Electric Guitar

Soldato
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Hi

I would like to get a new guitar soon , been playing for years all be it a bit rusty:o

I own a electric guitar and a acoustic electric as well as a Bass.

My electric guitar was my first so was fairly basic , it is a Peavey Predator.

Now I would like to spend some money on a good one , but not having played the electric for a while apart from my acoustic so I'm not sure what to be looking at apart from the obvious Fender,Gibson and so on.

I have a budget of £1000 and could stretch to £1400 , seen Ibanez on a lot of sights are they any good or should I just get a Gibson Les paul or a Fender telecaster ?

cheers
 
Soldato
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The problem is, its a very personal decision. You need to think very carefully about what sort of music you want to play, if its metal, then it would be pointless really to get a Telecaster, if you want that classic rock you might want to see what Gibson can do. If you want something fairly versatile, then maybe a Strat or a HSS Strat. Some of the Made in Mexico Strats are pretty damned good now, so try not to be drawn in by the Made in America ones, when the differences are only marginal.

I will advise this though, don't spend money for spending monies sake. Just because you have a budget of £1400, doesn't mean that the perfect guitar for you will cost that, you might find the guitar of dreams for less than half that.

Think carefully about what would go with your amp too.

Sorry I couldn't help further, but its horses for courses.
 
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Soldato
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The problem is, its a very personal decision. You need to think very carefully about what sort of music you want to play, if its metal, then it would be pointless really to get a Telecaster, if you want that classic rock you might want to see what Gibson can do. If you want something fairly versatile, then maybe a Strat or a HSS Strat. Some of the Made in Mexico Strats are pretty damned good now, so try not to be drawn in by the Made in America ones, when the differences are only marginal.

I will advise this though, don't spend money for spending monies sake. Just because you have a budget of £1400, doesn't mean that the perfect guitar for you will cost that, you might find the guitar of dreams for less than half that.

Think carefully about what would go with your amp too.

Sorry I couldn't help further, but its horses for courses.

thanks , I understand what you mean:).

Although this is expensive I have found a guitar what I may check out some time-

Ibanez RG3550MZ ?
 
Soldato
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What sort of amp/cabinet will you be using?

Don't spend anywhere near that much without a competent setup :)

something I need to get , only have a amp that suits my bass more.

Also like the Gibson Les Paul Traditional.

In way of music I like all sorts , and a lot of classic stuff.
 
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Associate
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What kind of music do you like? You can take inspiration from whatever bands you like. My favourite bands use Les Pauls, so I got one and now I am ripping it up like a boss!

Go to GuitarGuitar in Epsom and try out some guitars, they have loads there that you can play in a sound booth with one of their amps. You can get decent Gibson/Epiphone Les Pauls there for way under £1000. You can also try asking on the UltimateGuitar forums since those guys on there know their shiznizz.
 
Associate
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You live in London - just go down Denmark Street and try a few out. Try a Strat, a single-cut (e.g. Les Paul) and maybe a big oi' semi-hollow, like an ES-335. That will give you a variety of configurations, show you single coil vs. humbucker and generally give you an idea.

Once you've made your decision, tell them you'll think about it, then go buy one off the net. Denmark Street have a good selection but will royally rip you off. Overheads, right?

If you don't mind splashing the cash, Dimple will be here shortly to tell you to buy a James Taylor Variax which is all guitars in one. He's not wrong either - it's a matter of choice.
 
Soldato
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Now I would like to spend some money on a good one , but not having played the electric for a while apart from my acoustic so I'm not sure what to be looking at apart from the obvious Fender,Gibson and so on.

I have a budget of £1000 and could stretch to £1400 , seen Ibanez on a lot of sights are they any good or should I just get a Gibson Les paul or a Fender telecaster ?

cheers

Get yourself down to a shop and try a bunch of them out. Someone mentioned Denmark Street, that's a good place to try - Andy's Guitar Shop have done me well over the years and found a good selection there.

Fender and Gibson aren't really 'obvious' as there are so many variants around and to be honest you can get a good guitar for that money but I'd do my research before just buying any guitar as not every guitar suits every player.

There are some great 'boutique' guitars out there as well which are every bit as good (or better) as the more well known names and don't have to be as costly. Other brands to look at would be PRS, Duesenberg, Gretsch, Epiphone, Yamaha or any that catch your eye in your budget.

