Let's Talk Guitars

[AppleQueso]

I've never been much of an effects guy. Just give me a good distortion tone and I'm golden. Maybe it's because I'm not much of a lead guy...

I think the next guitar I pick up will probably be an LP or some sort of LP clone. Maybe one of the Agiles...

Speaking of Agile, anyone ever play any of the stuff from Rondomusic? "No-name" guitars that are dirt cheap, but they're extremely high quality and an excellent value. The lower end guitars there tend to use cheap parts as expected, but the actual build quality of the guitars themselves is fantastic. That makes them great for project instruments too.

They've also started getting into weird and kinda novelty guitars. If you've ever wanted a 10 string guitar just for kicks they've got one.

[Sasha_Blue]

Thinking of buying a guitar. What is a good one for making gothic rock music? My price range is up to $500 or so.

[fvgazi]

@Spyke - I see we share a lot in common! That SG Special in TV yellow is the other version I was going to get besides white, but the store didn't have it (I love TV yellow, off white, and pale green!!!). Is that binding on the neck? Mine doesn't have that even though it's a '61 tribute.
Those lil' epi amps are also probably the most fun to mod. I've seen people marshall-ize them, add extra gain and all sorts of fun stuff. I bet your setup sounds reeeaaal nice.

Glad to see another Gretsch owner too!

@Sasha - That really depends. You can make the same type of music with any guitar. There are a lot of differences in sound with pick-ups, but if you want to make heavily overdriven music, typically you want something with humbuckers. That being said, I've seen some heavy music played with a fender telecaster. Your amp and whatever pedals, if any, also add to the sound.

If you've never played guitar before I would recommend any of the fender squires (as their quality has improved quite a bit), or Epiphones. I'm very attached to SG model guitars as I like the style the best. Older gibson SG's have some of the best necks I've ever used, but you'd be spending 1000+ for something like that. You can get the Epi SG like Ziggy has. It's a reliable guitar.

[fvgazi]

Speaking of Agile, anyone ever play any of the stuff from Rondomusic? "No-name" guitars that are dirt cheap, but they're extremely high quality and an excellent value. The lower end guitars there tend to use cheap parts as expected, but the actual build quality of the guitars themselves is fantastic. That makes them great for project instruments too.

My buddy has an Agile. I don't know the model, but it's like a Gibson or Epiphone archtop with mini-humbuckers. The guitar is phenomenal. After he got it setup, it was probably one of the best playing guitars I've ever touched.

[Spyke]

Ziggy - how do P90s sound on an SG? They sound mean! They respond well to digging in and the tone pot. They have honk and bite. They sing with mild overdrive and they even have some "spang" when you need it. (I may have invented that word! I mean like the Telecaster staccato sound used by fast country pickers, when called for...)

The G5122DC I got as I got into fingerpicking and twang and it's really ideal for that. It's also a great rock guitar though and jazzy bluesy stuff too. It's a beaut. I intended to round off the f-hole edges and add faux binding but I've never got round to it.

Yes the '61 SG has neck binding and it's done very well too. Lovely neck on that. I used to have an Epi LP Standard, and then a Gibson LP Studio 50's Tribute, and I play the same stuff on the SG now, but with better upper fret access and lighter body.

Ant

[WrathOskvro]

I've never been much of an effects guy. Just give me a good distortion tone and I'm golden. Maybe it's because I'm not much of a lead guy...

I think the next guitar I pick up will probably be an LP or some sort of LP clone. Maybe one of the Agiles...

Speaking of Agile, anyone ever play any of the stuff from Rondomusic? "No-name" guitars that are dirt cheap, but they're extremely high quality and an excellent value. The lower end guitars there tend to use cheap parts as expected, but the actual build quality of the guitars themselves is fantastic. That makes them great for project instruments too.

I'm not much of an effects guy either. Give me delay, reverb, and a flanger and I'll be set. Wah isn't essential but I like messing around with it from time to time and it's also nice to have a volume pedal.

Also as far as Rondomusic goes, I bought an SX Strat for the intent of having a project guitar and it was one of the WORST guitars I've ever played. I could have just been unlucky but it had a spot that was not lacquered, the pickups sounded absolutely terrible which is obviously understandable due to the price. I'll let that one slide, but what I really didn't like is the fact that I couldn't tune it at all. Soon as I'd tune a string, all the others would go out of tune. I once spent literally 20-30 minutes trying to tune the thing. It stayed in tune...for about 10 minutes and then went right back out. Also it had a few dead/uneven frets. I do hear that the Agile guitars are pretty good though.
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Thinking of buying a guitar. What is a good one for making gothic rock music? My price range is up to $500 or so.

Anything with humbuckers will do. If you're a beginner I recommend starting with a smaller price range, but either way if you're still willing to spend up to $500 there are a ton of options out there. Call me a fanboy or whatever but in my opinion the absolute best value money can buy is from Schecter. They are feature rich, sound amazing, play amazing, look amazing. I've NEVER played a bad Schecter before (and I've played quite a few). If you've got $500 to spend on a guitar, I'd recommend looking at what all guitars Guitar Center has used because you can get a guitar that retails for twice that amount for only $500. My bass retails for $800 and I ended up buying it for $300. No flaws on it whatsoever. Hope this helps

Make sure to consider an amp too. I can't give you too much advice on an amp as much simply because everyone's ears are different. Give a bunch of them a try in person and see what you like. I will say though stay away from Line 6 Spiders, Fender Frontman series, and Crate amps.

[Sasha_Blue]

Thanks for the advice, I am a beginner and would like to make more music. I currently know how to play the keyboards, I got a mirco-korg XL synthesizer. And I would love to learn how to play guitar. I wanna make industrial music or some weird electronic ambient stuff.

[AppleQueso]

Also as far as Rondomusic goes, I bought an SX Strat for the intent of having a project guitar and it was one of the WORST guitars I've ever played. I could have just been unlucky but it had a spot that was not lacquered, the pickups sounded absolutely terrible which is obviously understandable due to the price. I'll let that one slide, but what I really didn't like is the fact that I couldn't tune it at all. Soon as I'd tune a string, all the others would go out of tune. I once spent literally 20-30 minutes trying to tune the thing. It stayed in tune...for about 10 minutes and then went right back out. Also it had a few dead/uneven frets. I do hear that the Agile guitars are pretty good though.

Hm, I had an SX bass and never had those sorts of issues. Maybe you just got a dud? I would've probably just sent that one back.

[WrathOskvro]

Yeah it very well could have been a bad apple. I just ended up selling it and luckily got no complaints after I did sell it

[pierrot]

I've technically been playing for 11 years, but I'm really not much more than an amateur. I've been thinking about working to a new guitar lately (I don't really like to collect guitars considering how inconsistent I am in even playing) as the sound of my red Schecter Diamond Series C-1 Classic just isn't my thing anymore. Not entirely sure it ever really was; I may have been influenced more by the pearlescent Vine of Life inlay on the fretboard, and the low action than by its sound.

I'm leaning heavily toward a Fender Blacktop Telecaster HH in silver, with maple fingerboard, because it looks friggin' majestic. It has a lot of positive reviews on it, but my first guitar was a Squire Fat Strat, and I fucking hated that thing. (Didn't really help that the truss on it was buckled, I suppose.) So I'm a little wary of modern Fenders. Should I be?

I guess if I don't get the blacktop, I'll just pick up a Parker Fly Deluxe—

In my dreams.