Which guitar should I buy?

[mikebailey92]

I'd get a PRS, they sound great, and they're really nice to play. They look great too.

[chuckduffy]

Originally Posted by beyondat

Aright, I am a bass player in search of a guitar to use for sample replay. I've asked around and I always get three different answers. " you need a tele ,a strat and a Les Paul!" I just need suggestions because I'm not gonna buy all three so which one is more versatile? Thanks

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Curious waht 'for sample replay means'

[Phizal]

A Strat with a 5 way switch pickup selector. You will have allot more variety of tonal and pickup sounds. Although, you will not get the sound of a Les Paul from a Strat. The body of a Les Paul allows the sound to resonate allot more. With the right setup, I've heard Tele's that sound great.

On another note, guitars started to lose their character and tone when manufactures started to dump tons of paint and gloss for retail value. In return it really dampened how the sustain and tone resonated through out the body. You can and may want to remove the paint under the bridge in time as you find your sound.

[DavieB]

I guess the question is what kind of guitar sounds do you like?

[beyondat]

Originally Posted by DavieB

I guess the question is what kind of guitar sounds do you like?

Well I want replay some old soul an probably some prog rock stuff. Plus anything in between. I have tons of guitar effects that I thought would allow me to get close to any guitar sound with a versatile guitar.

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[beyondat]

Originally Posted by chuckduffy

Curious waht 'for sample replay means'

basically I make beats that use a lot of samples. I would rather interpolate the samples as opposed to just looping /chopping them.
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[touch]

Originally Posted by beyondat

basically I make beats that use a lot of samples. I would rather interpolate the samples as opposed to just looping /chopping them.

I'm a guitar player and producer, and have been recreating samples and making my own loops for many years. I now have approx 25 different guitars to do it, and that's probably quite a few more than any sane person needs...

But...

If I had to pick one, I'd say my Strats get the most use. I'd guess-stimate that about 65% of what you're going to hear in old-soul songs is a single-coil Strat sound. The rest (especially prog rock, you mentioned) will be a humbucker (Les Paul-style) sound.

I think it's a little easier to coax a hard-rock sound out of a Strat than it is to get a LP to sound like a single coil. That's my vote.
good luck

[Whitecat]

If I could only have one, it would be a Tele with a set of excellent pickups... it seems to have the most versatile tone palette for some reason. The "no load delta tone control" circuit found on some modern Fender Teles is pretty excellent too, very useable for sound sculpting...

[touch]

There are also Strat-like guitars that will have a humbuckers in them. Check out some of those. You can dial up a mean lead-sound with a humbucker in the bridge position, and switch to the single coil positions for other sound.

Fat Strat:
Guitar Gallery | Sweetwater.com

Yamaha Pacifica:
Yamaha PAC212V Quilted Maple Top Electric Guitar Tobacco Brown Sunburst and more Solid Body Electric Guitars at GuitarCenter.com.

...pretty darn versatile.

[MIDIMobster]

Originally Posted by touch

There are also Strat-like guitars that will have a humbuckers in them. Check out some of those. You can dial up a mean lead-sound with a humbucker in the bridge position, and switch to the single coil positions for other sound.

Fat Strat:
Guitar Gallery | Sweetwater.com

Yamaha Pacifica:
Yamaha PAC212V Quilted Maple Top Electric Guitar Tobacco Brown Sunburst and more Solid Body Electric Guitars at GuitarCenter.com.

...pretty darn versatile.

I was going to suggest a strat w/ humbucker as well
It really is the best combo if he wants to do soul and prog

[beyondat]

Okay now I'm understanding guitars a little better now. Les Paul sounds are more robust like a pbass and a strat would be sort of like a jazz bass cuz of the single coils? So a guitar with both sound like a good compromise. Are these referred to a" fat strats" only? , just wanted to know for when I do my Ebay search. Thanks again all.

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[touch]

Have a look at the pickups in the Fat Strat pictures. That is what you are looking for (a humbucker next to the bridge, and two single coils in the middle and neck position). There are dozens of companies that make guitars with a similar pickup configuration...Yamaha, Ibanez, etc... and they all have different names for them. So, no...they all go by different names.

On a side note (you mentioned ebay). I strongly suggest putting your hands on an instrument, rather than shopping online. You never know exactly what you're getting with ebay instruments, as every guitar has a different neck and feel. Maybe try craigslist and put your hands on some guitars locally to get an idea of what feels good to you and suits your playing style.
best of luck

[G. Kaye]

Originally Posted by Phizal

A Strat with a 5 way switch pickup selector. You will have allot more variety of tonal and pickup sounds. Although, you will not get the sound of a Les Paul from a Strat.

yeah, a MIM strat is the most versatile, best bang for your buck in terms of the various styles you can play with it. You can also get an HSS strat, which has 1 humbucker in it, 2 single coil strat pickups. While it wont sound like a les paul, it will sound like a humbucker which is part of that sound, and probably close enough for sample recreations. I'd go with an HSS strat.

[G. Kaye]

Originally Posted by beyondat

Okay now I'm understanding guitars a little better now. Les Paul sounds are more robust like a pbass and a strat would be sort of like a jazz bass cuz of the single coils?

Thats a pretty good analogy, I like my les paul as a solo instrument, but I always find its a bit too fat to fit well with other instruments, like it stands out too much when I just want it to blend in. The strat is thinner, but a good kind of thinner, as it sits perfectly in almost in any mix with no effort.

Fat is good sometimes, but everything cant be fat. I prefer my bass to be the fat sound, and guitar a little thinner.