Also, you can have the best guitar in the world but it can sound terrible if you have a rubbish amp.

Better to spend the money on a nice amp and get your existing electric to sound better and go for a nice electric further down the line.

I have a Les Paul Custom and a US hardtail Strat and don't play either as I only use my 2nd hand Duesenberg CC - ££££ of guitar sat in their cases against a £500 2nd hand ebay job, go figure!! Just meets my needs better and doesn't break my back after a 2hr set.

Also a good guitar doesn't make anyone a better player ;)
 
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Soldato
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Yeah, don't set your heart on any guitar in particular when you don't particularly know what you are after.

To add to the list of guitars to try out, try some of the PRS SE range for that sort of money. Good quality guitars and they look great too.
 
Man of Honour
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Look at the James Tyler Line 6 guitars and I guarantee you will not be disappointed.
Last year I traded my Gibson Les Paul Standard, Yamaha SG2000 and 69 Fender Stratocaster in to buy two James Tyler JTV59's and they are the best guitars I've had in 42 years of gigging.
Very soon I'm hoping to purchase the Dream Rig which means I will have any famous guitar sound I want, any effects pedal I want, any valve amp sound I want played in any tuning I want.
 
Associate
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Look at the James Tyler Line 6 guitars and I guarantee you will not be disappointed.
Last year I traded my Gibson Les Paul Standard, Yamaha SG2000 and 69 Fender Stratocaster in to buy two James Tyler JTV59's and they are the best guitars I've had in 42 years of gigging.
Very soon I'm hoping to purchase the Dream Rig which means I will have any famous guitar sound I want, any effects pedal I want, any valve amp sound I want played in any tuning I want.

Is the guitar sound any better than plugging a regular guitar into one of their PODs? Does the guitar need batteries? Am I right in thinking they have just stuck one of their POD units inside the guitar?
 
Man of Honour
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Is the guitar sound any better than plugging a regular guitar into one of their PODs? Does the guitar need batteries? Am I right in thinking they have just stuck one of their POD units inside the guitar?

Just off gigging now so quick reply.

The guitar does not contain a POD, what the guitar contains is improved electronics from the Variax guitars which contain 37 of the worlds greatest guitar sounds.
Also at the flick of a knob you can be in any tuning you want so for example I tune to E but on stage we play in Eb so it's just a matter of turning the knob to that preset.
While my other guitarist then tunes to drop D (or Db in our case) I just turn my knob (ooh err) again.
I'm also setup for open E to play some slide.
The guitar sounds are very authentic and I love seeing the audience faces when I strum a Martin acoustic sound.

The HD500 I talked about earlier is the Daddy of the Pod's and the DT25 is a valve amp that can be any combination of Class A, Class B. Class A/B, triode, diode and pentode.
All those individual Classes and 'odes' make an amp what it is so basically I can be playing into a real Vox AC30 and at the flick of a switch I can be playing through a Fender Twin.

Go on You Tube and look for Line 6 Dream Rig and be blown away.
Now I'm 54 I've stopped worrying about having 'named' products.
 
Associate
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Just off gigging now so quick reply.

The guitar does not contain a POD, what the guitar contains is improved electronics from the Variax guitars which contain 37 of the worlds greatest guitar sounds.
Also at the flick of a knob you can be in any tuning you want so for example I tune to E but on stage we play in Eb so it's just a matter of turning the knob to that preset.
While my other guitarist then tunes to drop D (or Db in our case) I just turn my knob (ooh err) again.
I'm also setup for open E to play some slide.
The guitar sounds are very authentic and I love seeing the audience faces when I strum a Martin acoustic sound.

The HD500 I talked about earlier is the Daddy of the Pod's and the DT25 is a valve amp that can be any combination of Class A, Class B. Class A/B, triode, diode and pentode.
All those individual Classes and 'odes' make an amp what it is so basically I can be playing into a real Vox AC30 and at the flick of a switch I can be playing through a Fender Twin.

Go on You Tube and look for Line 6 Dream Rig and be blown away.
Now I'm 54 I've stopped worrying about having 'named' products.

I see, cheers, I went and did some more research on it and people seem to be loving it. I remember you told me about it a few months ago, but I think I'd just gotten my Epi so I was just learning to play. Does the jtv-59 allow you to do custom tunings using the Workbench software? I see it does D G C F A D, but I need C G C F A D and A G C F A D.

