Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

[Feyd]

I've got this ridiculous idea that I can have my cake and eat it too. Love the sound of both Gibson and Fender. I listen to college stuff, "alternative". Favourite band: Radiohead. Love Dave Gilmour's (Pink Floyd) sound but also love old Mick Ronson (with Bowie).

Idea:
:saeek: Buy Gibson SG (Special or Standard)
Put Dimarzio Humbucker from Hell in Neck position. They claim that it sounds as close to a single coil as you can get with a hummer.

Put a Duncan in the bridge for diverse sound. But which one? Am I totally crazy to think I can pull this off? Please help. Thank-you.

 

[kaknight]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

why not buy a prs or similar that has pickup switching that will approximate both tones? there are many options out there of "hybrid" guitars that will sound much more like what you are looking for than an SG.

 

[Feyd]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

Thanks for the advice. I have a Carvin with a "splittable" neck humbucker. It sounds pretty cool but not very Fenderish. PRS, wow, they are pretty guitars but not crazy about price tag and don't like rotary switches...

 

[nuntius]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

dude this is what practically every single guitarist on earth has been searching for lol :laugh2:

way i see it is you have two options.

get an LP/SG - depending on which you want and get coil splits to get you in "fender ballpark"

or you could go the route im going

Get an H/S/H strat with both Hum's splittable.. pos 2 3 and 4 should be very convincing for your fender tones and the hummers will get you in the "ballpark" - you get a total of 9 combinations with that setup mfg:

 

[STRATDELUXER97]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

You probably need a PRS?

 

[Vasshu the humanoid typhoon]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

Just buy one of each....getting two in one will result in a compromise...and a fairly big one.
Closest would be a fat sounding strat with a hummer in the bridge.

 

[Gamera]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

An HSS Strat with the S-1 switching should get you close. IMO it's a whole lot easier to get the "Gibson tone" with full-sized humbuckers in almost any guitar. But it's a whole lot more difficult getting the "Fender tone" by putting any ol' single coil into any ol' guitar. That's why I'd start with an actual Fender with actual Fender pups and upgrade from there if necessary.

 

[papersoul]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

If you truly can't or won't be able to afford both and are willing to compromise, I can 100% recommend a PRS McCarty.

 

[Bludave]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

You will never find a guitar that does Fender and Gibson well. IMHO buy both..... Problem solved!

 

[msplines]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

Another vote for hot strats (I hate strats, but it's your wallet and if you don't want to splash out and can stand the feel, then it's the easiest path).

 

[Norman_T]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

Hello and welcome to the board and shame on those members who responded to this thread and did not give you the traditional welcome :yell: Do look at the other rooms and most of us are very knowledgeable (well I am :32: ). If you want to host pictures on the board try www.photobucket.com its free and very easy.

But what you are asking is probably going to be quite difficult to achieve if you are looking at doing something with just one guitar. A possible slution is to put P90s or even P100s in place of humbuckers on an SG or set neck guitar but you are always going to be compromising the sound.

A PRS CU22 with the 5 way rotary switch (and there are at least another 3 in between) sounds that you can also get is going to be the closest. But otherwise you should get a good Tokai, Edwards, Bunny, Greco LP/SG style (MIJ) guitar and then pick up a decent Highway strat. Every guitar player should always have one of each in their armoury.

 

[Lewguitar]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

Getting a great Gibson tone from a Gibson, Hamer, PRS or even a Fender guitar is no problem...just install a set of great humbuckers. It's getting a great and accurate Fender Strat/Tele tone out of a guitar with humbuckers that is impossible...

Can't be done exactly, IMO, but a set of 59N/JB or JazzN/JB humbuckers split can sound pretty darn good if you don't have a Strat in your head to compare to.

Welcome to the board, BTW.

I think Zerb's comments are right on: just get two guitars. One with single coils and one with HB's because you're going to want to EQ your amp differantly for each set anyway.

Lew

 

[some_dude]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

PRS, wow, they are pretty guitars but not crazy about price tag and don't like rotary switches...

How about a PRS SE EG?

It's a mahogany neck, fretboard, and body guitar. Set neck, 25in scale, and an optional tremolo bridge. The 2005 model has a humbucker in the bridge and I believe it has a mini-switch to split the bridge pickup if you want a quasi single coil sound.

Best of all, it's only slightly more than a MIM Strat.


This is the 2004 model they currently show on the PRS site;

 

[MikeS]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

Get an H/S/H strat with both Hum's splittable.. pos 2 3 and 4 should be very convincing for your fender tones and the hummers will get you in the "ballpark" - you get a total of 9 combinations with that setup mfg:

That gets my vote. You'll be closer to the Gibson tone than the Fender tone, but atleast you'd have a versatile axe. The only drawback that I can see is the absolute wiring nightmare.

Wait, what am I thinking? :smack: Of course you need both guitars in your arsenal! :laugh2: You also need to put duncans in both! :cool3:

(in all seriousness, the HSH strat might get you close, but it'll never be a true SSS strat, even with coil splits on both humbuckers. It probably wouldn't be as fat and full as a Les Paul, either. But, as I said, it'll still be a great axe with TONS of tone possibilities.)

 

[PUCKBOY99]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

GREETINGS & SALUTATIONS!!!!! :beerchug:

Strat with 2 humbuckers splittable @ position 2 & 4....if the body is mahogany, even better....

OR

LP w/P90s.....I HIGHLY recommend the Seymour Duncan Custom-3s. With the twist of the tone knob, you can go from Tele smooth to LP crunch.

 

[nuntius]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

yeah mike i know what you mean.

But I'd rather have something that could get me close to everything and let my fingers do the work.

plus the control layout on a lespaul is stupid... you have to move your playing position to change pups or to move the volume control

the strat layout is so much better.

im getting that axe built for me so the wiring isnt my problem

 

[Seraphial]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

How bout this? Fender scale, gibson body, P90's and SC's. And you can pick one up on Ebay pretty reasonably...

And lotsa switches :32:

http://www.gibson.com/products/gibson/Hawk/Nighthawk/Special3P.html

 

[LouisD]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

I own a Fender Lone star strat with a SD Pearly Gates Plus humbucker(similar to a '59) in the bridge position and two Duncan SSL-1 single coil. It's an amazing guitar that delivers both "Les Paul" and "strat" sounds. The middle single coil is RWRP to get rid of the noise.

 

[Hot _Grits]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

I recommend a Paul Reed Smith McCarty or custom 22. Order the custom 22 with McCarty switching and a trem, and you'll have an excellent hybrid guitar. Perhaps a maple bolt-in CE model may suit, as well.

The two new SE models may also be worth looking at if you can't spring the cash for a US model.

In the end, it's impossible to get both sounds out of one guitar. All you can do is compromise in the direction tha best suits you.

How about a Line 6 variax?

 

[mjsever]

Re: Please Help! Want Gibson & Fender in one Guitar

There are a LOT of guitars out there, and I'd recommend you play as many guitars as you can that have coil taps. This will give you a feel for whether a split-humbucker is good enough for you or whether a real single-coil is needed (they do sound different in most settings). You might find just what you're looking for without going through all the trouble of buying a guitar and then replacing pickups and installing switches and all that, and you'll KNOW what the final sound will be like. Of course, it helps if the guitar you're looking at already has SD's installed...