A mate of mine came over to jam some guitar last week. He'd just bought himself a rather nice Jim Root Strat which he kindly let me play. The Fender model, not the Squier. It feels very nice to play, silky smooth neck and the EMG 81/85 combination sounded great. It's a great guitar and now the bastard has me gassing for one.
I'm not a massive Slipknot fan, so don't think I can justify spunking £1500 on a guitar cos Jim Root designed it with Fender. Not gonna lie its a great guitar to play and looks cool but its a lot of money. I've seen the Squier series, the Telecaster is £400 odd new, though could find something less used.
Is there a massive difference between the Mexican made ones and the Squiers? The main one is the pickups, the Squier comes with passives. They're a little muddy and weak from what I've heard from demos. The other complaint is about the neck not feeling nice to play.
If there's not I could possibly get myself a Squier Tele and then do some basic mods like swap out pickups, replace nut (if its not a bone one) and install new tuners. Would be a bit cheaper and still give me a decent sounding guitar?
Plan is to set it up in a real low tuning (drop a) so I think a 25.5 scale would be ok with 13-62 strings?
Or should I just stop dreaming and get myself a proper baritone?
Comments
I always had that assumption though if you stick an EMG in any shitty piece of wood it'll sound great. So maybe getting a Squier and putting an 81 in the bridge will be enough.
There is no hard and fast rule for what is a correct scale length for any given musical application.
It would be impolite to ask how much money you "ventured". IMO, Jetfire's post is a good example of one Fretboarder trying save another a fat wad of money.
The nearest that I have been into the world of down tuning is a pair of pre-owned Fishman Fluence Tosin Abasi humbuckers. These are about to be installed in an ageing Ibanez RG321MH. Probable tuning, D Standard or, at a push, C#.
£400 for the RGIB6
Sold the whole EMG set for £100
Bought titans for £120
Wiring etc was £60 i think?
Jobs a good un.
Alot of internet wisdom says that 28 inch + scale is a true baritone but as FF says, there is a grey area. a 7 string, 27 inch scale is a baritone but its only 27 inches.
Curve ball thought.
Get a body made similar to the JR strat but no bridge drilled for it, buy a long scale neck, put the bridge in the right place and then finish as you would do any other guitar.
Seriously, I wanted JR strat but couldn't be messed dealing with EmGs etc. So went with a blacktop strat which had just come out at the time. Saved £400. The other thing is that the paint on the JR is designed to chip away so I prob a have slightly better (newer?) looking guitar thank would have if I'd had the Root. That's not a critism or a bad thing, I'd just have wrecked it