Have you ever........

Dominic

Had a superb guitar that plays wonderfully and feels great but no matter what you do (pickups etc) you just can't get to sound right /how you want .....?
One of the best playing, nicest feeling guitars I ever had was a Knaggs but it had to go because it just always sounded thin and wiry.
Yours ?

Grunfeld

Hmmm... that's got me thinking. 

Not really, and the reason is that when I think of guitars I've sold on it has always been because they've felt wrong. 

When a guitar has felt great but sounded problematic I've been able to sort it out.  To be fair I've got two at the moment which I love to play but they don't sound fabulous yet I genuinely live in hope that I'll be able to sort them out, somehow, in due course. 

Dominic

I think that often there are guitars that you can sort sound wise ,don't dispute that but there are others that I have never been able to get right or even close.

Schnozz

G&L George Fullerton Signature, but it was a strat so also thin sounding - I'm still kicking myself about not buying a scratchplate that would allow for a humbucker, or humbuckers, but that's all resolved now.

ICBM

Dominic said:

Had a superb guitar that plays wonderfully and feels great but no matter what you do (pickups etc) you just can't get to sound right /how you want .....?
One of the best playing, nicest feeling guitars I ever had was a Knaggs but it had to go because it just always sounded thin and wiry.
Yours ?

Yes. One of the only guitars I've ever bought new - a reissue Rickenbacker 425, the little single-pickup one. I really wanted to love it, because it was one of the coolest-looking, nicest-playing guitars I've ever seen or played... but it sounded thin and honky no matter what I did. I tried three different Rickenbacker pickups, and even somehow managed to fit a Gibson P100 into the pickup casing, but nothing sounded good. I eventually tried putting a Bigsby on it to see if it would change the natural sound of it, but it didn't. I ended up selling it, but I still miss it. I did love it - just not plugged in .

Grunfeld

Dominic said:

I think that often there are guitars that you can sort sound wise ,don't dispute that but there are others that I have never been able to get right or even close.

Well, one of the guitars I'm still trying to get to sound right has been about 8 years now.  I've actually spent nearly the cost of the guitar again on it -- so maybe I should give up!  (But I've still got another thing to try...)

stickyfiddle

Grunfeld said:

Hmmm... that's got me thinking. 

Not really, and the reason is that when I think of guitars I've sold on it has always been because they've felt wrong. 

When a guitar has felt great but sounded problematic I've been able to sort it out.  To be fair I've got two at the moment which I love to play but they don't sound fabulous yet I genuinely live in hope that I'll be able to sort them out, somehow, in due course. 

I think I'm the same. I rarely dismiss something because of sound (or at least, not because of plugged-in sound, as long as its nice and vibrate-y when un-plugged.

But I've not bought plenty of amazing sounding guitars that haven't felt right. 

Dominic

Schnozz said:

G&L George Fullerton Signature, but it was a strat so also thin sounding - I'm still kicking myself about not buying a scratchplate that would allow for a humbucker, or humbuckers, but that's all resolved now.

These are notoriously thin and wiry but very well made..........shame

Philly_Q

stickyfiddle said:

I think I'm the same. I rarely dismiss something because of sound (or at least, not because of plugged-in sound, as long as its nice and vibrate-y when un-plugged.

That's how I judge guitars - nice and vibrate-y when un-plugged.    Because that's how I play them 95% of the time.  If they don't do anything acoustically I find it hard to like them.

Plugged in may be a different story.  Some of those boat anchors which sound pretty dead acoustically may be entirely different beasts plugged in (Les Paul Customs?).  And I think some of those very light, resonant, vibrate-y guitars can lack something plugged in - as if the resonance of the guitar dissipates too much of the strings' energy(?).  Apologies for my pseudo-science.... 

I've got two PRS McCartys, same year, identical spec except for the paint colour, both lightweights (but one is about half a pound lighter than the other).  Unplugged, they're both very resonant but one is quite noticeably less bassy, generally thinner sounding and I think has less sustain.  I wonder if going up a string gauge might help.

grungebob

I’m probably in the minority here but I can tolerate a bad sounding guitar that plays superb rather than the reverse. 
If a guitar plays and feels nice I bond with it and forgive its ugly duckling sound.  I’ve had some really nice looking great sounding guitars in the past that quickly left me due to not feeling or playing right. 
 Years ago when we all bought guitars in person this wasn’t an issue for me but nowadays most people buy from distance based on purely the looks of something and someone else’s opinion on how it sounds so I’m moving on more guitar than ever 

dindude

Sound is prob the most important thing for me, my Jaguar is like driving a tractor compared with the Porsch of the PRS McCarty I once had, but I just couldn’t gel with the sound of the McCarty, but the Jag sounds ace. 

Having said that I’ve had plenty of Gibson’s that were great sounding but I just couldn’t put up with how hard they were to keep in tune.

Sporky

ICBM said:

Yes. One of the only guitars I've ever bought new - a reissue Rickenbacker 425, the little single-pickup one. I really wanted to love it, because it was one of the coolest-looking, nicest-playing guitars I've ever seen or played... but it sounded thin and honky no matter what I did. I tried three different Rickenbacker pickups, and even somehow managed to fit a Gibson P100 into the pickup casing, but nothing sounded good. I eventually tried putting a Bigsby on it to see if it would change the natural sound of it, but it didn't. I ended up selling it, but I still miss it. I did love it - just not plugged in .

With the scratchplate on that you could have fitted Variax guts into it! 

Fuengi

'Steve' my Mexican Strat. No matter how bland it sounds I'm never selling because everything else is just so right. 

