There’s something intimidating about music stores, and by extension music message boards. Musos who know way too much, criticize every imaginable instrument/amp/player, the works. I bought my Squier P-bass years ago - basically ran into the store plugged it in to an amp, and ran out before anyone could tell me about its flaws.
I’m a hobbyist, I play mostly for myself and friends. I might want to jam with other musicians here and there in the future though. I have a Samick acoustic that has done the job of teaching me the basics, now I want a budget electric.
I’d love a Les Paul but the Epiphones and LP Jrs seem to get mixed reviews. However, I am looking at a Epi G400, which seems to get generally good reviews. My next question of course, is who plays a G400?
Is there a list online somewhere where it tells you the preferred guitar of certain artists? I’d like to know who else in the world of music plays my guitar, and ID what sounds come from what guitars. Thanks for any help!
I’m not sure if there is one definitive website with information on who-plays-what. I do know that there are sites run by fans of a certain artist/band that go into a lot of detail about equipment. There is one for Kurt Cobain, which details not only what guitars he used for live shows, but also song-by-song on each and every album.
Also, a cheapo Ibanez or Squire can usually replicate most any sound if you use the proper pedals. For my Nirvana stuff, I play through a Fender JagStang with a Boss DS1 and a DigiTech chorus/flange/repeat. For other stuff you’d need other pedals.
Just remember that a lot of good music has been made without the need for expensive rigs; Cobain used pawn shop guitars, Clapton made a pretty standard Stratocaster do some amazing things, ditto for SRV.
Acoustic guitars are a different animal. I personally feel like you can’t go wrong with a Guild Dreadnaught. YMMV of course.
You (probably) won’t find professionals using Epiphones, they’ll go for the Gibson.
Off the top of my head, SG users:
Angus Young - ACDC
Woodstck era Pete Townshend
Kimberley Rew (some of you know who he is )*****
I don’t know about more contemporary bands, they all seem to be using Deluxe Telecasters or PRSs.
*****He’s go a new solo album out BTW ******
****** I am not him.
Rather than asking what guitar a certain artist plays, shouldn’t you be asking what is a good cheap electric guitar?
I know you have a Squier but I am not too keen on those (and yes, I own one).
I’d say the best buy for the money is the OLP (stands for Officially Licensed Product) MM1 (meaning Music Man 1). This is an official copy of a guitar designed by Ernie Ball for the Music Man guitar company. Yes you could buy the Music Man version of this … for $1,200. OR Peavey makes a copy of it (the Wolfgang) for about $500.
The OLP runs, at most, around $200 and it is worth it.
You might try going to this message board: http://guitarnuts2.proboards45.com/index.cgi
A few months ago, they had a thread about good cheap electric guitars. You could search for that or just start a new thread.
Another good thing about that board is that its members (myself included) love to “tear into” a guitar to improve its sound and playibility. A lot of times, a great deal of money can be saved by adding a few switches instead of buying a new guitar.
By the way, Agile guitars are also very good (and cheap too).
They can be bought online. (I’ll get the link if you want it).
This has a link at the bottom called ‘Artists’. Click on that and it will give you a list of artists who use that guitar. The list is probably only offical artists (ie, musicians sponsered by Epiphone) but it is a start.
Now, about buying a guitar. I wouldn’t worry about who plays that type of guitar. I would suggest going to a gutar store, sitting down and trying every type of guitar in the place. Find something that feels comfortable. Once you find a body style that fits well for you, go into the amp room and plug it into a little amp. Listen to it. Try it clean and dirty. See if you like the tone. I said little amp for a reason BTW. I’ve been in music stores and seen sales men take a kid, hand him a guitar and plug it into a Marshal Stack. The kid loved it. The kid walked out with the guitar and a little amp that is not going to sound anything like what he heard in the store. That kid was probably really disappointed when he got home. Anyway, plug it in and if you like the tones then play every one of that type of gutar in the store. Find the one you like and inspect it for flaws, etc. Then go to another store and try some more. The reason for this is you want something comfortable, if it isn’t easy to play you ain’t gonna play it.
