hi guys, I'm new.
ok, now that we're all friends, I need to ask one of those "which guitar should I buy?" questions.
but I hope to be detailed and to-the-point so that maybe we can get some genuine feedback.
quick background
I've been playing guitar since I was in high school, before I started driving. now I'm about to finish college. my parents had got me some basic lessons at a big local music store when I was 15. after the first year though, I became bored with the "lesson" aspect of it and the scales and the music reading. I already knew how to read music, having played both the trumpet and violin during elementary and middle school, and doing scales felt like a chore.
admittedly, at this age I had not yet really explored the depth of my musical curiosity. I just wanted to learn how to play that AC/DC song and be in a Punk band, you know how it is, middle-class suburban white kid.
so these days, I'm studying political science. god knows what I'll do with it.
but as much as I've learned about myself in an academic sense during my time in college, I've learned so much more about my interest in music.
in my last 2 years at college, I've studied more music than academics, just taking in all the sound I missed out on when I was younger and didn't know what REAL music was. this has yielded a few C's and D's on papers, something that never happens to me. this being testament to my newfound interest in music.
the meat
currently I own 3 acoustic guitars, 2 of which are acoustic-electric.
one is a Mitchell, one is a Gibson, and one is a thin-body Martin.
now the only electric guitar I own is one of those cheap Fenders from a beginner's Strat Pack, crappy amp included. it did the job when I only wanted to play pop rock and wasn't concerned with quality. but now I wanna' get serious.
I've been listening to so much rock and roll, but trying to find its roots. this has led me to the likes of Buddy Guy, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, Junior Kimbrough, Chris Thomas King, etc.
it's that raw sound, electric blues thrown on top of soggy delta riffs. it's like garage rock drenched in blues, but it's driving and powerful, it's got feeling.
that sound is now stuck in my head, and I'm tired of merely listening to it. I want to create it.
* I need an electric guitar that is durable (it's gonna' get beat on), sustainable (holds its tuning, keeps its sound) and is versatile (for different styles of rock).
* I need an electric guitar with overdrive capability and a vibrato tailpipe (tremolo arm, wammy bar).
* I need an amp which compliments this loud, "electric blues" style sound. the type of sound I'm going for is represented pretty well in these videos:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lT23teO8sNY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOkWCJilkwo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWvG9L1jqq0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luwp5iZD8wQ
* the amp does not have to include a wide range of effects or distortions, but it's always a welcome feature. my current amp only has gain, which doesn't really count as a feature lol...
and that's where I'm starting for now.
I also really love the sound of the slide, and so I'm hoping to find a good metal/glass bottleneck of some kind to wear on my pinky or ring. if anyone could recommend good accessories like this, it would also be greatly appreciated, anything that compliments that blues sound.
at this point I'm just hoping to get the guitar and amp, and worry about separate effect and distortion components in the future.
so I'd really appreciate any advice I can get. aside from hanging out in my local Guitar Center, I'm not sure where else to ask such for such advice. and please let me know if I can answer any question that would make this easier.
Thanks!
Easy to Play, Hard to Feel
bah, I knew I would forget something obvious.
my budget!
for both the guitar and amp, I can't spend much more than a thousand dollars right now.
I'd have to get each for about less than a grand. preferably less, the ideal being around 800.
Easy to Play, Hard to Feel
what a nice journey you have had so far. the best part is where it has led you to appreciate those vintage blues sounds.
that is exactly where my ears go these days. I love the sound of those early Sun records musician.
there are many guitars and pickups and pedals that will get you that sound.
I love the sound of my tele through an old amp with a bit of breakup.
my strat has more powerful pups and I can get that feel with that too.
the gear they had back then was simple. they sure had a lot of tone in the fingers and attitude.
get a tele with a P90.
thinking more about this....those old blues guys didn't have much money. they played any guitar that was at hand. most were probably not very good. I think part of the sound comes from that too.
get a tele with a P90.
... into a Fender type of tube amp (e.g., Pro Junior or Blues Jr.), maybe with a Tubescreamer type of overdrive pedal for more grit.
"Everybody got to elevate from the norm."
There are medicines that help with voices in the head. Might help with sounds in the head, too.
"A cheerful heart is good medicine."
for early blues, forget the tubescreamer, you just want a tube amp, run a lot clearner than you think (unless you got Clapton's Bluesbreaker sound in your head, in which case a Marshall JTM45 cranked plus LP-style axe will do nicely).
Guitars - Muddy played Teles, stock. Hubert Sumlin (Howlin' Wolf's axeman) played a mix of stuff....think h favoured LP-style tho. And Buddy Guy played strats from early on. For T-Bone Walker, you want a jazzbox, and for Otis Rush a semi, like a Gibson 335 or similar.
(Scrybe takes a moment to reread this post and realise why she has so many guitars yet still plans further acquisitions...)
For Bukka White, Rev Gary Davis, and a bunch of other early country blues players, you want a resonator (and so do I.....), but Robert Johnson, Lightning Hopkins, Sonny Terry/Brownie McGhee, Howlin Wolf himself, and a whole heap of other guys played acoustics, mainly Gibsons (iirc).
So, for early blues, you're gonna have to narrow the sound down even further than that. Any of the above can get you there. For amplification, real tubes run clean is the way to go.
good post, scrybe.
