Tele, Les Paul, Strat, or SG...

xtremehardy388

Which one has your preferred sound? Most versatile? Ease of soloing? Best feel? Obviously this is all opinion but it's something I often wonder about. In terms of the 4 options, I have a squier tele (with a Mexicans strat single coil in the bridge), a JBL tele copy (gift from my fiance's dad. His former bassist-who passed away, gave it to him and he passed it along to me). I have a Epiphone LP 100 (light enough that I can actually play it). My first guitar was a squier strat (now outfitted with an original Kalamazoo Gibson humbucker in the bridge). I've got an Epiphone SG Special (made incorrectly so the intonation is off) and an Epiphone G-400 Custom Shop.

2-feign-reluctance

I want to play a proper American Strat someday. The ones that are over a thousand bucks. I had a Japanese Strat as my first guitar and I loved that it was so lightweight, and fretting action was easy and smooth.

All Those Yesterdays

Les Pauls feel the best to me. Shorter scale, fat neck, but not wide at the nut. Although I don't own one myself, I do get a chance to play one anytime I want from a friend.

Tone is my SG Junior with a single P 90 and wrap around tail piece. Nothing beats it for what I like in tone.

BHealy

I have an SG, a Les Paul, and a strat, and I love them all, but I think a strat is probably the most versatile, at least for me.

dankind

Gretsch Silver Jet ftw!

2-feign-reluctance

All Those Yesterdays said:

Les Pauls feel the best to me. Shorter scale, fat neck, but not wide at the nut. Although I don't own one myself, I do get a chance to play one anytime I want from a friend.

Tone is my SG Junior with a single P 90 and wrap around tail piece. Nothing beats it for what I like in tone.

Agreed about the LPs. My smaller hands like the set up. I can reach notes easier on that than any other guitar I've played.

DewieCox

I'm a big fan of the Les Paul platform. Just so smooth and easy to play....almost effortless...and decoupling the controls opens up an endless amount of different tonal shades.

I really like my Strat too. You can really fight it and sorta bang on it and it always comes back for more.

My main guitar now is a Duesenberg Starplayer. It's got a lot going on thatqs like a Les Paul, but has a Strat scale so there's some fight with the strings.

xtremehardy388

DewieCox said:

I'm a big fan of the Les Paul platform. Just so smooth and easy to play....almost effortless...and decoupling the controls opens up an endless amount of different tonal shades.

I really like my Strat too. You can really fight it and sorta bang on it and it always comes back for more.

My main guitar now is a Duesenberg Starplayer. It's got a lot going on thatqs like a Les Paul, but has a Strat scale so there's some fight with the strings.

Decoupling?

DewieCox

Makes it where neither knob becomes a master when both pickups are selected so the blending is much more useable. Can't remember if that's 50s wiring or if it's a different mod. I changed all my LP's to this after trying it on one for awhile.

xtremehardy388

I'll have to look into it. I have an epiphone LP100

DewieCox

http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l516/FFXIhealer/Wiring Diagrams/WorkInProgress_zps15368d60.png


Super easy. Just swapping a few solder points for each pickups' controla

All Those Yesterdays

2-feign-reluctance said:

All Those Yesterdays said:

Les Pauls feel the best to me. Shorter scale, fat neck, but not wide at the nut. Although I don't own one myself, I do get a chance to play one anytime I want from a friend.

Tone is my SG Junior with a single P 90 and wrap around tail piece. Nothing beats it for what I like in tone.

Agreed about the LPs. My smaller hands like the set up. I can reach notes easier on that than any other guitar I've played.

Same deal here, I have small hands. 50s teles aren't that bad. But the modern Teles and Strats are difficult for me to play

Stickman12

Find the strat to be my personal favorite. very versatile and find the playability to be very comfortable. i dont solo at all so cant comment on that. In reality i would be happy with any of the options given.

xtremehardy388

DewieCox said:

http://i1121.photobucket.com/albums/l516/FFXIhealer/Wiring Diagrams/WorkInProgress_zps15368d60.png


Super easy. Just swapping a few solder points for each pickups' controla

Thank you! I gotta check out my Soul Vibe and then tackle this. Also need to switch the 5-way selector in my strat to see if that fixes my problem (selector won't engage the pickups it should).

gimmesometruth27

i am a bigger dude so i like to play a guitar with some weight to it. as most of you guys know i am a huge les paul dude. i have 3 of them and a blue teal flip sg. i think my sg gives me better tone for heavier music, but i love my les pauls. always have, always will.

this is a shock to me, but my absolutely favorite clean tone is my old gibson firebird with the pickup selector in the middle position going into a jcm 900. who would have ever thought of that?

mccreadyisgod

dankind said:

Gretsch Silver Jet ftw!

That would be amazing... I had a special Fender Telecaster called the TeleSonic which had those same pickups, and it was one of two guitars I regret selling the most. The Jets are great guitars, for sure.

My preferred sound is the P-90 bridge pickup, so almost any guitar with that config will have the right sound for me.

My most versatile guitar is a Strat with a bridge humbucker. If you add S-1 switching, you can get an enormous variety of tones (I have traditional wiring). I tend to recommend an HSS Strat to a lot of people who don't know what type of electric guitar to get, for just this reason.

For ease of playing and soloing, I find the Fender necks to be very comfortable, mostly due to the slightly longer scale and fret spacing. I feel pretty good with a Les Paul, but I can't stand playing SGs due to their wider neck profile and string spacing.

bootlegger10

My first two electrics were Les Paul's, but I love the Telecaster right now. Pretty easy to play and the tone is amazing. I was a pretty big Les Paul proponent too for a while.

2-feign-reluctance

bootlegger10 said:

My first two electrics were Les Paul's, but I love the Telecaster right now. Pretty easy to play and the tone is amazing. I was a pretty big Les Paul proponent too for a while.

Do Tele's play nicely for soloing/lead work?

dudeman

I used to be a Gibson guy. I had an SG Standard,a Marauder and a Sonex-180 Deluxe. I sold them all when I became a full-time bass player.

Once I decided that I missed having an electric guitar at my disposal, I picked up a Fender Blacktop Strat. I'm loving the longer scale length and string spacing and I can get the big, fat 'bucker tones that I was missing from the SG.

I'm not a fan of the gloss finished neck, though. I'm either going to remove that finish and do a tung oil job on it or I'll try to find a different neck.

Aside from that, I think it's about perfect for a guitar player that only has one guitar. Both pickups have coil taps so more traditional single coil tones are available too.

xtremehardy388

2-feign-reluctance said:

bootlegger10 said:

My first two electrics were Les Paul's, but I love the Telecaster right now. Pretty easy to play and the tone is amazing. I was a pretty big Les Paul proponent too for a while.

Do Tele's play nicely for soloing/lead work?

All depends on the feel and pickups. My squier tele (Mexican Strat single coil in the bridge) has no sustain. My JBL Tele copy is the opposite. The intro to Stairway to Heaven is done on a tele.

mfc2006

love my strat a ton & it plays really well. just took it in for a nice tune up & I think I may replace the pickups eventually.

but my Gretsch Electromatic sounds & feels much better to me than my strat.