got have the satin finish on the back of the necks and they're the nicest feeling necks I've ever played. If the pickups aren't up to it then they would be easy to upgrade as there's plenty of good quality, reasonably priced aftermarket split P and Jazz pickups out there.
I would however look around for an FSR model in something other than boring old black or white.

kngen

This is fantastic, cheers! Think you've sold me on an all-black Affinity (as I've found one for $190, which seems ludicrously reasonable!)


Sherman Krank

#49
Looks like some places are still selling the previous model. With a black one it's easy to tell, if it's got a maple board it's the new model and if the board is Laurel then it's the previous model.
The sellers that still have them are pretty vague with the specs so I'm not sure if they have the satin finish on the necks but Fender have been doing that for a fair few years now so it's likely.
One plus for the old version is they have alder bodies like the Mexican and US versions.
Other than that the old and new versions are very similar.
Either way $190 is still a cracking deal.

 

kngen


kngen

Ah bugger - someone already bought it.

There's also a bright "race red" Affinity PJ with a black pick guard which looks the absolute bollocks.



GAK have it for £180 and with PayPal credit for 4 months and I'm very, very fucking tempted.




Sherman Krank

^ Race Red is from the previous iteration so that one will have an Alder body.
£180 is a decent price as most places are still asking £220-230 for the previous versions.

Ferris

All the guitar nerds seem to be in here so I'll ask - I'm about to change a pickup on my project guitar. A friend gave me a mystery humbucker about 10 years ago but he has no idea what it's from, so I was going to use it and find out.

Spoke to him today and he suspects it is from an OLP[nb]remember them?[/nb] and thinks it was the bridge pickup but this is 2008 so who fucking remembers. I'm guessing it's from an OLP MM1 (a licensed Ernie Ball Music Master copy basically). It's going in the bridge position of my guitar anyway, though looks like it was direct mounted so I'll need to bodge it a bit to mount on the scratchplate.

Two questions.

1 - anyone have a single clue about whether that's a decent pickup or not? I'll probably put it in anyway because I like the zebra open coils but because the company folded in 2009 there's very little on the internet about them.

2 - if it's a neck pickup and I put it in the bridge anyway (because that's where it's going), will that have any impact at all? Also because it isn't matched to the neck pickup I have, I'm assuming the output will change when I switch pickup positions - does that just mean a jump in volume or what?

Will post pictures of it all when I'm finished. Making a new transparent scratchplate for the whole thing as well once the lacquer dries so watch this space.

Sherman Krank

#55
I remember OLP as having the laziest brand name ever (it stood for Officially Licensed Product).
I seem to recall they were Chinese made and had a fairly poor rep and as a result sales were also poor, now replaced by Sterling which is EB's version of Squier.

The pickup could be Alnico but is more likely to be a cheap generic Chinese ceramic jobber though that's not to say it'll necessarily sound bad as there's always the possibility that a particular pickup in a particular guitar just happen to work well together. Sticking it in and trying it is the only sure way to tell.
(If it's got a big rectangular block glued to the bottom of it, it's a ceramic)

If it is shite then I'd recommend considering an Iron Gear pickup instead as they're the best sounding pickups I've heard for the price (£30-35 for a humbucker)
http://www.irongear.co.uk/irongear_pickups_021.htm

Ceramic pickups aren't always shit, the likes of Gibson, Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio all use ceramic magnets in their hottest wound pickups as Alnico pickups can only take so many winds before they start to crap out. It's just that the cheapest budget ceramics are usually assembled using the shittiest components known to man.

With humbuckers 'bridge' and 'neck' generally refers to the polarity of the coils so you could try installing it reversed though it may not make a noticable difference to the sound (maybe a bit brighter reversed).
If one pickup is noticeably louder than the other then use the screws at the side to raise or lower them until the volume level is roughly the same (remember the magnetic fields affect the vibration of the strings so don't put them right up under the stings). 

Quote from: Sherman Krank on September 24, 2021, 01:47:23 PM
^ Race Red is from the previous iteration so that one will have an Alder body.
£180 is a decent price as most places are still asking £220-230 for the previous versions.

£200 is as low as I've ever seen it so, as I say, very, very tempted.

Ferris

Quote from: Sherman Krank on September 24, 2021, 03:18:39 PM
I remember OLP as having the laziest brand name ever (it stood for Officially Licensed Product).
I seem to recall they were Chinese made and had a fairly poor rep and as a result sales were also poor, now replaced by Sterling which is EB's version of Squier.

The pickup could be Alnico but is more likely to be a cheap generic Chinese ceramic jobber though that's not to say it'll necessarily sound bad as there's always the possibility that a particular pickup in a particular guitar just happen to work well together. Sticking it in and trying it is the only sure way to tell.
(If it's got a big rectangular block glued to the bottom of it, it's a ceramic)

If it is shite then I'd recommend considering an Iron Gear pickup instead as they're the best sounding pickups I've heard for the price (£30-35 for a humbucker)
http://www.irongear.co.uk/irongear_pickups_021.htm

Ceramic pickups aren't always shit, the likes of Gibson, Seymour Duncan and DiMarzio all use ceramic magnets in their hottest wound pickups as Alnico pickups can only take so many winds before they start to crap out. It's just that the cheapest budget ceramics are usually assembled using the shittiest components known to man.

With humbuckers 'bridge' and 'neck' generally refers to the polarity of the coils so you could try installing it reversed though it may not make a noticable difference to the sound (maybe a bit brighter reversed).
If one pickup is noticeably louder than the other then use the screws at the side to raise or lower them until the volume level is roughly the same (remember the magnetic fields affect the vibration of the strings so don't put them right up under the stings).

Really appreciate this response, many thanks!

It's going into my long-suffering partscaster that I use to test things out. It looks like an alnico humbucker (and what limited information is out there reckons that might be a surprisingly good pickup for what it is) but you're right, I'll just have to do it and see.

Weirdly I already have the polarity flipped in my neck pickup to make it sound brighter so I'm already off-piste so I doubt how I install this will make a huge difference.

Will give it a go (with bodge to make it fit the pickguard) and report back. If I decide I don't like it, I'll get another pair of P-94Ts (eventually...) and switch to those long term. They seem to be my favourite combination in terms of performance and looks these days.

Shit Good Nose

Two of my favourite guitarists - Steve Hackett and Robert Fripp - both play Fernandes Les Pauls and have done for some years having previously been Gibson players (Hackett prefers the sustain on Fernandes guitars, and Fripp's works inline better with his box of tricks than a Gibson).  Pricier custom jobs in both cases (Fripp's heavily so), but I see Fernandes guitars are generally in the "affordable" category.  Any Fernandes opinions/experience?  Used prices for the Les Pauls tend to be £300-600 (depending on model and whether new or used), and I've seen the Strat types go for as little as £200 on eBay.

I have a Kent Armstrong super rocker in a super strat and the previous owner has snipped off the lugs and mounted it on a load of cardboard with superglue. This obviously means I can't adjust the height, and that was the reason I went rummaging in the first place. Thinking of making a new base plate of sorts out of plastic and remounting it.

The same guitar has a knackered volume pot. I'm happy enough soldering, but not sure I have the finesse to be handling so many wires in such a tight space and I'm not sure there's enough wire to pull things out. Fair amount of fret wear too. How hard can a refret be?...