I WANT TO BUY A NEW GUITAR.........HELP ME DECIDE!!!!

[j_tour]

Yes, I know.  The dark side.  I've played quite a bit of rock/blues guitar as a much younger "person," and as recently as fifteen years ago I started to get somewhere copying standard bebop/hard-bop guitar chord voicings and lines.

I was dithering about a classical, nylon string, acoustic.

Nah.

However, given that I sold my one strictly guitar/keys tube amp, as well as my Gibson SG, I don't envision plugging in very much.  I still have some stuff I can plug into, and all that, though.  Big PA speaker, mixer with a good amount of gain, etc., bunch of other speakers, yadda yadda.  I just don't really want to be chasing the dragon's tail of "tone," since this is more a learning instrument.

So the goal is mainly to have something I can drag around to my desk at home to do sporadic figuring out (i) theoretical (ii) ear-training things.  Yeah, I'll likely try to copy some Wes or Jim Hall or Grant Green solos, but that's not that important.

And, since this is really a toy for me, rock-bottom price is an option.

SO while my ideal would be a copy of a Gibson L7, it seems that there many clones of the Gibson ES175.

That's a fully hollow-bodied guitar, but with humbucker pickups. 

So, I believe a fuller sound unplugged than a 335 clone.  Louder, at least.

There's the Glen Burton GE775, and the Ibanez AG75, and it appears the Grote GTJJ01.  300USD is the hard upper limit:  it's just not worth more to me for a little toy.

I'm likely to put flatwound strings on the final product, just because I have only used the regular roundwounds before, and want to try something different, but I hope to not have to do any even simple set-up of the action:  I just don't care that much.

OR

I could put the same money into a product called the Ventilator II by Neo Instruments.  It's a remarkably effective Leslie speaker and preamp emulator, for use with my Hammond-Suzuki XK-1.

Although, I don't play much organ nowadays, primarily because I can't figure out how to rearrange my front room to have easy access to the XK-1.

[j_tour]

dp

[j_tour]

Just pulled the trigger on an Ibanez AF55 in transparent black

I think that will do nicely for me, provided it arrives in decent condition and I don't have to break out the nut drivers to fix the action.

Here's some random chooch doing a review of the guitar:  he's obviously plugged in, and uses some effects, but it gives you some idea.

Now I just need to figure out a SKB/Gator type case for it, which is probably more expensive than the guitar (/* No, that's not true:  a good rectangular Gator/SKB hard case is cheaper than I remembered...a necessity, I would say, even for just transporting around town....for what reason?  Not sure, because absolutely no one would hire me as a guitarist, but I might hit up an old bandmate/collaborator for some lessons, and I don't like the idea of just tossing a naked guitar in the backseat of a car....it's just not something I would do */).  No, I'm not going back to tube amp combos, but eventually I should, to do double duty for the Rhodes piano.  Not a priority:  if I want to get the county sheriffs called (yet again), I can just put it through the Mackie 1202 mixer and into the 300W JBL powered monitor with the 15" bass speaker in crossover with the higher frequency speaker. 

And, I still have a Wah pedal and cheap fuzzbox and a Roland/Boss chorus pedal, among other things.

Nah.  I doubt I can even remember how to play, so nobody needs to hear that amplified, including especially me.

Another demo:

=4

[lelle]

I think you should get *that* one.

Congrats on the new guitarra!

[j_tour]

I think you should get *that* one.

Congrats on the new guitarra!

Well thank you very much!  I already did!  Buying mail order, though is....who knows.  I work in a warehouse:  I know exactly what happens to packages.  Sometimes deliberately! 

/* if it arrives in acceptable condition, I think I'll have a tech or possibly a guitar buddy swap out for flatwound strings:  I don't want to spend hours and hours dealing with the floating bridge and getting the relative intonation right.

More realistically, I'll just tune it by ear out of the box and that'll be good enough.

