What guitar maker builds the best guitars at the moment?
This is a common mistake people make when they assume that one guitar maker is ‘better’ than another. Each guitar manufacturer tends to have at least one thing that sets them apart from the others and then focuses on refining that so that they keep that part of the market. I will give you some details that I have found through personal experience, but really if you have a guitar that you want to buy, search for it on youtube, and compare it with other guitars before you buy it, because every manufacturer will say that their guitar is better than the other maker’s. I will give you an overview, but you will have to try them out for yourself to be sure.
Fender: Probably the oldest of the electric guitar companies, in fact I’m pretty sure they invented the first one. Makers of the legendary Stratocaster and Telecaster, their home turf is firmly in the blues and jazz oriented guitar. Maple necks being a common feature, the fender guitars do tend to have a good top end to their sound. Many Heavy metal bands still use fender guitars though due to the ‘throaty’ sound that Stratocasters can achieve. However, fenders Stratocasters don’t sound as ‘thick’ as some guitars because until recently, they were all made with single coil pickups on them.
Gibson: Makers of the Legendary Les Paul, which is easily one of the heaviest guitars out there both in weight, and its sound. Also makers of the Gibson SG, another guitar that is now seen as a classic, Gibson home turf is firmly in Classic Rock music. Generally, Gibson Les Paul guitars have fatter necks than Fender guitars or Ibanez Guitars, so they can be a bit harder to play. However, the SG is known for feeling good to play along with its dark sound (I know because I own one). However, Gibson guitars recently have been receiving poor quality reviews, especially in their Les Paul Range. I would definitely double check every single option before buying a Gibson, as they are quite pricey guitars.
Music man: A guitar company that was set up by the founder of Fender guitars after he was given a false report by his doctor saying that he was terminally ill, by the time he found out he wasn’t dying he had already sold fender, so decided to start a new company. Music man guitars can come very close in tone range to fender guitars, and are renowned for their high build quality. They are quite expensive though, but this has led them to be used often by serious musicians, John Petrucci of Dream Theater and Steve Morse from the Dixie Dregs/Deep Purple being notable examples along with Eddie Van Halen. I have played these guitars before, and I would say that they do feel like a step up from fender guitars, but of course this is reflected in the price tags.
Epiphone: The only company at the moment that has expressed permission from Gibson to manufacture the Les Paul under license. Often thought of as a ‘knock off Gibson’ company, they do have some high quality guitars in their range. One that I own, the Les Paul Ultra II, is a Les Paul that Gibson can’t make because it is copyrighted to Epiphone. This is a hybrid guitar that can function as both a fully electric and a semi-acoustic guitar as it features both magnetic and acoustic pickups. I have put a Gibson Les Paul studio, which is the same price, through the same amp at the same settings and the Epiphone sounded clearer and punchier. That being said, Epiphone guitars can be les high quality than some guitars, and most people who buy Epiphone guitars do so to see if a guitar suits them before buying a Gibson; this is based on what people have told me as well as my own experience.
Schecter: This Company is firmly rooted in metal guitars, catering to Avenged Sevenfold guitarist Synyster Gates amongst others. Active EMG pickups are a common feature on some of their high end stuff. I played a Schecter hellraiser often a couple of months back, and that is a £1000 pound guitar, and it shows. These guitars are grown to be played at metal concerts, and have fantastic amounts of gain if you get one with active pickups. Drawbacks are that they have very fat necks, fatter even than Gibson, so they may not suit some people with smaller hands, and of course because they are built to be metal guitars, they don’t cover styles like the blues or jazz as well as a fender or music man guitar would.
PRS: They are a company that caters to guitarists like Carlos Santana, and are somewhere in between Gibson and Fender in terms of overall sound. PRS attempts to make guitars that have the signature ‘throaty’ sound of a fender, as well as the traditional ‘punch’ of a Gibson. They can do custom guitars as well though, which are actually becoming very popular amongst guitarists, these days. If I had to say one company was expanding at the moment, it would be PRS. Drawbacks, some of their cheaper guitars don’t have that good pickups installed, as I know of a few people who have swapped the pickups for others ones to improve their sound. And again, this company won’t give a custom guitar away for a small amount of money; it’s professional grade for a professional price.
Suhr: Possibly the top custom guitar maker at the moment. They are not for beginners because of the sheer price of their guitars, but they also have sheer quality on their side. The designers also build amps as well, so they are aware of how the signal path works, making Suhr guitars a cut above the rest for custom guitars. Guthrie Govan, a renowned guitarist and music teacher at an English university is endorsed by them and has at least 3 signature models released by them. Drawbacks, sometimes their guitars can sound slightly sterile in comparison to other makers although not terribly noticeably, and most Suhr guitars have tremolo systems of some description installed, leaving you little choice if you don’t like them.
