Best guitar for function band

Onpar

I play in a function band which covers a variety of genres, think Chic, Elvis, ZZ Top, James Brown, Kings of Leon etc...

My  main guitar I use for the band is a USA Strat with a SD HotRails in the bridge. However, I prefer the playability of my Ibanzez RG, and the HotRails pickups sound pretty naff compared to a proper Humbucker on the rockier songs. But the cleans on the strat sound gorgeous.

So I want something that has the best of both worlds, preferably with single coil in the neck (with a stratty neck tone so maybe ash/alder body), full humbucker in the bridge, thinner sized neck, flat radius fret board, jumbo/tall frets, not a Floyd rose.

There doesn't seem to be anything out there that fits all of this criteria. The closest I can see is Ibanez PGM 80P, however this doesn't have the single coil in the neck so I am worried I won't get that neck pickup strat tone.

Budget is anything up to £2k. I would be happy to spend less but want it to be a decent quality - have had bad past experience with a low/mid end Charvell and the fret work was horrible!!.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated, and wondering if anyone else has the same predicament?

JayGee

I’m going to nominate the PRS Mira - not a neck single coil but it does have a very usable coil tap/split (I think it actually does the resistor in series with one coil thing to brighten up the tone and drop the output) effective on both pickups.

The covers band I play in goes from James Brown to Range Against The Machine via Kings of Leon, Stereophonics, and Black Sabbath and, while I generally take a couple of guitars out with me (partly as insurance, partly because I just like to have a choice...) I can quite happily cover the lot with my Mira...

not_the_dj

PRS DGT is always mentioned as being really versatile and with great coil tap/split sounds.

welshboyo

Musicman L3 (lukather model) in either HSS or HH  - I have the HH and the coil splits are wonderful.

Ibanez AT100 - Andy Timmons sig, mega versatile of you want to stay in Ibanez-mode

PRS  - I used to use an older CE24 with the 5 way Rotary and I could cover a whole gig with those sounds.

sgosden

I have no experience of the guitars (playing or cost) but have been drooling over some of @kempGuitars builds recently.

http://www.kempguitars.co.uk/guitar-portfolio.html

xKempGuitars

sgosden said:

I have no experience of the guitars (playing or cost) but have been drooling over some of @kempGuitars builds recently.

http://www.kempguitars.co.uk/guitar-portfolio.html

Have you entered the competition? You might get lucky and win yourself a Kemp custom build Entry details on the Facebook page - there's a link on the website. 

impmann

Why not try popping a single coil into the neck position of the RG?

I used to use a Tokai Strat in a function band - this was one of the "custom edition" jobs with twin buckers. I took the neck pickup out, and hung a strat pickup from the humbucker mounting holes. Then I used black tape to disguise the gaps - not perfect up close but on a stage it looked fine. Plus it gave me *that* Strat neck pickup sound, which is really useful for all sorts of function band material.

The only downside will be the Floyd, though...

drwiddly

Blade RH-4, Patrick Eggle Berlin or PRS as already mentioned.

BBBlues

Is changing guitar mid set not an option?

ESBlonde

A strat. Then use pedals to get the dirt and remember to use the tone control to thicken up the sound. In total context you are the only one that can hear when a humbucker is being used so don't worry about it.
These days I take several guitars to gigs but one of them is always my strat. If you're covering the stuff listed then the commercial sound of a strat is quite unique and useful to have as a basic sound, the rest is just gravy. The only thing I'd consider as an alternative single guitar would be a 'Nashville' tele with 3 Pickups, they tend to have a bit more grunt and still sort of cover the strat sounds. Single coils just work better with most FX too an dfattening it at the amp after is easy.

Winny_Pooh

Musicman silhouette 

Stevepage

modify the neck of the Strat and have humbuckers fitted?

darcym

musicman reflex will tick all your boxes if you can find one. Failing that I'd guess one of the other music mans would probably be closer to what you want

Marshall_stax

welshboyo said:

Musicman L3 (lukather model) in either HSS or HH  - I have the HH and the coil splits are wonderful.

Ibanez AT100 - Andy Timmons sig, mega versatile of you want to stay in Ibanez-mode

PRS  - I used to use an older CE24 with the 5 way Rotary and I could cover a whole gig with those sounds.

The MM L3 HSS is a good shout, should cover most of the bases. Overall though, the AT100 could be the very kiddie you're looking for. I've played a couple of these and they're incredibly versatile. The neck will be pretty close to the RG you're used to. Defiantly worth a look. 

mark123

jtv variax ?on special atm ,£329 at pmt ,save yourself ££££££s 

Jimbro66

PRS Brent Mason Signature is one of the most versatile guitars out there and will do all you want, but you have to like Maple fretboards.

slacker

buy a gigbag and stand that can cope with two guitars. 

vasselmeyer

PRS DGT. I play material from Chic through AC/DC with one guitar. Wonderful neck as well. 

RandallFlagg

HSS Strat or Ibanez Andy Timmons

JayGee

ESBlonde said:

A strat. Then use pedals to get the dirt and remember to use the tone control to thicken up the sound...

A Rothwell “Hot Little Knob”...

http://www.rothwellaudioproducts.co.uk/html/hot_little_knob.html

... is an easy, useful, visually non-intrusive way to add a fatter voice to a Strat (without losing any of the stock sounds) too.

guitarfishbay

Check the routing of your Strat, if it’s a USA Standard it probably has room for H/S/H so you could swap the pickups on it to a bridge humbucker pretty easily.

Warmoth will do necks to the spec you’re after as will other places. It’ll work out a lot cheaper than £2k.