Entertainment For Lively Minds
Electric guitars: Time for a heated debate
Posted by Brookster on 11 June 2011 - 10:37pm.
Of course Fender Telecasters are God's own guitars and all other models are frankly inferior, unless you're playing wanky heavy metal or something.
However, you may have your own opinion and can vote in the comments section.
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Of course it's the Telecaster. Even wanky heavy metal band Led Zeppelin managed to make a few decent records back when their guitarist was playing a Tele.
The guitar solo on Stairway to Heaven
Was played on a Telecaster.
It worries me that I know this sort of thing.
Hello!
Telecasters. GREAT guitars. In the same way that Model 'T' Fords are GREAT cars.
Guitars have moved on. This is how they should now look and be. The shape is still there.
NO! NO! NO!
a Floyd Rose trem on a Tele is SO wrong! It's like having furry dice on the dashboard of a vintage Bentley and looks tacky beyond belief. Locking trems are evil! Has any non-poodle haired guitarist of note ever played or written a bona fide classic song using one of these? If you're into Floyd Roses and loads more pick-ups on your guitar, why not just buy a heavy metal axe like a BC Rich instead? If you're going to have a trem on a Tele, it had better look like this
Even that one
looks very wrong and has been criminally bastardised with:
Non-standard bridge
Bizarre Bigsby anchoring plate under the bridge pick-up
Weird finish
Strange non-standard colour headstock with wrong decal
An attempt at a Strat style beval on the top bout.
The picture I posted isn't of a Telecaster.
It's a picture of a guitar which has a sort of Telecasterish shape. And why are locking trems evil? Because they keep a guitar in tune? What a dreadful thing.
My one dislike of the modern guitar is that it gives the guitarist too much opportunity to expound. Ricardo makes a valid point. For all the virtuosity on display from the Satrianis, Vais, Van Halens and Malmsteens of this World (still the same people from 20 years back..)how many of them have recorded anything of note?
I'd argue
that Steve Vai has recorded plenty of music of note.
He started out as a teenager in Zappa's band and his playing absolutely reflects that. Almost alone among the shred merchants, Vai's playing has humour and frightening technique in equal measure.
I won't risk the slings and arrows of the Massive by posting a Vai clip here, but he really is worthy of investigation. Honestly.
Steve Vai's first job for Zappa
was to transcribe the practice sessions. "There you go, matey. Write that lot down for me". Yikes.
And then he joined Frank's band....
Roth
He was really good on the first 2 David Lee Roth albums too. Not my absolute fave player but Vai is a fantstic musician, serious, dedicated and melodic.
am glad we agree, Lenny
There's nowt wrong with staying in tune of course - it's just the people that have locking trems on their geetars tend to use this feature solely for extended tedious widdling.
(Lou Reed also favoured them on his horrible headless custom guitars during the Mullet years, which can only be a bad thing )
Lou Miserable
Lou is playing
a Klein headless guitar in the first pic. He chose it because its perfect balance and light weight is kind to his bad back (apparently).
The Klein Guitars website has this uncharacteristically chirpy endorsement from Lou:
"It’s so comfortable to play it’s beyond belief...you play better! In
short, it’s mind-boggling.” (Lou Reed)
http://www.jedistar.com/pdf/klein_electric/klein_electric_1999.pdf
Not a locking trem in the traditional sense.
The Steinberger floating bridge systems use special double headed strings. The Klein electrics, which as noted already, were designed along ergonomic principles, rather than for visual appeal, had the Steinberger transtrem as an bridge option; quite an interesting piece of engineering in itself.
Locking trems were popular with hair metally shred types, for sure, as these high performance would-be virtuosos tended to put their instruments under stress, and approach their hardware, much as they did their playing, with a very technical mindset. This style of music, and the hardware and fashions associated with are very much out of fashion at the moment, but I'm sure they'll pop back up on the menu again at some point as pop music continues to recycle itself.
They're just tools, really. Movable bridges on guitars enable a number of entertaining and useful musical effects. The double locking tremolo system solves a number of engineering problems that traditional moving or floating bridges suffered from. Subsequently they extended the range of expression that guitarists could pull out of the instrument, and like any novelty fuelled a faddish rush of new effects, divebombs, wolf-whistles etc which quickly turned into clichés and just as quickly became dated and gauche.
