Stratocaster vs. Telecaster

yeah it's kind of annoying

lots of $500-600 guitars going for over a grand now

I just always loved the look of Marauders

lots of $500-600 guitars going for over a grand now

― Blues Guitar Solo Heatmap (Free Download) (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, May 27, 2021 4:11 PM (four minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

i've always dug the squier venus and those have shot up to $1200 after sitting in the 600-700 range for years.

If it was a 2 humbucker one, you might be onto something but some of them have those weird active pickups too. Those and the tele pickup ones sound pretty dull to me.

The Norlins that are cool as heck to me are RDs. Those are expensive as hades now though.

Back in when I was Scarface level gearwhore I had a weirdo '72 SG custom at one point which had really oddball thin and narrow neck. Sounded ok, but it was weird to play. Long gone now.

I do still have an odd 'sg' '74 SB-450 bass which is pretty Norlin funky with a Fender scale length, made of maple. At some point probably in the late 70s someone put a Badass bridge on it. It's got some neck dive but it sounds grungy as heck. I record it through my 50 watt '68 Bassman head, it sounds pretty much Mel Schacter fart of doom tone wise. Bridge pickup is screwed up, not much signal at all, but when you mix with the neck pickup it kinda thin/cancels it out a bit and it has a great grind sound.

This is that bass through a Tech 21 xxl bass distortion into a Ampeg preamp. Probably my favorite recorded bass tone so far...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DA3GPftNgM4

that is a good heavy tone

xpost - the other thing that annoys the shit out of me is prices on "lawsuit" guitars...like the whole fuckin point of it was hey you can get something approximating a 70s fender or gibson for a lot cheaper and if get a little work done and some upgraded parts it's pretty close

what is the point if they cost a lot?

I made some money on a couple of those Ibanez LP copies, which really were not "copies" as mine were both bolt on necks. They looked cool but they were not all that.

Those ESP/Edwards LP copies are pretty nice, in someways better than say a comparably priced Les Paul Studio etc. Tokai's are a bit more hit and miss, the newer ones are about like any late model Epiphone. Only Orville I ever got to play was a Firebird copy and it was nice one.

Its harder to find people to play music and make it happen than get instruments. I find them fun to look at but I'm kinda out of my whoring around phase. I would much rather be able to play in a band on a regular basis again.

They are all cool, but if you are not making music with them, it's just a stamp collection.

Edwards makes a nice looking ES-335 Dot, but they started climbing too much even before the pandemic. Wish I’d gotten one when they were $800 or even less.

made a more general thread
Guitars... what you've got / what you want

lots of $500-600 guitars going for over a grand now

hahaha

guitar is 90% mental, the other half is physical

Hijacking this thread, as a non-musician, to ask a question about a guitar sound that's always seemed very distinctive and adorable to me.

I associate it most with songs like Pale Blue Eyes and Candy Says from the Velvet Underground's third, but here are a couple of others:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UvvcWGs9BtA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2--qEsswbYE

Is that a particular kind of guitar?

To be clear, it's not the acoustic bit at the start of the Cate Le Bon I'm talking about; it's the liquid-toned electric guitar that comes in at 34 seconds.

That sound exists as much in the effects and processing than the type of guitar IMO.

It will be _easier_ to get to that tone with a single-coil guitar and a clean amplifier. You'd be a lot of the way there with a Stratocaster in the middle positions, because you'll have the requisite hollowness.

You would want light reverb and maybe something like a touch of vibrato or chorus for the liquidity. Room mics. But overall it's what you _don't_ do to get to that sound. You don't want a lot of low end and you don't want distortion.

I could get something like that with a Strat on the neck pickup / position 2 or 3, using a Fender amp like a Deluxe Reverb. I'm told VU down-tuned but I don't think it's necessary.

There are pictures of Lou playing a Gretsch around that time, I’d say it’s that on PBE.

A lot of that sound would be the amp, probably a smaller amp (e.g. Princeton) with treble rolled off and mids ("presence") pushed up a bit. Agree that a Strat or Tele neck pickup would give you the right kind of starting point.

Thanks all. This is all very interesting to me as a guitar no-nothing.

Err, know-nothing.

It was a shock to me, when I tried out a tube amp after a long time with just shitty solid state practice amps, that the amp is half the instrument. Makes sense in retrospect, but if your amp is crap, literally everything will sound bad through it. But a nice sounding little amp will make music from nearly any guitar.

I recall an interview with Pete Towshend's longtime guitar tech Alan Rogan who said that before any tour/gig, Pete chose which amps he was going to use first and then matched the guitar to the amp.

like everyone who started playing in the 90s i learned on a cheap solid state practice amp, and i remember getting some fender solid state that was loud enough for gigs and knowing in my heart that this was not the tone that would make anyone fall in love with playing electric guitar. i'm very attuned to the high frequencies and the highs on a solid state amp are so brittle and spiky and bad. i spent a bunch of my high school job cash on a fender prosonic and i remember plugging into it for the first time, and even strumming it clean and at low volume i was thinking oh yeah this makes a lot more sense.

Ugh, I was actually just thinking recently about my early years playing on a solid state amp (lower end fender, not terrible but not great) and how much I disliked the sound of my electric but couldn't understand why. I'm sure the 90s digital multi-fx processor I was using didn't help much either. Glad it seems like nowadays there are many more reasonably priced, well made tube options. Finally playing through a tube amp was such a revelation for me, and even there it wasn't really the right tube amp (Fender hot rod deluxe when I was playing jazz) and it took me even longer to find out how good the tone could really sound with the right amp.

mattttt otm -- amp is AT LEAST half the instrument. Would rather play my chepo Johnson Solara through the Fender Princeton I have now than play a $3000 ES-335 through my old solid state amp.

