Doomed to repeat?

sgosden

Fell out of love with the Vela then?

grungebob

sgosden said:

Fell out of love with the Vela then?

Flogged it in a moment of madness. Sounded great but convinced myself the neck was too wide as I’ve played the musicman almost exclusively. 

robgilmo

P90's? Like a 56 LP?

NelsonP

I try to pick something different from what I have already. I play mostly rock and I have an HSH superstrat, an HH tele and an Epi Casino (SS). 

So I'd say try some P90 guitars out. There's tons of choices but these are the ones that have caught my eye in the past:
Les Paul Jr (2019 DC looks cool, even if its not for the traditionalists)
Les Paul 60s Tribute
SG Std P90
Epi Casino (get one with Gibson pickups (e.g. Lennon, Blak n Blu, 50th Anniversary) 
Reverend e.g. Sensei 290
Fender Black Dove tele deluxe (if you can find one)

robgilmo

Epiphone do a 56 Les Paul for not a lot of money. 

rossi

Gibson Midtown

Groke

How about a Reverend?

grungebob

@rossi would like to try one but they seem to be pretty rare and/or expensive at the moment. 

@groke yeah they look nice but having never held one I’m reluctant to take a punt. 

This is my last spend on gear for some time and I want to get it right (or caveat being flog it for not much of a loss )

dindude

Had a Midtown, very good guitar if you can find one.
Had a Reverend, very average guitar and a bit toneless.

For £1K for something a bit different I’d be looking at:

Gordon Smith (some nice ones kicking around with P90s)
Rivolta 
G&L (Andertons now doing the USA range from £999)
Gretsch G5220 (and pocket half the money)
Fender 60th anniversary Jazzmaster

Voxman

Guitars are essentially just tools to do a job. If you've found a style of guitar you like that covers the tonal palette you need, then you don't really need another style of guitar and buying a guitar just to have 'another one' is a bit pointless.  Everyone will have a different take on this - some folk believe you can't have too many guitars, others have been paring down their collection to have just a few really good ones.

Speaking for myself, although I have a few, each has a different purpose.  For example, I bought my PRS Cu24 because I needed a single guitar for gigging that had a trem (that I use sometimes) and covered both humbucker and single coil tones without having to change guitar.  Some gigs don't give you the time to change e.g. when we played at the East Barnet Festival in July we had 40-45 mins, our first song was our sound-check, and we just got through as many numbers we could in the time alotted.  Other gigs allow time for changing guitars and for these I'll use my Les Paul or SG with either my Strat or Tele.  (I don't generally need more than 2 guitars for any gig). 

I have 3 strats. My 1969 (original) hardtail with maple board is just too valuable to risk taking to gigs, but it's only 21 frets. So, I bought a 2010 Strat, rosewood board, that has a trem, 22 frets, and delta tone circuit for no-load tone control on the bridge p/up, making it more versatile than my '69.  My 2004 50th Anniversary is pure-mint with all the labels and unopened case-candy that I bought as an investment so we'll 'park' that one. 

Strats are amazingly versatile and, well, nothing quite sounds like a Strat especially for funk, country licks, SRV type tones etc. Tele's and SG's are just great all-round work-horses. For country twang nothing quite does it like a Tele and that powerful bridge single-coil means its also pretty awesome for rock inc earlier Led Zep stuff. It's also useful for some of those typical 'Police' and 'Pretenders' type sparkly, jangly tones. As much as I love my Les Paul, it's a heavy bugger and being a single-cut it doesn't give easy higher fret access.  So, by comparison, my SG Standard is much lighter, and the double cut-away makes for much easier higher-fret access. Although a humbucker guitar, with similarity to my LP, it's a more 'open' and slightly brighter sounding guitar that gives a different nuance to the Les Paul & brilliant for your AC/DC Angus Young type tones. Obviously, the Les Paul is just 'the' go-to for me for classic rock e.g. Led Zep, Bad company, Free etc.  

I have a fairly wide/eclectic-range of playing styles (kind of a jack of all trades but master of none!) including Jazz, blues, & slide so I bought an Epiphone Sheraton II Semi-acoustic to give me those warmer semi-acoustic tones that you can't really get from a solid guitar.  

The last guitar I bought was a Yamaha Pacifica 611VFM which was inexpensive, but a very well made and versatile guitar that punches well above its price-point.  It has a Wilkinson floating bridge (trem) & locking Grovers, with a Seymour Duncan Humbucker in the bridge and a Seymour Duncan P90 in the neck, with a push-pull split coil on the humbucker for 5 different tones, so again very versatile but with a P90 'twist'.  I bought it as a light all-round versatile guitar for rehearsals that I could leave in the boot of my car if need-be without worrying about risking my PRS Cu24, but it's also plenty good enough for gigging.

In the boot of my car I keep a cheap Epiphone Les Paul Special as an emergency back-up. I set it up so that it plays very nicely with a low action, and although the pick-ups are a bit dark it will get me through any rehearsal or gig.  

So, there you have it - why I have what I have.  For me, my guitar collection has slowly evolved to fit in with what I play and what I need. Each has different charms and different limitations, and they all get played - just not all the time.  Sometimes its a 'mood' thing, other times its purely for the extra dimension that each has. 

Hope this might be of some help.

You can see my PRS, Tele, 2010 Strat, and Sheraton here (the Vox was a loan) that I used in a video demo for the Vox Valvetronix VT40+ that was loaned to me:

grungebob

As an update since I love the Sub 1 so much I’ve sourced another but this time it’s a s/s/s set up so should give me some new sounds to play with and left money in the bank for upgrades so hopefully a win win situation.