iv been playing accoustic for over 2 years now, under the mindset that the longer i spend with it the better i will be at electric when i finally get one. but im getting impatient. so i think im gonna head down to NYC in a few weeks and finally pick myself up a nice electric. i dont want a "starter guitar", since iv been playing for years and know how to play. but i know nothing about different guitar types. for some reason, les paul has always jumped out at me. im not sure why. but anyway. im willing to fork up some extra cash for a good instrument. like, spend maybe $400. more if i have to...so any information on electrics would be greatly appreciated
I would suggest the Epiphone Les Paul standart, or if you want cheaper then the 100. It all depends on the type of music you play, truly. Ibanez is cheap and works for the hard rock... The LP is smoother. You coulf always get a nice hollow or semi-hollow for Jazz.
If you like the *sound of les pauls, get the real les paul. I wouldnt settle for anything but a Gibson. Just think--You will have this for a really long time.. you will only need one investment. They are worth the money. Trust me, I have a gibson les paul studio. EDIT: Be sure to try out a bunch of different styles before you make a purchase! No ordering online or by catalog until you know exactly what you're getting!
Besides. If he's serious enough about his hobby, he will spend a little extra dough to get the guitar of his dreams. They arent that expensive. Up to $1500 sometimes, but well worth it. (..mine was slightly used and the store owner is kind of a friend mwahahah..discount!..)
GHet a guitar with humbuckers and one that has the pickups you like. If you have the money Parkers have some kick ass pickups and a great look and uunmatched feel.
I've always been fond of the Telecaster, god I love that twang, but for the all purpose guitar, the Stratocaster is your best.
The stratocaster isn't nothing but a piece of a shit. That's why I love them so much... humidity can't do a damn thing to them... I've thrown them down flights of stairs before... nothing but chipped paint and scratches... I do like my '03 Gibby LP '60 reissue the best... gotta love that Cherry Sunburst. http://www.rondomusic.com - check out Agile and SX. Also look up the reviews for them on http://www.harmony-central.com Rondomusic is the best thing since sliced bread.
I split electrics into two categories: Single coil, and double coil. A fender strat is an example of single coi pickupsl, and a gibson les paul is an example of double coil pickups. the tone syo uget from single coil and double coil are quite distrinct. When explaining it to beginners, I get them to compare the sound on sultans of swing by the dire straits, with sweet child of mine by guns n roses. sultans of swing is very much a "strat" kinda song, and sweet chil of mine shows the sound you get from a les paul quite well. however, I'm very much an acoustic player, and i seldom touch electric guitars, so my knowledge of them is fairly rudimentary. However, if i were to pick any electric guitar, I would personally go for an ibanez jem. Steve Vai's guitar. Many people get Jems becaus eof the Vai connection, and I just seem to like them. I've only briefly played a jem, but it felt quite good, and the sound is quite nice. I've seen a band play, and the lead guitarist had a jem. he's a steve vai fan, and there was much guitar wanking, but he did quite well, and it's quite a versatile instrument. if you're a lead guitarist, I'd definitely recommend trying a jem out. ignore the whole steve vai thing, they are quite good instruments without the sponsorship of anyone famous. But be sure to try out a lot of other instruments. At the end of the day, what's good for me may not be good for you. But ask yourself what you want out of a guitar, and look at the kind of music you want to play, and try and decide what kind of tone you want from a guitar. The melloe feeling from single coil pickups, or a much beefier tone from double coils?
Ok, most of the stuff by Epiphone doesn't sound like the Gibsons they look like. But they are GOOD sounding and indeed very affordable. If you want a guitar with both the look and sound of a Gibson try the Tokai guitars. They're a bit more expensive than the Epiphones but well worth the extra dough.
