Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

[zionstrat]

Guys,
We’re spinning off our guitar electronics and mod business and I’m beefing up content around pickups, mods and all the other stuff we love to talk about on SDUG-

Considering the number of gurus on SDUG, I would really appreciate your input and imagine you can help in so many ways:
1. Take a look at What's a Cover Guitar and Why do I need one? www.guitaryoudreamabout.com/single-post/2018/04/06/Whats-a-Cover-Guitar-and-Why-do-I-need-one

2. Let me know how we can make this better

3. Likes, shares and comments appreciated!

And while you are at it, it would be wonderful if you could help us build search footprint by sharing, liking and commenting about the GuitarYouDreamAbout.com on FB, Twitter etc.

Last but not least, if you have buddies in the greater Raleigh /Durham North Carolina, please let them know that we’re open for business under a new brand!

Thanks again for being a great group!

Michael /Mickey /ZionStrat

 

[Obsessive Compulsive]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

So you are developing a potential new revenue source and you want us to give advice, for free? Naah...I'll pass.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

So you are developing a potential new revenue source and you want us to give advice, for free? Naah...I'll pass.

No worries, but I would be happy to provide input if you have a 'potential new revenue source'.

That's how I network and find out who's good at what-

And if you ever want to build a cover guitar, there's a lot of best practices in there

 

[Mincer]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

I dig the article, and approve of the idea! I wish I was better at designing a cover guitar. I am sort of the opposite. I play original music, but I hate switching guitars. So I needed to design something that got all the sounds I heard in my head (*my* sounds) which, by nature, has to be versatile, too.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

Thanks Mincer!
Yep, I used to carry way too many valuable guitars and stopped after face planting a PRS and Zion in the same week

As far as your cover guitar to be, I must confess that I cheated in the sister article that describes a ParkerNF- that's my current cover guitar and controls and electronics have probably never stayed the same for more than 3 months- client cover guitars never go thru this many changes.

So what platform is likely to get you into the ball park for your music style and is it likely that you can do it all with 1 guitar?

Thanks again for input!

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

I have found a decent set of humbuckers are really versatile.
coil spilt on a Jazz is pretty convincing if you roll.off the bass a bit
I
I would like to see a three knob active eq on a guitar
In fact
I am thinking about retro fitting my Epi with a master volume and an active
Three band eq

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

Good input!

Yes, pickups (especially Duncans) are practically always part of our cover designs- Stock pickups can often be dialed in for a single good sound, but there is so much more flexibility with after market pups- and the Jazz is a classic for sure.

We do a lot of active on basses, but far less on guitars- I get the idea that there is a passive vibe, but once you get in the mix, EQ options really are nice (most of our designs end up connected to EQ pedals).

However, when a client wants piezo + mag pups, and they aren't willing to run 2 signal chains (which really is a good option if you're good dancing on the pedals), we go with active recommendations- Surprisingly, we get less push back on those designs.

Interested in hearing more about your project and thanks again for feedback-

 

[Mincer]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

Well, if I could afford an original Parker....that would be great!

Currently it is an HH Music Man Silhouette Special. It is a cut down Strat shape, a little over 6 lbs, with a small scalloped neck (hey I am only 5;7") and all positions of the 5 way switch are humbucking. It has an Alnico II Pro and Custom Custom. Positions 2 & 4 are inner and outer coils. Master vol & tone. Locking tuners. This does most of what I want.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

Currently it is an HH Music Man Silhouette Special.

What a great playing guitar- I've only played the HSS, but I totally get where you are going- the ones I've played could take a fall and get back up in tune and they sound good unplugged.

Glad you mentioned locking tuners, that's an absolute for cover guitars- both for staying in tune and rapid string changes.

Love the idea of the Alnico II Pro and Custom Custom for coil matching- Imagine you get some nice fenderish sounds?

 

[Mincer]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

Yeah, good Fendery sounds. I had to make mine an HH, since they only come SSS or HSS....mine was originally HSS, which was great, but I need sort of a jazzy clean sound out of the neck pickup and I couldn't get it. The other thing that is great is the ergonomics. Not only is it light, but you can put it on your knee and let go and it will sit there, perfectly balanced.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

I had to make mine an HH...
The other thing that is great is the ergonomics. Not only is it light, but you can put it on your knee and let go and it will sit there, perfectly balanced.

No wonder I never played an HH- good for you!

