Do-all stage guitar

chrisj1602

What about a Revstar? The Standard looks great value, has some clever switching.

My favourite and most useful all-rounder has actually been a Johnny Marr Jaguar.

grungebob

chrisj1602 said:

What about a Revstar? The Standard looks great value, has some clever switching.

My favourite and most useful all-rounder has actually been a Johnny Marr Jaguar.

The Revstar doesn’t have the sparkle, it’s a very mid heavy guitar and I think the focus switch is pretty useless as is. 

fretmeister

Suhr Pete Thorn (or just copy the switching)
Ibanez Jem / RG / AZ

Teyeplayer

The ‘Mojo’ knob (or whatever they call it now) on Teye guitars does what you are after, and there are various switching options on the 2 pickup version that offer strat type sounds, as well as out of phase, etc. Oh and they are anything but boring looking, definitely stage guitars. 

Musical_Mystery_Tour

stickyfiddle said:

Is there anything that does that stuff without looking really boring?

Yup, it's called a second guitar, on a guitar stand next to your amp.

guitars4you said:

when PRS first came out - So many early 'players' were not dentist's or doctor's - But gigging musos 

Was this on some kind of alternate timeline?

1Strat2many

Try a Musicman ALHH. Does the job for me on gigs. I find the coil tap sounds very good as well the Humbucking ones. You just need to get the pick up heights adjusted to suit your own playing and tone requirements. 

english_bob

TTBZ said:

They seem like pretty versatile pickups, always sounds great when Pete uses the split tones in demos too. 

Yes, but Pete Thorn could make a banjo out of a biscuit tin and it would sound great when he played it. 

octatonic

robinbowes said:

Sounds like you need a Tele, with a stacked bridge pickup. Or possibly a Mike Stern Pacifica 1511MS or 1611MS.

I'd suggest something close to this, although I don't like stacked Tele bridge pickups as a rule.

I have a pair of Telecasters with Harmonic Design's Super 90's in them.
They are a P90 style pickup in traditional Tele casings.

https://harmonicdesign.net/allpages/teles.html

They are by far the best, most versatile Tele pickup I've ever used and almost no one has ever heard of them.

They rock out better than a humbucker, they are rich, bright and have all the chime I want.
I can back them off with a volume pot and they clean up great.
Rolling off a bit of treble gets you into Tele-Paul territory.

I've mentioned them several times here and as far as I know no one has checked them out.
Into an amp on the edge of breakup and it is just magic.

I'm just back from a rehearsal just now- had amazing tone.
Yes, there is a bit of hum- they are hot single coils, but i can easily live with that.

roberty

fretmeister said:

Suhr Pete Thorn (or just copy the switching)
Ibanez Jem / RG / AZ

I've got a superswitch in the drawer and I plan to Pete Thorne a Harley Benton lol

Yorkie

fretmeister said:

Suhr Pete Thorn (or just copy the switching)
Ibanez Jem / RG / AZ

I’ve got an AZ. Wonderful guitar and one that I play almost every day. That said, while middle&neck is OK, bridge&middle does not sound like a proper strat. And the humbucker sound lacks… I don’t know, body? resonance? It’s a great approximation to a do it all, and I’m sure it would cut it live, but all I do is record and I still reach for the strat whenever I want that sound. 

If I could take a full-sized guitar with me on holiday it would be the AZ. 

stickyfiddle

Ok, so most of these are butt ugly as expected  

The suggestions that vaguely appeal are  Suhr PT, “build a partscaster” and the pickups Oct suggests all have the most appeal I reckon. @octatonic do you have any recordings of those? 

I’m currently using a Tele and SG with the band but always fancy something new, right..? At least having something that covers bases to take to rehearsals when I’m feeling lazy would be good… 

(bases currently go from Marvin gaye & the Jackson 5 up to Beat It and Livin on a Prayer)

**

And while I do agree the audience won’t be able to notice or articulate the differences between guitar sounds, they can definitely tell the difference between a band that overall sounds pretty ok and one that sounds really really good, and I’m very much aiming for the latter. 

octatonic

stickyfiddle said:

Ok, so most of these are butt ugly as expected  

The suggestions that vaguely appeal are  Suhr PT, “build a partscaster” and the pickups Oct suggests all have the most appeal I reckon. @octatonic do you have any recordings of those? 

I’m currently using a Tele and SG with the band but always fancy something new, right..? At least having something that covers bases to take to rehearsals when I’m feeling lazy would be good… 

(bases currently go from Marvin gaye & the Jackson 5 up to Beat It and Livin on a Prayer)

**

And while I do agree the audience won’t be able to notice or articulate the differences between guitar sounds, they can definitely tell the difference between a band that overall sounds pretty ok and one that sounds really really good, and I’m very much aiming for the latter. 

Check out the Joe LePaul album ‘Undercover’ on Spotify.
The first 4 tracks on that were done mostly with those pickups.

stickyfiddle

Ta! Will do

Offset

Philly_Q said:

The Music Man Steve Morse signature is super-versatile.  Complicated though... I watched a few videos about it and I think if you put all the switches in the down position you get the bridge humbucker.

(No coil splits though, and the Fender switch is only a three-way.)

Only problem is that the tailpiece looks like it came off a Woolies' Top 20 special.

Danny1969

Live music is a bit of a compromise in all areas. Sometimes you are better off just getting a guitar that will cut through the mix no matter what. In that respect a superstrat fitted with EMG's, inc the 89 in the neck, 81 in the bridge and a middle single coil can pretty much handle any covers song and you will always hear it. 

If there's less going on in the band or you have a very capable FOH guy (your own guy) who knows what's coming then there's more latitude for the finer detail of tone. 

I actually mainly play a Telecaster for covers band work these days. If you get a meaty body one with a aggressive bridge pickup then it will do everything from Van Halen to Johnny Cash 

DiscoStu

Charvel Pro-Mod So-Cal Style 2.
It's a great guitar. Fishman Fluence pickups with vintage and modern voicings, plus a coil split on the push/pull tone knob for single coil sounds.
The roasted maple compound radius neck is a joy.
A very flexible guitar.
I prefer hardtails so I bought the black one but the tremmed-up ash one is a beauty.

HAL9000

Surely the answer is to have lots of guitars plus an assistant to pass you the next one in between songs…

bertie

plenty of variations  around- but my ute of choice was (is) a strat with a JB-Jr in the bridge,  split at pos 2 and pos 3 changed to neck/split bridge.  Covered all the bases for me

english_bob

fretmeister said:

Suhr Pete Thorn (or just copy the switching)

I had to go digging for this, so for the lazier forum members, that's:

1. Bridge humbucker
2. Neck and bridge inner coils
3. Neck and bridge humbuckers
4. Neck humbucker
5. Neck single coil

Push-pull tone control switches between series and parallel operation of the bridge humbucker.

roberty

Yorkie said:

I’ve got an AZ. Wonderful guitar and one that I play almost every day. That said, while middle&neck is OK, bridge&middle does not sound like a proper strat. And the humbucker sound lacks… I don’t know, body? resonance? 

There's a lot of treble for a humbucker. The neck is somewhere between a Jazz and a 59 and stays tight under gain. I wasn't sure about the bridge at first but I've come to embrace its brashness. I find it similar to the BKP True Grit. It's quite uncompressed so you have to work for it but it will handle gain

I understand that for hum cancelling inside/outside coil modes in HH config you need to flip one of the magnets and wire that pickup backwards (RWRP). They do sound different enough to make it worthwhile imo