Calling all guitarists

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Shooshie
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Re: Calling all guitarists

Post by Shooshie »

BKK-OZ wrote:
Shooshie wrote:...That said, buying a good saxophone is one of the most stressful things I can do...
Shoosh
Hey! A saxomaphone ain't no guitar!
This thread is about guitars, you wind players are all alike, must be guitar-neck envy or something...

:wink: :wink: :wink:

Image
That line where Homer is missing Lisa and sings "Saxomaphone," to the first three notes of Beethoven's 5th, is one of the funniest things I ever heard in the Simpsons. It just sounded so spontaneous. I say it all the time, now. In fact, when people ask what I play, I often tell them "Saxomaphone."

Guitar neck envy? With a bell like that, you think we got envy? Hahaha...

Yeah, we saxomaphone players go where we want. No steenkin' guitar thread is safe with us around. We go. We toot. We leave. (and the toot sticks around!)

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Gravity Jim
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Re: Calling all guitarists

Post by Gravity Jim »

Saxamaphone is the standard pronunciation at my house, too. Along with "tubamaroo."

I'd never buy a guitar I haven't played. I have had incredible luck with my Partscaster, but I'm the captain of my ship on a Strat... I've only seen two of them that sucked because of materials and couldn't be fixed with a good setup. But since then, I only buy guitars I've played,for the reasons Shooshie points out.
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davedempsey
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Re: Calling all guitarists

Post by davedempsey »

Apart from the Hagstrom, (which was perfect and needed no work apart from installing my preferred string gauge and the consequent intonation setup) all the other guitars I purchased sight unseen have needed some work. I was able to do all of that work myself apart from the Washburn J7 (L5 type) which had to go to my luthier for some neck work - ended up a very sweet ride.
I feel a little conflicted about these latest purchases in as much as the only reason I have bought any of these instruments was that they were on either a specials list or a quit list from the wholesaler. The purchases have all been a total gamble but the upside has been the prices have been in the lower range of ridiculously cheap. In some cases, where wholesalers were exiting brand relationship, the price has been as low as 15 - 20% of the original retail price. Even with the work I've done on them I could sell them at the going 2nd hand price and more than recoup my outlay - not that I intend to as they have all turned out to be worth keeping. Maybe it's a bit like Shooshie and the technically imperfect sax that sounds great - each of these guitars has a sound it does very well, none are perfect, but I believe that with good quality factory guitars it's very rare to get a complete dud.
Still, all things considered, my best advise remains: play before you buy :)
BTW Shooshie - I couldn't agree more about the French Selmers. Every saxamaphonist I've played with whose tone has been superior has played an old French Selmer. The other thing they had in common: they all wanted to be guitarists too :wink:
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Re: Calling all guitarists

Post by Frodo »

Anyone using a G&L guitar? The L in the equation is actually Leo Fender.

I have an American Tele now, but I'm still in the market for a decent Strat (all these years later). I'm thinking of either going G&L or getting a less expensive but good playing Strat type and putting 1957 pickups on it.

Thoughts?
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mhschmieder
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Re: Calling all guitarists

Post by mhschmieder »

Don't do it, unless you want a clinical sound with little range for variance.

Just one person's experience, of course.

It was the selling of my G&L Strat that finally got me interested in electric guitar as an expressive instrument, and got me away from the modern and technically perfect and back to the vintage but flawed. :-)

In other words, I'm one of those that think Leo Fender got it right the first time. :-)

I also had his Tele (ASAT?). I sold it first. It had a whammy bar BTW, which was unusual for a Tele.

There are obviously plenty of people who disagree with me, as G&L's do pretty well. :-)

I could never get the "quack" from my G&L Strat. Also found little use for the bottom pickup and position. But my Select Series Strat is similar to the Eric Johnson maple edition, with a load-balanced setting for the bottom switch position.

I can't believe how many years I spent on a G&L bass, but it was my first teacher's rec. I'm still unlearning all of the bad technique I picked up during those years. Baseball bat neck, super-high action. My teacher said the action should be as high as possible, for maximum dynamic range.
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Frodo
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Re: Calling all guitarists

Post by Frodo »

Half the people I've spoken to about G&Ls are for them, and the other half are against them. I might have only met one person who was indifferent about them. The rest had never played them.