Ergonomics- that's a good one - we're always asking 'what feels good?' but usually leave it at that-
Neck diving is obvious- but you have a great point, we could do a little more hand holding around feel.
When we're starting from scratch we usually do contoured bodies, but 90% of our work is modifying stock gtrs.

 

[Aceman]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

I actually love switching guitars because, well, guitars....

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

I actually love switching guitars because, well, guitars....

Are you married?

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

 

[Wattage]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

As I am kind of doing this for myself right now I can say the biggest thing I appreciate is simplicity.

I'm setting up 2 guitars to be my go to's for the cover stuff. One is an Epi SG Pro the other is a PRS S2 Mira. Both guitars are light and comfortable, laid out well and sound really good. Good humbuckers in them with upgraded guts and coil splits, I can cover a lot of ground with them and play them for a long time. Neither guitar is really precious in anyway they're just very solid, dependable tools.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

No wonder I never played an HH- good for you!

Ergonomics- that's a good one - we're always asking 'what feels good?' but usually leave it at that-
Neck diving is obvious- but you have a great point, we could do a little more hand holding around feel.
When we're starting from scratch we usually do contoured bodies, but 90% of our work is modifying stock gtrs.

Well, along the ergonomics question...
Where are the controls? Can I reach them easily while playing? What is the angle of the switch? Does the cable stick out a weird way when plugged in? Is the strap button in a good place that lets the strap hang naturally? Do any of the edges dig into my forearm? Can I see the side dots in all lighting conditions? Is the finish sticky? These are all on my checklist before I will consider an instrument.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

Well, along the ergonomics question...
Where are the controls? Can I reach them easily while playing? What is the angle of the switch? Does the cable stick out a weird way when plugged in? Is the strap button in a good place that lets the strap hang naturally? Do any of the edges dig into my forearm? Can I see the side dots in all lighting conditions? Is the finish sticky? These are all on my checklist before I will consider an instrument.

Exactly- we've been talking about increasing custom builds and those are exactly the questions we would need to address- Certainly makes sense for us to increase content around those points.

As so many of the posters on SDUG know, it's so much easier with our current customers...ie 'I love Strats/Teles/Les Pauls, I want to sound like (insert famous musician) or I want my own sounds.'

They're self-selecting on ergonomics, playability, etc- They either like the strat jack on the front or they hate it, they're learning how to avoid feedback with hollow bodies, etc.

But we do dig into controls big time- amazing that so many guitarists play a long time without exploring simple stuff like tone controls, pickup balance etc. We usually start with simple mods and it seems to wake up the desire for diversity- many clients morph from 'monocrome to highdef' after a few weeks and then they come back for more.

Great stuff- thanks for helping us expand thinking around cover guitars and mods in general.

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

As I am kind of doing this for myself right now I can say the biggest thing I appreciate is simplicity.

I'm setting up 2 guitars to be my go to's for the cover stuff. One is an Epi SG Pro the other is a PRS S2 Mira. Both guitars are light and comfortable, laid out well and sound really good. Good humbuckers in them with upgraded guts and coil splits, I can cover a lot of ground with them and play them for a long time. Neither guitar is really precious in anyway they're just very solid, dependable tools.

Great guitars- although they're not Gibsons, you could probably contribute a lot to the Les Paul vs SG threads- Your Mira probably excels at the thick fat stuff and I love SGs for cutting slashing sounds.

Did a custom firebird (full size humbucker) in the bridge of an SG with a Seth Lover in the neck and that guitar could go from chicken picken to classic rock with no other mods.

And you nailed it on tough and affordable- sounds like a great, sustainable duo for covering a lot of music.

 

[ehdwuld]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

I really hate those jacks that stick straight out of the face of the guitar

I like the angled strat jack
I like the tele/Lespaul side.pocket to a lesser degree
I would really like a football shaped strat socket on the side of flat edge Tele. Or L.P.
I like to be able.to set it down on the strap pin
Without it crushing my cable end

 

[zionstrat]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

Thanks EHD-
The side pocket is really easy and can be far enough away from the end pin that it doesn't get caught on the floor and we default to that style.

I think I know why, but would like to hear from you why you like the angled strat jack- we don't do that one unless we have to.

 

[Mincer]

Re: Designing a Cover Guitar- Appreciate your input!

The jacks on my Brian Moore and the one on my Steinberger are on the back of the body, but so ergonomically designed you wonder why no one else bothered to copy them.