Need Help Picking A Guitar!
- Thread starter BrokenRailGuitarist
- Start date
allbutromeo
Well-known member
Re: Need Help Picking A Guitar!
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DreX
New member
Re: Need Help Picking A Guitar!
Do you have a backup guitar, in case the LP breaks a string in the middle of a show? If not, it's justifiable to buy a second guitar, and have that guitar be a Strat to kill two birds with one stone.
Also, if you do get a Strat and you play heavy rock, it might be a good idea to stick with the ceramics that come stock in a Mexican Fender for the sake of their higher output, or install higher output AlNiCo pickups, such as the SSL-5, so that you can get Strat bite, but still have enough output to get a good sustained, lead tone. The vintage style ALNiCo's that usually come standard in American Strats are great for dirty blues and clean styles, but they can be a little thin and lack sustain under high gain, which is why HSS or HSH setups, or hotter single coils like the SSL-5 are as popular as they are.
If you want to do blues with this guitar also, I'd avoid HSS / HSH, and go higher output single coils all the way (noiseless are OK too), because IMO a humbucker will lose the Strat tone and, to some extent, duplicate the function of your Les Paul. A high output single coil retains the Strat sound and lets you go from clean to over-driven blues to biting high gain solos with a single guitar. The YJM Fury or the STK-S4 would make for good noiseless options.
Do you have a backup guitar, in case the LP breaks a string in the middle of a show? If not, it's justifiable to buy a second guitar, and have that guitar be a Strat to kill two birds with one stone.
Also, if you do get a Strat and you play heavy rock, it might be a good idea to stick with the ceramics that come stock in a Mexican Fender for the sake of their higher output, or install higher output AlNiCo pickups, such as the SSL-5, so that you can get Strat bite, but still have enough output to get a good sustained, lead tone. The vintage style ALNiCo's that usually come standard in American Strats are great for dirty blues and clean styles, but they can be a little thin and lack sustain under high gain, which is why HSS or HSH setups, or hotter single coils like the SSL-5 are as popular as they are.
If you want to do blues with this guitar also, I'd avoid HSS / HSH, and go higher output single coils all the way (noiseless are OK too), because IMO a humbucker will lose the Strat tone and, to some extent, duplicate the function of your Les Paul. A high output single coil retains the Strat sound and lets you go from clean to over-driven blues to biting high gain solos with a single guitar. The YJM Fury or the STK-S4 would make for good noiseless options.
Boogie Bill
New member
Re: Need Help Picking A Guitar!
The guitar you want is the G&L Legacy Special. This is the only guitar I've found that can back up both my Number One Legacy AND give me a thick, PAF-ish Les Paul tone. The ergonomics are pure Strat, with build quality better than most Fenders. G&L is a Custom Shop, so they offer a great variety of colors, woods, neck profiles, etc. Best vibrato in the biz, designed by Leo Fender; and Leo's GLOBAL PTB tone controls give you complete control of bass and treble on all the pickups. I can get very close to the vintage alnico tones of the Legacy and yet still get thick woman-tone. All in the same guitar. So I'll have a Legacy, a Les Paul and the Legacy Special at a gig, and a lot of the time, the "backup" guitar becomes the main axe when the band starts cooking in that fourth set.
It is certainly one of the most versatile guitars I own...great for jazz, fusion, rock, blues and classic rock. I think one of the guys in Tim McGraw's band uses one too, but the bridge pickup is not what I would call twangy, lol. When you play a strat, and you start thing that you want " more"...well, this is that guitar.
If you want something a little different, the Comanche could be the ticket. The z-coils are humbucking and quiet, but with a single coil tonality. I set mine up to sound fairly dark, yet it still has that clarity. The Comanche can be a little challenging to work with for some players, but in many ways it is a blank slate that allows you to create your signature tone. It ain't yer daddy's Strat!
Check out G&L.
Bill
The guitar you want is the G&L Legacy Special. This is the only guitar I've found that can back up both my Number One Legacy AND give me a thick, PAF-ish Les Paul tone. The ergonomics are pure Strat, with build quality better than most Fenders. G&L is a Custom Shop, so they offer a great variety of colors, woods, neck profiles, etc. Best vibrato in the biz, designed by Leo Fender; and Leo's GLOBAL PTB tone controls give you complete control of bass and treble on all the pickups. I can get very close to the vintage alnico tones of the Legacy and yet still get thick woman-tone. All in the same guitar. So I'll have a Legacy, a Les Paul and the Legacy Special at a gig, and a lot of the time, the "backup" guitar becomes the main axe when the band starts cooking in that fourth set.
It is certainly one of the most versatile guitars I own...great for jazz, fusion, rock, blues and classic rock. I think one of the guys in Tim McGraw's band uses one too, but the bridge pickup is not what I would call twangy, lol. When you play a strat, and you start thing that you want " more"...well, this is that guitar.
If you want something a little different, the Comanche could be the ticket. The z-coils are humbucking and quiet, but with a single coil tonality. I set mine up to sound fairly dark, yet it still has that clarity. The Comanche can be a little challenging to work with for some players, but in many ways it is a blank slate that allows you to create your signature tone. It ain't yer daddy's Strat!
Check out G&L.
Bill
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