A good friend has had and used everything from Stratocasters to Les Paul's. His favorite is his PRS which he uses exclusively in his shows. Stratocasters were and are not cheap Guitars. It used to be that Fender and Gibson were at the " top of the food chain " with regards to guitar quality. Today, that's not the case. There are a plethora of good Guitar manufactures. Ibanez, PRS, ESP, Jackson and Yamaha aside from Fender and Gibson are just a few of them. Guitars are like shoes, use what feels comfortable. If you have any talent, it will come through regardless of what you play. I'm sure you and others have that talent.

The only real difference and an Important one at that , aside from the hardware and pickups and the scale length, is the comfort level in playing the Guitar. My Strats are 21 and 22 fret guitars where my ESP is a 24 fret. There are so many considerations like playing style and the comfort associated with that.

As you said, it's great to discuss Guitars here. It's always great to see what hobbies and interests our members have. Others are into Astronomy, Cars, motorcycles and sailing just to name a few hobbies and interests. :Kaleun_Thumbs_Up:

Yes, quite true. And I have a few of those too. Guitars are an identifiable weakness for me frankly. Some say intervention is needed, but they spend lots of money on stuff that is nowhere near as cool and awesome as guitars are.

I was only half-joking about the PRS. It's a really nice guitar, but it is missing something if I am honest. What that is I can't quite say. Can guitars have soul? Can they lack it? Still, a beautiful instrument of the highest quality.

But I rarely pick it up. But the same can be said of my Tele. A few of the ones I have just fit. Some, less so. I have my favorites no doubt.

I reckon 3/4 of my play time is either with that Studio or one of the Strats, my favorite is a American Vintage '62 RI in three-tone with a rosewood board. Really nice.

And I know what you mean about scale length. I play Fenders, but it's the Gibson scale that feels most right for me. And for me, neck profile is the most crucial thing. Some I just can't get on with, and maybe the root of my Tele issues.

All good points. I know what you mean with regards to different guitars having something special. Stevie Ray Vaughan played his beat up Stratocaster and he called it his # 1. Stevie said it had a special vibe. It was I believe a 1962 Strat with a 57 neck. I could be wrong on the neck, though. The ESP I overhauled is great with leads and solo's in mind. Chords seem to be a bit harder which is an issue if you like to play arpeggio's. Others may not have any issues at all. Shrugs. I'm dealing a bit with Carpal Tunnel in my left wrist, which I fret with. String bends and Eric Clapton / Eric Johnson style vibrato's are becoming an Issue. As a result, I was looking for a Guitar I could set with a lower action and that would be just as responsive, if not more, with less effort.

Stewart MacDonald or Stewmac.com out of Ohio has every conceivable Guitar part you could ever think of, including authentic Fender Start bodies and necks and pickups. Through them, you can easily retrofit any guitar and or build your own custom model.

You brought up a good point with the neck thickness and profile. Younger people seem to gravitate to the ESP and Ibanez with the Wizard neck. They like the ESP's, have a thinner neck profile facilitating fast playing. Unfortunately for some of the kids that I have heard in Guitar and Music shops, they play scales fast and just essentially make noise, not music, trying to impress their friends.

The Alman brothers Album, " Live at the Filmore east recorded in March of 1971. It was such a landmark Album in so may ways. Sadly, Guitarist Duane Alman would be killed in a motorcycle accident in October 29, 1971. Bassist Barry Oakley would also die in a motorcycle crash little more than a year later.

The Point is, The Alman Brothers live at the Filmore East with Duane and Greg Alman, Dickey Betts and company showed you could play slow and melodically and get your point across. It wasn't about fast, mindless playing. It was about the musical content, composition and structure.

That point wasn't lost on other emerging guitarists and artists and had a colossal impact on guitar playing, structure and composition in rock and modern music. You had mentioned losing Gary Rossington of Lynyrd Skynyrd. To be sure, Gary's loss is huge. I always thought Pianist Billy Powell and Gary Rossington were the engines of Lynyrd Skynyrd. Slide Guitar seems to be an incredibly elusive skill and Duane Alman and Gary Rossington were masters at it along with Elmore James.

Bonnie Raitt and Derek Trucks are also incredibly skilled at slide guitar. Derek was named after Derek and the Dominoes as Eric Clapton and Duane Alman had a connection akin to being brothers. Derek's late Uncle, Butch Trucks was the drummer and a founding member of the Alman Brothers. Derek had joined the Alman brothers and now plays music with his wife, Blues Guitarist and singer, Susan Tedeschi as part of the Tedeshi Trucks band.

All of these artists set the bar so incredibly high. While it's great to have them as a guide and reference, it can also be incredibly frustrating in trying to rise to their levels of abilities and competence. I'm deeply saddened I don't have their abilities and never will.

