finicky guitars?? do you have one?

[80's_Metal]

I guess I have owned about 3 dozen guitars over the years, doesn't make me a guru, but surely not a noob at it.
As I have tinkered with tone and playability and setups and pickups and strings and frets etc etc etc... I have noticed good and bad things in nearly every guitar.
They all have their own personality, strengths, etc.
I feel as though I have learned volume's...

That being said was wondering if you guys have had experiences with non finicky guitars or really finicky guitars?

For example, I have this old epi explorer, doesn't go out of tune ever.... Never needs intonation... Neck is perfect, can play skinny 9's or fat 12's... Plays the same hot, cold, humid, E std, drop d,c, straight B...whatever... Most unpicky guitar I've ever owned.
I also have never had to touch a thing on my bcrich v.. It came to me playing perfectly and it never changes. Very stable and solid.

This new Gibson V is picky... 9's sounded flat and weak... Played buzzy and fickle to tune..adjusted bridge, pup heights, then Swapped strings to 10's and the thing sounds and plays like a completely different guitar! Like it was made for 10s and nothing else. Tension to wood frequency synergy or something...

I have had guitars that simply would never sound right, and yet most sound good once it was all set up properly... But took some fine tinkering.


Anyone else have finicky guitars that take fine tuning? Or off the shelf guitars that never need attention at all?

 

[greekdude]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

IMHO the good guitars need to be fine tuned, sooner or later. The bad ones must be sold.
My Ibanez ARZ800 (China), Aria Strat (Japan) and Kramer 210 (Indonesia) rarely need adjustments (all Asian guitars). My Carvin DC135 (1988) (USA) needs truss rod adjustments at every minor weather change, but has a skinny neck.

 

[B2D]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

I don't like or have any finicky instruments. On the chance that I buy one, it usually gets sold in favor of something more stable.

 

[mantis]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

I got 2 of them actually that need attention every few months.
My ESP M1 Tiger stays in tune and straight forever. Honestly I never had to have it serviced since I purchased it in 2008.
My Jackson SL3 stays in tune most of the time but requires rod adjustment a few times a few. String buzz comes in and I know the neck is off.
My Charvel San Dimas does the same thing and it's a bolt on neck. I get some serious string buzz when the neck goes out.

 

[ThunderLizard]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

My Dean V & ML, Fender Jazzmaster guitars and B.C. Rich Bich, Ibanez basses and homemade bass are dead stable. My Gibson "The Paul" on the other hand took forever to straighten out. No pickup sounded right in it till I tried a JB and tuning was an adventure until I installed a Kahler with the locking nut. Now though the neck is a little more narrow than I prefer it sounds good and is stable.

 

[beaubrummels]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

I have a Fender '62 reissue Strat that stays in tune like I never would have believed. I use 10s on it, and I've played 3 gigs, bent the hell out of the strings on solos and didn't have to retune. The tone and gain of it is terribly disappointing to me - I have to adjust amps and other thing to compensate, but for live it played well and there are a couple sounds it does really well.

The least finicky and best sounding guitars I have are my Les Paul Standard, my Telecaster and my SGs. They play in tune, stay in tune and sound good.

The most finicky guitars I ever had were Floyd/Kahler models that were constant work to get and stay in tune, despite those systems supposedly providing stable tuning.

 

[Mr. B]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

Strats have always given more problems that any other guitar type. The 250k pots are a pain if you try to include humbuckers, The bridge single coils are crap 95% of the time. The middle pickup can get in the way of your picking. They are the only guitar have ever given me problems with stratitis caused by magnet pull. The trems are hard to set up perfectly, and most won't stay in tune if you use the bar at all. The pickguard is a pain to put on and off to change pickups. the wiring is difficult to get back into the routes when reinstalling the pickguard. The string trees are a pain and can cause tuning problems. The string spacing on older strats was wider than the neck making the high E unstable. The holes in the rear plastic cover often don't line up with the holes in the bridge for string changes. The springs have to be readjusted if you change string gauges, and the string tension is annoyingly tight with bigger gauge strings.

