General Music Chat

It really depends on the type of music you are playing and the tone/sound you want. If you're in a loud band, or playing a small room, sometimes a hollow (or semi-) guitar will just feedback too much.
If you're playing fast, then extra light strings and a solid body are the way to go, heavier strings work well for semi-hollows.
There's no right-or-wrong. Play what you like! My Dot semi-hollow hasn't seen daylight in 2 years, my Tele is my go-to when recording. Just put new strings on it the other night, immediately had to do some recording with it!
My $26 Chinese Strat hasn't been played in 2 years, and the Epi LP Jr I use for slide work (because the action is high) never gets pulled out either.

I'm not a guitar player but I know what I like to hear in a guitar. I'm not sure what would be the best guitar. Many times I've heard different people play the same guitar in the studio with the exact same setting however, they sound completely different. For me if I was to buy a guitar I would think it would be a carbon fiber guitar for the simple reason, super light and no change in sound due to temperature change. Kind of like ever since Roland came out with the V drums. I scraped the acoustics sets and will never turn back.

So here's the deal at a gig

Vocal = same thing all night
Guitar=Different sounds for different songs
Bass= same thing all night
Acoustic drums= same thing all night
V drums= different sounds for different songs
Key board; different sounds for different songs

I never knew I even wanted a hollowbody guitar until recently, But now I can't afford one. Long term goal, though.

The reason?

https://youtu.be/PIklcYaALFo

I never knew I even wanted a hollowbody guitar until recently, But now I can't afford one. Long term goal, though.

The reason?

https://youtu.be/PIklcYaALFo

yeah...i checked that video and honestly.....he's got so much dirt and processing going on there that i believe he might as well be using ANY guitar and get a similar tone.

here's another video of a newer RI of that gtr...first clean, then w just a little bit of dirt where you get more of a feel of what that gtr is about and can do.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UHWvACz--Jo

looks like those reissues are going for 5K!!!! for a brand spanking new one? really? hey GIBSON....if i'm dropping 5K on a plywood gtr (and i AM a fan of laminated tops on certain gtrs)....can you PLEASE include a frigging BRIDGE w it!!!!

i never understood how those gtrs could possibly intonate correctly w that tailpiece/brdge assembly! sorry, but that looks likes something someone threw together in their garage from parts they had lying around!

you know there's no way that dealio is gonna intonate correctly for BOTH a wound AND an unwound G string. let alone any major changes in string gauge.

If you had to go to war and could only choose one guitar for a weapon which would you choose?





Give me a Strat, I want to survive.

it should come as no surprise that i'm a fan of big boy archtops. of course i love "thinlines" too. my "thinline" '66 Guild Starfire II is actually fully hollow and for a skinny HB....you wouldn't believe the acoustic volume that baby has! then to, w it's orig p/u's... it can do everything from nice fat jazz tone on the neck, to in your face treble on the brdg.

they used to wire up those gtrs w both p/u's out of phase when they're full on. pretty fair sized drop off in volume and not a tone you'd use on every song.... but it IS a pretty good scooped out tone for James Brown 9th chord stabs!

but that gtr does want to feedback...i've never really got how people use(d) that model in high volume R&R situations!

my "survival" gtr (and it's always either my "go to"...or my back up axe on every gtr gig) is my thinline tele that i put together from WARMOTH parts. it has a nice wide rosewood strat neck and RIO GRANDE p/u's.

it can do everything from from warm Jim Hall jazz tones to biting chicken picking. i keep flats on it and it's a gtr i can use to hammer nails with if i had to.... and, if i ever had to go all Keith Richards and lay out a crazed fan w my gtr....that's the one! see, w that gtr's med light weight...the guy WOULD wake up eventually. if i used my other (pretty heavy solid body) American Standard 50th Annvrsy TELE.....they'd be sleeping the big sleep!

gtr as real life weapon? same for that old '53/'54 Guild X150 i recently got. not only is it a biiiiig a$$ed gtr...that effer is HEAVY! and it's built like a tank. (albeit..a HOLLOWBODY tank!)

glad i don't HAVE to pick just one.....but yeah, my "swiss army knife" is definitely a Tele (preferrably a thin line)

I'm talking about his albums, not a video in the studio. Geordie Walker is my hero. Makes lead guitar into rhythm guitar and vice versa. Since he's been playing these, I've been really impressed with his tone.

https://youtu.be/VC9f0owia6E

https://youtu.be/LemzpnB-HWc

I'd say it's a me thing, not a you thing.

....I now have a new purchase, a Roland V drum kit! It is the first equipment purchase I have made in 10+ years but it was a deal I couldn't pass up and my son sold the last kit I had in my studio years ago.

congrats, jook. i bet you're having a blast w that....or you're gonna.... you take delivery on that yet? i've never been a fan of e-drums, though i do recognize their benefits of portability, volume control, and the different sounds/kits they have to offer. yeah, they've improved quite a bit over the yrs, but they're still galaxies away from offering up the dynamics and tones of acoustic drums.

(remember...i play a midi controller...a malletKAT and it's cool for what is. it IS nice to be able to play drum and percussion sounds w it....but like i said.......it ain't nothing like playing the actual acoustic instruments that the KAT offers similar metaphors for)

Enjoy, brutha! you deserve them.

in an interesting bit of synchronicity....we had our first 121's (trkstop band) practice at our new place. this is the first prct this band has had in the 3 1/2 yrs i've been doing the gig. and the first "electric band to prct at our new place. it was a most pleasant and efficient prct.

it was also the 1st time we've played together anywhere but the stage at the trkstop, so it was interesting seeing how everyone handles themself in "prct room mode". color me impressed.

so, the drummer mentions he's gonna bring his E drums and i had to explain......"sorry, there are two things we don't allow in our house....cigarette smoking and E-Drums!" in addition to E-drums he has like 4 or 5 nice acoustic kits too.

anyway...he brought by a beeeeeyootiful, silver sprkl set of SONOR Bops...and has LEFT THEM HERE for me to enjoy for awhile! YES!
unfortunately, the sucker had to take his damn cymbals w him for our upcoming gigs this wkend but he's gonna bring some others for me on Friday. it's been yrs since i've had a set of drums around the house and i'm digging 'em. and it's only gonna get better when i gets them cymbals!

The Tele is a very versatile guitar.

it really is for such a straight ahead design. it always surprises me when more people don't get that.

and tho there's a pretty good tradition of playing jazz on teles (ed bickert, ted greene, etc) ....it still surprises people when i show up at a jazz gig w my thinline, or you try to explain..."hell YES, you can jazz on a tele!"

Isn't the Tele scale the same as a Gibson? At least it feels that way to me.

nope. same 25 1/2" as a strat. it was a pretty big deal a few yrs back when Warmoth started making shorter Gibson scale tele and strat replacement necks that could be dropped in w/o having to move your brdg.

i believe Larry Carlton has a strat w a shorter replacement neck on it or perhaps it's on a gtr that was built for him.

to my knowledge FENDER has never made shorter (Gibby scale) Tele or Strat necks. they have messed w some longer scale ones for a Bajo ...what.....not Bajo Sexto....uh....hmmm, a Bajo Longo(?) tele thing.