Music Guitar Advice (non-musicians opinions welcome!)

[Killswitch]

Decided I need another guitar but I don't play too much nowadays and therefore don't want to spend a fortune. I think I've narrowed it down to two cheap and cheerful ones and I just can't decide. I think the choice is basically down to the looks, so I'd really like some thoughts about the looks of both guitars and (if anyone knows about 'em) the guitars themselves.

1) Epiphone Nighthawk Custom Reissue (about £300 or so)

2) Epiphone Firebird Studio (about £300 or so)

I'm not going to have chance to play whichever one before I buy it which sucks. Either should be decent from what I've read though. Anyone got any other ideas about stuff I should think about instead? I don't like Strats/Teles and I'm not too keen on the Les Paul either (too boring ).

Help me Freddies! You're my only hope!

 

[Aoami]

Epiphone Limited Edition G-400 with Maestro (Pelham Blue)

 

[Himse]

I don't really know much about guitars!

Mostly for any Metal i've seen ESP / Ibanez seem to be a popular choice lately!

 

[megadave]

first looks best

 

[Aoami]

Futhermore, to the SG idea. Epiphone SGs have the best action of any cheap guitar i've ever played, however the sound isn't great. If you can afford an extra £100 you can get one of the new EX range with EMG pickups which would more than likely increase the soun quality 10 fold.

 

[Killswitch]

Epiphone Limited Edition G-400 with Maestro (Pelham Blue)

That's a really nice guitar actually, but I don't really like all that retro bridge/trem malarkey. I've never really been much of a lead player and I've always preferred hardtails or "basic" bridges. I'd never have a Floyd-Rose either!

I don't really know much about guitars!

Mostly for any Metal i've seen ESP / Ibanez seem to be a popular choice lately!

I've already kind of got a "metal" guitar, although the neck is like a fence-post with strings nailed to it! Given the good things I've read about Epiphone recently, I'm keen to try one of theirs guitars next but if I could stretch to £500 then I might have to try one of these!

Zakk Wylde custom something-or-other

first looks best

I think I agree Dave, but my missus just looked at them and shouted "get the red one! the red one!" so I might not be allowed the Nighthawk now! Think there is a sunburst version as well, but the trans-black is sexah.

 

[old.user4556]

At that price, you're really only purchasing for looks. The guitarist makes the guitar sound good (within reason).

 

[Himse]

At that price, you're really only purchasing for looks. The guitarist makes the guitar sound good (within reason).

I'm gonna disagree here.

You pay more for the sound, better sounding guitars will cost more, combination of how its built, pickups etc.

There'll be noticeable difference between a £300 and £2000 guitar i think, just the quality of build, sound, styling will be better.

 

[Aoami]

Epiphone Prophecy Futura Custom EX (Black Cherry)

 

[Killswitch]

Futhermore, to the SG idea. Epiphone SGs have the best action of any cheap guitar i've ever played, however the sound isn't great. If you can afford an extra £100 you can get one of the new EX range with EMG pickups which would more than likely increase the soun quality 10 fold.

Hmmm...Epiphone Prophecy SG Custom EX (Midnight Ebony)?

At that price, you're really only purchasing for looks. The guitarist makes the guitar sound good (within reason).

Agree with this to a point, but I think that having a guitar that "feels" right as well as one that you enjoy looking at and playing can make a big difference. Back when I was a "serious" guitarist, I had a £2000 PRS CE24 modded with active pickups and I couldn't put it down. Just owning the guitar made me a better player because it made me want to play. My current guitars just aren't doing that for me now.

I'm hoping a new purchase of something like the ones at the top will get me playing again and enjoying playing without having to sell a kidney

 

[Killswitch]

Epiphone Prophecy Futura Custom EX (Black Cherry)

That guitar scares me

 

[Aoami]

hahaha i cant decide if i like it or not, it'd be nicer in a different colour

 

[Will]

I'd get the Firebird.