Just one of many things that makes me a little jealous of young guitarists today - in the youtube era it's so easy to figure out how to sound the way you want to. When I was playing it was basically the knowledge of your guitar teacher plus maybe a couple of friends who barely knew more than you.

yeah we wasted so much money on garbage digital effects back then

I've learned so much just in the last couple years, from youtube videos, about how to get a better sound. I honestly don't even think I realized that amps had "sweet spots" I thought you just turned them louder or softer. I only had a vague idea how to get a good natural amp overdrive sound just from cranking (probably because I spent years with a hot rod deluxe that was too loud to crank and had a separate drive channel), and I had also never really tried the trick of turning the amp higher, guitar lower, and picking softer for tone.

also a golden age for affordable, lower-power tube amps. even 10-15 years ago pickings were pretty slim.

I've heard some modeling amps that sound pretty damn good but I'm still bothered by the concept somehow. It's like the impossible burger of amps - "we used all this hyper-advanced technology just to recreate something we already have." I mean yeah yeah, I get it, the whole save your back/save animals thing.

Amp-wise, I have had a bunch of Fender combos over the years but have decided that really all I need is a Blues Junior. If there's a venue I can't fill with it, I assume it will be mic'd anyway, so there is no point (for me) in anything bigger.

(Speaking purely for electric guitar, there.)

When I am doing the multi-instrumentalist thing, it's a different picture. Then, I like to go direct to PA or use a keyboard amp, which will amplify anything. Electric guitar goes through a Sansamp Blonde; mandolins and basses and electronic drums and acoustic guitars go through a Para Driver.

save animals?
I’ll give a small shoutout to my Vox Pathfinder 15R which actually sounds as good as a small tube amp. No modelling or anything digital, just good design and some LEDs for clipping.

(save animals = impossible burger)

Is the Pathfinder a hybrid? There was a vogue for hybrids in the Oughts - like a tube in the preamp stage with a solid-state power amp.

I have had a Fender Performer that was like that, and briefly a Vox Valvetronic with the same deal.

Nope, it’s all solid state. No idea how it’s done. It does have an actual spring reverb tank which is pretty tiny.

My Pathfinder 10 has been holding it down for me for about a decade. The clean channel has kinda died in the past year or so. Can't seem to get much volume out of it unless I've got the overdrive engaged, which is a little disappointing.

I have a little Fender Champion with an upgraded tube and speaker, pretty good for a little low-watt amp. super simple though, just one switch and volume which may be a dealbreaker for some

The one I got recently is the Princeton Reverb 68 Custom "reissue" (it's not really a reissue because it's modded, but it's a silverface style princeton). I like it a lot, but so far more for a "dirty clean" sound -- I haven't found the best way to overdrive it yet. Part of that is because I need to keep the volume down most of the time.

I have a Plumes and a Maxon Tube OD, just need to spend more time messing with the settings.

Pathfinder 15R is great, they made a mini “stack” version that’s hard as hell to find but I want one.

Sade from LA Witch had an Instagram video playing Vox’s Mini Superbeetle (nutube + solid state) and it sounded pretty good.

Dirt is so personal and subjective.

Clean is universal and forever, though.

Lots of the time I feel like I can do anything I want by using a clean amp, but getting the dirty and weird sounds from pedals. YMMV

Getting dirt through dynamics is exciting though, like when you’re trying to light a fire and you’re not sure if it’s gonna take. I also think the top 5-10% of the clean zone is the sweet spot, everything gets a bit of hair and sounds much more alive.
btw I think Feist’s usual stage rig is two Pathfinder 15Rs.

Worth noting that Jason Pierce played a H+H solid-state amp throughout Spacemen 3 and early Spiritualized tours. It's the one with the glowing knobs.

There are some people who are really into solid-state and hybrid MusicMans. Also loads of people who like the Roland JC 120. A friend of mine keeps wanting to sell me his, but it's simply too big and heavy for me. If I see a good deal on a JC 90 I would be sorely tempted.

so, as you know, that dude with the Cabronita Squier flaked on me, but been looking around and found an even more oddball Squier Tele...always wanted to try out B and G benders (love if anyone has experience) and for this price why not?

https://reverb.com/item/40860058-squier-classic-vibe-50s-telecaster-w-b-and-g-benders

I just cleaned up my '93 Strat plus and I'm thinking I'll sell it. It's in pretty great condition other than a few dings on the neck. Advice on unloading this thing? I'd like to replace it with another electric... should I go to a shop and look for a trade in?

You’d probably do better listing it locally for cash but sometimes shops will surprise you.

I traded a Mexican strat recently and was able to negotiate a bit more, they said they were having trouble keeping stocked with standbye models during covid

if youre not in a hurry, try selling on offerup and craigslist first. local shop 2nd. reverb 3rd.

on reverb, looks like 93s are selling from 1200 to 1700, depending on condition

ums, I have also had really good luck with Mexi Fenders holding their value.

Like, if I lose my job or need a new kidney or something I know I can sell a coupla guitars

on reverb, looks like 93s are selling from 1200 to 1700, depending on condition

dang i think my parents paid like $400 for this back in the day

Yeah the American standard tele that I bought for like $350 in 1997 is now selling for four times as much. I had no idea.

I'm really conflicted the more I fix up this '93 strat plus. It's sounding really good. Still don't love the action and I haven't had much luck fixing it myself so I'm thinking I'll get someone to set it up. It has a warmth that I don't get from my Gretsch.