The Most Versatile Guitar

koneguitarist

Both my electric have one pickup each, P90 in my slide/open tuning guitar and a tele 50's Voodoo pickup in my Esquire.  Long as you realise volume and tone controls actually turn on guitars, the sounds you need are there! 

John_A

My Godin LGX is pretty versatile, two tappable humbuckers, piezo out and midi pickup for synth control

JDE

Voxman said:

I like Tele's but assuming you have a standard Tele with single coil p/ups they're not versatile from the perspective that they can't cover both single-coil and hum-bucker tones. You could equally argue that Strat's (3 single-coil) are the most versatile guitars - and Strats are way more popular than Tele's. 

I agree with you in principle, but did you see the recent thread on Bashful Guitar by Johnnie Jenkins? We all thought it was a different guitar - some said Strat or Tele, some 335. I think well played guitar can play tricks on you, tone-wise.

Phil_aka_Pip

ES-335

Always

Teyeplayer

Phil_aka_Pip said:

ES-335

Always

This^

A good 335 can’t be beaten.

sev112

GuitarSynth
especially the one modelled by good old Neville when he had hair

Schnozz

A PRS DGT and a ES-335 is a good shout, but a ES-330 with bigsby would be better, as the trem is unaffected by alternate tunings. This is probably one of the most versatile too...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GozcAsSWJic

Phil_aka_Pip

Schnozz said:

A ES-335 is a good shout, but a ES-330 with bigsby   

... would be more susceptible to feedback, go out of tune, and be a pain in the bum to restring, which is why a 335 with a stop tailpiece wins every time

ICBM

There's some stuff that requires a trem though, no matter how much you think you can get the same sort of effect by bending the neck - it doesn't either have the range or the accuracy.

And no, a Bigsby does not go out of tune… or the other thing .

(It's true that *guitars* with Bigsbys often do, but that's because they usually have Gibson-style headstocks, and the nut is always a problem. Try a Bigsby Tele.)

guitarfishbay

Most guitarists are the limiting factors, not the guitars.  As noted, a decent two pickup guitar with a trem (or not if not necessary) can probably get close to most sounds, doubly so if it's a splitable humbucker.

I genuinely can't do a good blues solo, it's just not in my DNA.  I have no interest in doing it, so at a blues jam I'm totally useless.  I also would be faking it i I tried to do the ska/reggae type of thing, and definitely blagging my way through jazz.  So whether the guitar sounds good or not for those genres doesn't really matter because I know I won't

Voxman

JDE said:

Voxman said:

I like Tele's but assuming you have a standard Tele with single coil p/ups they're not versatile from the perspective that they can't cover both single-coil and hum-bucker tones. You could equally argue that Strat's (3 single-coil) are the most versatile guitars - and Strats are way more popular than Tele's. 

I agree with you in principle, but did you see the recent thread on Bashful Guitar by Johnnie Jenkins? We all thought it was a different guitar - some said Strat or Tele, some 335. I think well played guitar can play tricks on you, tone-wise.

Agreed..but only up to a point.  The more distortion you have, the more tones can blur. And studio fx and EQ impact too. Most folk didn't know the whole of Led Zep 1 and the lead solo of Stairway was done with the Paisley Tele given to Jimmy Page by Jeff Beck. Its certainly easier to dirty up a clean tone than clean up a dirtier tone. 

But if you listen to Claptons woman tone with his 335 or SG, you simply can't get that with a conventional Tele or Strat. Ditto the thick tones Paul Kossoff got from his LP, or Gary Moore etc. 

For one guitar to do it all in theory you'd need something like a Line 6 Variax...although having tried the latest James Tyler version I was less than impressed.  

But a good combination of SC and HB tones in one guitar will cover most things.

Lebarque

Es335 or strat. Preferably both

Stevepage

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VMD_rBqzZK8/TxrWvITRcvI/AAAAAAAAAiE/Ro-083dZxzM/s1600/10_morpheus-nt-no4_3-11-11.jpg

Perfect for playing Death-Murder-KillKill Metal and the Ed Sheeran cover set at your local social club

JDE

Voxman said: But if you listen to Claptons woman tone with his 335 or SG, you simply can't get that with a conventional Tele or Strat. Ditto the thick tones Paul Kossoff got from his LP, or Gary Moore etc. 

For one guitar to do it all in theory you'd need something like a Line 6 Variax...although having tried the latest James Tyler version I was less than impressed.  

But a good combination of SC and HB tones in one guitar will cover most things.

Word. I think maybe the "woman tone" could be sort of achieved with P90's but I completely agree that you really need HB's for that exact  sound. It's like i now hear a lot of people playing jazz on teles with the tone off on the neck p'up trying to ape a 175. Tele's actually sound *really good* with the tone all the way off, but a 175 it ain't. 

Plectrum

Stevepage said:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VMD_rBqzZK8/TxrWvITRcvI/AAAAAAAAAiE/Ro-083dZxzM/s1600/10_morpheus-nt-no4_3-11-11.jpg

Perfect for playing Death-Murder-KillKill Metal and the Ed Sheeran cover set at your local social club

Also can be used as a bottle opener or a device to get stones out of horses' hooves

bigjon

Patrick Eggle Berlin. The most convincing Strat sound from coil-tapped humbuckers that I've heard. A trem which you can lock for alternate tunings / country string-bending licks with open strings.

Schnozz

ES-335 with bigsby and phat cat p90s then. Jeez.

richardhomer

I think versatility has a lot to do with dynamics.

Guitars which are compressed-sounding work well with gain - but not with cleaner/just breaking-up tones.

Conversely dynamic guitars usually work well with any gain levels.

ESBlonde

I might lean toward a guitar without its own signature sound. Strats, 335s etc. Are nice and very versatile but a great amp and slightly nondescript guitar (perhaps Japanese ) can cover a lot or sonic terrain without distraction. The listener can't tell one guitar from another.
That said I like to take classic guitars to get close to original sounds for my own amusement.

fandango

stimpsonslostson said:

After spending more money than I want to think about on guitars hunting for "that sound" I've come to the realisation that by the time I've factored in effects and amp settings the guitar I'm using is largely irrelevant. 
So long as it plays well and holds tune you can play whatever you want on whatever you want- the audience certainly isn't going to care. 

Once I came to this conclusion I just started playing my Esquire partscaster all the time.

ICBM said:

There's some stuff that requires a trem though, no matter how much you think you can get the same sort of effect by bending the neck - it doesn't either have the range or the accuracy.

May I suggest these two highlighted comments embody the essence of the most versatile guitar.

Defining 'versatile' isn't just being able to do your 20-something bog standard covers with a single guitar on a given night. It's also got to be able to cover genres you wouldn't normally play. Surf, punk, rock, pop, soul, folk, metal, etc etc. But some of that, especially high-gain, could be achieved with choice of amp.

But I posit that 'versatile' is also what YOU as a guitarist can manage to wring out of just a single guitar. That one guitar you can so bond (or have bonded) with that you can genuinely play anything on/with it.

I would agree with ICM that a vibrato (of whatever type) should be an essential. You can't do surf or play like Jeff Beck without one. Other than pickup choice - and that's affected by personal playing style as much as trying to cover all the genre bases - the rest is all ergonomics/practicality.