Gunny47
New member
Yes all, I think I made a decision of what Im getting next. I had my heart set on either a strat or an SG, but I think Im going to go with something a little more radical...
Okay, let me do some typing on my guitar center trips over the last 3 days.
My brother wants to start playing drums and wanted a good drum set to start off and to grow into. We settled on Drum Center in Long Island and ordered a Tama Superstar Custom in scarlet fade (red to black) with a paiste cymbol set and got a sweet deal on it. But of course, we went to a few guitar centers before that.
So the first guitar center, I played a 56 Relic Fiesta Red Strat (all the guitars I played all three days were through a Fender 57 Tweed Twin-Amp). Beautiful freaking guitar. Played slide with it before the guy working there told me to stop playing due to fretwear, and I realized it was not such a good slide guitar. I prefered the humbucking sound when it came to slide, the upper neck access was not as good as an SG and most importantly, the fingerboard radius was too small (rounded). It was hard to just belt out that whole major chord across a fret in open E tuning, you could only get like 3 strings to ring out clearly. And ya know, it was great tone, but it didn't WOW me. I was not completely thrilled with anything, I simply liked the tones on my LP with the Tweed better. I didn't feel like the strat gave me anything I was rele missing, or well, in better words, really wanted. I played a couple of other strats and they just didn't stack up to the tone and playability of this one, so I did not want to spend the money just to spend it. I wanted something that I would not be able to put down and kept me as entertained as my R7 does.
Next contestant - the SG. Of course, probably one of the best suited guitars for slide and probably one of the most used for slide. Sounds like just what Im looking for - humbucking tone, ultra easy higher fret access, thinner neck, flat fingerboard radius, still retains that tone and mojo of my favorite Les Pauls - sounds like the perfect guitar for me right, huh? WRONG!
Im a big guy... I want a nice chunk of wood on my leg or around my neck when Im playing. I like heavy guitars, I like big shapes, I like thicker tone. I played 2 '61 Reissues, 2 Custom Shop VOS jobs (both red standards, one with maestro tailpiece, one with the stopbar). The '61 Reissues just sounded flat to me - too clean or something. I always thought this about the '57 Classics. The VOS ones were really nice guitars, the Burstbucker 1 & 2 combo is great for the SGs and they sound killer, but theyre really not for me. I get the high fret access, but the guitar doesnt sit on my leg right and is just not right for me. Too small. My brother said, "Nick, you with an SG is like one of those huge monkies on a tiny tricycle." I thought the clean sounds were on the weak side even when the amp was pushed. Mostly playability differences. Just not my style.
Just to throw in, I played a tele or two and they just weren't what I was lookign for....
Now what was I to do? I seemed to like the humbucking tone, but I still would like a single coil guitar for versitility with my Paulas. So I was thinking something in between like a P90 or Mini Humbucker equipped job. Then I still wanted the good fret access for slide (I wanted this to be my slide guitar). As for distorted tones, I wanted a nice smoothness to it, not really raunchy so I can get that thick violin sustain with distorted slide. I also wanted great cleans that I can use with jazz and blues. And then I wanted a guitar on the heavier side that just felt right. And I gotta admit, I'm still in love with the strat look - radical custom colors, whammy bar might come in handy too. So what does it add up to???
FIREBIRD VII!!!!!!!
Discuss - Ill post a review on it and some other Firebird related words in a little bit.
Okay, let me do some typing on my guitar center trips over the last 3 days.
My brother wants to start playing drums and wanted a good drum set to start off and to grow into. We settled on Drum Center in Long Island and ordered a Tama Superstar Custom in scarlet fade (red to black) with a paiste cymbol set and got a sweet deal on it. But of course, we went to a few guitar centers before that.
So the first guitar center, I played a 56 Relic Fiesta Red Strat (all the guitars I played all three days were through a Fender 57 Tweed Twin-Amp). Beautiful freaking guitar. Played slide with it before the guy working there told me to stop playing due to fretwear, and I realized it was not such a good slide guitar. I prefered the humbucking sound when it came to slide, the upper neck access was not as good as an SG and most importantly, the fingerboard radius was too small (rounded). It was hard to just belt out that whole major chord across a fret in open E tuning, you could only get like 3 strings to ring out clearly. And ya know, it was great tone, but it didn't WOW me. I was not completely thrilled with anything, I simply liked the tones on my LP with the Tweed better. I didn't feel like the strat gave me anything I was rele missing, or well, in better words, really wanted. I played a couple of other strats and they just didn't stack up to the tone and playability of this one, so I did not want to spend the money just to spend it. I wanted something that I would not be able to put down and kept me as entertained as my R7 does.
Next contestant - the SG. Of course, probably one of the best suited guitars for slide and probably one of the most used for slide. Sounds like just what Im looking for - humbucking tone, ultra easy higher fret access, thinner neck, flat fingerboard radius, still retains that tone and mojo of my favorite Les Pauls - sounds like the perfect guitar for me right, huh? WRONG!
Im a big guy... I want a nice chunk of wood on my leg or around my neck when Im playing. I like heavy guitars, I like big shapes, I like thicker tone. I played 2 '61 Reissues, 2 Custom Shop VOS jobs (both red standards, one with maestro tailpiece, one with the stopbar). The '61 Reissues just sounded flat to me - too clean or something. I always thought this about the '57 Classics. The VOS ones were really nice guitars, the Burstbucker 1 & 2 combo is great for the SGs and they sound killer, but theyre really not for me. I get the high fret access, but the guitar doesnt sit on my leg right and is just not right for me. Too small. My brother said, "Nick, you with an SG is like one of those huge monkies on a tiny tricycle." I thought the clean sounds were on the weak side even when the amp was pushed. Mostly playability differences. Just not my style.
Just to throw in, I played a tele or two and they just weren't what I was lookign for....
Now what was I to do? I seemed to like the humbucking tone, but I still would like a single coil guitar for versitility with my Paulas. So I was thinking something in between like a P90 or Mini Humbucker equipped job. Then I still wanted the good fret access for slide (I wanted this to be my slide guitar). As for distorted tones, I wanted a nice smoothness to it, not really raunchy so I can get that thick violin sustain with distorted slide. I also wanted great cleans that I can use with jazz and blues. And then I wanted a guitar on the heavier side that just felt right. And I gotta admit, I'm still in love with the strat look - radical custom colors, whammy bar might come in handy too. So what does it add up to???
FIREBIRD VII!!!!!!!
Discuss - Ill post a review on it and some other Firebird related words in a little bit.