They're undeniably useful though. I'm no fan of traditional shredding or metal really, but a number of musicians I find interesting do tend to use them. As a (rubbish) guitarist myself, I can testify that they are a blessing in the home studio / pub gig situation, because it really is a help for anyone of limited means to have a handy instrument that just holds its tune. You do need to carry a backup guitar though, if it's live, because they don't handle a broken string at all well. None of my favourite instruments have one fitted, but I do have a reliable old 90s Ibanez RG, which is never the first guitar I reach for, yet I keep around just because it's a reliable workhorse, with rock stable tuning.
I have a certain sympathy for the argument that they spoil the look of a classic instrument. The guitar is more for playing at than for looking at though, and if someone insists on glomming a Bigsby on a Les Paul just because it looks right, rather than because they're looking for a specific sound, then more power to them, but I can't stop myself from judging them as pretentious.
OK, I'm going out on a limb here
It must be said: EVH revolutionized rock guitar. You may not like his style, but it became the gold standard for heavy rock lead guitar players. Vai, Satriani, etc., are all top-flight musicians but they haven't added to the vocabulary the way EVH did. Preposterous as Van Halen 1.0 was, they were also quite splendid.
Totally agree
EVH changed everything, for better or (sometimes) worse and we shouldn't be scared to say so.
The First Person to use tapping
wasn't EVH. The first one that I was aware of was Steve Hackett: he uses the tapping technique on Selling England By The Pound (on the solo in Dancing Out With The Moonli Knight). EVH is on record as saying that this was a major influence on his playing.
Hope this helps.
Jimmy Page used it on 'Heartbreaker'...
and I think Edward Van Widdly has cited that as a big influence on his way of playing.
I don't think so
Not sure PC. I don't hear any tapping on Heartbreaker. It's a whole lot of pulloffs and hammer ons, and I remember reading an interview with EVH where he said he extended the idea by hammering on with his right hand rather than his left, then developed the idea further. I think the influence was more the whole blizzard of notes idea rather than how they were played. I saw Rory Gallagher do it in the mid 70s on the odd note, and there's a tapped note in Larry Carlton's "Kid Charlamagne" solo too for example, but you'd hardly call LC a tapper. In fact I think there are examples of jazz guitarists decades ago hammering on the odd note with their right hand, but there's no doubt the first person to make it an identifiable part of their style is EVH, it then being taken to ridiculous conclusions by Joe Satriani, Steve Vai and their considerably less inventive followers.
Taptastic.
Stairway as played by Stanley Jordan.
I don't really think of this as tapping. It's more like playing piano. Just using a guitar.
that was outstanding
is this going to be another of those "I'm the only one who hasn't heard of him" moments. Stanley Jordan??
Tube
He was famously on the Tube back in the 80s and left a young Jools Holland literally speechless.
That rings a bell, played Eleanor Rigby didn't he?
I think you may well be
I think you may well be right there Stimpers. Is this it?
BTW thanks for wasting an hour of my Saturday morning plotting your Willin trip on iPad maps. I guess you'll nip off to San Francisco from Tonapah? Make sure you go via Yosemite which is pretty much en route. If you wish to be baked by the sun I suppose you'll nip down to Nogales from Houston? I am radioactive with envy.
We all know that Bigsby is best
.
Fender comes first
Especially Strats and Tele's, but I have a thing for old semi-hollow Gretsch's, Gibson Melody Makers and Daddy Mojo Stove Pipe cigar box guitars - the coolest looking guitar ever!
No competition
Les Paul Gold Top
Telecasters Above All Else
these are the two that live in my house
the one on the right was won in a competition in a rival magazine and is signed by a certain Mick, Keith, Charlie and Ronnie. The one on the left is my American '52 reissue which is a thing of wonder and joy.
Ye Gods! A Tele signed by Keef!
And I though my framed autograph signed 'with love' from both Keith and Mick was ace.
Not Sure Where My Picture went
Nice.
Going on holidays anytime soon? And on a completely unrelated note, what's the Neighbourhood Watch scheme like around your neck of t'woods?