I have a 1958 amp.a Gibson. it has the original 10 inch Jensen. I love this amp's sound. it's period.
it is dry and tight. when I crank it up I get a very warm breakup that is increased with my attack.
I don't relly need to add a tubescreamer to this amp. it kind over mushes up the natural tone.
with my Fender amp, a Vibrolux, my tubescreamer works great for a dirtier blues sound.
a little gos a long way when messing with dials on an overdrive pedal. one tends to crank it all up.
look for sweet spots.
depends on the kind of blues you want to play. a simple rig can be quite versatile.
guitar, pedal, amp, slide, harp, and stomp board.
more guitars is always good.
First, my rambling thoughts on Fender Amps.
I'm much less experienced than dogbite, Scrybe and 'Slej, but I do echo any of the Fender sentiment. As far as flexibility is concerned, my Fender Blues Deluxe Reissue is the bomb, Alas, it's a touch high dollar nowadays. I bet you can find a used one. What a great clean tone though, and will take the Tube Screamer Turbo I have really well. It also takes my Boss OS 2 pedal for doing Metallica type stuff. The on board gain is OK. A little muddy for me, but does do a decent lead. I understand from others that it needs to get cranked up a ton in order for the pure tube saturation to kick in. I doubt I'll ever find out first hand. It will also take a multi-effects unit nicely.
'Slej and I both have a Fender Super Champ XD. Tube clean tone and some digital voicings thrown into the mix. One of the new Hybrid amps. I bought mine when it first came out. No mid frequency control, and stinky speaker. Tin-can like. I replaced the speaker and it sounds much fuller. Some other people have gotten them and had no need to change the speaker. I got mine when it first came out a couple years back. Probably an off bunch of speakers.
The last link you posted had a related link of R L Burnside. One of the old blues guys, but I don't think he got much national noteriety until 10 years before his death about 5 years back. Him and the dude playing with him have some of that great saturated tone too. This is my favorite of his. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GgsC1WlAzWE&feature=channel Poor recording quality, but not as bad as some I've seen.
My thoughts on guitars for your journey (also, keep in mind limited experience):
I love my Epiphone LPs. I also have a Gretsch Electromatic 5120, a couple of cheaper Teles (MIM and Squire with USA pickups in it), a strat style bridge on a PRS SE and a few others. Some guitars just simply work better than other guitars for varieties of music. I sometimes play musical guitars to find and feel what I'm looking for. Sometimes it works. sometimes I find out that my biggest, cheapest pile of garbage guitar does the trick. I bought it new for $100 and put in cheap P-90s. I think I have about $180 into it. Came without a tone knob and had some jangly pickups that did nothing for me. two P-90s and one tone knob later, and a set up of course, and this cheap sucker will send out some tone that'll melt a glacier. Clean enough to do rhythm with grit, and loud enough to match humbuckers.
Although my own experience with a Strat was negative, it was a MIM (fwiw), lots and lots of people with far more talent than me use them and love them. Mine gave way to my bottom of the line PRS with HBs. Never gelled. I guess that's part of the task. Finding one that you can gel with. Or in my case, find 8-10 that you can gel with. :roll: :roll:
Roy
"I wonder if a composer ever intentionally composed a piece that was physically impossible to play and stuck it away to be found years later after his death, knowing it would forever drive perfectionist musicians crazy." - George Carlin
from the whammy bar comment and the rest in general, it sounds like you want a strat. i'd check out g&l legacies before i'd go after fender, as they tend to be made better and i like the sound better. g&l was leo fender's company after he sold fender to columbia. it's a smaller company and their resale doesn't hold up quite as well, so you can pick up a really nice used one for well under a grand.
MIM Strat (Made in Mexico) and a low end tube amp might fit your budget and give you what you need.
"Work hard, rock hard, eat hard, sleep hard,
grow big, wear glasses if you need 'em."
-- The Webb Wilder Credo --
g&l also has their 'tribute' line which stacks up pricewise with mim fenders, and have a better rep.
as for amps, some of the fender amps recommended are good. i have a peavey classic 30 with a swapped out (cannabis rex) speaker, and i would recommend it with a speaker swap-out. i don't like what i heard from a stock speaker. the cleans probably aren't quite as good as fender, but the gain channel is nice, and fenders don't generally have great drive channels, although you can always get overdrive/dist from a pedal.
it took me some shopping, but i ended up paying about 900 combined for my c30 and g&l legacy.
wow, great feedback so far.
this is the kind of information I've been looking for.
also, I've decided to forgo the requirement of a wammy bar, or any sort of vibrator tailpipe.
namely, the more I play around with them, the more I realize that the effect is of far less importance than the tone I'm going for. if I had a bar, I'd probably be using it more as a gimmick than anything, and not as a serious part of my style.
plus the more I learn about them, it seems they cause most guitars to have issues with staying in tune or holding proper tone. this seems to apply to guitars that cost less than a thousand dollars. and I'd rather not mess around with locking tuners.
lots of great suggestions on amps.
one of the amps I've been looking at now is the Vox AC4TV, retro style tube.
http://www.guitarcenter.com/Vox-AC4TV-4W-1x10-Tube-Guitar-Combo-Amp-871050-i1446380.gc
among others, of course.
including some pedals like the Boss OS-2 overdrive/distort.
as for guitars, I've really been enjoying the look and feel of the Telecaster.
Easy to Play, Hard to Feel