What is my favorite guitar type you may ask? ........ Strats...

 

[Oinkus]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

I do awful things to new guitars to make them do what I want. Once I finish generally they are all stable and stay that way. My Jackson RR5 FR will stay tuned forever , has always struck me as crazy. Just changed 2 of them to 1/2 step down tuning , one being an HM Strat that has been highly modified (Floyd, HSH, series/split/parallel ,blend knob) . It takes a little work to get it tuned correctly after stringing and then will be finicky until the strings settle but that is fairly normal Floyd issue. 81 Les Paul Custom has been used as a weapon of head destruction , guy stabbed my foot while I was playing , stayed in tune and pretty much has for 32 years. So many variables to add together and you have probably seen more of the variations then most but I have seen guitars that won't stay in tune or intonate. I do a little work on friends stuff for the most part you get what you pay for in my experience. Buying a really cheap guitar and upgrading it will make you a really nice ax if you spend $1500 bucks and 5 years working on it , but it will never be quite as good as what you wish you could have started out with. My 2 pennies

 

[Boogie Bill]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

I usually string my Les Pauls with 10-46, but I have a couple that really seem to prefer 9-46. Don't know why.

And I have one G&L Legacy that has virtually no relief in the neck. I hit hard, and so I usually have quite a bit of relief in the neck, but not this guitar. Took me a while to figure it out, too. But once I flattened the neck out--totally changed the feel of the guitar.

There are simply not enough four letter words to describe my frustrations with an original '69 Telecaster Thinline I owned back in the day...because...it had a Bigsby. PITA!!! But I was young and stupid then, so maybe I could deal with one now. What's that Rod Steward lyric? "I wish that I knew what I know now..." Yeah.

That guitar was stolen. I did get it back, but the guy had messed it up, and I foolishly traded it in on a Gibson ES-150DCN. Beautiful blond 335-style, but deep and fully hollow. It was 10,000 times worse than the Tele. Would not get in tune, would not stay in tune, would not play in tune. Screamed like a cat in heat at any volume above 1.5 on my SUNN amp. And sounded like crap, to boot. Don't know what I was thinking, but my second worse trade ever. Did look nice in the photo shoots, though.

And luthiery wasn't what it is now back then, so some of these things probably could be fixed, now. Live and learn.

Bill

 

[MatelotFripon]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

I'm a lucky dude, most my guitars are pretty care-free and don't need much love….
But the most non-finicky of them all is probably my trusty ol' Yamaha SBG200…. cheap set-neck SG-killer wonder ! Never needs to be tuned, cared for whatsoever and always plays like a charm, even after a month or so of being neglected ! This little baby's a true and loyal workhorse !

 

[firebirdguy72]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

I don't really have any finicky guitars... I suffer from awful finicky fingers though... Too cold? Forget about playing anything fast or articulate . Just took a shower or washed the dishes? Forget about doing any bending because my calluses get totally softened...

 

[Securb]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

Typically my guitars are trouble free. But yesterday I strapped on the Tele and the ground to the bridge was disconnected and there was a dead spot around the 6th fret. The build is almost exactly a year old I will write it off to settling and a bad connection on my part. The guitar could use another setup and some TLC.

Strats have always given more problems that any other guitar type. ...What is my favorite guitar type you may ask? ........ Strats...

Knock on wood my Strat is pretty much bulletproof one of my most dependable guitars.