West Dublin
A place where Roscommon men are shot on site.
Blimey...
You mean Ronnie Wood can write?
Not
if his book is anything to go by. Har, har. The scrawl on the guitar would make any doctor proud.
Fender Tele...
All the way.
I have always wanted one, and bought my first one last week. A black & white beauty. Plays like a dream - I am in love for the first time...
Even cooler and more minimal
than a Telecaster.
Jeff Beck's 1954 Esquire.
I've posted this before. All the Yardbirds' hits were recorded on this and it formerly belonged to John Maus of the Walker Brothers
Springsteen plays an Esquire as well.
That's true
but he added a second (and third) pickup, effectively turning it into a mutant Telecaster.
Forgive me if it turns out I'm talking shite
Mr Beck himself decribes the tale of the above guitar in an interview on the 'extras' section of his new Rock and Roll Party dvd.
Apparently whilst in Air Studios and recording with his original Esquire, Seymour Duncan popped by.
He had with him a souped up, 3 pick-up Tele and in a fit of madness Beck agreed to swap his legendary Esquire for it.
Not unreasonably Beck now wants it back. Duncan meanwhile has it locked up somewhere safe in Santa Monica.
I saw that too
You got the story right except the Tele he swapped for the Esquire has 2 (not 3) Gibson Humbuckers and Seymour Duncan keeps it locked up in Santa Barbara.
Yep, I'm with you guys...
...it's a Telecaster for me (or, failing that, my splendid Fenix copy... which once belonged to both Keith Law and Susan Enan...)
That said, Jan Akkerman prefers Les Pauls and their kindred (Gibson Personals) or indeed Framus. But then he can make them do things that the rest of us can't.
Please
I can't cope with guitar porn.
Wot no Strat?
As a neutral bystander I always thought the Fender Stratocaster was the guitar - is that not right? A layman's guide to the relative merits of Tele vs Strat anyone?
All you need to know
about the Strat, right here:
I agree that the Strat
is the single most versatile, adaptable, *personalisable* guitar in history. No other single model of guitar could simultaneously meet the requirements of Hank Marvin, Jimi Hendrix, Nile Rodgers and Jeff Beck* without requiring considerable modification.
*just four from a potential cast of thousands.
Having said that, as a teenage Bernard Butler-ophile I would auction my mother for a go on a red Gibson 355 with a Bigsby and a Vari-tone.
Strat vs Tele - just personal preference
I have an Olympic White Strat with a maple neck, which I bought because of an old poster I used to have of George Harrison playing the exact same guitar. Strats with maple necks have a glittery, glossy sheen that some people find thin - plus there is the classic 'single-coil' pickup hum that drives some crazy. Me, I love that high treble sound.
But my Telecaster - a Squier '72 Modified model (think Keith Richard), but a damned fine guitar in it's own right - has humbucker pickups that are meaty but still capable of capturing that gritty twang that makes Teles so popular. I love them both, but they are different guitars in feel and sound.
My white Tele
is my favourite posession in the whole world.
The problem with the Strat is not its playability or sound its the look. It seems to look great one year and naff the next. Saying that, two of the most beautiful guitars ever are Rory Gallagher's and Stevie Ray Vaughan's beat up, modified to pieces Strats.
It's a pointless question
but you've snagged me so I'll give a pointless answer.
Strats: Owned many over the last 25 years, and my default guitar, but I found I was playing them more when I had Fender-style amps. There is a certain shrillness in the bridge which is part of the tone, but something I've become less tolerant to lately.Still own a few.
Teles: Always loved the look of them, but even high-end modern ones had that ice-pick bridge pickup. I currently have a G&L ASAT Bluesboy semi-hollow tele-style guitar, and it wipes the floor with all the Fenders I've played. The bridge sound is strident but thick, which is apparently a feature of vintage Teles, which I've unfortunately not played. The neck pickup is a Seth Lover bucker, and it sounds like the 335 of your dreams.
335s: Owned a couple over the years, but always found the body a bit large. Great sound, if you get a good one. Woolly if you get a bad one.