With regards to your obsessions / passions for guitar, It's far better you do that than sit in a bar drinking or indulging in drugs. I think guitars and music is a healthy addiction. :haha: It's nice to know others share my addiction / obsession, as my lady calls it. :haha:

Me playing my Jackson at a gig - probably fifteen years ago or so:

https://i.imgur.com/ELwPHvfl.jpg

^ Awesome Sean. :Kaleun_Thumbs_Up:
I see your Jackson has a reverse head stock. It also looks like it has a Floyd Rose Tremolo / bridge. I also see a Marshall head unit in the back. Marshall's are just awesome. I have a Canadian built Traynor YGL-3A Mk. III all tube amp head unit with a Celestion separate speaker cabs.

It sounds a lot like a Fender Twin Reverb but much cleaner and much higher output.

Yep, Marshalls.


I have a 1983 JCM 800 2203. 4x12 cab.


Bought it new, which shows how old I am, and it came with 6550s. Converted it to EL 34s many moons ago. I run an attenuator on it.


Sean's pic is too fuzzy to see much detail on that amp panel, but it could be a JCM 800? Too many knobs I think for it to be a master volume. Channel switcher 2205?


Oh wait, the power switch is on the other side. AVT maybe?

yeah, Rossington was a massive influence on me, and it's sad he is gone. But he left a lot of great music behind.

I actually met Ed King and he showed me a few licks. Quick story....

One day when I was about 12 I went next door to where my grandmother lived at that time (southern New Jersey). There was a man there with her. Heavy set, long hair, and they were both sitting at her piano.

My grandmom says I;d like you to meet Mr King. He was in a rock band you might have heard of and then she mangled the name. I said, you mean Lynyrd Skynyrd? And he turns to me and says that's right young man. I recognized him from the cover of Nuthin' Fancy, this was Ed King man.


(Edit: Actually you can't see Ed well on that cover. The back side is the one with Billy Powell flipping the bird and Ed is obscured. I guess it was Pronounced... that I recognized him from.)


Turns out after he left the band he moved to Belleplain NJ, about 10 miles from me and joined my grandmom's church, of all things. She was the music director at the church and he was over to work out some sets as he wanted to play in the church band!

So I stammered something and he asked if I play. I said I sure do and he said where's your guitar? I ran home and got it. Was an old sixties Fender Malibu acoustic. He tuned it up and played a few things, like Needle and the Spoon and Sweet Home and man, talk about over the moon. He showed me how he played those songs and here we are 40 some years later and I've never forgotten. If Skynyrd wasn't my favorite band before then, it has been ever since. Ed also passed some years ago.

All correct. The Marshall is an MG100 HDFX with clean and "overdrive" (distortion) channels and built-in delay, chorus and flange. The cabinet is a slant with four 12s. They're a few feet away from me as I type this. After my processor died, I just used the amp effects and it sounded just as good. So the only pedal I used after that was the channel switcher/effects on-off that came with the amp.

The Jackson also had lock-nuts at the nut, so once it was tuned, it stayed in tune almost indefinitely. I loved the Floyd Rose because I could bend notes down and up with no whammy bar (even though the Jackson came with one). But as anyone who's ever used one knows: changing to a different tuning is a nightmare. Every time you loosen one string, the rest tighten and vice versa. So anytime I needed to be in a different tuning, I just used a different guitar. And changing strings requires a stack of business cards to be shoved under the bridge to prevent it from collapsing into the body. My guitar tech absolutely hated it.

A guy from another band recorded a few of our shows and put them on YouTube. But trust me when I say you can do without seeing/hearing them. We weren't very good. :oops:

That is a great story. No doubt something you will always remember. The Alman brothers, Skynyrd and 38. Special and Molly Hatchet were among some of my favorites along with Stevie Ray Vaughan. I think what I have a hard time with is how young a lot of the guys in Skynyrd and the Alman brothers and yet, had such an awesome grasp of music and it's structures and composition. We have had awesome guitarists, no doubt. Chet Atkins, Roy Clark, Jerry Reed, Willie Nelson and Glen Campbell not to mention Vince Gill are just a few on The Country music side of the street.



You have some great equipment. No doubt. The Floyd Rose Tremolo is a great bridge. However, as you said, it's a nightmare to tune.



With regards to, in your own words, “ not playing well.” Who Cares ? What's Important is that you play and that you have fun doing it. That's all that matters. I'm sure you play better than you think. If you are using some of the great Guitarists that we all know as a measuring stick, then I am in the same boat as you. There are many Guitarists that are really gifted. I certainly am not among them. I was a drummer in a couple bands listening To John Bonham, Neal Pert, Denny Carmassi, Alex Van Halen and my biggest Influence, Phil Collins among many others. Probably due to the fact that I sang and played drums at the same time. I picked up Guitar because well, why should the Guitarists have all the fun. I never made the connection with the Guitar as I did with the drums.