I think that a lot of people missed the $400.00 maximum limit. A Parker Fly for simply a standard Nightfly without the genuine carbon body will run you $750.00 and a genuine Parker Fly with carbon body will run you about $1,500. A Jem, at full price is about $1,800. We've gone a good $1,000 over budget here. Your real difference in tone is going to be a factor of 4 things. 1:Body construction. 2:Tone wood. 3:Body Style. 4ick ups. Larger bodies usually have less sustain and are harder to play, with the exception of hollow body Jazz boxes, but if you don't play Jazz, I don't suggest them as, in my opinion, they sound like utter shit for any other style, even classic rock. If the guitar is hand crafted, ofcourse it will generally be much more sturdy, probably made of a nice Bubinga or Koa (or some other exotic wood) and will have a much better, much richer tone, this is why the older P.R.S. guitars are so expensive and the new ones are so much cheaper. Paul stopped using Brazilian rosewood because it's going extinct and is very expensive. Most cheaper guitars are Basswood, which to me, is just like buying a plywood guitar. They could also be Alder, which is a better wood. You won't find a whole lot cheaper guitars made of Maple or Oak. Guitars with a bolt-on neck (stratocaster, telecaster, even the Jem) will generally have less sustain, and will lose a lot of tone. I own a hot-rodded stratocaster, but I'm not writing home to mamma about it. Guitars with a set neck, or neck through construction sustain longer and always sound better, which is arguable, but I just don't see the argument for a bolt on neck, not when it's in the ring with a set neck or neck through body. Humbucker pick ups are double coil and will have a fatter tone. Single coil pick ups are, well, single coil, and will have generally a much more twangy tone. There are variables among pick ups, though, such as height the pick up is placed, quality of pots, quality of magnets and ofcourse how tightly or how loosely the coils inside the pick up are wound. If they're wound more tightly, they'll be a higher gain, a little sharper, better for metal and shred. If they're wrapped loosely, they'll be more mellow, much warmer. Most neck pick ups are wrapped more loosely for this purpose, and this is the reason a "neck" pick up doesn't work for shit in a bridge position. A Humbucker can sound twangy, though, you simply have to use 250K potentiometers, fatter magnets and very loose coil wiring. This is done on several specific pick ups, one that comes to mind off the top of my head is the Pearly Gates by Seymour Duncan. It was made for Billy Gibbons of Z.Z. top, and while most of their pickups are high gain, this was made especially to sound like the Gibson '57 PAF for a raw classic rock sound. The Les Paul has a varying line up of factory pick ups, but the usual are 490 alnicos, or some form of PAF pick up, which is loosely wound, and ideal for a classic rock or classic metal sound. The Ibanez guitars generally come with a DiMarzio of some sort, which is usually much more tightly wound and better for shred and newer metal, with the exception of specialty DiMarzios made for classic rock, which don't ever come stock in an Ibanez. If you like the feel and sound of a Jem, just save yourself $600.00, buy an R.G. 770 or 1220, and put in some DiMarzio evolution pick ups. The woods are otherwise identical, the construction is otherwise identical and both use either a Python or a Wizard I or II neck and an Edge pro bridge. Essentially you're paying for the Vai name and pearloid vine of life inlay/pyramid inlay. As for the Epiphones, generally the construction on an Epiphone is poorer, although Gibson uses factory construction on everything but a select few of their guitars now, so the hand-made thing is pretty much out the window. They put the parts and accessories on now, but the rest is machine made, so the bodies on both are fairly similar. The binding on the Gibsons are pearloid, while the binding on the Epiphones are fine plastic, the tuners are usually generic chrome-plated tuners on the Epiphone guitars, while most real Gibsons use Grover fine-tuners. The body woods are generally the same, Maple. Basically, you can make a $1,400 Gibson Les Paul out of a $600.00 Epiphone Les Paul by changing the pick ups to a 490 or 491, or whatever suits your sound, whichever Les Paul sound you're going for, taking off the tuners and replacing them with Grovers and replacing the hardware with Gibson hardware. It'd cost you about $250.00 to make such a modification. You'd not have the Gibson name, and you'd loose a bit of tone because the frets were dressed by a machine rather than a human, and are a bit thinner, that's about it. But, I like the Agile suggestion. Agiles are incredible remakes. They're better than the Epiphones ever could be. The Agiles are what the Heritage guitars used to be. They have 18:1 Grover precision tuners, Mahogany or Maple body wood, most have a set-neck construction, the pots are waxed, so you're not losing a lot of tone, and won't have a bunch of annoying buzzing like you will with an Epiphone guitar with stock potentiometers, the inlay are real pearloid, and the entire guitar is bound in synthetic plastic for superior sound and looks. It's a really nice guitar for a really nice price. If you want a Les Paul, with a Les Paul tone, spend $310.00 on a stock Agile, put in a P90 or something in the bridge, plug in and play! We'd really have to know what you're into, though. There are a lot of nice Yamaha middle-of-the-road lines that are cheap, and a lot of fairly cheap Ibanez models with stock DiMarzio pick ups and fast necks for fast playing. I assume, though, that if you like the Les Paul, you're probably into classic rock. The Les Paul has a pretty fatty neck, so fast playing is more difficult than it is on an Ibanez, but the tone is a lot better, as is the construction and speed isn't much of a factor if you're playing classic rock or grunge or hard rock. You also might want to create an account on Harmonycentral.com, Guitar.com and Guitarists.net. There are guys on there that have been guitar techs to some really big names longer than I've been alive, and they really know their stuff.
Yes, Harmony Central is how I got into the technicalities, and if it weren't for those forums, I never would have discovered rondo or Agile... hahaha, I used to go on forever about guitars like that.
I've been going on a tangent about guitars for about 6 years. If I fail as a musician, I have no idea what the hell I'm going to do with my life.