Rickenbackers: The best finished guitars I've ever owned. Quirky, which is alternately endearing and annoying. Still have a 360/12
Les Pauls: I've only encountered one Les Paul I've wanted to own. I love the recorded sound of them, but the scale length and Gibson build quality always put me off. Not having grown up with them the body just doesn't sit snug like a Strat. I have a Larrivee RS-4 Goldtop, which is like a high-end Les Paul, but built better and with a Fender scale length. Very impressive
PRSs: Played a fair few, but never owned one. Very nice guitars. Probably the only addition to the pantheon of greats since the 60s.
Pretty much all other mainstream electrics are just variations on a theme.
The conclusion I've reached after spending many thousands on guitars over the years is that the the gold is in the lesser known brands. You can get these very cheap 2nd hand and they are often better than the custom shop of Gibson and Fender. I'm talking about G&L, Music Man etc. Both the big brands have lost it for me over the last couple of decades. Fender still makes good guitars, but they are becoming blander, and more anaemic, while the variety of models is just insane. Gibson is almost purely trading on its name. They seem to put out signature/custom shop models of dubious merit every day, and their build quality has been abysmal for the last decade. I have had several very good purchase/trade options on Gibsons (including custom shop models) over the last couple of years but I had to walk away from them all.
Which is the best? Dunno.
Scary Synchronicity
Pretty much totally agree with you Podicle. Having had a G&L ASAT Special, I wouldn't buy another Tele. I sold my last one (a '66 post-CBS model) to finance the ASAT. Bought the Tele in 1980 when I was playing in country/country-rock bands and it stood me in great stead for 20 plus years through soul bands, showbands, club bands, rock bands etc., but having played the ASAT, there was no going back.
ASATs are very versatile - anything from rock, though country to Jazz. I'm not bothered that they are not as mainstream - it's the sound that counts.
The Fender brand has become so devalued with MIJ, MIM guitars and never-ending 're-releases' and 'Custom Shop' models that are retreads of the same thing.
I reluctantly had to sell the ASAT to part-finance my Atkin acoustic, but it went to a very good home with a Tele-loving friend who had always coveted it. An ex electronic designer and Hi-Fi nut, he dubs it one of the best guitars he has played because of the balance of volume and tone of the strings. Like good Teles, it 'zings' when played acoustically. The neck is as important as the body in Teles/ASATs. Also having a solid bridge on the ASAT comes into play, rather than the Bridge/Pickup mounting plate on the Tele, whose rattle/vibration contributes to its shrillness.
I also have a Heritage H-535 semi - a Kalamazoo-made ringer for a 335, but woodier - more like a 330, but with a more modern sound. Refitted by previous owner with Duncan '59s. The best guitar I've owned by a country mile. Having found Heritage a few years ago, wouldn't buy a Gibson. Too 'production line' now. Same for Taylor acoustics, though both are very good.
Still have my USA Strat - very versatile guitar, lovely tone - good for live work, but (currently with a 3-piece band) sometimes can sound a bit thin compared with the semi.
The only problem is that once you discover that 'mid-range honk' on the neck pickup - it becomes distracting/annoying. I've thought about changing the pickups (Fralins etc.), but haven't done anything about it. Don't know what the solution to that one is. Also, having a guitar with a trem is a bit of a comfort blanket.
To me, the Strat will never be as funky or bluesy as a Tele. No doubt that will bring all the SRV, Hendrix, Cray and Nile Rogers fans down on my head!
Bought a cheap Hamer XT Sunburst for £200 in a recent fit of GAS. A double-cut version of a Les Paul really. Hamers seem to have a deeper, thicker sound - I'm quite in love with it, although I haven't quite got the tone sorted out with my FX for live playing yet. Hamers are different and impressive.
I only bought it because it was advertised (on eBAY) as a P90 - with photos of same, and I wanted a P90 solid. When it arrived, it had humbuckers - was a bit annoyed at first - but found that it was a bit of a beast sound-wise, so I kept it.
I have an aversion to the sound of SGs - but I'm probably opening up another can of worms here. The necks are very good, if you are used to playing Fenders you can convert easily, but the tones are limited. They can also sound rather wooly.
