mr dave

i think this is a mistake.

skipping the 'middle man' guitars is not going to make you sound better or improve any faster. last week i was having to explain to you how to finger chords for a relatively straight forward rock tune. if anything, someone with high end gear who's still learning how to play screams 'drama queen / attention whore'.

specifically what guitars have you used prior to this point. brand names and models. how long have you been playing guitar? based on your posts here it only seems to have been about two months.

you say you've done 'research' but don't have any preference on what kind of guitar you want and haven't been able to figure out the difference between a single coil and humbucker pickup? what sort of research have you done? i feel like i'm repeating myself from another thread when i asked you specifically why you wanted to play guitar / music. it still applies here, now more than ever. especially considering the amount of money you (or your parents) plan on dumping into this.


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as for the questions you came up with earlier...

single coils are generally brighter sounding, with more high end, but they create a noticeable amount of buzz when used individually. it's not overpowering or anything but it's there.

a humbucker is basically two single coil pickups put together in an alternating fashion so that they cancel out their buzzing sound. this also ends up cutting some of the high end though and results in a darker low end sound overall.

in terms of multiple pickups, the vast majority of electrics offer 2-3 pickups per model. you can get electrics with just 1 pickup but they're generally the lowest quality models available (or the Malcolm Young signature model). even if you get something with 3 single coils (like an old school strat), you can still toggle the selector to activate 2 of the pickups at the same time to somewhat emulate the humbucker sound.

rating a guitar on quality and sound. that's done with your eyes, hands and most importantly - your ears.

in 16 years of playing guitar i have never once considered fret size or talked to anyone who did. although stainless steel frets are apparently freaking awesome if you want to spend the extra cash for a custom shop job. no. you don't need stainless steel frets.

string size will affect your overall tone. bigger strings tuned to standard will be under increased tension and result in a brighter sound. generally speaking most people use bigger strings to tune lower and maintain a relatively constant tension in the strings on their guitars. the vast majority of guitarists use 0.09s or 0.10s unless you've got a 7 or 8 string or tune significantly lower than standard. ultimately irrelevant until you've experimented a bit and know what you want to be doing.

as for your amp situation a small combo amp (40-60 watts) is more than enough power for most small scale practice sessions and even small gigs if there's a PA present.


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for $1000 you can set yourself up with a decent little combo amp and a nice mid-range guitar that will last for as long as you want. it won't have Gibson or Fender (made in USA) on the headstock but that doesn't necessarily mean it's a bad thing either.

ultimately your sound comes from your hands, it doesn't matter how much money you dump into your gear. if you can't make a no name guitar sing at least a little bit then it won't matter how many thousands of dollars you spend on a 'professional' instrument. the same can be said about your instrument, having a bunch of strangers on the net tell you X model is what you need is worthless, only your hands and your ears can tell you what instrument is right for you.

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i am the universe