Best 24 3/4 guitar for Sh-11 Pearly gates combo

Re: Best 24 3/4 guitar for Sh-11 Pearly gates combo

GilmourD said:
Think of a guitar as a house. The body and neck are the foundation. The hardware (nuts, bridge, frets, etc.) are the house itself. The pickups are the front door.

The way you're going about it, it's like you're trying to build a foundation and a house around your front door. However, houses need to start with a good foundation.
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Your analogy undermines your claim. If you build a foundation without knowing what you want the house to look like, you're going to seriously limit your options. The base of a Cape Cod will cripple your ability to have an imposing gothic entryway that breaks out into different rooms. You design the house, and then design the proper support beneath it.

You can take the same Strat, throw 10 different pickups in it, and it'll sound completely different. But, if I tell you to imagine a Strat with a JB in the bridge, you can imagine it's tone. Is that because you know what that particular Strat sounds like, or because any Strat+JB will have a certain sound? Even changing woods or construction around, you would have more subtle shifts than if you replaced the JB with a '59 or Dimebag. Heck, that's the whole point of different pickups, especially a signature line. You have to keep it all in mind when trying to create different sounds. Starting with "I want something with Pearly Gates pickups" is no better or worse then "I want a Les Paul" as your starting point.
 
Re: Best 24 3/4 guitar for Sh-11 Pearly gates combo

scarr said:
Your analogy undermines your claim. If you build a foundation without knowing what you want the house to look like, you're going to seriously limit your options. The base of a Cape Cod will cripple your ability to have an imposing gothic entryway that breaks out into different rooms. You design the house, and then design the proper support beneath it.

You can take the same Strat, throw 10 different pickups in it, and it'll sound completely different. But, if I tell you to imagine a Strat with a JB in the bridge, you can imagine it's tone. Is that because you know what that particular Strat sounds like, or because any Strat+JB will have a certain sound? Even changing woods or construction around, you would have more subtle shifts than if you replaced the JB with a '59 or Dimebag. Heck, that's the whole point of different pickups, especially a signature line. You have to keep it all in mind when trying to create different sounds. Starting with "I want something with Pearly Gates pickups" is no better or worse then "I want a Les Paul" as your starting point.
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I guess my point got lost in my analogy... The whole guitar is a system, but you need to start the actual build process with the foundation. You need to put down the foundation first and adjust for variations going up.

It's a lot easier to find a guitar you like the feel of with a basic tone you like and then tweak with different pickups than it is to try the same model pickups in a bunch of different guitars until you find a combo you like, ya know?
 
Re: Best 24 3/4 guitar for Sh-11 Pearly gates combo

GilmourD said:
It's a lot easier to find a guitar you like the feel of with a basic tone you like and then tweak with different pickups than it is to try the same model pickups in a bunch of different guitars until you find a combo you like, ya know?
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I'll agree starting with a guitar is easier (and cheaper) if you're trial-and-error-ing your way through. I think the OP is trying to skip some of that by getting group input on what won't work, and what might. It's a more challenging approach, but equally valid. I do it all the time, myself.
 
Re: Best 24 3/4 guitar for Sh-11 Pearly gates combo

I agree with SCARR on this one. To me, the 'PU first' approach makes sense. I always have some spare PU's laying around, used ones that I've gotten a deal on that intrigue me. Much cheaper than the other way around (having spare guitars that don't sound the way you want them to). Then when I run across a deal on a guitar I like, I already have some affordable PU's to try in it. I like certain types of PU's, ones that work well for blues and classic rock, so that narrows down the field a lot. That helps in matching up PU's and guitars. A good PAF will probably sound nice in a variety of guitars (LP, SG, 335, Flying V, hollowbody, etc). Armed with a few PAF's, I have some good candidates on hand when a guitar pops up at a great price. Seems logical to me.

After they're installed, I usually end up doing some tweaking with magnets, pots, or resistors to get the tones dialed in for each PU (bridge and/or neck), and that's important either way, whether you get the guitar or PU's first. If you don't do that, you can have a PU-guitar mismatch, as there's no guarantee how they'll sound together.
 
Re: Best 24 3/4 guitar for Sh-11 Pearly gates combo

The problem with your approach is that its easier to swap pickups than it is guitars. If he picks up a guitar that doesnt agree with his pre chosen pickups he has to try to flip it or eat the 300+ dollars he spent on it. Or if he buys a guitar then looks for suitable pickups for it he spends 100 or so bucks for new pickups and has a 21 day return policy to SD no hassle and is easy or if hes going the used route he spends 60-75 dollars on a pickup. Makes more sense to risk the wrong pickup than to risk the wrong guitar.

