Sorry for posting so much. When I was in Nashville, I stored up a few guitar geek things, one of which just sprung to mind. A guy was describing his experience playing excellent Les Pauls (e.g., real 50’s and great new ones) - “You know what they say: A great Les Paul sounds liked a Telecaster; a great Telecaster sounds like a Les Paul.”
I did not know they say that. However, I totally agree, as my clips might indicate 
I like the term and have already co-opted it into my lexicon.
All good, brother.
I’m about ready to record two more, one of which I’m trying to decide if I want to dig out some lyrics I wrote years ago. The other will likely be another instrumental track, but I’ve added some, ah, technique(?) to my drumming that I hope will provide a bit more complexity to the music.
I have never heard that, but I’d be happy to pull my '71 Les Paul Custom out of it’s case to try a comparison. I don’t think they sound much alike at all, from memory. I don’t own a Tele tho; I’d have to borrow one from a friend.
Now, now now. Well, now. By now you should have figured out that I’m like an evangelical Christan when it comes to gain. Too poor? You need more Jesus. Too rich? You need more Jesus. The same answer for either too happy or too sad. Even if you haven’t asked the question, the answer is more gain in my book. More gain. Now.
But even an absolutist like myself doesn’t think there should be a floor to your gain. I’m not telling you to put a fuzz pedal on it (but I probably will eventually). I think it should sound almost clean, and really full when you’re playing lightly. But when you hit it good, I want it to sound like the first chord of “20th Century Boy”. When I back off, it should be clean-ish and thick. That’s my baseline for amps today. If it can’t hit that sound when it’s dimed out and I hit it hard and still be able to back off, I’ll keep shopping. We have the technology for the amp to do that and be mild at the same time. Plus, I’m a single minded idiot.
Well, I’m a big proponent of “almost all solid body guitars sound the same”. Unless the differences change how the pickup is mounted or how the strings are suspended in a fundamental way, the type of guitar you’re using for the input signal to the “pickup-first gain stage of the amp” instrument isn’t very important. Especially when you compare the difference caused by the amps they interact with. Until your pickup route or mounting style starts to fundamentally change the “wooden slab holding strings and pickup” model (I’m looking at you, Stratocaster, with your giant route and pickups mounted to a plastic pickguard), you don’t really change the sound of the guitar nearly as much as your choice of the first gain stage that pickup hits.
So, unless the guitar has weirdness like a strat, or is a hollow body, or a semi hollow, or uses some funky tentative method of holding the bridge and the tailpiece down (I’ve got Japanese and Italian guitars that try lots of strange engineering), or it just has weird pickups that are either extremely high or low output - it sounds indistinguishable from a tele to me.
I mean, plug your tele into a 5150 style amp, then into a tweed style amp, then a Roland JC120. Then do the same with an Epi 335 clone, any of them. Then do the same with any guitar you choose to pull out of your butt. Which do you think affected the sound more?
Gain: between moar gain and leaving my knobs wide open, I would be so slushy - I will have to come up with a clip where I am busier - too much gain loses articulation for what I want to do.
Bo you cite TRex. I cite Malcolm Young, What’s Next to the Moon, off Powerage: AC/DC- What's Next to the Moon - YouTube
It’s all good. Different strokes for different folks with different tone objectives.
As for “almost all solid body guitars sound the same” -
Yes, I agree that amp choice is critical, too. You use the guitar to play the amp, in many ways. But the amp can only work with what the guitar sends it.
Could not disagree more about all solidbodies sounding the same. Just not my experience, e.g., my comments about Korina vs. Ash taking the same pickup. I would argue that your gain-forward preferences mean you care more about the tone contributions from your pickup. For me, not using as much gain, the body material’s influence is a bigger contribution.
Here’s how I interpret the Folk Wisdom:
I have long asserted that Teles and Les Pauls have more in common vs. Tele and Strat or LP and 335. The fact that both are solid with fixed tailpieces gives both a balls to their low-end that Strats and 335’s don’t have.
Teles can be bright. Les Pauls can be muddy. A Tele that can darken up when you roll off the tone (for Problem Child above, my Volume is ~8 and Tone is ~4) and get in an LP’s ballpark is more versatile. Same with an LP - they tend to be darker; one that can brighten up and almost get a single-coil tone is more versatile, and the wood is likely more resonant.
Finding the right pups for your guitar can be a trial and error thing and the body wood DOES make a difference in how they sound.
I like to swap pups and as mentioned above were the revelations. For example, I have a Mahogany/Maple axe and a Alder/Maple axe that I switched the pups on. The A/M had the Carvin M22s and the M/M had the D’Activators. Now they were switched and they both sounded better. They stayed in them.
[Regarding good Tele’s and Les Pauls sounding alike]
Check out this thread on The Gear Page with a few short videos of ‘52 Telecasters, aka original Blackguards.
I think this illustrates the point nicely. In the Chicago Music Exchange demo (post 11, bottom clip, guy in red T-shirt and yellow ball cap), the guy starts with Born to Run. The low-end growl is what I mean by having balls - very Les Paul-ish.