I have seen and heard some very nice PRS guitars live recently. However, as anyone who saw Neal Schon on the recent Journey tour will know, they can be excessively shrill/squealy when 'shredding', bending above the 12th fret. My wife and I contrasted this with Mick Jones of Foreigner, on the same bill, who played much simpler, bluesy licks on his Les Paul and produced classic Gibson tone. Depends on the player at the end of the day.
Even with Teles, use of distortion can make them sound thin and unappealing, to my ears anyway.
Listen to Bill Kirchen or Brad Paisley for great Tele tone - or Roy Buchanan (obviously), Ray Flacke, Danny Gatton, Jerry Donahue, Vince Gill - the list goes on.
For me, it's still the Jazzmaster.
It's the single most comfortable body design that Leo Fender ever designed, as well as being beautiful. The pickups are wonderful - a big round single-coil spank. The switching is only difficult to understand if you're a bit hard of thinking. The tremolo and floating bridge is the best design of all time, and everything people say about "buzz" and "string jumping" and so on is a result of poor setup. Every time. No exceptions. A properly set up Jazzmaster will give you zero problems and sound beautiful.
I will always be in love with the JM.
But the most iconic? Well, that's different. It's the Telecaster, closely followed by the Les Paul and Strat. My difficulty with Teles isn't aesthetic (they're gorgeous) or sonic (they sound great): it's purely about comfort. The absence of a forearm cut from the top rear bout really messes my arm up. My old Tele more or less skinned me.
Jazzmaster bridge the "best design of all time?"
I take it you're a fan of Heath Robinson. Pretty but unnecessarily over-designed, IMO.
The buzz occurs because the angle from the bridge to the trem is just too darn shallow, (hence the invention of the Buzz-Stop), and the strings jump because of the stupid multi-grooved bridge. I don't know anyone who's ever owned a JM and not put in a different bridge - I use a Mustang one on mine. Even the official Fender Signature Models (Lee Ranaldo, Thurston Moore, J Mascis and Elvis Costello) all use some other kind of bridge. It's rather telling when none of your official endorsees want to use the original design.
Having said that, I still love mine to bits. She's just a bit of a diva, that's all.
Not over-designed in the least.
I was a founder member of a JM and Jag forum, and I'd say that most of the aficionados there are split about 70/30 in favour of the stock bridge.
Buzz stops are unnecessary, IMO, if you have a tech who doesn't try to set it up like a Strat. That said, I'll allow that most of the Japanese and even a few of the US RI bridges often have too-shallow saddles. I've used aftermarket bridges, sure, but my point was that the whole design of the trem and its floating, rocking bridge is the smoothest and most musical mechanism available for actually changing string pitch without affecting the tuning.
I guess my tech just hasn't managed to get it right yet
I'll have to have stern words with him later (he's a nice bloke, looks uncannily like me).
I agree the trem stays in tune very well, but so will a well set-up strat. Swings/roundabouts, etc.
Maybe I'm going overboard in my criticism, but I just never got on with that original bridge and the phrase "best design of all time" seemed something of an overstatement compared to my experience.
But let's forget all that and agree that they look, sound and feel fantastic.
Fair dos :-)
I find Strat trems either too "divey" or too stiff: the spring-loading seems hard to configure in a way I like. My Strat's trem is locked down completely.
To be honest, I use the trem quite rarely anyway, but on the occasions I do, there's something so nice and smooth and subtle about the JM/Jag assembly.
Re. buzz stops. I used to have one on my Jaguar, but I didn't like the way it increased the sustain and stopped it sounding totally like a Jag: that length of string behind the bridge is absolutely key to the sound, IMO - sympathetic resonances a-go-go. Also, one of my favourite features of the JM/Jag is being able to play behind the bridge and make ethereal noises. I couldn't do that with the buzz stop.
Incidentally - have you ever seen the Mastery Bridge? I really like it. It retains all that's brilliant about the stock bridge while guaranteeing string stability, and it increases sustain without changing the timbre the way a buzz stop does. I've tried them all: stock AVRI JM, vintage JM, Mustang, JM with Mustang saddles (the Warmoth bridge, that is) and the Mastery. The best have been stock AVRI and Mastery: no problems with either one.
One small man and a Hohner Tele
Wow!
And that is why I love Prince!