 

[Scouse]

Fuck guitars

Ucelele's where it's at

 

[Killswitch]

Even though I said I didn't want a Les Paul, I'm kinda liking the look of this one with the tobacco sunburst...

EPIPHONE LP STANDARD PLUS VSB - Thomann UK Cyberstore

Decisions are not my greatest strength

In fact, I might even take a flyer on this weird Far-East brand of LP copies I've seen around the net called (worryingly) Burny. Information is a little scarce, but luckily there's a shop near me that stocks a few different models. So I can get down and have a twiddle

 

[georgie]

Or you could go a little different:

ML1 - £200


There's some B-Stock there with a couple of imperfections too:

Like this one - £180

Give you some idea of the sound you can get out of it:

YouTube - Chapman ML1 Shred

 

[Aoami]

that sound is fucking terrible!

 

[old.user4556]

I'm gonna disagree here.

You pay more for the sound, better sounding guitars will cost more, combination of how its built, pickups etc.

There'll be noticeable difference between a £300 and £2000 guitar i think, just the quality of build, sound, styling will be better.

You've taken what i've said out of context; he's picking between two £300 guitars, they're both going to be of average build quality, with average pickups and generally sound not too bad. A £2000 guitar is bound to have much better circuitry, have much better build tolerances / quality and have much better pickups (Edit: unless it's a shot to shit, knackered, original Fender Strat, then it's down to it's vintage / classic price).

If you suck at playing and your most complex guitar track is Wonderwall, that £300 guitar is going to sound sucky. But if you're awesome and can shred the shit out of it, it'll (obviously) sound a lot better than £300.

 

[old.user4556]

Give you some idea of the sound you can get out of it:

So bored of shredding. It's the musical equivalent of sucking yourself off.

 

[Aoami]

If you suck at playing and your most complex guitar track is Wonderwall, that £300 guitar is going to sound sucky. But if you're awesome and can shred the shit out of it, it'll (obviously) sound a lot better than £300.

I disagree. If its a shit sound it's a shit sound no matter how well you play it. Amps obviously have a lot to do with the sound as well. The guy in the video above was a very decent player but his guitar still sounded toss.

In some of the examples above (epiphone EX series) you can get real top range parts (emg pickups, always top top quality) for less than £500 notes. Other parts, like the wood, wont be as good so the overall sound will be affected, but a decent set of pickups is a good start for a good sound and they wont cost the world.

 

[Killswitch]

I disagree. If its a shit sound it's a shit sound no matter how well you play it. Amps obviously have a lot to do with the sound as well. The guy in the video above was a very decent player but his guitar still sounded toss.

In some of the examples above (epiphone EX series) you can get real top range parts (emg pickups, always top top quality) for less than £500 notes. Other parts, like the wood, wont be as good so the overall sound will be affected, but a decent set of pickups is a good start for a good sound and they wont cost the world.

Plus I have an advantage here (if I go for a mainstream-style guitar) in that my current crappy Schecter has a very nice matching set of open-coil Seymour Duncan humbuckers in it which can be donated to my new guitar if required

(SH-2n Jazz at the neck and SH-4 JB at the bridge, if anyone is interested)

I should be okay in the amp department, got a very nice little 1-watt Class A valve amp which puts out some frankly ludicrously tasty tone. I'm pretty sure that even with a £300 axe my fingers are going to be the weak link in the chain! As mentioned above hopefully a sweet (and cheap!) new axe and my sexy little amp will help me practice more and improve my playing to the point where I can make proper use of a £2000 monster.

The amp is this one;

http://www.andertons.co.uk/electric...id557/blackstar-ht1r-combo-1w-with-reverb.asp

 

[Killswitch]

Plus I have an advantage here (if I go for a mainstream-style guitar) in that my current crappy Schecter has a very nice matching set of open-coil Seymour Duncan humbuckers in it which can be donated to my new guitar if required

(SH-2n Jazz at the neck and SH-4 JB at the bridge, if anyone is interested)

Actually thinking about it I've also got the old HFS (Hot Fat Screamer) and Vintage Bass pickups from my PRS because when I sold that the buyer gave me £150 extra to leave the EMG81/85 actives in there.

