Calling All Guitarists- Bassists, Too!

[Frodo]

I'm taking a poll for reasons too complex to explain, but hopefully you masterful pickers will enjoy answering these questions:

1. Of the guitars you own, which one(s) are your favorite to play and why?

2. Of the guitars you do not own, which one(s) do you covet and why?

3. What are your preferred pre's, heads, cabinets and cables-- and style of music?

4. Strings!! Gauge? Brand? Frequency you change them?

5. Name your top five favorite guitarists or bassists of all time.

Thanks folks. I assure you this is for a worthy cause!

[rcannonp]

1. 1990 Gibson Les Paul Standard. It plays great and sounds great. It can cover a wide range of genres.

2. Gibson L5. It's a work of art.

3. Marshall JTM 622 combo. It's a good match for the LP, and it's not too bad on my Tele either. It can cover country, blues and rock tones very well, and it does a convincing job on jazz. It doesn't do high gain rock sounds very well though.

4. D'Addario EXL110(010, .013, .017, .026, .036, .046) Nothing I've tried sounds a good or plays as well.

5. Eric Clapton, Jimmy Page, Frank Zappa, Albert King, Buddy Guy

[Mr_Clifford]

1. Of the guitars you own, which one(s) are your favorite to play and why?

My Fender Strat (I know, boring!), because it's the sound I was searching for.

2. Of the guitars you do not own, which one(s) do you covet and why?

Fender Telecaster Custom Shop 1952 re-issue. It's hard to believe that Leo Fender got the Electric guitar so right, right from the first model. Imagine if he'd been in software development!!!

3. What are your preferred pre's, heads, cabinets and cables-- and style of music?

Vox AC30 & Fender Deluxe '65 Reverb Amp.
Cables - something of good quality that's not ridiculously expensive.

4. Strings!! Gauge? Brand? Frequency you change them?

Fender Super Bullets 10-46 for the strat. DiAddario's (10-46) for all my other guitars. Change 'em when they break or rust (or before an important gig). Normally about once a month.

5. Name your top five favorite guitarists or bassists of all time.

Brian May, Mark Knopfler, Steve Vai, Andy Taylor, Eddie Van Halen.

[reekguitar]

1) Strat made by Blade Guitars / Santa Cruz OM PreWar
2) Gretsch 6120 for its specific tonal charachter
3) Fender Deluxe reverb Silver 1974, blackface modded for recording. Jazz, Country, Blues, Rock
4) D'addario Nickel EXL110 10-46 (great tone & tuning)
5) Michael Landau / Wes Montgomery / Chet Atkins / Stevie Ray

[Matcher]

1. Ibanez RG 3120 TW (customized) It looks like nothing else (I've drilled holes in it for example) and it plays incredibly well. The tremolo is great too and the sound is there.

2. Vigier Excalibur. I've read great things about it, and the new Ibanez JEM, because it has cool lights 'n stuff

3. All modelling amps, they're so versatile. I play everything, and probably in every way too.

4. DR. The best there are. 09- 42. Three weeks average, depends how much abuse they get.

5: Bumblefoot, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Robert Fripp, Joe Satriani.

Hope this helps

[vier-personen]

well, you said "bassists too"

so:

1. 1976 gibson "the ripper" 4-string.

plays very, very easily and is very versatile, it has a lot of tones.

2. new gibson basses - they don‘t sound and play as nice as my feel my ripper; I have a warwick 5-string and I don‘t like this instrument (sound, feel)

3. I chose the eden wt-55o - tube pre/solid state powersection, 3 semi-parametric mids (!), small, powerfull.
cabs: 2x acme low b1 - 3 way system, huge bass in this one 10'. I actually enjoyed to listen to vivaldi on this system (it‘s mono though)!

4. I play DR low rider 5string set (minus the g-string) in a electronica/metal band, and I play thomastik-infeld jazz-strings (flatwounds) in a klezmer band.
I don‘t change strings too often (depends on the gig, see above), but my main instrument is double bass anyway.

5. impossible, because I don‘t have a top five list of all time - there is always someone else to like.

[magicd]

1. I don't like this question! I have 20+ guitars and basses and they all have a job. Ok, I'll pick:
Godin for studio work. Tele for nasty rock. Gretch for tone. Martin for folkie stuff.

2. Gibson Firebird, any old BC Rich, old Fender Jazz Bass - cause they're cool and I don't have one yet!

3. Line 6 AX212. Carvin Bel Aire 50 watt. I only play through 2 X12" open back cabs. Style? Keef rules.

4. D'addario cheapies (love the three pack). 10s on the bottom. I very rarely break strings (wood and graphite bridges are great!). They usually rust before they break. I can't afford to keep 20 guitars strung all at once so I'll put new strings on a guitar as I need it for a session or gig.

5. Jeff Beck, Jerry Garcia, Segovia, Paul McCartney, Frank Zappa

[Dwetmaster]

I have two custom-made bass guitars made here in MTL Canada. One fretted and one fretless. My fretted is equipped with Ken Smith Pickup/Preamp which I believe to be the best tone IMHO.

I also like my friend's 1970's Fender Jazz bass. It was made in the same production line as Marcus Miller's. It has a Killer slap tone.

