Best cheap gigging guitar with both h/b and single coil tones

HAL9000

lysander said:

I recently bought a Pacifica 611 HFM and I love it, brillant guitar. And the price is incredible.
Tuning stability hasn't been great with mine so far but I'm sure it's just the stock strings, as all the hardware is high quality. I will change them today - I assume they're 9-46 stock

I used to own a Pacifica 311H which is the 611's cheaper sibling and I'm pretty sure the strings were 9-42.

lysander

Good to know, cheers. 

Dominic

Pacifica ....all the way .........amazing guitars for the money

thecolourbox

Fender (or Squier!! Ha ha) 51? They have strat neck pickup and bridge humbucker

Voxman

Voxman said:

TTBZ said:

Why won't you touch a squier? They're really good guitars and a bargain. I'd say an upgraded one (pickups) will sound better than a stock fender for the same money...

Each to their own - but not for me. 

I'm going to revise that slightly as although I've been singularly unimpressed with stock Squires, I'll 'leave the door open' here as I've read about one or two 'higher end' versions that seem to be quite well thought of.  

I still wouldn't buy a guitar with p/ups that weren't good enough and that I'd have to change from outset though.  The whole point is that it has to do the job straight out of the gate and aside from the extra cost & inconvenience of p/up changing I won't know exactly how it sounds until I put the p/ups in.  Just like guitar amp speakers, different people like different speakers, and even the same speaker will sound different from amp to amp - and the same is true of p/ups. I appreciate some people are heavily into upgrades - but I'm not one of them & prefer to try & find the 'right thing' that suits me from outset.    

darthed1981

Voxman said:

Voxman said:

TTBZ said:

Why won't you touch a squier? They're really good guitars and a bargain. I'd say an upgraded one (pickups) will sound better than a stock fender for the same money...

Each to their own - but not for me. 

I'm going to revise that slightly as although I've been singularly unimpressed with stock Squires, I'll 'leave the door open' here as I've read about one or two 'higher end' versions that seem to be quite well thought of. 

Classic Vibes are great, but no Humbys... I chose a CV Tele over a Mexican Fender after trying both.

I've tried the equivalent "Fender Modern Players" and also a Mexican Tele with Humbuckers, I didn't like either! YMMV of course.

dindude

Well, as you are Voxman, why not try one of the now discontinued ones that were based on the Virage. This store seem to have some new old stock, and the pickups aim to do both Hb and Sc tones. I really like the look of these. There was one also in the classifieds but it had been changed to P90's.

https://www.musik-center.de/vox-ssc-33-tb-tea-burst.html/?___store=en&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=CPC&utm_content=206993-VOX+SSC+33+TB+Tea+Burst&utm_campaign=SEA-ShoppingAds&utm_term={keyword}&gclid=CIzGs7KQnNMCFYpAGwodLmwIhQ

DarnWeight

Should be able to find a used G&L Tribute Fallout for £200-300.  Splittable bridge HB with neck P90 is a nice versatile pairing.

Voxman

Came across a brand I've not heard of before - 'Fret King'.  Any info on these guitars would be appreciated. As far as I can glean, these are made in Asia and appear to be well made with good quality hardware.  Second-hand would seem to be the way to go as that's often half the new prices from what I've found.

If anyone here has a Fret King guitar and could tell me more about them and comment on tone, overall build quality, hardware quality etc I'd be very interested.  

olafgarten

Voxman said:

Came across a brand I've not heard of before - 'Fret King'.  Any info on these guitars would be appreciated. As far as I can glean, these are made in Asia and appear to be well made with good quality hardware.  Second-hand would seem to be the way to go as that's often half the new prices from what I've found.

If anyone here has a Fret King guitar and could tell me more about them and comment on tone, overall build quality, hardware quality etc I'd be very interested.  

Fret King are pretty good, they have a few ranges, and I think the highest end ones are from the UK. 

AFAIK, the Black Label are asian, but the Green Label and STVDIO are made in the UK by Trev Wilkinson

pintspiller

Pacifica. I always told myself, that if I ever got into a duo that gigged twice a week or more, that I would leave my present gear at home and solely use a Pacifica. I never decided on the amplifier - probably a SansAmp DI.

