What is the most versatile guitar?

[GuitarDoc]

Or an ES345...even more versatile than the 335.

 

[GuitarStv]

It is definitely up to the player. I am wondering what guitar you can hand to 20 guitar players and 19 of them would be happy.

I think that you're asking for something impossible there.

If you handed 20 guitar players a guitar, at least a third of them would want a trem of some sort . . . and at least half would be miserable with one. An equal number of guys will want high output humbuckers as want low output single coils. Then we get into frets (there's a jumbo crew and a teeny-tiny crew), neck shape (baseball bat vs Ibanez style hand-cramper).

But at least we can all agree on hot pink as an appropriate colour. . .

 

[jeremy]

i agree, i think thats a tall order. neck shape, setup, string gauge... making even 5 of 20 happy with the same guitar would be surprising depending on the people. if you got 20 semi-pro/pro guitar players from different genres who arent dicks, put out five different styles of guitar, id think the hsh/hss strat would by consensus be the most versatile. the hh guitar can cover a lot of ground but the middle pup adds some tones that you cant really get from hh. you can cop them sorta, but its a compromise at best

 

[PFDarkside]

It’s this. Full stop.

 

[soulforger]

Paul Reed Smith, P24, the new Mark Lettieri signature or an older 513 off the used market. If you want hollow the SE Hollowbody II with Piezo would be grand!

 

[alex1fly]

It is definitely up to the player. I am wondering what guitar you can hand to 20 guitar players and 19 of them would be happy.

19/20 guitarists would probably be happy with a HH Strat or a HH Tele, I think. Those tones would be familiar to everybody. Bonus points for a 25” scale so also maybe one of the non frilly PRS models like the Mira with two humbuckers and a partial coil split would fit the bill for 19/20 satisfied guitarists.

 

[GuitarStv]

It’s this. Full stop.

That's a really cool guitar. Very slick how all the positions and combos are hum cancelling, and its' super convenient to switch from sound to sound.

 

[GuitarStv]

19/20 guitarists would probably be happy with a HH Strat or a HH Tele, I think. Those tones would be familiar to everybody. Bonus points for a 25” scale so also maybe one of the non frilly PRS models like the Mira with two humbuckers and a partial coil split would fit the bill for 19/20 satisfied guitarists.

I don't think 19/20 guitarists prefer humbuckers. And even of those that do, I don't think 19/20 would be happy with they same sort . . . a bunch of guys are going to be happy only with high output 'buckers and a bunch with only low output ones.

 

[Powdered Toast Man]

IME a Telecaster. I've gotten more music out of, and played in more types of bands, with a Telecaster than any other guitar. ES335 has definitely been used on more recordings than people are aware of, but I don't know if you can get chicken' picken' country out of it. Whereas a Tele, I can get anything from twangy country, roll the tone and play jazz, or rock, blues, funk, have even done some metal tunes with one in a pinch.

Exactly. Show me what you can't do with a Telecaster. Jazz? Yep. Classic rock? Yep. Country? Yep. Modern rock? Yep. Pop? Yep. Funk? Yep. Metal? Yep.

It's funny because I've talked to metal guys who while in the music videos they're playing their HH typical metal guitar and they tell me that in the studio the track was done with a Tele that they had there.

 

[beaubrummels]

Any session guitarist's guitar would be a good candidate. In addition to the Dan Huff above, a Brent Mason tele, or a Trevor Rabin strat would be pretty versatile, if we're venturing past stock models. (Though I thought the thread was originally about just stock models.)

 

[PFDarkside]

That's a really cool guitar. Very slick how all the positions and combos are hum cancelling, and its' super convenient to switch from sound to sound.

That’s what I was thinking too. I’ve been thinking of a Hot Stack guitar, this might push me over the top to do it!

 

[Securb]

Though I thought the thread was originally about just stock models

Yep, I was thinking "stock" models there are tons of Swiss Army guitars and artist guitars with a ton of versatility. I am thinking of the standard offerings of the instrument. An HSS Strat would be very versatile but I see that a variation on a theme, not the guitar Leo originally envisioned. A Steve Morse model will give you almost any tone you want but I was not thinking of specialty guitars when I first pondered the question

 

[PS412]

Not my favorite but I vote strat.
You can play it upside down, with your face or even when your blind.
Way more versatile than a triple bucker paul played by a painty face weirdo.

 

[Chistopher]

As my concept of music becomes more and more abstract, I'm starting to feel any guitar can play any genre, albeit sometimes not in the traditional way a given genre is played.

However, there are 2 supersets of electric guitar: stuff you can play on some random Strat that some kid in the late 80s tanked the resale value of by throwing a Super Distortion in the bridge, and stuff that you shouldn't be playing to begin with.

 

[Blille]

I’ve been defending the tele in these threads for years. I think it can do ok. My vote goes to the 335 now that I have one lol

 

[Mincer]

Something in the 335 camp is the Howard Roberts Fusion. It is a little thicker front-to-back than a 335, but was designed to be able to do jazz, blues, and rock equally well. Sort of a bigger, seni hollow LP.

 

[Demanic]

The Coffin Lid, my Ibanez RG superstrat with a three way and a set of Triple Shot rings. The only way to make it even crazier would be to put push/pulls for the volume and tone
Then wire one for phase and one for series/parallel between both pickups.
Hmmmmmm.

Sent from my SM-A115A using Tapatalk

 

[Chistopher]

The Coffin Lid, my Ibanez RG superstrat with a three way and a set of Triple Shot rings. The only way to make it even crazier would be to put push/pulls for the volume and tone
Then wire one for phase and one for series/parallel between both pickups.
Hmmmmmm.

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False, you can't play Bad Horsie on it.

 

[Demanic]

False, you can't play Bad Horsie on it.

I probably couldn't play that on anything.

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[Aceman]

I have to concur. A righteous 335 style can pretty much do it all.

I think my P-RAil loaded Dot Studio would metal up (tonally) just faint.

I find myself learning Jingle Bell Rock on my other Dot Studio, while I have also played Cold Blood by Kix on it, and at some point, Lady Gaga too.