But mhschmieder-- was the choice of guitar based upon your teacher's recommendation about the action being high or was it more just a characteristic of the instrument itself? As an extension to that question, how did you first choose the G&L in case your teacher *didn't* recommend that you get one?
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bayswater
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Re: Calling all guitarists

Post by bayswater »

Frodo wrote:Half the people I've spoken to about G&Ls are for them, and the other half are against them.
That might tell us the quality of the guitars are inconsistent. That's my experience, at least with left handed guitars. Whenever I'm in a music store that has any left handed guitars, I try to find the time to play as many of them as I can for as long as they'll put up with me. I rarely find any particular guitar brand and model to be consistently good or poor.

Maybe things are different in the right handed world, but for me the only thing that works is to play a specific guitar for a few hours, go home, and come back the next day and play it again. My bet is that if you play a load of G&Ls, you'll find one you really like.
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mhschmieder
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Re: Calling all guitarists

Post by mhschmieder »

Yeah, left-handed guitars are a problem. Quality control is low, not many models (or vendors), bad attitude by stores, etc. I work with a lot of left-handed people; maybe 50% of my clientele.

As for G&L, the bass came first, and as I came into electric instruments only by mid to late 80's, it was tough to become knowledgeable pre-internet, as it was a really bad period for instruments in general. I only became educated about guitars over the past few years; basses about a decade earlier.

OTOH, the options I bought in the past few years weren't available at the time, and G&L, Hamer, Steinberg, and a few other companies were how you guaranteed quality -- if you couldn't afford custom stuff from ESP, Schecter, etc.

I think it's important to consider G&L in that context. In other words, there was probably a period where they had better quality control and workmanship than Fender or even MusicMan, and they might have been the only game in town for serious pros who didn't have access to vintage gear.

In modern times, our choices are richer than ever. So whether to go for G&L should be based on feel and sound. But I will say that even the people I know who love G&L tend to agree with me that their sonic palette is fairly narrow. To me, that's the "bad side effect" of being too technically driven. Hence the statement that Leo got it right the first time, even though he kept improving the specs.

Luckily, it is easy to find G&L's in stores -- both new, and second hand. So hopefully you can find some to try. Just don't necessarily expect their guitars to sound the way they look. Then you'll be fine, because you may find it's the sound you want for "your thing". Not really a Strat sound though -- except that's too broad a statement, given all the Strat variants that Fender makes now.

I think a G&L "Strat" would work well for electric blues, and some fusion styles, where there might be a particular highly-focused tone the player is going for that doesn't get varied much between songs. I don't know too many people who like G&L's Teles though (maybe Mike Stern, or is he Fender based?). Not much "twang" -- even with the tremolo arm.
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Michael Canavan
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Re: Calling all guitarists

Post by Michael Canavan »

As primarily a guitar player it's funny how this stuff works.
For years I used a 78 Gibson Les Paul Pro played through a 69 Marshall Major with a Marshall JMP-1 and DOD Chorus, Boss Oct-2 Digitech digital delay and that's it. I still only now one solid body electric, that 78 LP Pro. I'm not much of a fan of single coil pickups, others make them work, but not my style.
The only thing that's changed is I switched over to mostly using Guitar Rig and the JMP.. sold the Major for $$ for an embarrassingly low price.
Now compare that to my VSTi collection... :oops:
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Frodo
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Re: Calling all guitarists

Post by Frodo »

Hey Bayswater:

It's a tough call. For a take off, all guitarists are different and have their own preferences for these instruments and how they should play. In addition, these instruments all have personalities of their own even if they are the same model from the same manufacturer.

Bu I do not envy having to buy a left-handed instrument. I was born left-handed, but back in the day when the abacus was all the rage, left-handedness was considered to be a sickness of some sort. I was swatted for writing left-handed, and swatted again when my right-handed work looked like a bad accident.

So, I am very sympathetic to Southpaws!

That said, I cannot imagine shopping for left-handed guitars. That inventory in any shop is not particularly abundant, and it's hard to tell if the left-handed instruments even begin to represent the best of what's available.

More directly to my point (being a spanked righty), it gets into the necessity of having a lot of custom work done unless someone you trust can give you the inside skinny on the better instruments and when/where they might be available.