ICBM

Sporky said:

With the scratchplate on that you could have fitted Variax guts into it! 

No, I wanted it to sound good .

The stupid thing is that the shop I worked for ordered two - my one (which I asked them to) and a black 450, the two-pickup version. When they arrived, the black one was much better-sounding, but I had really really really wanted the burgundy single-pickup one, so I bought it thinking I could fix the sound by changing the pickup. By the time I finally accepted I was wrong, they'd sold the black one.

Teyeplayer

ICBM said:

Sporky said:

With the scratchplate on that you could have fitted Variax guts into it! 

No, I wanted it to sound good .

The stupid thing is that the shop I worked for ordered two - my one (which I asked them to) and a black 450, the two-pickup version. When they arrived, the black one was much better-sounding, but I had really really really wanted the burgundy single-pickup one, so I bought it thinking I could fix the sound by changing the pickup. By the time I finally accepted I was wrong, they'd sold the black one.

Had exactly this with my 425 -was it that limited run they did around the late 90s early 00s?

Much the same experience with my Teye which was phenomenal in every way but just not quite right for me. There was an Ampeg Dan Armstrong reissue some years ago that I had much the same experience with. All in all I invariably end up back on a telecaster every time.

ICBM

Teyeplayer said:

Had exactly this with my 425 -was it that limited run they did around the late 90s early 00s?

Yes.

I actually think they put the pickup in the wrong place - it was very slightly different from the originals. Pickup placement can make a surprisingly large difference to the tone - if you've ever played a guitar with a sliding pickup, it's quite remarkable how much difference even about a quarter inch back or forward makes.

guitars4you

Probably my SG2000 - purchased new in 1978 - Still own it - Remember at the time no PRS or other boutique guitars, just poor Gibson models from that era that I did not bond with - So effectively the good invasion of MIJ models like Ibanez and Yamaha to choose from - But never ever got the tone I want out of it, compared with other LP/PRS based guitars with similar construction - Tried shed loads of pick-ups over the years - I've put it down to the weight and not very resonant mahogany with a good vibrant acoustic voice

CHRISB50

My first guitar, a Silver Series Squier Strat. Light, and the most comfy neck I’ve ever played. 

Unfortunately I’ve never heard a worse sounding guitar. I stripped the finish, and I’ve never seen a more unappealing piece of wood either. 

ICBM

guitars4you said:

Probably my SG2000 - purchased new in 1978 - Still own it - Remember at the time no PRS or other boutique guitars, just poor Gibson models from that era that I did not bond with - So effectively the good invasion of MIJ models like Ibanez and Yamaha to choose from - But never ever got the tone I want out of it, compared with other LP/PRS based guitars with similar construction - Tried shed loads of pick-ups over the years - I've put it down to the weight and not very resonant mahogany with a good vibrant acoustic voice

The brass block under the bridge almost certainly doesn't help either.

I've always found SG2000s sound 'hard' and 'cold' - not bad-sounding, but lacking any of the woody warmth of a Gibson (even a Custom) - and somehow 'too pure'... you just hear the strings, there's really no difference in the sound of the two pickups other than the basic harmonic content, and even the coil splits don't sound as different as you would expect really.

richardhomer

ICBM said:
The brass block under the bridge almost certainly doesn't help either.

I've always found SG2000s sound 'hard' and 'cold' - not bad-sounding, but lacking any of the woody warmth of a Gibson (even a Custom) - and somehow 'too pure'... you just hear the strings, there's really no difference in the sound of the two pickups other than the basic harmonic content, and even the coil splits don't sound as different as you would expect really.

I’ve had a downer on brass since Mighty Mite and Schecter made every Strat weigh twice as much as they already did in the 70s - but have noticed it’s made a comeback via PRS.

The saddles and block on the current PRS trem are brass - as are the bridge posts on their stop-tail. The string contact points on the saddles are unplanted - so the brass is in contact with the string. Certainly modern PRS guitars sound noticeably ‘bigger’ than the use to - so I assume this is all part of the reason why.

I’d always thought brass was a fairly soft metal - and therefore not the right thing to be making bridges out of....

polotska

IICBM said:

guitars4you said:

Probably my SG2000 - purchased new in 1978 - Still own it - Remember at the time no PRS or other boutique guitars, just poor Gibson models from that era that I did not bond with - So effectively the good invasion of MIJ models like Ibanez and Yamaha to choose from - But never ever got the tone I want out of it, compared with other LP/PRS based guitars with similar construction - Tried shed loads of pick-ups over the years - I've put it down to the weight and not very resonant mahogany with a good vibrant acoustic voice

The brass block under the bridge almost certainly doesn't help either.

I've always found SG2000s sound 'hard' and 'cold' - not bad-sounding, but lacking any of the woody warmth of a Gibson (even a Custom) - and somehow 'too pure'... you just hear the strings, there's really no difference in the sound of the two pickups other than the basic harmonic content, and even the coil splits don't sound as different as you would expect really.

I find that the set-neck SGs (e.g. SG1000)—which also lack the sustain block—sound better than the through-neck versions; they’re brighter and richer, though still more like a Les Paul Custom than a Standard. How much of that is the neck construction vs. the sustain block, I don’t know; Yamaha made a few neck-through versions that lacked the sustain block—e.g. the SG3000, the Japanese domestic market SG1500, and probably something else I’m forgetting—but those also have other differences vs. the SG2000 (the SG3000 has Spinex pickups vs. Alnico V in the SG2000, and the SG1500 has a rosewood fingerboard and lacks a maple top).