Ibanez: These guitars are known for feeling better than practically any other maker to play. The Necks on their guitars have been described by players and critics alike as ‘perfect’, and they are used by technical players such as Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Paul Gilbert and many more. Their RG is one of the best selling guitars of all time, and thanks to them refusing to pay the license for the Floyd Rose system, Ibanez supply a higher quality locking tremolo system than Floyd rose in my opinion. I know through owning guitars fitted with both, because the Floyd Rose broke 5 times in 2 months, and the Ibanez edge systems still haven’t faltered. Drawbacks, these guitars can sometimes sound ‘glassy’ on their rhythm pickups. This is actually desirable to some people, but as a general rule, Ibanez guitars don’t have the throaty tone that fender guitars do.
How do I know what guitar technique to practice first? Should I focus on learning to play songs first or learn scales and stuff?
If you are just beginning then you should always learn to play songs just by playing the notes in them rather than learning the theory while you are starting out. You need to understand what sound you are trying to get when you are playing. If you want to sound like Jimi Page then you learn how to play some Led Zeppelin songs. If you try to learn theory just for the sake of it, then you won’t feel like you’re accomplishing anything, and you’ll end up not feeling like you want to play as much. Try to have a goal, for example ‘I want play the solo on comfortably numb’, and then go into how you can achieve that, e.g. ‘okay, he’s using only a couple of notes at a time, but there seems to be a pattern he’s following, so I should try to learn that pattern so I can get that sound’. Over-complicating things just leads to a headache most of the time, so try and get a sound clear in your mind, and then try to put it on your fret-board, because it’s a lot harder doing it the other way around.
My playing doesn’t seem like its improving. What do I do?
You look around for a player that you feel plays better than you do. Next, you ask him/her what he/she is doing to get that sound. If you can’t ask them, then ask others if they known how he does it, there are many people on youtube and music websites how can help with this. I myself am writing lessons to help people sound like their idols. Learn what theory they are using to get this better sound and practice it. Keep at it and try to blend it into your own playing, but not trying too hard to force it without understanding it. You will find that just by focusing on the tiniest little pieces of music you can improve without knowing it. Make sure that you have a clear goal in your head though; otherwise you won’t feel like you’re getting closer to anything, because you won’t have a destination.
What gauge strings should I use for my guitar?
Rule of thumb: the more you down-tune your guitar, the heavier gauge your strings should be. Thicker strings get a thicker sound, so blues players will use lighter gauge strings than heavy metal players.
If you play in a tuning like Drop D you should be fine with gauge 10 or 9 strings, but if you play in a tuning where all the strings are lower than E standard, then you will have to use gauge 10 or heavier due to there being less tension in the strings.
Drop C players should be okay with gauge 11 strings, but gauge 10 strings will be a bit flimsy in this tuning.
Tunings lower than this would require gauge 11 or 12 strings, which are really quite thick for strings.
Be aware though that heavier strings are harder to bend, so you should try to use as light a string gauge as possible while keeping your sound, that way you won’t injure your fingers by accident.
Is there any real difference between guitar string makers?
Yes, there is a lot of difference between some string makers. I will give you a list of the strings I have used in the past.
Ernie Ball Regular Slinkies: £6.99 per 6 string pack
D’addario gauge 10’s: £6.99 per 6 string pack
Ernie Ball Titanium Coated Regular Slinkies: £13.99 per 6 string pack
Rotosound gauge 10’s: £6.99 per 6 string pack + 1 free high E string
Elixir nanoweb coated gauge 10’s: £9.99 per 6 string pack
From my personal experience the lowest quality strings out of this list were the Rotosound strings, as they lasted only about a week of playing about 4.5 hours a day before they were rusted to the point where I needed to replace them.
The D’addario strings and the Ernie ball regular slinkies lasted roughly about 2 weeks under the same playing time per day before they needed replacing; the D’addarios felt smoother and had a warmer sound to them but the Ernie Balls sounded slightly brighter. Also the D’addario packaging is almost fully recyclable.
The Ernie Ball Titanium coated strings sounded brighter than either of the Regular slinkies or the D’addarios, and lasted about a month before they needed replacing, but their higher price makes it difficult to by them in bulk if you have a limited budget.
The Elixir strings are by far my favourite, lasted well over 3 months with the same amount of play as the other packs of strings, and because of the nanoweb coating, they still sound new after 3 months. This means that you actually save money compared to buying the other packs of strings, especially the coated slinkies. They sound just as warm as the D’addarios, but not as bright as the coated slinkies. However they do keep their tone for longer which is what really matters to me. They are about middle in terms of price, but much more affordable than other coated strings. They also don’t require any chemical cleaning due to the unique coating, just a wipe down after playing will do the same.
I hope that this has helped some of you out there. I wanted to see if I could give some of my personal experience back to help some people who haven’t been able to acquire that yet.
Take care guys and I’ll see you next time!
Peace!
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