Guitars with neat sounds, not Start/LP/Tele-ish?

Medicine Melancholy · Sun Jul 17, 2011 12:54 am

Bad shoulder. I couldn't play a full weight Les Paul. Even my Tele is pushing it a bit at 9lbs.

stratphobic · Post by **stratphobic** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 12:57 am

Medicine Melancholy wrote:Leaning towards a Jag at the moment, but before that I was pretty big into the Jazzmaster thing. Gravitated back towards the Jag as it's probably more suitable for what I do, I mostly do electronic stuff but I'm adding in some manic post punky type riffage, the nastier sound of a Jag goes well with some of my synth sounds too.

I'm open to other possibilities though. Getting a decent Jag is still expensive and the sound is still a variation on the Strat, plus I have a friend with one that'll let me play it now and again. Danelectros might not be a bad idea. Considering a Baritone too. I'll be doing some heavier industrial type shit as well, so I need it to be fairly versatile, which probably rules the Danos out. Trem is necessary.

Been quite fond of the Parker P series, but I'd need new pickups as they're either regular HH or Fat Strat configuration. If I could find some good pickups to put in.

Of course, I'm also considering getting the Jaguar HH, which would also be a good candidate for "interesting" pickups especially with the coil split, but I don't know many interesting

My current guitars are a GFS Tele copy(which sounds pretty neat to be honest, but noisy as all hell and quite a flat neck for a Tele, probably send it back if I get a Jag) and a First Act Sheena, which has some fairly decent Alnico V PAFy humbuckers in it, nice Jangle from them. Guitar doesn't hold tuning well for a hardtail though, it's not the most reliable thing. Basically looking to get an interesting sounding guitar, with a trem, that doesn't crap out on me, orientated towards a post punk & glassy shoegaze type sound but also capable of nasty industrial stuff.

the CP jag HH is awesome. with the coils split, bass cut and tone rolled off, it has a weak and thin tone that's way different from a typical strat.

Medicine Melancholy · Post by **Medicine Melancholy** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 1:15 am

Totally torn between the two now! Haha. They both look and sound great in their own way. Love the CAR, love the Olympic White...

Sorry, I didn't mean to make 50 threads about it, they were meant to be about different things originally.

dezb1 · Post by **dezb1** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 1:33 am

Medicine Melancholy wrote:Bad shoulder. I couldn't play a full weight Les Paul. Even my Tele is pushing it a bit at 9lbs.

Ah I see... I thought you were going all Telecaster forum on me; that lot must spend more time weighing guitars than playing them...

gaybear · Post by **gaybear** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 7:45 am

Medicine Melancholy wrote:

I had a Microkorg. I sold it and got a Microkorg XL, since every guitarist and hipster has a Microkorg.

what's more hipster than buying hipster?

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 11:26 am

dezb1 wrote:
Medicine Melancholy wrote:Bad shoulder. I couldn't play a full weight Les Paul. Even my Tele is pushing it a bit at 9lbs.
Ah I see... I thought you were going all Telecaster forum on me; that lot must spend more time weighing guitars than playing them...

Addam · Post by **Addam** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 11:40 am

My telecaster weighs 10lbs so the tdrpi brigade would hate it, they seem to like 3lb guitars with necks like tree trunks. Apparently it's a good thing for arthuritic hands...

paul_ · Post by **paul_** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 3:27 pm

When I weigh my guitars I just get on the scale with them strapped on and then subtract the 100lbs from my drivers license. THEY ALL SO HEAVY. Gibson and Fender have lost the plot.

JJLipton · Post by **JJLipton** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 3:41 pm

paul_ wrote:When I weigh my guitars I just get on the scale with them strapped on and then subtract the 100lbs from my drivers license. THEY ALL SO HEAVY. Gibson and Fender have lost the plot.

I hear ya, my lpc is heavy as hell. I've heard good things about levy's no1 stretchy straps, anyone ever try those?

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 4:05 pm

JJLipton wrote:
paul_ wrote:When I weigh my guitars I just get on the scale with them strapped on and then subtract the 100lbs from my drivers license. THEY ALL SO HEAVY. Gibson and Fender have lost the plot.
I hear ya, my lpc is heavy as hell. I've heard good things about levy's no1 stretchy straps, anyone ever try those?

