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Electric Guitars Guitars are tough to recommend. You really have to go out and try out different guitars until you find one that you like. Another way is to see what your favorite artist is using. Then go out and try that brand. You can't go wrong with Fender or Gibson. There are a lot of opinions, so let me just tell you what I've got. Okay, I just recently went and got a JS-100 like the one pictured towards the bottom of the page. I bought it used on ebay and got a great deal. Yup, it's my second JS-100. But this one I'm customizing. First, I've replaced the pickups and put Joe's choice, Dimarzio Fred and Paf Pro. Wow! It sounds great! The other thing I've done is had it nickel plated. Crazy? Well who can afford a JS10th. I've posted some pictures but I'll put better ones soon, but if you're interested, you can get info from Historicalarts on ebay. You'll notice that the headstock is black. That's because they don't plate the headstock. But it still looks cool. Here's their website if you want to check it out: www.gunsgirlsandguitars.com
Ibanez makes some great and affordable guitars. They are also endorsed by some of my favorite guitarists like Joe Satriani. My first Ibanez was a vintage guitar that I bought for $8 dollars at a swap meet. Wish I still had that guitar. But I did end up trading it up for an Ibanez Artist similar to this one from Musician's Friend: I bought the Artist because at the time Carlos Santana was playing it. He also used to play a Yamaha SBG Here is a picture of my SBG700S.
I know he uses a PRS guitar now. They recently released an SE model reasonable enough in price which might be worth looking in to. I have a PRS copy made by Austin. I'll have to post some pictures. Interesting guitar. Has a separate volume control for each pickup and one tone control. I miss the pickup selector switch. I'm contemplating taking out the second volume control and replacing it with the 3 way pickup switch. I later traded the Artist for a bass and amp, my mistake. I also had a whole bunch of copy guitars that I no longer have. They included a copy of an Explorer that had effects built in, a Les Paul copy, a flying V, a couple different Strat copies. Anyway, you go through a lot of guitars. My current collection includes the following but in black: I will post a picture of mine soon. The GAX-70 is a great solid guitar with the familiar Artist shape. I love using it for practicing while watching TV. The low cost makes this a great starter guitar. If you like 7 string guitars, you can get the 7 String version from Musicians Friend by clicking below: I use an RG-470 for jamming, recording, and just about everything else. For that rock guitar sound, you can't go wrong with an RG. This one is from Musician's Friend (mine is midnight blue):
I had an S series Ibanez, the S-540D. This is a Deluxe model that has the Custom Made fret inlay. The body on this guitar is super thin! I ended up selling it so I could get my JS nickel plated. Now my pride and joy guitar is the JS-100. A Joe Satriani signature guitar. One day I hope to have a JS10th, a Crystal Planet, or even a JS1000. They've recently released the JS2000 which looks great. It seems to be a champagne color.
For New Age type music, I use my Dean Boca semi-hollow electric. It has great tone, is low cost, and helps when I feel like cranking out George Benson's "Breezin'". (well almost)
I used to have a Fender Stratocaster. Yup, I sold it and wish I didn't. So now I'm left with my Squier Mini Stratocaster. It also doubles as my midi guitar. I use the Shadow SH-075 system which works great for me. There are others and you can check out the Unofficial Midi Guitar Page. It has great info. I recently purchased a Squier Bullet and installed my Shadow SH-075 on it. This is a much better fit for playing. The mini was fine but had the wrong feel because the fretboard is smaller. And at $99 it's a steal! I also installed a new bridge pickup.
Similar to the pickup above, I put in the white version to match the other pickups. This really cut down on the hum and it makes me wonder how anyone can use a single coil pickup. They must have a good noise reduction system. Now here's a couple pics of my project guitar. Basically it's just a Squier Strat but I made some modifications. The first is an Ibanez neck. Only because I had the body without the neck to begin with and ended up buying an Ibanez neck. You'll notice my setup has a Shadow midi pickup system. I use that for all my synth options. It's probably not as feature packed as others out there but it gets the job done and it cost less when I bought it (Who can afford more than a grand?). Next, I added the LR Baggs X Bridge so I could have acoustic sounds. I have a separate jack for the pickup so I can plug into an acoustic amp. The final add on is a Fernandes Sustainer. I put it on originally so I could sustain and have controlled feedback as well. Well it seems to have an interesting effect on my midi setup! It makes the strings and horns sound more realistic because of the long sustain. I'm just getting started with testing this but I'll post my feedback on it.
BASS If you're doing recording on your own, you'll need a bass (unless you just use midi). I use a Yamaha 4-string bass that cost me about $149 new (I think they are more now). I tried using midi for recording bass, but it really didn't cut it for me. Besides you can plug in direct to record.
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