Comments for Used Electric Guitars

Comment on How much should I pay for a Squier Telecaster? by Squier Telecaster

Squier Telecaster — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 18:55:01 +0000

Not sure I agree with the above poster. If you look around you will find many favorable reviews on the squires. It’s going to cost you $400 for a MIM tely, and there is not that much difference in sound or quality. if you can afford a US tely then that is another matter, but you can get a squier tely for about $170. You can’t go wrong either way.

Comment on Why spend the extra money on a Gibson Les Paul Standard? by Loopi

Loopi — Sat, 22 Aug 2009 19:05:51 +0000

The Standard has the Maple Top and the VM is all mahogany. Basically the VM LP is the same as an SG becasue SG’s too are all mahogany. Any Mahogany guitar with a maple top will sound more alive. The rest is just looks.

Comment on Why spend the extra money on a Gibson Les Paul Standard? by Saul

Saul — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 10:50:28 +0000

Okay, so if the pickups are the exact same, what is different?

C’mon, you should know that pickups don’t *make* sounds, the pick it up from the vibrations of the strings. When strings are vibrating, what else is vibrating? The guitar, which is made up of many things that aren’t strings or pickups.

In terms of the quality of a guitar’s tone, the most important things to consider – the type and quality of the guitar’s wood, how the neck and body are joined, the quality of the hardware, the level of precision in how the fingerboard and frets are installed and levelled, and lastly how it is finished. The last is a cosmetic issue, surely, but the coating will affect the tone – take that thick poly coating off of your guitar and put a few layers of lacquer on it, and see how different your guitar sounds!

I submit to you that the pickups are one of the least important factors to take into account when buying a guitar. You can always buy different pickups, but you can’t change a bolt-on to a neck-through, and while you *can* swap that basswood or agathis body out for a nice mahogany body, you’ll be paying one sweet premium to do so, and that’s if you know how to do it, what body to select, etc.

As an aside, it’s best to think of a pickup as a filter – they selectively let more of this frequency through than that one. They are complex filters, with time-dependent characteristics, but they are filters nonetheless.

Many of the Gibson bodies are made from very decent wood… that means they had to scrounge to find a good source, and had to pay a decent amount to get wood that was structurally sound, had good tone potential, etc. That is one reason why some Gibson guitars are more expensive than others. A lot of extra work went into getting the little things, the little details, just right.

…

Okay, with all that said, if you can’t *hear* the difference or the difference isn’t worth the extra money, get the cheaper one. Me, while I can appreciate the sound of many of the more expensive guitars (and appreciate their higher level of construction), I simply don’t have the funds available to buy a 1000$+ guitar. To me, an Epiphone that has been set up properly, with the right pickups, is a perfectly adequate replacement for a Gibson.

Is an Epiphone as good as a Gibson? In general, no. Are they close enough that I don’t care? Yes. Sometimes that’s what matters.

Saul

Comment on Marshall Amp Line Out? by semalfni3.0

semalfni3.0 — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 16:05:08 +0000

The ‘Emulated’ Line Out on the Marshalls is a cabinet emulator for Direct Inject recording…..all that means is it is ‘supposed’ to allow you to connect directly to a mixer/recorder, and the signal is processed to emulate the sound as if it were coming out of cabinet, so you can record without a mic. I don’t think that emulated line out has enough signal to drive a cabinet (and that’s not what its for)….and it does not appear to have speaker jacks in the rear (looks hard-wired). The quality of that line out is also not the best from what I’ve read, and I have an older Marshall Valvestate that has the same option on it, and it is not good enough quality for (serious) recording (its fine for rough tracks etc..). So thats what it’s for, direct connect to a mixer/recorder without the need of a DI Box, and when in use it mutes the speaker (also obviously for headphones).

Comment on Marshall Amp Line Out? by CBukner

CBukner — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:38:34 +0000

The line out is a low power signal that is used to emulate a miked speaker cabinet. There is no power in this signal to power a cabinet and you might actually damage it. It is used to emulate a miked cabinet when you run the line to a power amplifier or a mixing board. Again, don’t run this into a speaker cabinet.

Comment on Is an Epiphone Les Paul Standard a good beginner guitar? by Cresstor

Cresstor — Sat, 25 Jul 2009 07:27:28 +0000

It is absolutely a good guitar, and great for beginners because it won’t break the bank. I got one last year and to me it sounds just like the Gibson. The only downside is that it’s a bit heavy, so if you are small or not of average strenght I would not recommend solely for that reason. It’s not a problem for me at all though, and I’m no Hulk Hogan.