My guitar tech advised lowering the action on a Yamaha FG180 I bought last year.
He said the tone is unusually good for a guitar in this price range. He put on strings and did a setup. He was concerned lowering the action(any more) would effect my tone.
Anyhow, this guitar has the highest action compared to my other acoustics. Playing barre chords is tough.
I use it as a gauge of my hand strength. If I can barre that Yamaha, then my other acoustics are gravy.
I trust my guitar tech’s advice.
Can you explain to me why lowering the action kills a guitar’s tone?
Why could the other acoustics be setup with low action and this one couldn’t? He adjusted the truss rod and the Yamaha’s neck is straight.
This vintage Yamaha does have the raised hump behind the bridge. Nothing too extreme. Every acoustic I’ve ever seen gets that after 5 or 10 years. String tension on the bridge eventually does it to every guitar. Sometimes a guitar becomes unplayable. None of mine are any where near that bad.
Btw, I’m only going down to the 5th fret with barre chords.
Going beyond that on this Yamaha would require a bodybuilder’s strength.
Oh, first sentence in last post should be corrected to, “Advised against”.
Keeping a higher-than-the-lowest-possible action can have a couple of reasons:
To allow the strings to vibrate up and down freely if strummed/picked with more force. A too low action can lead to buzzing, but more importantly it can limit how hard you can play - everyone needs to decide if that is an issue for them.
To get underneath the strings for bends. With my .12s/Heavy Gauge strings, if I have a super-low action, my fingers slide over the top of the string - I can’t get into them enough to bend them.
It sounds like your tech is thinking about the first point - i.e., this action allows for the type of strumming that brings out the best in the guitar. My guess.
It’s also a hedge against the inevitable neck reset that older acoustic steel string guitars will have to get at some point. I have a 30 year old Goya 12 string that I have added aJLD Bridge Doctor to address the middle age belly (Wish there was one for me…) I’ve lowered the action and dropped the tuning to D Standard but the nut is barely above the saddle and it’s coming time.
I bookmarked that JBL. It’s a cool solution to a slightly warped top. My Yamaha would play better with a JBL installed.
Does moving where the strings attach effect intonation?
I know there’s a limit on how much saddles can be sanded. They can get too thin and break.
Err JLD
Got my letters jumbled.
No effect whatsoever. My issue is the saddle is barely above the bridge to the point the strings almost rest on the bridge! Sorry for the long delay posting back. FWIW, I installed the JLD thatscrew mounts but I’ve played an old Fender that had the pin install and it was wonderful.
In other news my son literally found a Tele-style thinline neck, body and pickguard in the trash at a local thrift store his buddy’s Dad owns. It appears they only wanted the electronics so it is going to be a Sterl-ocaster (Sterling is my son…)! Plan is to install a P-Rail and a SD humbucker TBD with a coil tap,a 4 way switch, and dead switch for maximum tonal flexibility. We are also considering the StewMac 23 way switch for more options as well and throw in some extra goodies. I haven’t discussed what bridge option he wants to go with yet either .
Got my first tech kit this week as a birthday present—after doing some preliminary measurements, it looks like my Strat is already pretty well set up, but the truss rod could be backed off just a hair and the bridge action could stand to be adjusted ever so slightly. Which will probably mean also playing with the intonation. Since it’s string-changing time anyway, I’m looking forward to messing around and seeing if I can get this sucker playing even better! 
Don’t forget the pup heights.
Figuring out how to walk and talk through an electric guitar has been essential to understanding my preferences. Great job.
Hmm… that reminds me, I have books and tools on fixing and setting up guitars. Even some parts and I haven’t been doing anything with guitars for years so they’re just collecting dust.
If you guys think you may be interested I’ll put up a list in the marketplace. Let me know.
By the way, I keep the books in plastic bags for dust control.
Aw man, that’s gracious of you. I’m not messing with my guitars right now, but I appreciate the offer.
Thanks!
A friend of mine who played guitar at a semi-pro level for years set up my guitars a while back, but now that I have some feeler gauges I can see that his setup improved things but didn’t quite get to where they need to be. He did an excellent job of eyeballing the action but I’m also seeing now that I need to play with the trem a bit to get the right gap at the back—that fix alone is going to improve things! I’m so excited!
You ever get a chord so closely associated with a song that’s its ruined for anything else?
I’m learning Love Me Tender for a friend’s wedding. D E7 A7 D for the verse.
Every time I strum E7 Born on the Bayou jumps into my head. It’s bugging the crap out of me.
I’m trying to sing a tender, Elvis love ballad and I got J. Fogerty snarling in my head.
CCR uses E7 a lot. Susie Q, Green River, and Travelin Band uses it too. E7 is CCR in my head.
#musicianheadaches
thanks so much John for sticking E7 in my head.
Now, when I was just a little boy, Standin’ to my Daddy’s knee, My poppa said, “Son, don’t let the man get you Do what he done to me.”