Honestly, I would still rather play the bass left-handed. It's just easier in a lot of ways (for me). But we live in a right-handed world, and such conformity adds a layer of discomfort I've never been completely happy with.

Then again, I was encouraged to study the piano since my early days which gave equal time to both hands. I try not complain too much.

I got an American Standard Tele a couple-three years ago and have been very happy with it. But a Tele is a Tele and a Strat is Strat.

Me want Strat. :(
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Frodo
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Re: Calling all guitarists

Post by Frodo »

Michael Canavan wrote:As primarily a guitar player it's funny how this stuff works.
For years I used a 78 Gibson Les Paul Pro played through a 69 Marshall Major with a Marshall JMP-1 and DOD Chorus, Boss Oct-2 Digitech digital delay and that's it. I still only now one solid body electric, that 78 LP Pro. I'm not much of a fan of single coil pickups, others make them work, but not my style.
The only thing that's changed is I switched over to mostly using Guitar Rig and the JMP.. sold the Major for $$ for an embarrassingly low price.
Now compare that to my VSTi collection... :oops:

Yep. That's a whole other convo. I don't perform "live" on guitar, so going ITB is just pragmatic for me. I've got so many people screaming at me to by an all-analog rig, but I'm going to have to buy a car at some point soon.

What's a pianist to do? LOL!
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HCMarkus
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Re: Calling all guitarists

Post by HCMarkus »

Talking about an analog chain, not a guitarist here, but enjoying the sounds clients are extracting from the studio rig… Marshall JMP-1, Peavey valve power amp and a closed back G&K 2x10" speaker. Amp is the control room but speaker is in iso, live mix for the player can be adjusted over monitors or by leaving the iso room door ajar. I take the guitars in thru an Avalon U5 direct box and record both direct and speaker so re-amping in the box is always available, but have been using the analog chain tracks more often than not in mixes.
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Frodo
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Re: Calling all guitarists

Post by Frodo »

HCMarkus wrote:Talking about an analog chain, not a guitarist here, but enjoying the sounds clients are extracting from the studio rig… Marshall JMP-1, Peavey valve power amp and a closed back G&K 2x10" speaker. Amp is the control room but speaker is in iso, live mix for the player can be adjusted over monitors or by leaving the iso room door ajar. I take the guitars in thru an Avalon U5 direct box and record both direct and speaker so re-amping in the box is always available, but have been using the analog chain tracks more often than not in mixes.

And that's yet a whole OTHER convo.... what happens between a session player and the engineer must also be a matter of harmony.

Did you say Avalon U5? I've had three chats this very week about that routing. All good with the U5. That's from an engineer's perspective more than a guitarist's.

Okay. Back to Strats, I think. For some reason, I don't think that Strats are my biggest point of interest at the moment, as I think about it. The bigger topic appeaers to be about getting the right sound from player to instrument to engineer to master mix.
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bayswater
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Re: Calling all guitarists

Post by bayswater »

Frodo wrote:I was born left-handed, but back in the day when the abacus was all the rage, left-handedness was considered to be a sickness of some sort. I was swatted for writing left-handed, and swatted again when my right-handed work looked like a bad accident.
That brings back some memories. Not all good.
Frodo wrote:I got an American Standard Tele a couple-three years ago and have been very happy with it. But a Tele is a Tele and a Strat is Strat.

Me want Strat. :(
I had Strat but no Tele for a long time. In the end, I got one a local store hadordered from the Fender custom shop, and didn't sell for a very long time. It cost me $100, and is the most playable guitar I've ever had. Pure chance.
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Michael Canavan
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Re: Calling all guitarists

Post by Michael Canavan »

HCMarkus wrote:Talking about an analog chain, not a guitarist here, but enjoying the sounds clients are extracting from the studio rig… Marshall JMP-1, Peavey valve power amp and a closed back G&K 2x10" speaker. Amp is the control room but speaker is in iso, live mix for the player can be adjusted over monitors or by leaving the iso room door ajar. I take the guitars in thru an Avalon U5 direct box and record both direct and speaker so re-amping in the box is always available, but have been using the analog chain tracks more often than not in mixes.
Yep swear by the JMP-1. Played through a clean Tube amp it's a beautiful thing. I've had mine for 20 years now, and it looks it. :lol:
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