I use a Levys (suede type) with the Acrylic Mockingbird which incidently weighs like two Les Pauls. If you adjust the strap so the guitar is high up it compensates a lot, sling round your knees and your looking at a slipped disc.

Viljami · Post by **Viljami** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 4:55 pm

Get an Hofner Galaxie (reissued, cheap). Has a nice Jazzmaster/Jaguar vibe (tremolo) to it but with also three staple humbuckers.

(actually I want one bad, but I cant try them out anywhere here in Finland)

Fran · Post by **Fran** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 5:06 pm

colabonham wrote:Get an Hofner Galaxie (reissued, cheap). Has a nice Jazzmaster/Jaguar vibe (tremolo) to it but with also three staple humbuckers.

(actually I want one bad, but I cant try them out anywhere here in Finland)

I quite like the Galaxie, Colorama and Club. They're all quite interesting.

Another brand you could consider is Italia.

laterallateral · Post by **laterallateral** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 5:26 pm

DiPinto Mach IVs can sound really thin and jangly but the placement and functionality of the "middle pickup" here allows for some interesting non-jangle tones.

Though they're definitely not for everyone, Yamaha SGV variations offer some interesting trebby madness options.

Medicine Melancholy · Post by **Medicine Melancholy** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 5:50 pm

Galaxie was a consideration for me actually, it's pretty neat and has the offsetty Switch system. Humbucking though, but at least they're mini humbuckers.

laterallateral · Post by **laterallateral** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 5:55 pm

Really? I thought Galaxies had like 4 singles in them.

Edit: sorry that's the Galaxie 4, I was thinking about. Galaxie 2 is the one with the hums.

Medicine Melancholy · Post by **Medicine Melancholy** » Sun Jul 17, 2011 5:56 pm

Modern Galaxies have 3 mini HBs anyway.

I'm really leaning towards the CP Jag now, it's going to be hard to beat it for me but there could well be something out there.

Supersonicman · Post by **Supersonicman** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 12:00 am

I can't speak from experience, as I've never played one, but you might check out Eastwood guitars, the demos seem to make them sound nice.

honeyiscool · Post by **honeyiscool** » Tue Jul 26, 2011 12:09 am

I'm not sure where this thread is coming from. The reason why similar guitars sound similar is because they're all wired similarly. Apparently, the great majority of builders spend so much time picking out tone wood, fingerboard wood, body weight, to maximize tone or whatever, and then they just slap three AlNiCo single coils hooked up to a five-way switch in the most obvious way possible, which is the great equalizer when it comes to guitar tone. Try doing something different with the five-way switch and use different style of pickups, like lipsticks, Lace Sensors, blades, split blades, stacks, etc., and your average Strat sounds nothing like a Strat. Try wiring Strat single coils in series and humbucker coils in parallel, try putting a phase switch in there, try overwound pickups, try underwound pickups. Try an active preamp. Mucking with wiring is a more surefire way of altering tone, not changing the body style and scale.

Medicine Melancholy wrote:Bad shoulder. I couldn't play a full weight Les Paul. Even my Tele is pushing it a bit at 9lbs.

I've got an Epi Standard LP that's lighter than that.

Dave · Post by **Dave** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 10:25 am

JJLipton wrote:
paul_ wrote: I hear ya, my lpc is heavy as hell. I've heard good things about levy's no1 stretchy straps, anyone ever try those?
I've got and used the german No1 Stretch Strap as used by Buckethead - does wonders for a heavy guitar. My Acryl-o-caster is the heaviest guitar I ever played and it felt fine with the stretch strap. They distribute the weight more evenly over the surface of the strap or something. Plus they do bouncy stretchy stuff on stage

rps-10 · Post by **rps-10** » Mon Aug 01, 2011 11:26 am

The main thing with the Levy No.1 is that its 2" wide or more, so you get a more even weight distrubution on the shoulder. Plus its elastic, it moulds itself into your shoulder rather than just resting on top and digging in. So very comfy.
They take a bit of time to get right as you need to take in account of the postition you play in when standing up and the guitars weight. First thing I noticed when I used one is how much I push down on the neck. Never even noticed I did it until I tried a stretchy strap.

Got mine on ebay for 6 quid.

Guitars with neat sounds, not Start/LP/Tele-ish?

Re: Guitars with neat sounds, not Start/LP/Tele-ish?