Edit: Just read up on it and like I thought, the tuning is relative to the actual tuning, so if I tune the low E to D, then do 1 step down it will be CGCFAD, and if I tune it to B then a step down will be AGCFAD.
 
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Soldato
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Dont spend 1400 on a brand new std gibson of any sort - they really aren't great until you get to the high end stuff which is crazily priced. I say this as the owner of a signature SG which I do love but the new bottom end stuff is a far cry from value for money imo.

You really need to go and play everything you like first, I love the les paul sound but dont like the thick heel so have never really had one for long - tokai made (Korean and japanese versions at least) really very good gibson replicas for a good bit less cash.

ESP as mentioned above make some really nice guitars for the cash, even the cheaper ltd (I think) versions are pretty good. Im also a fan of the good old telecaster but I prefer an f cut with humbuckers

The line 6stuff is pretty good too - I prefer having the real thing but its certainly worth checking one out
 
Man of Honour
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I see, cheers, I went and did some more research on it and people seem to be loving it. I remember you told me about it a few months ago, but I think I'd just gotten my Epi so I was just learning to play. Does the jtv-59 allow you to do custom tunings using the Workbench software? I see it does D G C F A D, but I need C G C F A D and A G C F A D.

Edit: Just read up on it and like I thought, the tuning is relative to the actual tuning, so if I tune the low E to D, then do 1 step down it will be CGCFAD, and if I tune it to B then a step down will be AGCFAD.

You could make a tuning straight in C, you can make any tuning you want.
There is also a B preset .

On the guitar are 50 presets which is 10 turns of the knob x 5 sounds on the toggle switch.
If you wanted all of these sounds can be replaced by your own and put in any tuning you want.
For example you could turn it to Spank position 1 and have a simulation of James Hetfield's guitar (there are many presets in the community) tuned to C but you could switch the toggle to the next position and suddenly be in normal tuning for a guitar solo and then toggle switch back to C.

The guitar can also be used with it's normal pickups and the JTV-59 does sound like my old Les Paul.
There are now 5 guitar models in the range and if you're talking about tuning in C then I would look at the JTV-89 model (Thoman are doing it for £874 :eek:).
 
Associate
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You could make a tuning straight in C, you can make any tuning you want.
There is also a B preset .

On the guitar are 50 presets which is 10 turns of the knob x 5 sounds on the toggle switch.
If you wanted all of these sounds can be replaced by your own and put in any tuning you want.
For example you could turn it to Spank position 1 and have a simulation of James Hetfield's guitar (there are many presets in the community) tuned to C but you could switch the toggle to the next position and suddenly be in normal tuning for a guitar solo and then toggle switch back to C.

The guitar can also be used with it's normal pickups and the JTV-59 does sound like my old Les Paul.
There are now 5 guitar models in the range and if you're talking about tuning in C then I would look at the JTV-89 model (Thoman are doing it for £874 :eek:).
Ah sweet, that makes sense, you just tell the software how far to shift the pitch for that note. I watched the Andertons Dream Rig video and a premier guitar review and that thing looks amazing. I wish I had a house so I could get the amp too. I want to get the 59 Cherry Sunburst - guitarguitar have it for £975 with the rebate, and I could trade in my Epi there.

Any reason I should get the 89 over the 59? Not too keen on the look TBH, much prefer the LP shape.
 
Man of Honour
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Ah sweet, that makes sense, you just tell the software how far to shift the pitch for that note. I watched the Andertons Dream Rig video and a premier guitar review and that thing looks amazing. I wish I had a house so I could get the amp too. I want to get the 59 Cherry Sunburst - guitarguitar have it for £975 with the rebate, and I could trade in my Epi there.

Any reason I should get the 89 over the 59? Not too keen on the look TBH, much prefer the LP shape.

I had my twins from GuitarGuitar in Birmingham, I was lucky to get them and they cost £1100.
If you are going to the Brum shop ask Mikey about the bloke who ended up with two JTV-59s because he wasn't impressed he sold me the first one.

tyler twins.jpg


I suggested the 89 because you mentioned C tuning and it is aimed more at the shred/metaller.

The JTV-59 looks amazing and most of the audience think it's a Les Paul anyway.

dimplepose.jpg


You also said you had a £1400 budget, consider the HD500 effects unit also.
 
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