Voxman

dindude said:

Well, as you are Voxman, why not try one of the now discontinued ones that were based on the Virage. This store seem to have some new old stock, and the pickups aim to do both Hb and Sc tones. I really like the look of these. There was one also in the classifieds but it had been changed to P90's.

https://www.musik-center.de/vox-ssc-33-tb-tea-burst.html/?___store=en&utm_source=Google&utm_medium=CPC&utm_content=206993-VOX+SSC+33+TB+Tea+Burst&utm_campaign=SEA-ShoppingAds&utm_term={keyword}&gclid=CIzGs7KQnNMCFYpAGwodLmwIhQ

I have actually tried them and was even loaned one (SSC55) for a while that I used on a demo vid I did of the Valvetronix VT40+ amp (you can see it here at the start of the vid and at 2:45, 5:38 and at 8:25 with slide & a double drop D tuning:)

The SSC33 wasn't particularly versatile and didn't have some of the refinements of the SSC55 which was a much better guitar and gave more tonal options.



The SSC55 was quite nicely put together with decent hardware, albeit it was IMO somewhat pricey at the time (around £7-800 I think).  The neck was comfortable but felt just a bit 'plasticky'. I had mixed views of the p/ups.  Conceptually the idea is great of a pickup that could give H/B, single-coil & P90 tones.  The h/b and single coil tones were pretty good but the P90 tone sounded nothing like a P90 and lacked that mixture of classic P90 warmth and sparkle.  Overall I felt the p/ups fell a little short of their marketing hype and weren't quite as good as the DiMarzios used in the original Virage, which was a really good guitar but ludicrously priced (around £1,800 at the time as I recall!).  

kennedydream1980

Voxman said:

Came across a brand I've not heard of before - 'Fret King'.  Any info on these guitars would be appreciated. As far as I can glean, these are made in Asia and appear to be well made with good quality hardware.  Second-hand would seem to be the way to go as that's often half the new prices from what I've found.

If anyone here has a Fret King guitar and could tell me more about them and comment on tone, overall build quality, hardware quality etc I'd be very interested.  

Fret King guitars are superb for the money. The Blue Label guitars are exceptional value second hand. They are discontinued so you can't buy them new but bargains are to be had if you can find one used.

I recently sold by Blue Label Super 60 HB on here for £200. It was easily on par with any USA Fender Strat I've had, one of the better strat style guitars I've owned, the neck was especially nice and the pickups are great, never felt the need to change them out.

I only sold it as I had an opportunity to buy my old Peavey Custom Shop guitar back, and I needed the cash.

rossi

I found a Blacktop Strat good for coil split .The hotter pickups split better .

Voxman

I'm going to take a trip to Tottenham Court Road to try the Yamaha 611 vfm, 611 hfm and 612 v2fm to see what might best suit me. If I go for a 612 (hss layout) I might later go for a P90 guitar as I don't have one. 

Voxman

So, I was tempted by the devil and saw a lovely Patrick Eggle Berlin Pro HSS in a gorgeous Emerald Green on EBay, and was watching the auction like a hawk in the last 5 mins all set to bid, but it just got a bit too pricey for me (went for £730 plus £30 postage - & I think there were proxy max bids that would have gone higher even if I'd bid).  I think that would have done the job nicely. 

Anyway, c'est la vie!  following the excellent recommendations here for the Pacifica 611 and Line 6 Variax JTV59, I'm going to Yamaha Music on Friday with my daughter for company, to try out some guitars.  Just called them, spoke to a nice helpful guy called Bradley, & they've got everything in for me to try out.  What's extra handy is that I'd forgotten that Yamaha now own Line 6 - and they've got a JTV59, JTV69 (normal plus the £3k US versions!) and the Yamaha Pacifica 611 hfm, 611 vfm, and 612 v2fm all in stock - so I can try everything out side by side to see what I like!  

HAL9000

Another suggestion - Fender MIM HH Telecaster. The tone control additionally has a push-pull action which just leaves the outer coils active.

Voxman

HAL9000 said:

Another suggestion - Fender MIM HH Telecaster. The tone control additionally has a push-pull action which just leaves the outer coils active.

Thanks for that suggestion  - I'll see how I get on with the Pacifica's & Variax' first 

grungebob

Hss mim strat as others have said but I'd also look at the PRS se Dave Navarro model. Really great solid guitar with the partial tap mod already done and makes for very usable tones. 
I liked mine so much I replaced the stock pickups for USA PRS ones and changed the nit for a USA PRS one too. 
That then lead on to selling it to buy a core PRS. I wish I had kept it. 

Voxman

grungebob said:

Hss mim strat as others have said but I'd also look at the PRS se Dave Navarro model. Really great solid guitar with the partial tap mod already done and makes for very usable tones. 
I liked mine so much I replaced the stock pickups for USA PRS ones and changed the nit for a USA PRS one too. 
That then lead on to selling it to buy a core PRS. I wish I had kept it. 

Thanks @grungebob but I have a 2002 US PRS Custom 24 already and I'm not a huge fan of the Dave Navarro model.  I also wouldn't want to change p/ups or hardware on any guitar I buy - if it's not right for me stock, I don't want it.