I want a Telecaster
but the best I've played (albeit badly) is a Gibson SG
GAS
My very first, but sadly not last by a mile, case of gear acquisition syndrome was a competition in Sounds in the mid 70s to win a Gibson SG. The full page ad had a picture of the amazing Zal Cleminson posing with one. Oh how I drooled. At the SG that is, tho Zal looked from - another - planet cool to a spotty 16 year old in Macclesfield.
I've got over it. They are great but always seem to be neck heavy and I hate that.
Neck heavy is right.
I've owned two SGs in my time and they were both un-let-goable-of. As soon as your left hand left the fingerboard, the headstock would plummet floorwards.
Wonderful, wonderful guitars to play, but that was a deal breaker for me. A shame - the last one (an SG Special in faded brown) was just fabulous.
"neck heavy"
...inarguable proof of that, Twang, at 3:45-3:55 here:
I own two Telecasters...
... but my Strat is the thing I'd rescue from the burning house.
I also own two Telecasters
... but my Gibson Hummingbird is the thing I'd rescue from my burning house, mainly because I reckon the Teles could cope with the heat.
If I was able to rescue a second it'd be one of these...
http://www.elderly.com/vintage/items/20U-10221.htm
K Yairi
make great acoustics. If I was in the market for another acoustic guitar(and had the money to spare), it would be a DY84 dreadnought - maybe with the Koa back, or FY84 'orchestra' model.
That Yairi
I bought it off the snottiest git of a salesman in Denmark Street about 18 years ago. You know the type. However, the idiot priced it up wrong so I ended up getting it for 110 quid. Normally I would have pointed out the mistake but since he'd been so rude I walked out (at pace, I must admit) and disappeared on Charing Cross Road before they'd sussed out what happened.
Sense be damned
The (musical) love of my life:
Other guitars may be more practical, versatile, adaptable and comfortable, but none moves me, inspires me or understands me more than my beloved Ricky. And certainly none are more beautiful.
Bad audio...
..but this is my favourite "tele" (and I've got a few)
Custom made by Tasmanian master luthier Gary Rizzollo..mahogany body, birdseye maple top, brazilian rosewood neck and fitted with a graph-tech ghost acoustic system.
No- one has mentioned..
..the Westone Thunder 1. The bass of choice of all bassists in early 80`s east anglian sixth form rock bands.
And me.
I have one. And it's fabulous. At least the equal, in sound and playability, of a recent US Fender p-bass.
Do they still make them???
I always longed for a Thunder 1 Active, though I didn`t really know what that meant. It had switches and stuff though.
Years later I got made redundant and splurged some of it on a Rickenbacker 4001 (i`d played one once in a shop for about 2 mins). Find it really hard to play though the sound is good. Nowhere to rest my thumb properly. Hardly play it now
So now I just use my japanese Squier jazz which is so easy to play and easy to make me sound like JJ Burnel. Sound like, not play like.
Think I can feel a bass thread coming on
September 1988
I borrowed a Thunder 1A for my first gig on bass. A Fender Precision Lyte is my weapon of choice these days. (Active, smaller body, PJ pickups, jazz neck)
Bring on the bass thread.
Active bass = the devil's work.
It means there's a small, 9V-battery-powered preamp in the bass itself. I think the original idea was to provide a fatter sound with more bass response. In practice, it tends to compress the life out of the signal and make it very boomy, thick and unnuanced.
IMO, obvs. I may just have played shit active basses!
You may well have done
I love that Stingray sound.
Whereas I'm less keen.
I like it in things like dub, but generally I'm a sucker for the good old fashioned sound of a no-frills, passive, 4-string bass. Ideally through an Ampeg stack the size of Westminster Abbey.
I'm generally not a luddite at all, but I do definitely prefer "some old" when it comes to guitars and amps. (I was once offered a Mastermind audition with the specialist subject "Guitars and amplifiers of the Fender Electric Instrument Manufacturing Company, 1948-1972". I'm afraid I'm one of those stick in the mud bastards who thinks there haven't really been any decent innovations in guitar and amp manufacture since the CBS sale.)
Think of me as the guitar version of Ranger. ;-)
I love that sound too
If I was to be totally honest, my ideal bass would be a Jazz, either in sunburst or candy apple red.... until the next attack of GAS!
