What is the most versatile guitar?

xSkarloey

RocknRollDave said:

A guitar with coil split humbuckers would be my choice for "most versatile", but then again I'm no fan of the single coil "middle" position on a Strat, so I wouldn't miss it


Better still, learn to experiment with your volume and tone knobs, and also use your amp's EQ and vol/ gain settings - you'll be surprised how many bases you can cover with the same guitar just by getting stuck into your amp's controls.

Strat middle position is my fave! 

You're dead right about the tone controls. Best thing I ever did was wiring my Strat bridge to the tone control. 

not_the_dj

+1 for a HSS Strat. That's what I got to be my 'versatile' workhorse.

Islandape

Not tried one, but for those that suggest a tele, how about the Nashville versions with Strat middle pickups?

octatonic

Islandape said:

Not tried one, but for those that suggest a tele, how about the Nashville versions with Strat middle pickups?

I've had them in the past- they work great.

Even better if you can wire it so one of the options on the 5 way is the neck and bridge in series (faux humbucker).

dean2371

Guitar with seymour duncan P-rails; any combination you like of humbuckers, P90s and single coils with plenty of wiring options for splitting, series or parallel and in/out of phase. I've just fitted a pair to a strat and find them very versatile

ICBM

RocknRollDave said:

Better still, learn to experiment with your volume and tone knobs, and also use your amp's EQ and vol/ gain settings - you'll be surprised how many bases you can cover with the same guitar just by getting stuck into your amp's controls.

Exactly. At opposite ends of the spectrum, while a Variax is clearly the most versatile in terms of how many different sounds it has on board without adjusting the amp, a Telecaster used like that can be almost as flexible. It's not "all in the hands" but a lot of it is how you use the gear as much as the gear itself.

Skarloey said:

Strat middle position is my fave! 

You're dead right about the tone controls. Best thing I ever did was wiring my Strat bridge to the tone control. 

Same here. I'm not a fan of the 'quack' positions though - the neck/middle isn't too bad, but the bridge/middle sounds dreadful in my hands. I wish it was easy to make that position bridge/neck without using a Superswitch or making the switch order confusing...

My Strat-like guitar has a master tone control... much more useful. I don't really know why Fender still fit the 'modern' ones with two.

bertie

I own a tele, I own a strat,  as good as a tele is, it is a long long way from being as versatile as an H-S-S strat.

koneguitarist

Variax any model. Most versatile guitar in the world as a stand alone unit. You simply cannot argue with that. Not saying its best !

AuldReekie

A good Eggle Berlin Pro is extremely versatile

randomhandclaps

If the Swiss Army made guitars then it would be one of them.

koneguitarist

AuldReekie said:

A good Eggle Berlin Pro is extremely versatile

Agreed, but does it sound like an acoustic, or Ricky 12st or dobro, or tele or gretsch, maybe a danelectro open tuned to e or a 335 tuned to open G ? Most Versatile is what OP said, that's the Variax.

ICBM

randomhandclaps said:

If the Swiss Army made guitars then it would be one of them.

If the Swiss Army made guitars it would be an Eggle/Levinson Berlin Pro with VSC .

AuldReekie knows exactly what I mean!

xSkarloey

Skarloey said:

Strat middle position is my fave! 

You're dead right about the tone controls. Best thing I ever did was wiring my Strat bridge to the tone control. 

Same here. I'm not a fan of the 'quack' positions though - the neck/middle isn't too bad, but the bridge/middle sounds dreadful in my hands. I wish it was easy to make that position bridge/neck without using a Superswitch or making the switch order confusing...

My Strat-like guitar has a master tone control... much more useful. I don't really know why Fender still fit the 'modern' ones with two.

On my Strat I went for the option of volume, master tone and third control as a blend knob to get neck and bridge. 

For a while I had that set up with a rails HB in the bridge. It was pretty good. I reckon that set up with a humbucker in the neck as well, and coil splits on both HBs, would pretty much cover everything for me. 

I'd better shut up now 'cause I'm giving myself GAS. 

badlydrawnbanjo

Johnny Marr Jaguar?

TTony

I'd vote for either a Variax or a Godin XTSA.

The Variax gives you a whole range of guitar sounds, but always feels like the same guitar.  That same feel is either a good or bad thing, depending on your preferences.  

It's a good thing if you prefer to get used to the feel of one guitar rather than different scale lengths, neck profiles, weights (etc) of all the different models in the Variax.  Remember also that the Variax comes with the Workbench software, so you can create more-or-less any (emulated) sound you can dream of.  All from the one guitar.

It's a bad thing if you think that your style of playing changes when you play those different guitars, and that the change in playing style contributes to the different creating the sounds ...

The XTSA combines a fairly flexible range of sounds from normal mag pickups (H-S-H), with a piezo for the acoustic-ish sounds AND a synth output so you can create all sorts of wierd sounds from your guitar, either in isolation or blended with the p'up output.

I have both.  

They're far more versatile than any other guitar can ever be, in terms of the range of sounds that you can produce.  I can't comment on how practical either would be as a live performance tool (I'm not a liver performer!) but they're huge fun as home-based, fun-creating hours-wasting guitars.

monquixote

I don't like changing guitars so I gig with an HSS Strat. They can do most things and they have a trem.

It's tempting to think an HH guitar with splits can do it all, but splits never sound quite as good as a proper single.

Fret King do a lot of "do it all" guitars:

http://fret-king.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/f/k/fkv22hb_image1.png

http://fret-king.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/f/k/fkv6hyocb_image1.png

http://fret-king.com/media/catalog/product/cache/1/image/9df78eab33525d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/f/b/fb50bk-h.png

RichValentine

PRS DGT, gets close enough with the tapped humbuckers to most guitar sounds you could need.

Lixarto

impmann said:

Telecaster. 

The Swiss Army can stand down, for this exists.

ICBM

monquixote said:

Fret King do a lot of "do it all" guitars

Do they design them by getting a bunch of blind monkeys to randomly assemble mismatching guitar parts until they have something which has them all in roughly the right places?

Dear God. The middle one isn't *too* bad, but the others...

monquixote

ICBM said:

monquixote said:

Fret King do a lot of "do it all" guitars

Do they design them by getting a bunch of blind monkeys to randomly assemble mismatching guitar parts until they have something which has them all in roughly the right places?

Dear God. The middle one isn't *too* bad, but the others...

I didn't say they looked good now did I