one guitar to rule them all

ThePrettyDamned

The thing with the yammy is, they're so bargaintastic, you could get one used cheap enough to replace the neck down the line to a shape you're more comfortable with - there should be plenty of luthiers who could do it

Fretwired;166612" said:

Here's a Yamaha Pacifica 812W on eBay .. currently £100 ...



http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yamaha-Pacifica-812w-Sperzel-Tuners-Wilkinson-trem-etc-/151233780685?pt=UK_Musical_Instruments_Guitars_CV&hash=item23363c5bcd

Amazing!

maltingsaudio

@nickp

Certainly a wide variety of tones available from them

JayGee

ICBM said:

A PRS SE with a Duncan P-Rails in the neck and a higher-output humbucker in the bridge, plus a split to give either the inner or outer coils - you can do this with two push-pull pots, or a 3-way mini-switch - will give you pretty much what you want without routing for a third pickup.

Didn't the (full fat, USA) PRS Johnny Hiland signature model come pretty close to this sort of functionality? 

As I recall it had a trick (asymmetric coil split?) bridge pickup which could get Pretty Damned Close to a Fender single coil sound, a more conventional neck pickup and some clever wiring which let it go all the way from Nashville twang to Clapton woman-tone via cool jazz with just two knobs, a three-way switch, and a push-pull on the tone control. Not sure what sort of price they go for (not many around for some reason - don't know why because it was a stonking guitar) but it's probably one of the PRS models which has most appeal to me...

Islandape

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

SG2000 has the best access to high frets that I've ever come across, and it is a very versatile guitar sounds-wise. Consider it.

Or if the 2000 is a bit pricey, try the 1000. Same shape, you might give away a bit of sustain for the bolt-on neck (as opposed to the 2000's thru-neck). not sure if s/h price is within your budget though but worth checking out

Assuming all SG1000s are the same, mine has a glued in neck like an LP but with great upper fret access.  Sorry, not for sale though.

ICBM

There's an SG800 - a rare model just a little more basic than the 1000 - for sale in the shop I work for at the moment. It's very nice...

munky

I have a Pacifica 510v for sale at the moment - I'm sure you could get a neck pickup fitted? Otherwise it ticks your boxes...

Phil_aka_Pip

@Islandape sorry! I should have said set neck.

monquixote

Pacifica 812 is indeed a beast of a guitar for naff all money. 

I have a PRS Singlecut and the top fret access is really good. 

TTony

ICBM said:

 Duncan P-Rails

A pair of those would give you most (?) sounds that you'd need, and could be easily retro-fitted into any twinHB guitar, which might make it easier to find a guitar that works for you, and then just swap the p'ups.

HAL9000

As far as I can see,  pair of P-rails gives you something like 15 pickup combinations... 

HB HB 

HB P90 

HB S 

HB Off 

P90 HB 

P90 P90 

P90 S 

P90 Off 

S HB 

S P90 

S S 

S Off 

Off HB 

Off P90 

Off S 

That would be very versatile indeed. I'm not sure but guess the wiring/switching arrangements could be on the difficult side?

ICBM

HAL9000 said:

That would be very versatile indeed. I'm not sure but guess the wiring/switching arrangements could be on the difficult side?

No, not really - or rather, it could be complicated to wire up but would be simple to use. The easiest way is to use the Duncan switching rings for the pickups, but a lot of people find them ugly or a bit fiddly in use.

An easier way is to decide which out of the two humbucking options you want - series or parallel - and then you can use two push-pull (or push-push) switches as a coil split switch and an inner/outer coil switch, which gives nine options. Or if you don't mind drilling the guitar you could fit two three-way minswitches which would give you those options independently, which is maybe easier to use on the fly.

You definitely don't have to use two P-Rails either, one in the neck combined with a normal higher-power splittable humbucker in the bridge would actually give you more different sounds.

nickp

as usual guys you have outdone yourselves

general direction sorted - to those offering sales of various geetars - that'll have to wait until a few more gigs have been done and a few more forty quids have been stuck in the back pocket to fund the base guitar.

that was interesting :)

axisus

HAL9000 said:

As far as I can see,  pair of P-rails gives you something like 15 pickup combinations... 

HB HB 

HB P90 

HB S 

HB Off 

P90 HB 

P90 P90 

P90 S 

P90 Off 

S HB 

S P90 

S S 

S Off 

Off HB 

Off P90 

Off S 

That would be very versatile indeed. I'm not sure but guess the wiring/switching arrangements could be on the difficult side?

I did the 'everything' switching with mine, but didn't like it. Too fiddly to change, not everything was 'that' distinctive to my ears, couldn't remember where I was sometimes and couldn't see the mini-switches on the pups without glasses on to remind me.

Swapped to 3 positions only - P90 neck, 2scs in the middle and humbucker bridge. I LOVE it like this!! best guitar ever!

JayGee

axisus said:

I did the 'everything' switching with mine, but didn't like it. Too fiddly to change, not everything was 'that' distinctive to my ears, couldn't remember where I was sometimes and couldn't see the mini-switches on the pups without glasses on to remind me.

Swapped to 3 positions only - P90 neck, 2scs in the middle and humbucker bridge. I LOVE it like this!! best guitar ever!

I always assumed that the S-D triple shot pickup ring switching gadgets weren't really intended for "on the fly" gigging use and that in practice you'd just set them to give a set of sounds you could work with and then leave them there until/unless you had a gig/session which would be better served by a different configuration - kind of like a poor man's version of the Enie Ball "Game Changer"[1] programmable switching system.... On that basis it makes perfect sense but I can remember getting horribly confused at times by my old Kawai Aquarius[2] which had three splittable humbuckers with a three three way switch (HB/OFF/SC) for each pickup...

[1] Whatever happened to that anyway...

[2] Brilliant guitar!

chillidoggy

Islandape said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

SG2000 has the best access to high frets that I've ever come across, and it is a very versatile guitar sounds-wise. Consider it.

Or if the 2000 is a bit pricey, try the 1000. Same shape, you might give away a bit of sustain for the bolt-on neck (as opposed to the 2000's thru-neck). not sure if s/h price is within your budget though but worth checking out

Assuming all SG1000s are the same, mine has a glued in neck like an LP but with great upper fret access.  Sorry, not for sale though.

Another vote for the Yam SG here. Mine has coil tapped pickups, too. Sustains so well, and the best quality guitar I've ever had.

ThePrettyDamned

JayGee said:

axisus said:

I did the 'everything' switching with mine, but didn't like it. Too fiddly to change, not everything was 'that' distinctive to my ears, couldn't remember where I was sometimes and couldn't see the mini-switches on the pups without glasses on to remind me.

Swapped to 3 positions only - P90 neck, 2scs in the middle and humbucker bridge. I LOVE it like this!! best guitar ever!

I always assumed that the S-D triple shot pickup ring switching gadgets weren't really intended for "on the fly" gigging use and that in practice you'd just set them to give a set of sounds you could work with and then leave them there until/unless you had a gig/session which would be better served by a different configuration - kind of like a poor man's version of the Enie Ball "Game Changer"[1] programmable switching system.... On that basis it makes perfect sense but I can remember getting horribly confused at times by my old Kawai Aquarius[2] which had three splittable humbuckers with a three three way switch (HB/OFF/SC) for each pickup...

[1] Whatever happened to that anyway...

[2] Brilliant guitar!

Ernie Ball's lowest moment...