Hes not going about it like you say to where hes attacking a guitar with a plethora of magnets and pickups he has 1 pickup hes decided on and hoping that he will find a match for it. Going about it this way is like going out and buying a new set of rims and tires for a car then going car shopping hoping to find a car that they match the size and look on. You can do it but its ackbasswards.
 
Re: Best 24 3/4 guitar for Sh-11 Pearly gates combo

I think the starting point is completely wrong. And, btw, I started playing guitar in 1984, messing with guitar stuff since then, including building effects.
The only great choice about pickup you'd want is "I want a guitar with single coil or humbucker?", that's it.

You have to 'feel' the guitar, it's a total body experience, the electronics come next, I'm pretty sure about it.

For example I tried once the classic SD Set (Jb + Jazz in a tele with TOM bridge) starting with the fact I like JB, I like teles and I love tune o matic bridge. One of the big mistake in my life, it was a total miss.
 
Re: Best 24 3/4 guitar for Sh-11 Pearly gates combo

I think this is a bit backwards, but to address the OP's initial post here is a guitar that ticks all the boxes:
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Guild Bluesbird. Light (chambered), fast neck, small body. The ones in the pic were initally build stock with SD59's but i reckon PG's would have sounded better than 59's in the one i had.
 
Re: Best 24 3/4 guitar for Sh-11 Pearly gates combo

Edgecrusher said:
The problem with your approach is that its easier to swap pickups than it is guitars. If he picks up a guitar that doesnt agree with his pre chosen pickups he has to try to flip it or eat the 300+ dollars he spent on it.
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I'm just saying I keep spare PU's on hand, so doing it 'backwards' isn't necessarily a problem for everyone. Yes, it's easier to swap PU's than guitars, which is where my spares come in handy. All I'm saying is there is no absolute on getting a guitar first. It can work fine the other way. My example was a case in point.

For this guy, I don't know. CC's and PGN's can both have rounded highs in the bridge slot in warm woods; he needs to look for brighter-toned woods and guitar designs. I don't care for either of those PU's in an LP. Adding the 24.75" requirement limits his guitar choices further. He'd have a lot more options with a couple PAF's. Don't understand the CC thing, it's not that popular a PU in Gibson style guitars, better in Strats. I've only been able to get a sharp high-end with a CC (and A2 498T) in a Hamer SATF. Everything else they were in were too dull.
 
Re: Best 24 3/4 guitar for Sh-11 Pearly gates combo

Try, if you can get your hands on one, a later model Guild Bluesbird. They come with either Seymor P-90s or the 59 antiquities. This is my favorite humbucker guitar. The're chamber so there light and the body is a little larger than a Les Paul but not too big. This guitar is capable of any sound you could ask for from a humbucker type guitar. I had a P-90 one and didn't care for the neck because it was too big. I later stumbled on this one used in a little music shop. Let's just say I got real lucky. This guitar is awsum. I no longer have an ES-335 and I don't play my Les Paul very much because of this guitar. I plays extremely well and the tone is to die for. Mine is an early 2000's model. This guitar is a killer.
 
Re: Best 24 3/4 guitar for Sh-11 Pearly gates combo

I play a lot of ZZ Topp stuff in the band I'm currently in and the Bluesbird has taken the place of my Les Paul. We do manly the first four albums and the Bluesbird actually captures the sound better then my Les Paul. besides that, it's a lot easier to stand up there hand play for three hours with it. I'm not superman we do take a 30 minute break.
 
Re: Best 24 3/4 guitar for Sh-11 Pearly gates combo

Edgecrusher said:
I personally think this is a good way to set yourself up for disappointment. You cannot with any certainty predict how a guitar will sound. Even 2 guitars made the same day side by side will sound different. If you go to the music store and acoustically demo guitars to find what you want you can do it. But you cant just say this guitar will sound like this and buy it and stuff the pickups you want it.
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+1 To This
 
Re: Best 24 3/4 guitar for Sh-11 Pearly gates combo

Gibson Les Paul LPJ have maple neck so are brighter than regular Les Paul. Love mine and sounds/plays as good as my friend Les Paul Custom. Try some as they are not all equal but very affordable.

Might look for an old Peavey Vandenberg, light and bright.
 
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Re: Best 24 3/4 guitar for Sh-11 Pearly gates combo

I have a later model (pre-Fender) MIA Jackson SLS (all mahogany / neck-through) that has the stock Pearly Gates bridge and Jazz neck. It's been a great guitar for ZZ Top covers, and lots of other stuff. It's pretty lightweight and I got it used for about $1,000. Should fit the bill, if you can find one.


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