 

[Bludave]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

All guitars NEED a good setup & all guitar players should learn to setup YOUR guitar the way YOU like it to be setup. That typed I feel all guitars have a sweet spot. Some play really well with low action & some don't. Some like a dead straight neck, others play better with more relief, etc. They key is you have to spend time with the guitar to figure out where it "wants" to be setup. Last November I received a custom made 335 from Brian Monty. The model is called a Blues Queen. It is truly a great guitar. All carved maple, not laminated, beautiful neck, all gold hardware, etc. Its a stunning looking guitar and it took me a while to get it to play and sound the way I wanted it to. When I got this is had Alnico V magnet pickups in and even though I did consider to just swap the magnet I decided to swap out the pickups. After a lot of investigation and research I decided on the Gibson 57 classics. I have a set of these in a 359 and they sound great in that. After the pickups were installed the tones got dramatically better, but it still needed some tweaking. Even though the sound of it got a whole lot better I didn''t feel it was playing as well as it could. So it took me about a month to get it all sorted out. This guitar needed a bit more relief in the neck and slightly higher action. It was funny certain notes would kind of just die, so last week I put a new set of strings on and did a very detailed setup on her and it is amazing how much better it sounds and plays. The point of all of this is when you receive a new guitar be prepared to spend time with it to figure out how it wants to be setup & played. This was my first "custom ordered" guitar. Even though I have another custom made guitar that one was already made when I go it. This one took about 6 months for me to figure it all out. Now the guitar is just plain awesome!

 

[Blindboy]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

Back in Oklahoma, I had a G&L Asat Classic that I could tune up, toss in the back of the pickup, drive 90 miles in a snowstorm to a gig in OKC, carry it into the bar and it would be in tune. Great guitar. I got rid of it to finance a move to New Mexico, but if I had ever thought to replace the (too bright) pickups with P-90's, I would still have it. My FrankenStrat, a '70's body and pickups, '83 Strat Elite neck, and other mods, stays in tune pretty well. I go from 8300 feet elevation to 6300 feet when I drive from my house to the bar where I gig every Monday night, so a bit of tuning is in order, and if I don't play it regularly, it occasionally requires that I tweak the truss rod and stand on the neck a bit. I like a bit of neck relief and higher action than most of y'all, because I use 11's on my guitars, and they require more room to vibrate. I also like a bit higher action so I can get under the string to bend the hell out of it. The higher action also lets me play standard tuning slide withouth too much fret rattle.
My archtops aren't too finikey, the 53 Gibson is a real trouper, and the only issue with the Casino, is a tendancy to drop volume when bending notes above the 15th fret. I think a pickup upgrade is in order.

 

[Blindboy]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

Bludave, I like your Hendrix quotes...
Another favorite of mine is...
"This pedal is no more good!"

 

[Progbusters]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

My Tele and Ibby RG are finicky. Always needs tuning, buzzing, noise, pickups sound good then don't sound good.

 

[Andrew Lamprecht]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

I've had a few finicky guitars. They are longer with me for obvious reasons.

 

[greekdude]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

Also might be that skinny necks need more often seasonal adjustments .... My double locking floyd carvin's neck seem to develop bow or relief at even minor temperature changes. But its still a good guitar.

 

[Coma]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

I have a really worn 80's Larrivee RS4 that was mired by a bunch of issues due to wear and tear when I bought it. Got them all fixed but it's still finicky as f*ck, due to the high e being too close to the edge of the fretboard, making pulloffs a risky move. I've checked with a friend's guitar, as he has a similar 80's model, and it has the same issue. Just they way they built 'em, I guess. I've learned to work around it during rehearsals, but it's a PITA when gigging.

 

[thebowl]

Re: finicky guitars?? do you have one?

I have a Deluxe Strat Plus with the locking bridge and locking tuners, that I have never adjusted in over 10 years. It keeps tune wonderfully, and the action is always right there where I like it.

I recently swapped out the Lace Sensors in favor of Duncans. It was like I have a new guitar, sound-wise, but it plays like it has all along. I have an ASAT Classic and now a Prestige Musician Pro, and I seem to be messing around with the action on both of them a bit, but they are recent additions. I swapped the saddles on the ASAT, which was a classic case of fixing something that wasn't broken. Lesson learned.

My theory is that, when one begins to fool around with the settings on a guitar, it can kinda build on itself. This same phenomenon exists with cars. Guys (mainly) can't resist the urge to lift that hood and start tinkering, then they wonder why something always needs fixing...