I made the mistake of buying a guitar based on it’s style once. It was a pretty good guitar but it was awkward to sit with. It also had a weird trem and I had to alter my picking to play it well. I ended up liking the guitar but after it got ripped off it took a couple months to get my picking to work on a normal guitar.
I used to be as well. Then I got my Ibanez, it was a pretty guitar. But it had two problems, one major and one minor. The major one was the tremelo. It was an Ibanez locking trem and the way it was built the rear tuner stuck up at an odd angle. It made fine tuning easy but it put your hand in a strange position when picking, especially muting. It took a while to get used to and after I did get used to it playing any other guitar took a while to get used to. For some reason, which I don’t remember, replacing the tremelo wasn’t possible (could have been too exspensive) The minor problem was body shape. If I played it sitting down it didn’t balance quite right. I loved that guitar but I am glad in a way that I had to get another. I now have a 1960 Les Paul Gold Top and my picking is way better than it used to be mainly because it’s way easier on the Paul.
Speaking of which, I am going guitar shopping tomorrow. I probably won’t buy anything unless I find something I absolutely love. I am looking for a strat style guitar with a double octave neck. I am thinking about a Music Man. I want to play a Steve Morse model, though I don’t think it has a double octave neck, and a Petrucci model. I’ll probably end up with something less costly but…damned those are pretty guitars. I’ll play a bit and see how they feel. Also, I understand that the Steve Morse model is wired the way Steve likes it and the pickup selectors work different than most guitars.
sleestak
You seem to like custom wiring on an electric guitar. As I’ve said before, if you visit this site: http://guitarnuts2.proboards45.com/index.cgi
you’ll learn a lot about doing the wiring yourself.
(I’m a member of that website but I don’t run it and I’m not trying to get new members for them).
A few years ago, I bought a Saga kit guitar (Stratocaster copy) for about $100. Since it was a kit guitar, it took a lot of adjusting to make it “playable” (shimming, truss rod adjustments, etc). Still, once assembled, it sounded pretty good - especially after installing my own custom wiring: www.1728.com/guitar2.htm
(Yes that is my website).
I have done some wiring. I’ve been meaning to change the pickup selector on my Les Paul so that the down position is the bridge pickup, the top position is the neck/bridge mix and the middle being the just the neck pickup. It makes sense because I use the bridge for rhythm stuff and the neck/bridge mix for higher register solos. That way when I need to flip from rhythm to a solo in mid song I won’t have to worry about overshooting and going straight to just the neck pickup.
Oh, here is what I worked on today. I added the solo bit, though I need to redo it. I am waiting on lyrics to actually finish the song 'cause I don’t know how long it should be. Once I know how many verses, etc I’ll redo the whole thing. Hopefully I’ll have it finished with vocals in about two weeks.
sleestak
It will be interesting to hear the finished song.
Anyway, the switching you want for your guitar would probably have to be done with another switch in place of the present one. The “stock” Gibson pickups are very well made but also VERY limited. If you want, I could draw up a diagram that could do just what you want. As I always say, just make sure you are 100% certain of what you are doing and that you really want this wiring. (Sure you can always put the old switch back, provided you are confident in your soldering and electronic abilities).
Gee, I wonder if Hippy Hollow got the answer he needed.
I ended up going for a Epiphone Special II. Cool looking, and it’s pretty solidly built. There is a “Gibson” label on the neck for some reason. So far I have it plugged into my GarageBand setup on my Mac and it sounds great!
Small Clanger, I am a bassist, but I’m picking up guitar to compose a little. Some of my fave guitarists are: Johnny Marr, John McGeoch, Jimmy Honeyman-Scott, Andy Summers, and Graham Coxon. I have the misfortune of loving very proficient guitarists, so I’m simply trying to sound like them - I will never reach their level of virtuousity! (Though Graham is perhaps the easiest of the lot to suss out…)
wolf_meister and sleestak, thanks for the contributions to the thread. One of the coolest things I found was the GuitarGeek site, thanks to SmackFu (see the link above).
)*****