Elixir are my strings of choice. They're expensive but they sound good AND THEY LAST LONG.

On the Amp side, I'm a SWR guy. I own a Mo'Bass


I also use an EDEN2X10XLT and 15Inches wooofer.

I have a boss GT-6B for all my preamp and FX needs.

Last but not least, I have an Ashdown Preamp for all my vintage round sound needs.



I'm mostly a Jazz-Gospel Player so my Top player are:

James Jamerson, We all own him a whole lot!!!
Alain Caron, A Jazz-Fusion Great from Quebec, Canada which I got most of my Technique from.
John Patitucci another technique great influence.
Reggie Young & Maurice Fitzgerald My top Gospel guys.
Rhonda Smith Nice blend of groove, R&B stufff I like it.

Of Course there's all the Victor, Marcus, Stanley And Jaco stuff but what more can besaid on these Cats?

[Frodo]

Awwww. This is good stuff! REALLY good stuff.

I nearly shorted out my laptop from drooling on it.

(btw--- life sized pics. Nice! Almost scary.)

I hope the Man of Steele will chime in as well as a few other guitarists and bassists I know who've probably not even seen this thread.

Keep it coming!! I'm loving the snot out of this already!

[jarok]

1. Schecter fretless bass, M.V. Pedulla Signature Series bass ( five string ), Saumer contrabass.
2. Fender jazz bass.
3. Trace Elliot combo (4X10).
4. GHS medium light. I Change strings when ever necessary.
5. James Jamerson, Jaco Pastorius, Niels-Henning Ørsted Pedersen

[James Steele]

1. My USA Custom Dean V. The feel is amazing for me. Great neck... great action.

2. I don't really currently covet another guitar. Maybe a Dean USA Razor V. If you threw a late 50s gold top Les Paul at me though, I wouldn't complain. Sweet tone.

3. My preferred pre is the one built into my 1979 Marshall 100watt head. My preference is Marshall amps with the 6550 power tubes. Cabs: Marshall 4x12 with Vintage 30s. Cables: good ones. Sennheiser wireless for live shows.

4. Ernie Ball .10s. Change them as needed.

5. Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Brian May, Alex Lifeson, Ritchie Blackmore.

[Kind Of Loud]

1. Fender "EC Signature" Stratocaster.

2. What I want, and what I can afford will never meet.

3. Marshall DSL / 1959SLP RI 100 watters.
Marshall 4X12 wVintage 30's
PodXT Pro

4. Ernie Ball .52-.11. Change'em when they get dull sounding.

5. Jimi Hendrix, Robin Trower, SRV, Ritchie Blackmore, Eric Clapton.
( whole bunch of others too. )

[OldTimey]

1. Martin Backpacker...I just have the most fun when im playing it...

2. Pre-CBS Fender Strat, 1960 les paul classic, Jose Ramirez 4E or any cedar-topped spanish of that caliber...

3. I really like the mesa boogie dual rectifier, 2x12 cab sounds good to me. I dont have one, but some day! I do think amps sound better decoupled from the floor though. On a stand, or chair even.

4. ernie ball nines for gigging, tens for recording. Generally I prefer the sound of tens...but nines are easier to play and you can bend them all the way to saturn...Change them every 3 weeks or so, unless i have a big recording session, then I put fresh strings on the guitar no later than 24 hours before the session.

5. In no particular order: Doug Martsch, Jonny Greenwood, Pat Metheny, Andres Segovia, and mccartney/lennon/harrison

[Kind Of Loud]

Man...!!!
Have we got some dudes here with some
AWESOME gear.!!!

What a jam this could be...!!!
How 'bout something in "E"...???

[chrispick]

1. Late 80s/Early 90s Schecter PT. Built in California. Not the mediocre, nu-metal axes they manufacture overseas today; mine's based on the original Pete Townshend spec. Big hunk of wood. Switchable-coil pick-ups. Very versatile. For acoustic, I really love my Gibson Songwriter.

2. Whew, there are a bunch. Rickenbacker 600-series 12-string, Fender Jazzmaster, pre-CBS Fender Precision bass, old P-90 Gibson Melody Maker (don't even know the year - 50s?), a resonator of some sort, a pedal steel... the list goes on.

3. Still searching for the right amp. These days, I'm leaning toward low-watt, simple-wired tube amps through medium-sized speakers (8" - 10"). Cables? Whatever doesn't short out easily. Generally, I like to mic tube amps with SM57s and MD421s into "quick sounding" transformer preamps. These days, that's an A-Designs Pacifica for me.

Style of music? Man, again, so many.. 60s-inspired jangly pop; CBGBs new wave; alt-country-experimental-Wilco-style stuff; 70s funk a la Parliament/early Stevie Wonder vibe (and even some disco if Niles Rodgers was involved); blues of all variety; Django Reinhardt-inspired stuff -- I could go on for paragraphs.

4. 10-gauge almost all the time, except my Gretsch Historic has 11s on now. I bounce around brands. Not too picky there.

5. Can't do five; sorry. The quick inspiration list: David Gilmore, Elliot Easton, SRV, Adrian Belew, Hendrix, Nels Cline, Marc Ribot, Django, Andy Summers, Mark Knopfler, Ry Cooder, Dave Gregory.