what guitar do i need ?

[rocker30man]

Hi
Im looking for a new guitar, want a retro simple guitar..maybe just one pickup?

Love the look of the Gibson les paul junior in TV yellow, Ive had a Billie Joe Armstrong Gibson junior before but It was quite a heavy beast and with no binding it seemed sharp on the fret board edges, so not so sure about the New Gibson les Paul juniors ? think they will the same but in a different colour ?

I want it just to have laying around and can pick up and play when i want.

Mainly play punk ? Indie ? Grunge sort of stuff, so P90 or Humbucker?

Not keen on Fenders really even though I have a Fender Baja Tele but did buy a Strat once and played it once and never again, not keen on shape etc.

I have a old Cheapo £80.00 Gears4music Les Paul which is perfect weight and shape but just a bit rough round edges and always feel its too cheap.

So do anybody make simple one pickup guitars but with some quality ?

[Les Paul Lover]

Melody maker???

You can snap them 2nd hand between £200 or £300, or just over £300 for the 2 pick up model.

Perfect guitar to have around ready to play and not worry about the odd nick.

[Wendigo]

What about some old superstrat-style guitar, like an 80s used Ibanez or Hamer or Charvel body and neck, and then just chuck a single dimarzio or seymour duncan in there. I think you'd find that for about 300-400 bucks you'd get a killer guitar.


Jim

[Boy_Narf]

LPJ is my favorite guitar of all time. Plus the new ones come with ROBO TUNERS! I say go for the LPJ. A P90 sounds exactly what you are looking for.

[Bensnake]

+1 on the LPJ.

[bclaire]

Disclaimer: I've never played one of these but they look so cool...

http://www.guitarfetish.com/Slick-SL59- ... 11110.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

they come in a bunch of colors

[Slartibartfarst42]

What sort of money are you looking at spending?

At the cheap end of the market, a Vintage V100 can be had new for very little money so for no more than £200 you have a very good guitar. Get it a proper set up and fit some decent pickups and you're good to go. I was so impressed with mine that I ended up switching my main guitar for a Gibson Les Paul Studio and while the Gibson is obviously better, the Vintage still stands up very well for the price.

[rocker30man]

Hi thanks for the replies, going to have a look at a few at weekend, I was looking at the melody makers on YouTube, they have them in TV yellow but not so cheap new, £539 ? So not much cheaper than a LPG.
So will have a look at them too. The slicks look good but not sure if there available in the U.K. ?

Used to have a vintage v100 really skinny necks though ? Never been a fan of the super starts prefer more les Paul shape... Thanks

[rocker30man]

Wanted it cheap enough to not worry about knocks etc, around £500, I get paranoid with les Paul standard and rickenbacker with kids knocking them over...

[rocker30man]

Just thinking maybe a epiphone les paul junior ? If I did what would you recommend changing ? What's the biggest down side of a epiphone to a gibson ?

[Slartibartfarst42]

If you have around £500 to spend there's any number of great options out there without the skinny neck. I'm going to leave Epiphones out of the way for the moment because I found they were nothing like as good as the Gibsons and frankly, when I went into the shop to buy an Epiphone, I walked out with the Vintage for far less money because it was a much better guitar. Anyway, on with some concrete suggestions:

PRS SE 245 - Top quality instrument with the Wide Fat neck so you should quite like it. An awful lot of instrument for the money. Depending on model, these seem to range from about £400 - £500

PRS SE Bernie Marsden - This one has a neck that is called 'Wide Fat' but in reality, it's certainly chunkier than a normal 'Wide Fat' Very much in the vein of a 50s Les Paul and one of the best single cut guitars there is and can be had for slightly less than £500. You'll struggle to find a bad review of this one.

Hagstrom Super Swede - Very good quality Les Paul style guitar for closer to £400

Vintage V100AFD - More like £300 and that includes a hardcase!

Cort Classic Rock - Most Corts use a very thin neck like an Ibanez but this model is a bit chunkier so you might prefer it. They're cheap at under £300 but actually solidly built guitars.

Vintage V100PGM Lemon Drop - Really, this is a Peter Green model but leaving that aside, it's a nice guitar with a slightly chunkier neck and again, under £300

[Les Paul Lover]

if you want something that can take knocks, might as well buy it second hand IMO.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Gibson-Melody ... 2c96e66283" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/gibson-melody ... 234b816ac7" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/gibson-melody ... 3cf3283245" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[rocker30man]

Thanks having a look, did Melody makers have humbuckers as standard ? Seems the new ones have p90 fitted ?

[Slartibartfarst42]

I agree that buying used is an option and getting humbuckers isn't an issue because you can always change them to humbucker-sized P90s. On this basis, the Gibson Melody Maker looks good value at about £250 but personally I still wouldn't go for it because it offers very limited tonal options and I'd fear I'd simply tire of it too quickly or my musical tastes would quickly move beyond it. A twin pickup guitar with more controls will still do what a Melody Maker can but it will also do a lot more that a Melody Maker can't. That's my view and I accept it may not be yours.

[Les Paul Lover]

Ohhh....... Tasty!!!


http://www.gumtree.com/p/guitar-instrum ... 1101292147" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;