Yes, there are lots of other keyboard things, including a Nord Stage 3, I'd like to play and own, but that's over 3Kilobucks, as is a true 2-manual Hammond-Suzuki SK or older XK series dual manual (with reverse preset keys, and four drawbar banks, plus pedal drawbars, and ergonomic V/C controls, with a full (not AGO, but full Hammond console, excluding the RT-series) pedalboard, with a half-moon control for the Vent II Leslie+amp emulator...I can't deal with a real Leslie anymore, even a 145 or something), but this is just for fun.

There's also a guy about two hours drive from me who is the best, supposedly, at tech'ing the Rhodes piano in the world, to hear him talk. 

And also fixing up the Wurlitzer 720A electronics and tuning/action work.*/

But it should be an adequate guitar for my needs. 

/*Yes, I will likely want the action to be set to about "medium" (yes, I know, technical term!):  that's just because I want to play a bit of slide as well, and from past experience, a very low "fast" action like on the SG is not ideal for that. */

/*And, yes, a lot of money goes to excellent libations like Teeling Small Batch whiskey, and another gold chain from which to hang a medallion of the virgin Mary....which will make it three chains around my neck I habitually wear. 

But it's tasteful, really.  Especially when wearing black "wifebeater" undershirts underneath either black or white "dress" shirts with the sleeves rolled all the way up to show off my guns.  No, not joking, either. 

And I did buy the Latin text of Ignatius's Exercitia Spiritualia....meh, it amuses me.  TBH, Ignatius is not a very good prose stylist in the universal language, but the content is extremely good. */

[j_tour]

sh*t!!!!

I just forgot about something.  I bought a new office chair for my desk at home.

And while assembling it, I initially left off the armrests, then put them on for better support of the backrest (for the lumbar support).

I suppose I'll have to take them off again.

Oh well, that's easy enough to do.

Hmmm....I guess I can just take off the right armrest (I'm right handed and hold the guitar in the regular way).  That should be good enough, although a bit odd.  Anyway, I always rest my right arm against a desk, such that I have skin abrasions near the elbow and have to use a pad on the glass desk for comfort.

I won't miss the armrest at all.

It will be a Frankenchair.

[j_tour]

Nice.  I got out the A=440 tuning fork and .... I think they're supposed to ship guitars with a little more slack in the strings, but whatever.  Took ten minutes at most.  Standard tuning.

Beautiful finish, beautiful feel of the neck, the fingerboard smooth.

I haven't played around with adjusting the floating bridge at all.

Mostly because I really can't remember how to play these damned things!



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This is as loud as a subdued, not bright acoustic guitar, *and* if I feel like punishing people, like one does, try it through the PA speaker and amp at home.

I should buy some picks!  I was sure they're would be a bunch around at my place, but no dice.

THEN, it really is a beautiful finish on the wood:  I just need to find an SKB rectangular case that can accomodate the depth (it's a Gibson ES-175 copy, so pretty chunky:  full hollow body).

[leigh anne]

Yes I know that feeling...  I have been there and we both kinda play the same genre.  So my advice will be quite far to what you want,  but believe me,  it works and it is good so read carefully.

Buy an acoustic!

Ok yeah it seems far from your taste but if you wanna learn follow me.

So why acoustic you ask?

Acoustic strings are much harder to press than electric. So that trains your fingers better.
And you said you wanna avoid plug in stuff so this is convenient.  You can carry this type of guitar anywhere meaning you can practise anywhere.  Thats all. 

-Leigh

[Bob]

Sounds like j_tour is more advanced.  I got a guitar a long time ago.  It's very good for sharpening the ears for tuning.  If anyone gets one, get a beginner one.  I think guitars have at least the beginner-advanced philosophy to them.  If you're a beginner, get a beginner model and don't buy more than you need at first.  But do get nylon strings.  I got steel strings and it killed my fingers when I tried to practice it more.  And after that, I haven't practiced it since.  That was probably... twenty years ago.  I do remember the steel strings digging, notching into my finger tips.

[lelle]

I also tried learning guitar some 13 years ago. I also remember learning on a steel stringed guitar and that it digging into my fingers was very uncomfortable. I think that was part of the reason I stopped haha