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TheGopher posted:Picking up an Epiphone Standard Plus after work for $325 from some guy. A sub-$100 amp should be a crime to sell. You will be outgrowing that amp before you can even play your first chord. I am completely serious.
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Sep 1, 2010 02:16
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TheGopher posted:Seeing how I can already play guitar (lovely, but I can play), this makes me concerned. Sub-$100 aren't bad if the person buying it is an absolute beginner or likes to tell people they play guitar while smugly strumming an E chord every couple of years. You've made a good decision though. Buying an amp in a slightly higher cost bracket ($100~$200) is the best choice in the long run. You will be happier with the tones; it will take pedals better; you will have more experience in what to look for if you decide to upgrade the amp; and it will have a higher resale value if you decide to sell it. With a sub-$100 amp, you couldn't even give that poo poo away. The Roland Micro-Cube, the Vox DA5, and the Vox VT series amps are what I would recommend for the greatest range of quality tones and onboard effects in the $100~$200 price range.
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Sep 1, 2010 02:43
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TheGopher posted:After playing relatively aggressively all of a sudden the guitar cuts out. Amp is definitely working because I can hear the feedback plugging the cable in. I toggle the pickups and figure out the neck pickup (Rythym according to the toggle) just crapped out. It's probably just a bad connection. Check to see if any of the wires from the pickup and the toggle switch are broken or have become unsoldered, then it's just a simple case of resoldering the connection. If your guitar is an Epiphone: They are notorious for toggle switches that crap out after a couple of years, regardless of how it's been handled. If none of the connections are broken but the guitar still doesn't switch pickups then replace the toggle switch.
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Sep 12, 2010 16:25
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Tez posted:Im not new but not sure where else to ask this question. That is absolutely way overpriced; a brand new Mustang is only forty dollars more than that. $600 is a much more reasonable price for a used MIJ Mustang.
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Oct 14, 2010 04:25
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SSJ2 Goku Wilders posted:After going from D'Addario to Slinky strings on my Ibanez, my Floyd was no longer level. I had to take out a spring - it was still not level. So what I did was the following: I gave the screws that connect the whole spring system to the body a few turns outward, so that the tension on the springs would be lessened from one side. Then I tuned my guitar. My bridge is now perfectly level. Is that the right way to do it? Am I supposed to touch those screws? How far outward do they go? It's totally fine. A lot of pro-guitar players leave the back cover off of the guitar for quick access to the springs and claw screws if they need it. I don't remember how long the screws are, but they are made fairly long to suit nearly any adjustment.
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Oct 19, 2010 21:19
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Seventh Arrow posted:I have a Paul Reed Smith guitar and I want to set the intonation properly...chords sound ok near the nut, but start going out of tune further up the neck. With my basses, I just usually adjust the bridge saddles until a fretted note at the 12th fret is the same frequency as a harmonic at the 12th fret. However, this thing doesn't seem to have adjustable bridge saddles...I only seem to be able to move the (entire) bridge higher or lower. Here's some pics, unfortunately they're kind of blurry, but you can also see it at You use these two screws to set the intonation on a wrap around: 
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Oct 24, 2010 19:51
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crm posted:Is there a guide to the significance of the different shapes? Is there anything other than how they look (aside from hollow/semi-hollow)? Body shapes mean very little to the sound of the guitar, the pickups and the amp shape far more of your sound than what the body looks like. Albert King used a Flying V for his entire career as a blues guitarist and no one ever told him to get off the stage just because the guitar wasn't a traditional "blues guitar". King just loved the body shape and played the hell out of it. There are similar stories with bands like ZZ Top, who use metal-minded Dean guitars, or Eric Clapton, who used a Firebird and an SG. Lots of guitar players even take a body shape they like and then modify it to suit their needs; like a metal player who takes a Telecaster and puts EMGs in it or the country player that puts single coils in a Flying V. I guess what I'm trying to say is just to find a guitar you like the sound of and are comfortable playing, then play the gently caress out of it.
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Dec 29, 2010 00:06
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Koth posted:I'll probably make a thread on it to chronicle the build from the beginning, and also as a way of getting help from other people on the subject. I'm not sure which forum to do it on, though. SA doesn't seem to have a huge guitar following. I do like the Sevenstring.org forum though. Check out the TDPRI. It's a website totally devoted to all things telecaster and they have a very active guitar building subforum. The people that post build threads often have decades of guitar building experience under their belt and are extremely helpful to those who are just starting out.
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Jan 17, 2011 20:57
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Philthy posted:Is there anything to the worn Fender lines other than the aged look? They say the fretboards are aged and such. What does this mean for actual playabilty? I don't personally like the worn look, if I want wear, I'd like to do it myself, but I also don't want to discount something that I might not be aware of. My eyes are on an American Standard right now, but all these new lines have me scratching my head. The Road Worn series is really just a cosmetic thing. They have the exact same playability as anything else in their line-up, they are just made to look like they've been played for 50+ years.
