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(@wes-inman)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5582
Topic starter  

Wes, I'm realy glad you have managed to get the tone you have been searching for. As for me I am trying to get my Strat to sound like John Mayers as it does on the track "Gravity" found on the CD "Continuum". You can hear it here http://www.johnmayer.com/

Man that is such a sweet tone.
Aparently his signature strat has special "big dipper" pickups and I'm pretty sure he plays through a Bluesbreaker amp, so I don't really hold out much hope of getting it exactly right but somewhere near would be nice !

Congrats on your latest aquasition,

Rod

Rod, you have to pick up any clues you get. I did notice that his pickup switch was in either middle/neck or neck in all the photos I saw, so try that. Maybe roll off the highs a little too. That was great tone. :D

OK, I give up!! I finally caught on that the quest for tone is endless, a black hole, a money pit. I no sooner get most of the stuff that you advise and then you go and get NEW STUFF. Sounds cool enjoy!!!
Robbie

Robbie, the problem with tone is there are so many great tones. This is probably why modeling amps are so popular. You can pick a famous tone by a famous artist at the push of a footswitch.

I dunno, over the years I've tried to decide what tone I really like most. I really have always liked that Marshall crunch of the early 70s. I always loved the big power chords of bands like Bad Company especially. They were one of my favorite bands because of their sound. I love the intro to Can't Get Enough of Your Love for example. Just big, long sustained power chords with overdrive, but not mushy or overly distorted. It had clarity and bite. Man, to me that is the best tone ever. You've got to hear the strings. It should sound like a guitar always, not some sort of synthesizer.

But that's my personal opinion only. :D

But I can't be bothered with 20 different tones. I just want a powerful sound for rhythm, and a good Blues type tone for solos. That is enough for me. I still appreciate other tones, I love Fender clean, I especially love Surf music with super clean guitar and lots of reverb. But 90% of the time I'm going with the Marshall tone.
:twisted:

Vanzant38, yes I have played this SG and Guvnur pedal through the EVJ head. The guitar sounds great through the amp all by itself. This SG really has a great clean tone. The Guvnur will give you the Marshall tone, maybe a tad darker than through my Fender or even Marshall amp. But it has the crunch.

John (Celt), yeah I remember your SG. I was too busy to try it that night, but later at GC I tried one through a Crate Palamino (sp??) tube amp. Excellent sounding amp by the way. But I loved how it sounded clean or with slight overdrive, I was sold on the spot.

By the way, would you consider a trade of your SG? I have a beautiful Fender American Tele I might make a deal with you on. :wink:

If so, send me a PM.

Wes

If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis


   
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(@the-dali)
Noble Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 1409
 

Good times Wes. I have the same SG and it is a great guitar - especially for the money. Well built, and I love the fretboard.

Enjoy!

-=- Steve

"If the moon were made of ribs, would you eat it?"


   
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 Celt
(@celt)
Famed Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 2649
 

Hey Wes,

By the way, would you consider a trade of your SG? I have a beautiful Fender American Tele I might make a deal with you on.

Thanks for the offer but I've become pretty attached to the SG.

Maybe we should plan on some kind of SG duet for Riverside Jam
in August.

John

My SoundClick Page

Collaborations

" It's easier than waiting around to die" Townes Van Zandt


   
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 jimh
(@jimh)
Estimable Member
Joined: 17 years ago
Posts: 144
 

Great. I just bought a new guitar, and now I'm jonesin for a Gibson SG. Thanks, Wes!

Music is the universal language.


   
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(@jtb226)
Estimable Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 106
 

Wes, I'm realy glad you have managed to get the tone you have been searching for. As for me I am trying to get my Strat to sound like John Mayers as it does on the track "Gravity" found on the CD "Continuum". You can hear it here http://www.johnmayer.com/

Man that is such a sweet tone.
Aparently his signature strat has special "big dipper" pickups and I'm pretty sure he plays through a Bluesbreaker amp, so I don't really hold out much hope of getting it exactly right but somewhere near would be nice !

Congrats on your latest aquasition,

Rod :wink:

pretty sure john played that through either a dumble amp or a two-rock amp. those are his go-to's from what i understand of his rig for the "continuum" album. i have to agree though, his tone is incredible.

Wes, i have to say i'm really jealous. i've had my eye on an SG for a while, but just haven't had the money, as i've been beefing up my amp rig to play out live. hopefully once we start playing out and i make some money i can get one. :) congrats!

"Heavy decibels are playing on my guitar
We got vibrations comin' up from the floor
We're just listenin' to the rock
That's givin' too much noise....
Rock and roll ain't noise pollution"
~AC/DC


   
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(@wes-inman)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5582
Topic starter  

Wow, thanks for all the responses, this SG looks to be very popular with everyone here. :D

I had been considering this SG for many months. My younger brother owned an SG when we were teens, so I am familiar with them. I always loved the playability of the guitar especially. Unfortunately, he took it on vacation and the airline threw it off the plane and snapped the headstock off. They paid for repairs, but it was never quite the same after that. Then a little later a friend (so-called) stole the guitar. We heard from others who took it, but could never prove it. But ever since then I've wanted an SG of my own. When I saw the low sale price I went for it. I am very happy with this guitar. I love the super light weight and the easy playability, especially up high. The neck is slightly narrow and I find I can wrap my thumb over the top of the neck to fret the 6th string fairly easy. But the thing I really love is the tone. This guitar just has a tone that I enjoy. It is not twangy like my Fenders, and not as dark as my LP. It is just right for me. My bandmates have all remarked that they like the tone of this guitar too.

And the Guvnor pedal is great. It is amazing how it can make my Fender amp sound just like a Marshall. Only a real tone snob would be able to tell the difference.