I used to have a Jazz.
Lovely, but I found the neck a little slim. I'm all about the Precision these days. Galen Polivka out of the Hold Steady generally plays an ancient, beaten up CAR one with a gold anodised pickguard. It's GORGEOUS.
My first bass was a Precision
But I didn't really get on with it and replaced it with a Tokai Jazz Sound. I now prefer the slimmer neck.
There's a certain beauty in a beaten up Fender-style instrument that you tend not to get with other guitars.
That's normal
Guitarists tend to be more conservative creatures - it's probably just as well that Leo got it so right in the first place. The most desirable Les Pauls, the late 50s sunbursts, got that way partly because they weren't appreciated whilst in production and got replaced by the SG after only a few thousand had been built. It was several years before the Les Paul was re-discovered and Gibson took some persuading that it would worthwhile building them again.
Bassists, on the other hand, are often quicker to embrace new technology. Developments like active circuitry, graphite necks, fanned frets, the practical but ugly removal of the headstock; all have been more readily accepted in basses, though I think it's because they address issues that are more of a problem for basses than guitars. And the Precision and Jazz are still dominant.
You've clearly never played
You've clearly never played a Wal bass then... I love the active circuit on my Wal - sooooooooo good and so versatile! Can't beat it!
http://www.trevorandthea.eclipse.co.uk/basses.htm
Westones
I'm a sucker for them. I've had several. I've got a Pantera 3000 and a Thunder III at the moment.
http://www.westone.info/history.html tells all about the company.
Tokai made a good bass or two
A few years ago, a mate of mine from London was looking for a bass and we tracked down a Tokai 'Jazz' bass copy in a local store. He had the thing professionally set up and I have to say it was totally superb.
Scarily close to the real thing.
Tokais..
Often better than the guitars they were emulating. My local shop has a tigerstripe top Tokai Love Rock from the mid 80's going for more than a Les Paul of the same era.
Tokai Breezy Sound
Best Telecaster I've ever owned and/or played.
More Tokai love
For the Tokai Jazz Sound bass.
I've got
a Tokai strat (disguised as a Fender) it's great. I've had it for 23 years.
I've got one of those
Cost me two pints of strong French lager. Bargain.
Ah, Westone
It's easy to forget that back in the 80s, cheap electric guitars were generally pretty lousy (did anyone have a Kay?). Not so these days; nephew has a cheap electric and it's perfectly decent.
Westone really bucked that trend--their stuff was relatively inexpensive and surprisingly good.
Pretty much...
...everything that ever came out of the Matsumoku factory was very good.
Kays were mostly pre-1970, weren't they? Some of them were actually pretty cool little guitars. Airlines were all rebadged Kays, for example - a really distinctive sound. Quite similar to Silvertones/Danelectros, but a bit gnarlier and less polite.
Good site here all about
Good site here all about Matsumoku guitars and basses
http://www.matsumoku.org/guitars.html
My fisrt ever bass was an Aria SB700 bass which came from the Matsumoku factory too. Still have it and will never part with it. This site has some great info on the Aria basses...
http://www.prog.rockers.co.uk/aria.htm
And the SB700 page has some photos of me looking unfeasibly young while playing my old SB bass. Ah, memories!
http://www.prog.rockers.co.uk/sb700.htm
I have memories
(not fond ones) of this thing, which was always the cheapest electric guitar in the shop when I was young. I can't find a better picture, but I remember they were pretty horrible.
That actually...
...looks not unlike my 1969 Silvertone (which is actually a rebadged Teisco).
A lot of those department store guitars and the Japanese budget efforts from the 60s and 70s are pretty good guitars.
Unfortunately, the truss rod recently went on the Silvertone, so a luthier friend is fixing the neck and turning it into a twelve-string for me. (A twelve string where the resonating strings are fixed with through-body ferrules, and the primary strings are still on the Bigsby. Cool, huh? Clashy goodness!)
Here's the fella
My mate's 12y/o lad has just bought his first electric.
He'd decided he wanted a vile BC Rich thingy. I went with him and his dad and I tried one in the shop. Horrible. Just horrible. A shoddy, lightweight piece of junk.