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Jan 18, 2011 05:48
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Bill Posters posted:Wear on the neck can improve playability by making it smoother and more comfortable to play. The finish is Nitro and I've been lead to understand that the body wood undergoes some additional process to dry it out more than usual. These two things are supposed to contribute to an improved tone such as you might expect from a real vintage instrument. I guess it depends on how much you put stock into the finish and wood contributing to the 'tone' of the instrument. Just going by specs alone, the only differences between the Road Worn series and others of comparable price is the soft V profile of the neck, the specially developed vintage sounding pickups and (in the Tele's case), the vintage style wiring. Personally, I don't buy into the whole artificial aging thing, but they are great values for their price. American pickups and a carefully applied and worked finish; all for a really affordable price? Hell yes! Artificial aging? Eh, not so much.
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Jan 18, 2011 07:23
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A MIRACLE posted:if I have to replace the PU, any <$100 recommendations on the replacement? GFS make very good pickups for amazing prices.
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Jan 22, 2011 00:17
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Duck and burger posted:Those pickups may be dirt cheap, but "under 100 usd" still includes some professional or nearly professional level options. Sure it does, I was just listing some pickups that I know are good and under $100.
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Jan 23, 2011 02:49
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Manky posted:There should be a pretty big difference in quality of wood, hardware, and especially pickups between MIA Fender and any kind of Squier. Like I said, I'm not a huge fan of Fender, but there's a reason I have one of their deluxe jazz basses. The new series isn't MIA, they're made in Japan. A fender employee confirmed this. Personally, I don't really see the appeal of the Fender version of the '51. You could get the Squier, upgrade the pickups and hardware, and still be way under half of the Fender version. That Mustang looks drat sexy though.
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Apr 13, 2011 23:14
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CalvinDooglas posted:except the finish, wood, and switches. Squiers are covered with opaque, plastic-y stuff, and nice guitars are finished like a car, with several layers of lacquer and paint. Like I said, I don't personally see the appeal of them for the prices Fender is charging. They both use polyester finishes; lacquer (such as nitro) finishes are the ones that require much more attention. Switches I file under hardware and can be replaced. The only real difference is whether or not you really care if the body wood is poplar or not. But, that's just me.
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Apr 14, 2011 06:01
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crm posted:Do you guys play with "wide" neck guitar or what seems to be "normal" (42mm?) - is it simply personal preference or is there a good rule of thumb to work with? The width of the neck and it's thickness is entirely personal preference.
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May 4, 2011 02:44
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Warcabbit posted:Funny thing about the Strat being the default image of a electric is that it was a nigh-flop (so they say) before Jimi got his hands on it. This isn't very true. The Stratocaster has always been a huge success for Fender and was considered to be the sound of a generation in the '50's. It became so ubiquitous with rock and roll that musicians (like the Beatles) actively avoided them. It is true that during the CBS ownership of Fender, Strats did face a decline in quality and sales, but it was never removed from production and never considered to be a flop. Sorry for the 'spergin but I've been reading a lot on Fender's history so I felt the need to correct  .
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May 20, 2011 22:07
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crm posted:On this - what does the "1-Tone w/ Push/Pull to split coil of bridge humbucker" mean? It means that the tone knob can be pulled up to deactivate one of the coils on the humbucker so it becomes a single coil. It's not going to sound like a strat (because it wasn't built as a pure single coil), but it's a nice option to have if you like single coil bridge tones.
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Jan 18, 2012 23:41
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Senso posted:Most shops only carry Vietnamese guitars, which have weird necks like this: That's a scalloped neck. It's really weird to see it on what I assume is a production guitar as it's a pretty involved and expensive process. Basically, the scalloping allows you to fret a note without actually touching the fretboard so bends and really fast runs are easy to pull off once you get used to it. Yngwie Malmsteen is probably the most famous person to use a guitar with a fretboard like that.
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Jan 31, 2012 06:03
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Pretentious Turtle posted:Uh, it definitely should've had the grooves filed. Not always, some replacement bridges come like that so you can set the string spacing to your preference. It's also really easy to do it yourself. To create the grooves you'll just need some metal files that are the same width as the string, as well as some burr remover to make sure that there aren't any sharp bits that could break the string. StewMac sells some dedicated nut and saddle files, but you could probably find them way cheaper at Home Depot or Lowes or something.
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Feb 9, 2012 21:56
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^^^Oh, ok, yeah then the bridge should have had the grooves in it. I had just assumed he put the bridge in himself.blackshreds posted:Thanks alot! Im guessing at a HD or Lowes I would be searching for just plain "files" right? Pretty much, just look for thin flat files that have a cutting edge on the edge of the file as well as the sides. I bought some Husky brand files from Home Depot a couple years back when I started making my own nuts and saddles and they've lasted me a good long time.