[beyondat]

Originally Posted by touch

Have a look at the pickups in the Fat Strat pictures. That is what you are looking for (a humbucker next to the bridge, and two single coils in the middle and neck position). There are dozens of companies that make guitars with a similar pickup configuration...Yamaha, Ibanez, etc... and they all have different names for them. So, no...they all go by different names.

On a side note (you mentioned ebay). I strongly suggest putting your hands on an instrument, rather than shopping online. You never know exactly what you're getting with ebay instruments, as every guitar has a different neck and feel. Maybe try craigslist and put your hands on some guitars locally to get an idea of what feels good to you and suits your playing style.
best of luck

Thanks for steering me in this direction, I had no idea.

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[beyondat]

Originally Posted by G. Kaye

yeah, a MIM strat is the most versatile, best bang for your buck in terms of the various styles you can play with it. You can also get an HSS strat, which has 1 humbucker in it, 2 single coil strat pickups. While it wont sound like a les paul, it will sound like a humbucker which is part of that sound, and probably close enough for sample recreations. I'd go with an HSS strat.

Being that i'm not a guitarist and i've wasted to much money on bass guitars already, will going for something cheaper than a mim like a squire sound horrible? Or could I just swap the pickups and call it a day?

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[touch]

The country it was made in will make a difference in the quality of the build (especially with modern Fenders). Most of the real cheap Squiers you'll find in KMart/Walmart come from China, Indonesia, India. I would avoid those.

Try and find a guitar in your price range from one of these countries (in order of quality):
USA
Japan
Mexico
Korea

[G. Kaye]

Originally Posted by beyondat

Being that i'm not a guitarist and i've wasted to much money on bass guitars already, will going for something cheaper than a mim like a squire sound horrible? Or could I just swap the pickups and call it a day?

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Squiers are good, and upgrading the pickups on those will make a big difference. Problem is you almost need to change the pickups on squiers to get a good sound. How much do you have to spend?

If you go with a Squier for $150 and plan to upgrade the pickups, by the time your done, you;ll probably spent $250-300 anyways. Might as well just go with a mim to begin with, if you can. Its a better made guitar all around, and the stock pickups sound great as is and dont need to be changed like the squiers do to get a good sound.

Used MIM's are really not that much more than Squiers, you can probably find one for $250. When you said you wasted money on bass's, sounds like maybe you bought a bunch of cheap ones and none sound good. I've done that too in the past. Best to go with 1 quality guitar that you'll be happy with for a long time, instead of buying a quantity of lesser ones. Even if you have to wait a little longer to save up. Just my 2 cents

[touch]

Ah...

just noticed you did specify 'mim' = Made in Mexico. Yes, those can be good. But I will reiterate that they are hit-and-miss. About half of them might have crappy necks, frets or feel. Try them out first and see what feels good in your hands.

rock on!

[G. Kaye]

^agreed. Always best to try before you buy with guitars.

If you must order online, I'd go through guitar center, as they are a lot more reputable than some dude on ebay, plus you get a 30 day return policy. And you can have them do a set up on your guitar before shipping to make sure everything is good on it and plays/sounds good.

[Tnevz]

What's your budget? A Mexican strat is probably your best value tbh.
I've played quite a few Mexican strats that played and sounded just as good as the Americans, and their like half the price. The rosewood fingerboards (brown in color, usually glued to a maple neck which is a whitewood) are generally less expensive and more common on all guitars now, but personally I like ebony and maple.

Personally I'm a fan of ESP guitars, the emg's humbucker pickups are pretty low noise and work great for going direct into your interface/converters. And they're not crazy expensive.
Les Paul's are great but the big difference between that and a strat is going to be the shape of the neck and the strat has 3 single coil pickups. While a Paul has two humbuckers.

The single coils can be really noisy unless they are at position 2 or 4.

The strat has a flat and lil wider neck, the Paul and tele both have thick necks that aren't as wide, (width difference is like millimeters though).
Also the strat has tremolo bar, so do some tele's, generally a bit more expensive though. Paul's generally don't have tremolo bars.

I'd recommend playing the guitar before buying it. BUT I've bought 4 guitars off eBay, got great deals, and only had to get the action set up or replace a switch. I may just be lucky though.

If your going to be tracking DI I would recommend emg pickups. But pickups can b replaced and they make single coil humbuckers now as well.

Also you'll get a thicker better sound quicker if you go into an amp and mic it up. But unless you now what your doing here and have the right equipment it can be a huge headache but a learning experience as well, And probably no more of a headache than working completely itb.

Good luck.

[Dayl]

all excellent responses here, so I cant add too much more.

Dont bother getting a run of the mill squire... even if you add new pups... its like polishing a turd.. you will never be happy. If any squire it would be the roadworn, Japan JV (which are up there in price) or the Korean Protones. There are always the Tokai's but this would start to be confusing the issues.

The MIM really are hit and miss, as are the Japan models both which have seemingly been dipped in thick poly but can still turn it up.

Bang for buck? hmm there are many options... strat is the best if you know how to coax the multitude of tonal options out of them.

Suggestion: try highway one strat with suhr fletcher landau pups or a humbucker in the bridge is good too.

[AbsoluteSpirit]

Fender MIM Baja Telecaster or even a Gibson nighthawk - both versatile, good sounding & playable guitars...

[DavieB]

Go to a music shop and play them all, pick the one you like the best

[prophet]

get a 60s Style Strat (alder body), with Humbucker in bridge position. imho, that's the most versatile guitar in existence. You will be able to cover almost any area where an electric guitar is needed reasonably well.
I have worked as a professional guitarist for about 15 years, and that's the guitar I use most. And if I could only have one guitar, it would certainly be a 60s Strat with a humbucker (also the main guitar for Michael Landau).

[beyondat]

What do you guys think about the ESP Ltd st203fr?

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