Surely, if you take say a Squier and a Fender, same model, say a Strat, set them up properly, keeping the spec as much the same as possible the only difference in how they both sound will be the pick ups? And there should be no difference between the two as far as playability goes, if they are both set up exactly the same?
I'm sure this is an old subject but I am curious to hear what people think about this.
I don't believe in ''mojo'' or one guitar sounds better than another simply because it does, unless its a placebo which is a very real thing, and nothing wrong with a placebo. For instance, a relic guitar wont sound better than a none relic guitar but the placebo of playing one , the feel good thing may make the musician enjoy playing it more and this may reflect on the musician being a better musician?
A Deuce , a Tele and a cup of tea.
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FWIW CS Relics do usually sound better than cheaper strats, but that goes far deeper than the finish into wood choice (neck & body, number of pieces in the body, etc), quality of hardware, setup etc.
If it is, I might take another break from the forum....
change every bit, spend some time on advanced fretwork and setup and yeah, you can get them pretty close. My epiphone was there when it had bulldog PAFs in it... never felt like a Gibson though. To get feel right I would have to refinish. If I was doing that I would plug the bridge holes so I could change to the traditional type of bridge
I can take a mid range guitar, change every part, refinish and I will have a guitar that sounds and feels like a Gibson.... for the price of a Gibson
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One of the beautif things about guitars is the way they all have a slightly unique personality.
Furthermore, I wouldn’t talk about the cheaper vs more expensive brands on the assumption both have very different sound and parts quality levels, a top end Epiphone will in most case matches up to, or out perform, a low end Gibson.
Take a load of epis and a load of Gibson’s and there will already be a bit of cross over between the two ranges. Upgrading will help increase that at a cost.
You still won’t be able to take the lowest epi and upgrade it to beat the best Gibson....
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dont discount “feel”, when talking about playability.
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They can be very similar indeed however.
There are other things about Squiers and Epis, Fenders and Gibsons besides actual overall suitability as musical instruments.
Squier have very thin necks, which renders them very easy to play for some people.
Epis often have a thin-ish D-profile neck, which can be a bit marmite.
Gibsons and Fenders go the whole shebang from tree trunk to modern tapered styles.
The neck and the ability to set it up properly make a huge difference to playability. If I ever get to the stage I can pick up any guitar, just play it without worrying about the profile and worry about minor differences in tone, then I'll be a happy man!
It’s down to all the variables that make a guitar. Even ignoring wood, every part will have a manufacturing tolerance that introduces subtle differences.
Not sure if your just trolling at this point though. Apologies if not. Go play some similar guitars and see if they are as identical as they look
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Thats what I want to nail, what makes a guitar feel right, neck profile? But two identical guitars but only one feels right, there must be something there.
Buying them specifically to upgrade doesn’t make as much sense unless it’s carefully planned out before hand
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One key element in its resonance is the neck join. The neck join is 4 bolts, manually tightened.
one key element in its playability will be neck shape. Bare in mind 20mm is a skinny neck, 23mm is a fat neck. Small differences make a massive difference in feel. Small differences will occur in the manufacturing process - variance is allowed
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I think it’s worthy of discuss though, but expect some knickers to be twisting as we speak
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