So I'm leaning towards getting a Les Paul (Epiphone or this Burny brand) and replacing the pickups with my old PRS ones. If it's a half-decent body then I should be on to a winner. Thanks to all for the excellent advice...keep it coming!!!

 

[old.user4556]

I disagree. If its a shit sound it's a shit sound no matter how well you play it.

So a 16 year old Joe Average with his Oasis chord book strums some songs on it, then Steve Vai picks it up and plays the shit out of it - you're telling me it's going to sound just as shit? Really?

 

[Killswitch]

Okay...did some research and I've come up with what I think is a plan. A local shop sells a few "off the wall" brands instead of stocking loads of Gibson/Fender/Epiphone and so on. Saint Blues, Fret King (Trev Wilkinson's company), Godin and the slightly poorly-named Burny.

Tried a couple of Burny Les Pauls today and I was well impressed with them. The build quality and playability were much better than Epiphones I've tried in the past and the sound was pretty epic as well.

As such, I've decided to order (well, pre-order I guess) one of their guitars. Slightly higher spec than the ones in the store and (apparently) set up a bit like the Gibson Slash signature (although it looks nowt like it). My only concern is that these guitars are made in China and in the past their quality control hasn't been as good as on guitars from their Japanese workshop. They are currently on back order (probably earthquake/tsunami related so hard to be mad about that) and I'm looking at mid-July before I can get my hands on it.

£500 including a fitted hard-case seems about right for this brand/model.

There's a thread about this guitar with some piccies here and some pretty good feedback from some dude from Bolton.

I'm currently getting cold feet and doing a "lot" more googling but to be honest it seems this brand is somewhat niche outside Japan and there's not much info to go around. I guess I'm gonna wait for it to turn up in the store, give it a good thrashing and then see if I want it or not. If it arrives and it's a pile of crap then the store can keep it

 

[Cemeterygates]

Personally i'd go for an Ibanez RG, switch the pickups with your schecter, then sell the schecter, but that's down to me loving RG's...

 

[Genedril]

Only played the Gibson Nighthawk and I couldn't get along with it. Felt wrong and sounded wrong to my ears (though I'm a strat/335/LP man so that might be why).

Played a Epi Firebrand about 6 months ago when I went through the strings on my LP and it sounded pretty decent all things considered. I did start to feel like the Edge though (yes yes - he plays an Explorer).

I should read to the end of the thread apparently....

Though I'll add this (as way of digging my self out)... I've played loads of cheap guitars and some of them sound a lot better than a £1000 from the web guitar. You just need to play a whole load of them and find one that suits your sound and your style. I'm not one for slim neck fret-wanking but I'm sure the same applies to that style too.

 

[Killswitch]

Okay...going completely back on myself in a u-turn of Nick Clegg proportions, I've narrowed my choice down to 2 guitars...and they are both Les Paul style! They're also both a lot more money than the two I was originally looking at, but since the whole point of this exercise is to get myself playing more, I figure it's worth the extra if I can find a guitar I just can't put down.

1) Burny RLG60SL

Fernandes brand, built in China, highly thought-of. Bit of a risk buying something like this, but when you're not paying for a brand-name you can perhaps get better value.

2) Epiphone 50th Anniversary 1960 Les Paul Standard (Heritage Darkburst)

I'm not sure this would be as good of a guitar for the money, but I just love this colour scheme. I think it's probably the closest in looks I'll ever be able to afford to a Gibson Slash Signature

I think my plan is to wait until the Burny comes in to the shop in July and then play the crap out of it for a couple of hours, then decide. I'm going to try to find an Epi 1960 to demo in the meantime, but I might have to go to London (yuck!). I'm also going to be on the lookout on Ebay for a 90s "Made in Japan" Burny LG75-GR because if I can pick one up for sensible money, that's what I really want!

 

[Scouse]

So. Nobody likes George Formby then?