What is your favourite?

I like Fenders for the clean guitar parts and Gibsons for soloing.

Christaro said:

I love both, it's hard to choose. I'm beginning to appreciate a clean Gibson Les Paul tone too, btw. You don't hear that often but it's really nice.
[Edited 3/29/07 7:08am]

i own a strat.....and love it...but have been eyeing a gibson for the heavier sound.....just gotta figure out how to sneak another guitar into the house without the husband realizing i dropped more $$$

Fender every time for me. I've never played a Gibson I really liked - the tune-o-matic bridge is particularly annoying to me. The design of a Fender Stratocaster is really the template which fits my preference - the Les Paul, by comparison, is very poorly designed - non-straight string pull at the headstock, a bridge that places the strings, under tension, over a sharpened metal edge, a huge, limited access heel - I can't be doing with any of it. They look cool tho, I'll give 'em that.

txladykat said:

the bathroom window

Rowdy said:

U are right Rowdy, but a Les Paul has an awesome sound. There's no way u can get that out of a single coil Strat.

Christaro said:

The sound of a good strat will always rule over any good LP to my ears, but of course, that's a total personal choice thing . And there are far more good tones to be had out of a strat than an LP

fender - precision bass... i played the big block fender precision bass the other day and fell in love with it. but i didn't have the money to buy it.
but my band does have a gig tonight - woo hoo.

I like the sound of a Gibson but the feel of a Fender

A Gibson is just SO comfortable to play! I'd love me an old Gibson archtop *sigh* Now if only I'd win that damn lottery.

And ladykat: sound like Guitar Acquisition Syndrome in full effect. With a good distortion pedal a strat can sound heavy as hell. Remember Hendrix? Even the purple rain album was recorded with a tele-like single coil guitar, and that's some heavy sh*t. But by all means, if you've got the cash, get one of those cool and comfy LP's!

EuroCinema said:

Which distortion pedal do u suggest Euro?

Christaro said:

Read all about it in this thread:
http://www.prince.org/msg/15/222137

Les Paul, poorly designed? what? Every LP I've played is built like a tank - you can drop the thing and it's practically guaranteed to still be in tune when you pick it up.

As much as I appreciate Strats, I can't count on them to stay in tune through a whole song!

thanks Euro! I will check it out.

Bathroom window won't work for me..it doesn't open

BUT, I could always send him out for a night of beer and pool with his buddy and then slyly sneak it into the house

I find I have the same problem with my start..staying in tune through the entire song. Is this normal?

abigail05 said:

funny, my strat always stays in tune. It may not be fair, since it's not a Gibson, but me Epiphone always goes out of tune.

But that's why there are so many different guitars. I like the feel of Fender, but Euro likes the feel of gibson. I'm just trying to get a gibson tone from my fender and not succeeding.

txladykat said:

There are several key things to do in order to keep your strat in tune:

1) Under no circumstances ever use the trem, unless you're Jimi Hendrix
2) Make sure the nut is well cut and lubricated. Graphite (pencil lead) was Leo Fender's magic substance - lip balm works well too. Strings snagging on the nut are a major contributor to tuning issues
3) Replace the string tree (the little thing on the front of the headstock that pulls the 2 highest strings down) with a roller one, if your strat doesn't have one already.

A well set up strat will hold tune as well as any guitar, excepting those with locking tremolo systems.

abigail05 said:

You'll always have trouble breaking a big fat block of mahogany without an axe to hand, but the scarf joint on LP headstocks is a point of real weakness. I like the sound of Gibsons, they're on many of my favourite tunes, but they make very little sense design-wise.

I've never had tuning issues with my strat. I always find it incredible how well designed they are, given that Leo Fender didn't actually play guitar. Maybe that's the key to it - he had an engineer's view on them, rather than a musician's.

Both . . . . I have a Fender American Standard Tele, Two Fender Strats, and a Gibson ES-135. Different axes for different needs!!!!

I've been playing Strats for years and I've never had a problem with keeping it in tune and I use the trem (a standard trem) a LOT.

Never seems to be a problem for Jeff Beck, either.

My USA Strat always stays in tune. I like my Strat a lot. It was love at first sight. It's nearly my third arm. Very easy to play. Great action. In my opion the Strat has only one disadvantage: sometimes u hit the volume knob. Of course, this was designed for the swell function, but overall my Strat will always be my favourite guitar. But certain songs desire a certain sound and that's why I have other guitars as well.

Christaro said:

I used to do this, too. It's a trade off, since the controls are so easy to reach while you play

Yeah, I used to have a habit of hitting the pickup selector switch while I was strumming...

I was onstage and I thought my guitar had stopped working. My bandmate pointed to my volume knob. "oh yeah..."

JesseDezz said:

i do that too....

I really like the overall sleekness & feel of Strats & Strat-styled guitars as long as the neck profile isn't too thin or too thick. I don't get on to well with the traditional Les Paul type design. Not that it's bad or anything like that, It's just that the few that I've tried just felt clunky by comparison.

Tonally I really like what I can get from a HSH configuration. But I do have a fondness for that staight up single coil tone both clean & overdriven.

I just got my Washburn J6 Montgomery back from the store (I got it repaired) Playing an archtop is truly the most fun I've ever had playing guitar. Since my J6 is a Gibson clone, that puts me in the Gibson category i s'pose

I feel very good with my strato Fender

EuroCinema said:

Hey cool guitar Euro. Nearly the same as Prince's.