Do-all stage guitar

roberty

english_bob said:

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.

I want to try this but with a partial split in position 5 and position 2 in series out of phase. Just need the willpower to figure it out

stickyfiddle

Speaking of wiring schemes, I actually really like the Brent Mason thing, where you have a Tele with a blendable middle pickup to add to anything else. That on a Strat with a bridge humbucker could make a fantastic guitar. Fiesta Red? Hmmm…. 

Offset

DiscoStu said:

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.

I really like this - with the exception of one small detail: the cutout in the scratchplate to accomodate the p/up selector.

roberty

stickyfiddle said:

Speaking of wiring schemes, I actually really like the Brent Mason thing, where you have a Tele with a blendable middle pickup to add to anything else. That on a Strat with a bridge humbucker could make a fantastic guitar. Fiesta Red? Hmmm…. 

That sounds like a good solution. Three controls on a Strat, too

jdbwales

In my experience, my LP Custom with partial coil splits does everything except trem stuff - I’ve recently got an Ibanez RG which covers everything else, including some lovely Strat type sounds. Honestly most punters absolutely do not care as long as you’ve got a big rock sound, a clean twangy or sweet sound, and some trem action on special occasions. Anything else is guitarist dick measuring stuff, which to be fair is kind of the point of the forum.

TimmyO

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. 

You are sporting 2 cool guitars already - get a roadie :-) 

TimmyO

Serious suggestion : find a DGT to try. It’ll do 3 of those 4 sounds. 

stickyfiddle

TimmyO said:

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. 

You are sporting 2 cool guitars already - get a roadie :-) 

haha. Wis awarded. 

Irrespective of the above I have a 335 and a Firebird on the to-try list…

merlin

In a live situation, use your favourite guitar with a good choice of boost, EQ and compressor pedals. No-one (not even my mum after a few gins) will notice. 

DiscoStu

Offset said:

DiscoStu said:

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.

I really like this - with the exception of one small detail: the cutout in the scratchplate to accomodate the p/up selector.

I know what you're saying but mine's the black hardtail and I don't even notice it.

Offset

^^ Yep that's barely noticeable.  I far prefer the hardtail integrated bridge/pup too.

robinbowes

stickyfiddle said:

Speaking of wiring schemes, I actually really like the Brent Mason thing, where you have a Tele with a blendable middle pickup to add to anything else. That on a Strat with a bridge humbucker could make a fantastic guitar. Fiesta Red? Hmmm…. 

That reminds me of the Kinman K9 harness for a Strat. Main features of it are:

• bridge/middle pickup can be switched in to series (in position 2) to give a heavier, humbucker-like sound
• neck pickup can be blended with the other pickups in positions 1, 2, & 3

This gives you:

• a mellow neck pickup - position 5 (depends on the pickup you use)
• tele-middle sound - position 1 with neck pickup blended in
• rock bridge humbucker - position 2 with series switch engaged
• occasionally a Strat-in-between - all other positions!

My current versatile guitar of choice for rehearsals is a DGT SE but I may just dig out the Strat for my next rehearsal!

guitars4you

Offset said:

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.

And you need to be Inspector Morse to suss out all the switching options

fretmeister

As nobody has done it yet....

The audience doesn't care!  



Will do everything. Or the pots can be swapped for push pull to get even more.

And it looks fantastic. 1% of non-guitarists know it's a signature guitar. To everybody else, it's just a fancy paint job.

Offset

stickyfiddle said:

Irrespective of the above I have a 335 and a Firebird on the to-try list…

You really won't want a Firebird as your do-all-stage-guitar, trust me 

Trude

I have a 3PU LPC Black Beauty with coil splits, independently engageble middle pickup and phase switch for PG sounds.  Does all you've mentioned and more.  I'd also venture to state it looks cooler than most of the options proposed so far!




....but actually for me personally these days, I've found my definition of "do all" has changed quite a bit, and having a great acoustic sound in parallel to my electric is making more of a difference than having whole range of electric pickup tones to choose from.  Especially in solo or trio contexts, it really helps to glue the overall mix together and so my PRS SE Hollowbody Piezo II is getting most of the action.  So much in fact that I bought a second one so I could have a backup.
 

hollywoodrox

fretmeister said:

As nobody has done it yet....

The audience doesn't care!  



Will do everything. Or the pots can be swapped for push pull to get even more.

And it looks fantastic. 1% of non-guitarists know it's a signature guitar. To everybody else, it's just a fancy paint job.

fretmeister said:

As nobody has done it yet....

The audience doesn't care!  



Will do everything. Or the pots can be swapped for push pull to get even more.

And it looks fantastic. 1% of non-guitarists know it's a signature guitar. To everybody else, it's just a fancy paint job.

I Said a Rg550 or a Jem as the OP did state that he didn’t want something that looked Boring
nice choice on the BFP it’s pretty cool & will do all styles  including those 2 & 4 position strat ones 

jca74

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.)

That reminds me of another Music Man...

ICBM

fretmeister said:

As nobody has done it yet....

The audience doesn't care!  



Will do everything. Or the pots can be swapped for push pull to get even more.

And it looks fantastic. 1% of non-guitarists know it's a signature guitar. To everybody else, it's just a fancy paint job.

That’s one of my favourite looking JEMs. A push-pull to manually split the humbuckers and one (or a superswitch) to give the neck/bridge combination and that gives pretty much all the sounds too.

I just don’t really like the monkey grip. I know it’s part of the design, but I find it difficult to get past - it’s why I didn’t buy an original Floral when I had the chance. (Before they just about tripled in price…)

stickyfiddle

Offset said:

stickyfiddle said:

Irrespective of the above I have a 335 and a Firebird on the to-try list…

You really won't want a Firebird as your do-all-stage-guitar, trust me 

Ha! Almost certainly but they’re so damn cool I may not care…