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Feb 10, 2012 00:41
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appropriatemetaphor posted:http://www.amazon.com/Fender-Classi...&tag=acleint-20 The Classic player series Strat has nicer pickups, better hardware, and a v-shaped neck compared to the Standard. They're both made in mexico so the workmanship will be about on par with each other. The "wonky strings" you're referring to are the vintage-style tuners which aren't harder to change strings on; just different. Instead of just threading the string through the post you have to clip the end of the string first, put it in the tuner, then start tuning. It doesn't take that long to adjust to and any vintage strat is going to have them. It makes the headstock look a lot neater as you don't have the end of the string sticking out from the tuner.
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Apr 17, 2012 03:22
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keyframe posted:Yea it happens in all pickup positions. I have a ESP eclipse 2 Do you have active pickups? Maybe the battery just needs to be changed.
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Aug 20, 2012 16:57
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stickyfngrdboy posted:I haven't been to any music shops yet, the thought terrifies me (probably). I've had a little look online and I prefer the look of the telecaster to the stratocaster. Gibson's Les Paul is probably my favourite as far as looks go. I honestly wouldn't be able to tell them apart by sound alone, I have no idea how they differ that way. You should check out Vintage Guitars (Vintage is the brand name of the company, I'm not advocating getting a 1960's era strat or something like that). They are designed by Trev Wilkinson using his hardware and pickups, so they're going to be nicely built instruments with pretty good sounding pickups. As for body styles, I think what a lot of people fail to realize is that guitars are really versatile instruments regardless of manufacturer. You can pretty much play whatever you want on any guitar and have it sound decent (and in this age of pedals nearly everything can even sound great). What is really important is finding one that speaks to you and you enjoy the feel of. Albert King played blues on a Flying V in a genre dominated by conservative hollow-body instruments; Ted Nugent plays a Byrdland (a fully-hollow really short scale guitar) to play rock and country; Jeff Beck has (or had) a signature metal-oriented Jackson Soloist to play blues-rock; the list goes on and on. Don't lock yourself into a certain type of guitar just because you think it looks the most "metal" or "indie" or whatever, just play around with a whole bunch and find the one that puts a smile on your face whenever you pick it up.
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Sep 18, 2012 05:30
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Jeff Goldblum posted:Okay, the real reason why I felt I had to post. Dust and grime aside, LOOK AT THAT TUSQ. It's yellowed a LOT and its only been sitting in the case for a couple months. Not that I have a problem with it, it actually suits the rustic theme of the guitar. But, I feel like I'm going to have to figure out how to dress those frets or else replace them. Tusq nuts and bridges naturally yellow with age and can turn that color if left in sunlight for extended periods. It's completely fine and doesn't mean it's wearing out or anything. You're stuck with the dents so just think of them as just adding to the personality of your guitar. It could be a lot worse; Willie Nelson's guitar is basically held together by some kind of hippie magic and  
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Jan 17, 2013 01:23
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muike posted:The LPJs are supposed to be pretty good but they're not weight relieved and tend to be really heavy. I'd go with the '60s tribute, personally. Or a Tele. Or one of the Goldtop Studio Classics LPs or whatever they were that came with p90s or minihumbuckers. Where did you hear that LPJ's aren't weight relieved? Everything I've read says that they are.
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Mar 17, 2013 00:54
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Nigel Tufnel posted:I saw someone playing an amazing looking Gibson at an open mic last night but I can't find it anywhere. A company called "The Loar" makes one that is very nice and made to exact specs from instruments made by Gibson in the '40's and '50's. I've had the pleasure of trying out an acoustic archtop that they made and it was exquisite. Godin also makes one that is very nice to play, but it isn't made to exact specs like The Loar guitars are. They are called 5th Avenue Kingpins, I think.
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Apr 11, 2013 04:37
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jwh posted:What did they do, exactly, with the Johnny Marr jaguar? I have a '67 jaguar, and while I'll always love it, even I'd be the first to admit it's not exactly versatile or intuitive (tone circuit(s), bridge saddle design, to name a few things). The Johnny Marr Jag is actually pretty interesting. It has a four way blade-switch instead of the on-off toggle switches on the lower bout and the upper bout gets rid of the strangle switch for a switch that controls pickup brightness. The bridge is also a Mustang bridge, but that's a pretty common upgrade.
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May 15, 2013 06:04
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TopherCStone posted:Humbuckers don't respond well to angling This isn't entirely accurate. Angled humbuckers sound just fine, they just have a slightly different sound to them. Back before there were tremspaced and F-spaced humbuckers, the only way to align the poles with the wider spacing of Fender and Floyd Rose tremolo bridges, whether it meant only one pole lined up or not, was to angle the pickup. That's why Van Halen's Frankenstein guitars had them angled. There's a little more lows present as well due to the poles on the bass side being moved towards the neck.
