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Tuesdays Gone - Lynyrd Skynyrd
No More Mr Nice Guy - Alice Cooper
Only You Can Rock Me - UFO
^ Those cover the neck well and that particular UFO solo never leaves my head.
Neck single coil tones it's gotta be "Who Did You Think I Was" by John Mayer, or "Everybody Here Wants You" by Jeff Buckley, or "Yellow Ledbetter" by Pearl Jam. Hendrix "Little Wing" as well.
For heavy stuff I judge distortion/OD on whether they can handle riffs where higher notes are also used and I can hear them clearly, as opposed to just root/5th power chords. So it's "Siberian Kiss" by Glassjaw, "Paperthin Hymn" by Anberlin or "Crawling in the Dark" by Hoobastank.
Fuzz - it's always "Start Choppin'" by Dinosaur Jr
All Right Now is my usual go to for bridge pickup, looking to hear that bit of kerrang but string definition.
The solo for Another Brick in the Wall pt2 for neck pickup and usually looking for clarity.
Sweet Home Alabama for mid positions if I want to figure quack/chirp.
None because I'm expecting whatever guitar and amp to sound like the record etc, but just that the how they sound in my head is something useful to dial in to.
Got to finish up with several cowboy chord Gs as well. It's just the done thing.
I notice the biggest test, many customers carry out, when the guitar is still hanging on a stand, or sitting on a stand, is to just to strum the open strings once - Generally low E to high E and often with their nail - Not sure what they learn from this - Maybe I should find out - But so many do it
Something Nile Rodgers-ish - Le Freak or Thinking of you for funky cleans or compression
Dancing in a burning room (Mayer) or Josie intro (Steely Dan) - straight clean
Handle with Care (Travelling Wilburys) or Human Nature (MJ) - for chimey, arpeggiated sounds
King of Pain (Police) - for Chorus/Delay and arpeggiated sounds
It's only love intro (Bryan Adams) or You shook me all night long (AC/DC) or Stone in love (Journey) - Crunch
China Grove (The Doobies) or Wings by Tyketto or Armed and Ready (MSG) - Classic Rock overdrive rhythm
Something Lukather or D.Huff-ish like Hold the Line and I'm a believer/Stay - Lead
I have a song I composed, and it's still a work-in-progress, but chordally/rhythmically, it's got a tinge of both Andy Timmons and Eric Johnson and that's my singular go-to piece for medium gain crunch and cleaning up via the volume auditons, so for guitars and ODs, again.
And for that reason I always use Zoot Allures as a starting point. Chords all over the neck, often having to be in tune with open low E. If that doesn't sound right, NEXT!
I will play some open chords to see how it resonates and basic tuning/intonation is ok, then a bunch of barre-chords to see that these ring clearly along the neck. Then I go into some noodling to get a feel for the neck and make sure bends aren't choking off. All stuff which is fixable but a decent out-of-the-box setup is a minimal starting point for me.
Then I will exercise it through some different clean/crunch/drive settings to see how it sounds. Again, stuff can be tweaked, but playing a bunch of off-the-shelf riffs doesn't help me get an idea of whether the guitar is right for me or not
Nil Satis Nisi Optimum