I'm still gettin' lots of overtime, I may get another Faded SG, maybe the red one. :twisted:

If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis


   
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(@rocker)
Noble Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 1128
 

i'm proud of you wes ol'buddy, sg's are awesome, ive bought so much stuff latley, i made a deal with the o'lady , i get to spend my income tax return every year on gear and thats it,
so i'm going to have to wait untill next year but that will be an sg 8)

even god loves rock-n-roll


   
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(@wes-inman)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5582
Topic starter  

Hey Rocker, haven't said hi to you lately. :D

This Faded SG Standard has different pickups from the SG Standard. Mine has the 490R and 490T pickups, the Standard has the 490R at the neck and the 498T at the bridge. The 498T is the same pickup as my LP Studio. I think this pickup might be a little hotter with more output than the 490T.

By the way, the only difference between the R and T models is the distance between the poles on the pickup. The R is spaced for the string seperation at the neck, the T is spaced for the proper string seperation at the bridge. Otherwise they are identical.

But I am very happy with these pickups. This 490R at the neck is probably the first neck pickup I have truly liked. It has a very warm, but crisp tone. Most neck pickups sound muddy to me, I rarely use a neck pickup because of this. But this pickup has nice bite and even has a pretty good crunch with distortion (not as good as the bridge though). I like the 490T at the bridge, I think it is brighter than the 498T on my LP. It can be a little harsh and piercing, I cut the highs on my EQ pedal a little. But I think many would like this very bright tone as is. I like it to be a little rounded off.

So for me, I think I would probably like this Faded SG even better than the more expensive SG Standard. I wish the 498T was just a little brighter sounding. But that's me.

I would also like to listen to the SG with the P-90 pickups. I think that is next on my list. :D

If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis


   
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(@rocker)
Noble Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 1128
 

hey wes,

everyone knows i'm a big fan of dimarzzio pick ups, i changed all 3 in my epi lp
it cost 425 bucks, but this guitar sounds better than a lot of gibsons that i have played,
i wouldn't do that to a gibson lp, we all know theres a big difference in epi pups and gibson pups, i think gibson makes a 500t bridge pup you might want to check out, but that sg
is a great ax as is 8)

even god loves rock-n-roll


   
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(@wes-inman)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5582
Topic starter  

Rocker

I like DiMarzio's too, I have an old DiMarzio humbucker in my Strat (single coil size) bridge position, just a great sounding pickup. I prefer DiMarzio over Seymour Duncans but that's me. :D

I like the pickups in this SG. I do not like super-hot pickups myself. Many of your great guitar tones (Hendrix, Van Halen, etc...) were actually played with fairly low output pickups. High output pickups distort too easily for me, it is hard to get good clean tones. And they distort too much with overdrive or distortion for me. I like distortion where you can hear the individual strings. I am not a big fan of hyper-distortion. It lacks clarity and bite, just sounds like a big hum. So I am going to keep these stock pickups, I like them very much.

If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis


   
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(@the-dali)
Noble Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 1409
 

Wes, I changed my SG pups to the 498/490 because I wanted chrome covers... I couldn't find any covers that fit the 490's well, so I just got a set of 498/490. I love them. The original 490's were decent, but I wanted the chrome look against the pickguard.

Anyway, glad to hear you are enjoying the guitar. I think they are the best bargain on the market right now (especially since the Highway 1 Fender's are over $700 now).

steve

-=- Steve

"If the moon were made of ribs, would you eat it?"


   
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 ss43
(@ss43)
Trusted Member
Joined: 18 years ago
Posts: 63
 

Hey if I get one can I sound like this?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=oIr8ZgjmoSw


   
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(@Anonymous)
New Member
Joined: 1 second ago
Posts: 0
 

Hey if I get one can I sound like this?

http://youtube.com/watch?v=oIr8ZgjmoSw

Not unless you practice really hard :P


   
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(@wes-inman)
Illustrious Member
Joined: 20 years ago
Posts: 5582
Topic starter  

The Dali Lima

I know what you mean about the chrome soapbar covers, I thought of doing the same thing. At first I didn't think I liked these exposed pickups, but they have grown on me.

The only negatives to this guitar is that about a week after I purchased it I noticed two frets (I believe the 15th and 17th) were not fully seated on the bass E string side of the fretboard. You can see the little cut slots, the tang for these two is not fully seated.

If you look very closely at this photo, the third fret from the right has this problem. You can see a tiny gap beneath the tang. This is not a photo of my guitar.

The only other problem (and it was not really a problem), is that the output of both pickups was very different. The neck pickup was much louder than the bridge pickup. I lowered the neck pickup quite low, and raised the bridge pickup quite high. I got them fairly balanced in volume like this. But looking closely I noticed the strings are angled over the pickups while the pickups sit level to the body. The poles on the neck are on the headstock side of the guitar, the poles on the bridge pickup are on the body side (toward the bridge) of the guitar. So even with the neck pickup low and the bridge pickup high, the strings were still much closer to the poles on the neck pickup. So I took a small screwdriver and raised the poles on the bridge pickup only. They were very firm, but they turn and raise or lower.

Anyway, took a while (but I enjoy this type of thing), but I got the volume and output of both pickups very balanced. I can switch the toggle from bridge to neck pickup with almost no noticeable difference in volume now. I like my pickups to be balanced like this. I also think the neck pickup sounded much better with the pickup lowered. I like a sort of crisp sound, most neck pickups sound a little muddy to me. But this pickup sounds great, it even has good crunch when used with overdrive or distortion. It still has the very warm, acoustic type tone.

So, I am really happy with this guitar now. I may get another. :D

If you know something better than Rock and Roll, I'd like to hear it - Jerry Lee Lewis


   
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