I feel as long as you enjoy playing Guitar, don't ever stop or let anyone dissuade you from that enjoyment.

As a special treat for you good people, I have listed a video excerpt. Al Pitrelli, Lead Guitarist of Trans-Siberean Orchestra, gives Guitar lessons at Water Wheels Guitars in Milford , Pa. when things get slow, between shows. Here, Al is teaching some Guitar theory on Facebook. Check him out. I hope you, Threadfin and others enjoy it. Al knows his stuff.

https://www.facebook.com/10006386811...1940986071800/

Ya know, I've never owned a guitar with a locking tremolo. They became so popular during my formative years too, EVH and few other like Steve Vai made them quite popular. But now that I think about it I never have had one. Odd.

About alternative tuning.... I bet it is a nightmare with a Floyd Rose. I always keep one guitar open tuned for when i get the urge to lay down some Creed or Pearl Jam or something haha. Way too lazy to do drop D on the fly.

About meeting Ed King.... yes, that was something else. Too bad I didn't meet him later in life, when I was older, and I would have actually had a discussion, asked questions, expressed my admiration. But he was very friendly and gracious. It's not every day you find a famous rock guitarist over at grandmom's house.

This is a nice page that lists all of Ed's weaponry including photos. A couple '59 LPs including Red Eye and some nice vintage Strats, a Duo-Sonic and a bunch of others

https://www.scribd.com/doc/23991125/...pment-History#

@ Threadfin.The locking Tremelo isn't all that important, just another tool in the tool box. The nice thing about the Floyd Rose Tremelo is the almost effortless string bends and Vibrato's with them. On the other hand, Eric Clapton, Eric Johnson, Jeff Beck and David Gimour among so many others do seamless string bends on their Fender Guitar's equipped with the Fender tremolo's with no problem. So, I think it's just a matter of preference and the player behind the Guitar. Sean said the Floyd Rose is a royal pain to string up and it can be.

The Tune-O-Matic tremolo's on your Les Paul's play exceptionally well, too. It all comes down to what you like. Some players like thick or very thin neck profiles. Some like scalloped fret boards like Steve Vai. Eric Clapton doesn't like Rosewood finger boards with a maple neck. Clapton prefers the Maple neck / Fingerboard setup.

I guess it's just the comfort level associated with all of the things mentioned. Not everyone hands are the same size and people may favor playing chords and arpeggio's as opposed to playing out of a particular scale as a reflection of the types of music and or playing style utilized by a favorite player.

Haha, yeah I seem to agree with all these guitars and none with a locking tremolo (and I know tremolo is wrong, but that's what was used earlier and we all know what we mean)

I mean, a Floyd Rose on a Strat or LP would be blasphemous, wouldn't it?

Kramers or a BC Rich, then yeah, that fits. But I don't have any of those, all Fenders, Gibsons and PRS for electrics. I have some other brand acoustics of course.

Your points about comfort are spot on, and anyway, the entire exercise is subjective, isn't it? I mean, I've heard players just ripping the Les Paul and Gibson in general and I can only shake my head. But there's no accounting for taste.

As for me I have very definite preferences. Like I love rosewood on Fenders, sunburst finishes, top-wrapped tune-o-matics with the tailpiece screwed right down to the body. I like three springs on my Fender whammy bars. I like 'hybrid' string sets and nickle wound. I like 'cloth' style guitar cords, tube amps and Fender medium picks.

I dislike tortoise shell (except for picks), tall frets, reverse headstocks, Flying Vs, thin or heavy picks and flatwounds.

All of that is quite subjective and I could name a handful of friends that would disagree with any of those.

Oh no, you didn't just say that. :haha: The Ritchie Sambora Signature Stratocaster comes with a Floyd Rose Tremolo. I have also seen Floyd Rose's retrofitted to a number of Stratocasters.

https://external-content.duckduckgo....c1e&ipo=images


I acquired a Fender Stratocaster body in a black poly finish, this week, on the cheap. The gentleman also had a no name Hard Rock Maple neck for the Fender that is truss rod equipped and has a rosewood fingerboard / fret board. He also had the standard Fender Bridge / Tremolo. I had planned on stripping the color of at least the middle of the Guitar and giving it a two color Sun-bust finish in a bright amber, leaving the black on the outside edges.