He still bought it. Probably becase his dad told him not to as well.
Are they shit now, then?
The 80s and 90s BC Richs were uglier than a docker's arsehole, but they played OK. I wonder if they've moved factory.
Dire. Cheapo tripe to flog to daft twelve-year-olds.
Probably made from MDF, there may be as many as three or even four turns of wire on the pickups.
And, drinking in Portsmouth pubs you can't help but see more than a few dockers' arseholes. I think I'd probably look at a BC Rich. But it is a very close-run thing.
I love my Tele...
Depending on the mood, I can be Springsteen, Strummer, Rossi or Page.
Only other guitar I've ever desired is Weller's "Sound Affects" era Rickenbacker
Mark Ellen
likes to pretend he's Chrissie Hynde.
Other than the pate, obv.
You can possibly tell from my user name...
... that guitars are my thing. I have been utterly in love and obsessed with them since the age of 11 (I'm now 50 and suffer with incurable and chronic GAS). I love all Fenders, Gretsches, Rickenbackers, PRSs and virtually every guitar I've ever picked up. However, and with all due respect to the others, if it had to be just one electric guitar, for me it would have to be Lester Polsfuss's finest.
But I may change my mind in ten minutes...
Finally
Les Pauls just look so good. And that sound, whether it's Slash, Mike Bloomfield or Jimmy Page is just stunning.
Almost agree
I love the look, feel and sound. I have never bought one though because there's really only one GREAT sound, and they weigh a bloody ton. Truth be told, I do have a Les Paul Special which has P90s and no maple top and snarls like a bastard and I love it. Much as I'd like a '62 reissue Les Paul Standard, in my heart of hearts I know I'd hardly ever play it. Unusually, head wins over heart this time.
Sorry...
... simply cannot agree with the 'only one great sound' comment (and incidentally I think I've heard that said about every well-known electric guitar at one time or another - Fenders, Gibsons, Gretsches, Rickenbackers...)
I've had a great many guitars in my time and I find a Les Paul to be just as versatile as any other. You simply have to experiment with the volume and tone controls. Through a decent valve amp it can give you all the great sounds you could want from a non-trem electric guitar.
Recently I got one with P90s and with the volume and tone backed off it's every bit as spanky, funky and quacky as my US Standard Strat, but when I turn it up it roars and snarls in a way that Mr Fender's venerable instrument never does.
Which isn't to say that other guitars are not fantastic, but I simply love a Lester!
Tone controls..
I never touch them. They always stay on "10". If I roll off on them, the guitar always seems to sound.. just.. muddy.
Try...
... increasing the treble on your amp. It may seem like you're robbing Peter to pay Paul, but you can get a sound with much more body to it (if that's what you want).
FWIW, Mr Knopfler gets his distinctive sound with the tone control turned way down, and many other famous tones feature the tone control at zero. Just experiment and see what happens. If you don't like it, turn it back up!
Amp tone controls..
Treble stays on "10". Always. As does middle. I normally take the bass back a bit.
Cool...
... but I was replying to the statement that a Les Paul only has one great sound. I find the guitar's controls really useful in producing different tones, that's all.
If you prefer everything on '10' and you're happy with that sound then all's good. Personally, when I try that I find it a bit too much 'ice pick through the brain' and prefer things backed off most of the time - vol 7, tone 5/6 for rhythm, but vol up to 9/10 for solos, but I'm always experimenting and looking for other useful variations.
I heard...
...it was a stratocaster (with a whammy bar)
And a cheesy little amp
With a sign on the front
said Fender Champ
Iconoclast
Love my hard tail Fat Strat. Would love to play a Les Paul but I'm now 50 and knees and hips don't like my carrying a MacBook Pro about all day and another lump of lead around at night.
I'm a keyboard player first and foremost, and if I were gigging now I'd be so happy I could carry my entire rig around in a MacBook Air and a Firewire DAC. If you've ever lugged a Mellotron or a Hammond B3 up three flights of stairs in an 18th c building in Soho you'll know what I mean.
Firewire
I suspect you would struggle to connect a firwire anything to a MacBook Air, they've sadly never had any firewire ports.
Hang down your head, Tom Dooley