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Jun 19, 2013 03:17
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jwh posted:It's interesting to me that Agile is making 10 pound solid mahogany guitars, something Gibson isn't even doing anymore. Where does this idea that Gibson no longer makes un-chambered guitars come from? They still make the Traditional series, which is solid un-chambered mahogany and is slightly cheaper than their Standard series.
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Aug 2, 2013 23:58
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jwh posted:This is from before they started painting the backs a dark brown for no reason. It's to give it a more vintage vibe, oddly enough. Gibson started painting the back and neck of their Les Pauls black/brown during the late 50's and they've re-issued the "dark backs" at various points.
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Oct 23, 2013 03:28
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nrr posted:Also, here's what got me when I was looking for my LP originally. I wasn't a big fan of either the fat 50's style neck, or the thin 60's style neck, but ended up falling in love with what I think is a combination of the two. At the time, the only LP I could find it on (that wasn't a $5k custom shop,) was a 2008 Standard. Looking on the Gibson website, they just call it an "Asymetrical neck," but looking at the details on the LPs on Sweetwater, some of them are listed as 60's Slim Tapered, some of them say Asymetrical 60's Slim Tapered. Is there a difference? Is the Asymetrical 60's Slim Tapered even the one I want, or is that just another name for the regular 60's slim neck? Asymmetrical necks aren't the same as regular necks. Basically the back of the neck is at an angle that is supposed to curve to your hand better than the standard 'C' shape. Here's a handy image: 
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Nov 23, 2013 06:22
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TopherCStone posted:New strings on SG, lowered the bridge a bit for action. Naturally the intonation is off. How on earth am I supposed to reach these screws with the strings on? You can slip a screwdriver at an angle between the strings pretty easily. You shouldn't really adjust the intonation while the strings are at tension as that could cause some wear on the string/bridge, so just loosen the string a little and go to town.
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Dec 4, 2013 02:30
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booshi posted:Thanks. You know I completely forgot about the laser cutter I have full access to. Though are SG backplates really that odd? I feel like they would be rather common. You probably weren't using the right search terms, every manufacturer seems to flip-flop on calling them 'cavity covers' or 'control covers' every couple of years. Here's one for an SG: Musicians Friend link Chip McFuck fucked around with this message at 05:21 on Jan 24, 2014 |
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Jan 24, 2014 05:16
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unlawfulsoup posted:Why would a company name their guitar dinky. D: It's called "Dinky" because the body is 7/8ths the size of a regular strat body.
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Jan 30, 2014 07:23
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unlawfulsoup posted:How hard is it to change the intonation on a CV50 Tele? I have been watching a few really lovely videos and a bunch of a vague internet posts, and it seems like a pain in the rear end. Right now my strings are really sitting high and it is starting to get on my nerves. I'm confused. Do you want to change the height of the strings, the intonation, or both? The intonation you adjust with the screws at the rear of the bridge, moving the saddle forward or backwards until the desired pitch is reached. The string height you adjust with the two screws on each saddle. The CV Tele's have a three saddle bridge instead of individual saddles for each string, right? Here's some images I made to help illustrate what I'm talking about : Intonation:  String Height:  Unfortunately with three saddle bridges you're never going to get perfect intonation since there is only one saddle for two strings.
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Feb 11, 2014 04:53
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Declan MacManus posted:Couldn't I theoretically just run the strings over the saddles on the wraparound instead of replacing the bridge? Yeah, that's totally fine. Gibson's been doing it that way since the early sixties on their juniors.
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Feb 14, 2014 06:33
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The square pickups really scream Teisco to me. During the height of the guitar boom of the 60's a bunch of guitars made by Teisco were re-branded by a bunch of importers looking to get in on the easy money.
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May 24, 2014 08:11
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Southern Heel posted:Are there any Les Paul years to AVOID if you're buying second hand? The new prices are out of this world for Standards and Customs, and frankly if I'm dropping that much cash on a Guitar it doesn't make sense to go for a Studio/Melody-Maker despite the fact they'll sound the same. Personally, I think a lot of what is said about certain years of guitars is mostly just hyperbole and confirmation bias. There are bad guitars made every year regardless of manufacturer and the only real way to figure out the good from the bad is to play them.
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Jun 8, 2014 02:17
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Dirt posted:What exactly is different about the old fender WRHB pickups from the newer reissue ones? The originals used rarer and more expensive magnet rods with a lot of winds; the reissues are basically just regular humbuckers fitted to the WRHB form factor.
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Oct 1, 2014 02:55
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Allen Wren posted:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fY-WAu_SqWs It's a Music Man Albert Lee model. Awesome guitars but wayyy expensive.
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Jan 7, 2015 18:57
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