I am debating on routing the body for a Floyd Rose Tremolo or leaving the Guitar as is. It will get Fender Shaller locking tuners. The body has a rectangular cavity I call a " swimming pool " routing for the pickups and allows the use of various style pick guards and pickup combinations. I may use Humbuckers in the neck and bridge separated by a single coil pickup in the middle using either a tortoise shell or Mother of Pearl Pick Guard. I also planned on using coil spliters on both control pots to put either Humbucker in the neck and bridge position into single coil operation.

The only question now is what humbuckers to use. For the single coil in the middle position, I will either use a Fender " Fat 50's or Texas Special Pickup. Therefore, the Humbuckers have to be sonic-ly compatible.

I think people that rip on the Les Paul are jealous and would love to have one, or two or um, many. :yep: I am with you on tube amps. I have a Canadian Traynor YGL-3, Mark three, 100 watt tube head unit amp. It weighs a ton. :wah: I also have Fender Bassman original all tube Amp that has been reworked. I have a few Marshall Amps as well. They all sound great.


I have always been confused as artists I know go to incredible extremes to find and use all tube amps and then use all sorts of distortion units on them. :doh: The great thing about tube amps is they don't " color " the sound and just give pure, unadulterated tones. The bad part is, you have to let the tubes in the Amp cool down after playing before moving them. :yep:

Not that there's anything wrong with that :)

But yeah, no. I look at that thing on a Strat and something inside me breaks.

But for anyone else? Still no haha. Seriously, it's cool if that is what a player likes.

As to your question about which 'buckers to go for in a Strat. I don't know. I've never actually successfully done this. But I think if I were to do it today, I'd start with the Duncan SH4. I like the Gibson '57 Classics too, which I feel would be a good match in a Strat. They have nice clarity which I think I'd want in a bucker Strat. Really nice, warm blues pickup. But there are a zillion choices and it all comes down to the player's ear anyway. Projects like that tend to go through a number of options before the right one is found. Let us know what you go with.

As for tube amps, yeah I agree. I have the stack I mentioned before, but I don't turn it on much these days. The amp I play mostly around the house is a Fender Blues Junior that I've modified a bit. Nice little amp.

The pickups you mentioned are a good choice. I used the slightly hotter version of the original Gibson PAF's in the ESP rework. They have the four wire leads to wire them for Coil Splitting or phase wiring. I wired mine for coil splitting with push - pull control pots to approximate the sound of Fender pickups in single coil operation.

I am leaning toward the Dimarzio DP 100 Super Distortion Humbucking Pickups for the Strat build. I will have to see how well they will sound with the Fender Texas special or Fender Fat 50's single coil middle pickup. I am also going to check out the sounds of the Lace Sensors used by Fender in the 1990's. It all comes down to the sound you want to get. I liked the sound that was big in the 70's and 80's Guitar work. If I can get that in a clean, warm tone and sound, I'm all in. :yep: I also want to check out the sound of the rails pickups.

The Fender Blues Junior is a great Amp. :yep:

Yeah, it is. It has that silverface vibe to the styling which is timeless. Top-mounted controls give it the old school feel. Sounds good too. I like master volume amps. I put a different speaker in it and run some NOS tubes. Sounds really good to my ear.

Another story and I've got a million of them. When I was a kid I had a '65 Fender Malibu acoustic (still have it). My first guitar, bought it from a record shop owner in town who was selling it. This guitar is a standard acoustic with a Strat-style headstock and rosewood board. Pretty nice.

Anyway, I wanted to be Jimi, or Clapton, or someone who played a Strat. Or Ed King! So I saved my grass-cutting money for three summers and bought a used '76 Stratocaster (still have it. It was $350 in 1980). But I couldn't afford an amp too. One day I was talking to the metal shop teacher at school and somehow this came up and he says, I have an old amp you can have. It doesn't work, but maybe you can get it working.

It turned out to be a sixties silverface Fender Champ, a 6 watt tube amp. Mr Watkins had been correct, it didn't work. Powered up, but no sound. So I took it to the TV repair shop and the man there said he would take a look at it. I forget what the issue was, a blown cap probably. Anyway, he got it working and aside from the Marshall, that Champ was my favorite amp I've owned, and that's a long list. What a tone monster. At 6 watts you could fully crank it at bedroom level and it sounded amazing. Perfect amp for a kid and his Strat.

A few years later I was in high school and playing in a band and I needed a bit more projection than that Champ could provide. I got seduced by a Peavey Bandit 65, a Mississippi Marshall! Solid state with a Black Widow speaker. All sorts of channels and push-pulls, built in distortion. And I traded that Champ on it. Still regret it.


A bit of trivia.... Eric Clapton used a Champ to record Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs. So when you hear Layla or Bell Bottom Blues it's a Fender Champ!