Last night I played a load of guitars at my mates house!!!

riffpowers

As you might have seen, I'm after a new guitar. I have a friend who has a load of guitars and amps, so I piled round there for a night of testing yesterday.

Most of the testing was done on a 2 amp rig, my jcm800 2203 and his jcm800kk. Although we started off on the kk and jubilee. The jubilee is a great amp!! We had his 1959hw on for a bit too.

Here's my "review" of the notable ones.

Gibson SG Gothic - although I'm not a huge fan of SG's due to the playing position, I thought this one sounded the best. I think its a combination of that ebony fretboard and gibson 500t pickup.

Gibson flying V. . A really fun guitar to play, great for fast palm muted thrash stuff and a familiar sound and feel. I think this was a close 2nd to the SG gothic. I kept getting this one back out of its case!!

80's gordon smith GS1 - Nice simple, light, sounded great. Would make an excellent gigging guitar, Fantastic quality. Comapct, simple, not much to go wrong, solid, played and sounded great. Didn;t really grab me as an exciting guitar to play though.

Hagstrom double cutaway - This one looked great and had a familiar feel, I loved the smooth dark fretboard on it. Fun to play, but felt a bit cheap.

Gibson SG junior - nice light guitar with a chubby neck. Great for lower gain and edge of breakup type sounds.

Gibson explorer - This one really did have "that" sound. It effortlessy nailed the thrash/metal sound with literally no effort. Fast palm mutes too!! Nice neck and sounded great. I could not get used to the shape and playing position though, it felt really weird!!! Huge guitar with a tiny playing surface!!

Gretsch white falcon - Stunning and very flashy guitar to look at, Not as trebly as I was expecting, and a nice neck to play. The middle position is where "those" sounds are, but for mid breakup sounds I'd have chosen the SG junior over it. Big guitar to play and you can't see the fret markers through that gold flake!!! Sounded surprisingly good with a load of gain on too.

My conclusion?? I probably need to get a single cutaway guitar. My friend loves double cutaway guitars but I just can't quite get on with the playing position.

The flying V nearly had me converted, but I'm just not sure I can carry a guitar like that off!! Plus they're quite big!!

I think the combination of mahogany body and an ebony fretboard with hot pickups like the 500t's are where its at for me.

If I could find something single cutaway with that recipe I'd be set!!!




 

underdog

I'm sure you could find an LP studio with ebony board and add the pickups for not much money.

darthed1981

Do you like the weight of an SG?  Les Pauls can be terribly heavy.

I recently got an LTD EC-401 with EMGs from a fellow forumite and something like that might fit your bill very well?!

guitarfishbay

I really like the 500T, I have one in my Les Paul at the minute.

As noted they're not usually expensive to buy, often you can get the full set second hand for a decent price.

If you like the tone you should have a go on a US PRS Tremonti if you see one. His signature bridge pickup isn't a million miles off a 500T, and they play very nicely. 

Cirrus

riffpowers said:

Gibson explorer - This one really did have "that" sound. It effortlessy nailed the thrash/metal sound with literally no effort. Fast palm mutes too!! Nice neck and sounded great. I could not get used to the shape and playing position though, it felt really weird!!! Huge guitar with a tiny playing surface!!

Gretsch white falcon - ... Sounded surprisingly good with a load of gain on too.

Re; the Explorer, the body is big compared to the neck but once you get used to it I think they're incredibly comfortable guitars to use live. When I use mine my torso fits neatly into the inside corner at the top, like this;



Pictured here before I strangled the pickups. Incidentally, when I got it, it came with a 500t and 496r and I thought they were fine pickups - tight, and I really liked what I'd call the ceramic sizzle/grind up in the high mids. Only swapped them out because they were quite high output and a bit too raunchy for the way I play.

The only downside to the body shape is that fin far left - it's got so many knocks and scratches now from all the times I've bumped it into drum hardware, mic stands etc. On the other hand, they look so cool. For me an Explorer is a kind of Art Deco/ '50s american diner/ car culture style shape, rather than a metal pointy guitar thing.


Does the Gretsch have Filtertrons? I've been shocked at how good they sound when you lay on the gain.

axisus

I thought this thread was gonna be "and now we're moving in together"

Bridgehouse

Hier soir, ma femme vacuumait ma tete 

riffpowers

Cirrus said:

riffpowers said:

Gibson explorer - This one really did have "that" sound. It effortlessy nailed the thrash/metal sound with literally no effort. Fast palm mutes too!! Nice neck and sounded great. I could not get used to the shape and playing position though, it felt really weird!!! Huge guitar with a tiny playing surface!!

Gretsch white falcon - ... Sounded surprisingly good with a load of gain on too.

Re; the Explorer, the body is big compared to the neck but once you get used to it I think they're incredibly comfortable guitars to use live. When I use mine my torso fits neatly into the inside corner at the top, like this;



Pictured here before I strangled the pickups. Incidentally, when I got it, it came with a 500t and 496r and I thought they were fine pickups - tight, and I really liked what I'd call the ceramic sizzle/grind up in the high mids. Only swapped them out because they were quite high output and a bit too raunchy for the way I play.

The only downside to the body shape is that fin far left - it's got so many knocks and scratches now from all the times I've bumped it into drum hardware, mic stands etc. On the other hand, they look so cool. For me an Explorer is a kind of Art Deco/ '50s american diner/ car culture style shape, rather than a metal pointy guitar thing.


Does the Gretsch have Filtertrons? I've been shocked at how good they sound when you lay on the gain.

That slightly sideways thing you're doing on the pic is the best playing position for them I think.

riffpowers

axisus said:

I thought this thread was gonna be "and now we're moving in together"

No room!!! Too many marshall stacks and guitars!!

riffpowers

darthed1981 said:

Do you like the weight of an SG?  Les Pauls can be terribly heavy.

I recently got an LTD EC-401 with EMGs from a fellow forumite and something like that might fit your bill very well?!

I would like to get a lighter guitar than my les paul custom.
Theres a few ec1000's for sale near me but they're all EMG loaded.

DrCornelius

Bridgehouse said:

Hier soir, ma femme vacuumait ma tete 

Does that actually mean 'last night my wife vacuumed my head' or is my French as bad as my guitar playing ?

Bridgehouse

DrCornelius said:

Bridgehouse said:

Hier soir, ma femme vacuumait ma tete 

Does that actually mean 'last night my wife vacuumed my head' or is my French as bad as my guitar playing ?

Nope, your French is spot on.. bonus points for anyone that can name the band..

DrCornelius

Manhattan Transfer ? :-)   

Funkfingers

Bridgehouse

DrCornelius said:

Manhattan Transfer ? :-)   

Lol - nope

Bridgehouse

Funkfingers said:

Wis'd

Bridgehouse

Bridgehouse said:

Funkfingers said:

Wis'd

Actually, in that vid, probably from the late 80s or so, during the French chorus, I do like the subtitle that says "I blame the Common Market" - how very Brexit

Funkfingers

Part of me was hoping that the song was by The Blow Monkeys or B. J. Cole.

Bridgehouse

Funkfingers said:

Part of me was hoping that the song was by The Blow Monkeys or B. J. Cole.

Sadly just a blast from my youth...