Electric for Flesh Player?

[SaintClarence27]

Originally Posted by mr. beaumont

Good guitar and a good amp and you're good to go. No need for rabbit holes.

Most good combo amps are going to have a ton of modeling built in that will get you the tone you want.

[mr. beaumont]

Originally Posted by SaintClarence27

Most good combo amps are going to have a ton of modeling built in that will get you the tone you want.

Modeling amps are as good as they've ever been, but a good combo amp can also be very, very simple.

It's remarkable how many sounds you can get from a small tube amp with reverb, just by changing the way you attack the strings.

And of course, modelling has gotten good enough that you can set a modeling amp now to do pretty much the same thing!

[ChrisN]

Try out any Ibanez AM/AS semihollow with Super 58 (or even Super 58 Custom) pickups - AM/AS 93, and above - with your budget, you could easily swing the current Prestige,or earlier Vintage, made-in-Japan models with the "real" Super 58s. Very low-wind, treblyish, articulate pickups that are very responsive to flesh-only work. They're very near single-coil territory.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by SaintClarence27

Most good combo amps are going to have a ton of modeling built in that will get you the tone you want.

Not all of them: some use honest-to-goodness tubes to generate their sonic mojo, a rare few can be had for the price of a midline modeling rig, controls are WYSIWYG simple - no chasing your preferred sounds by scrolling through menus or deep editing - and when tone is Job #1 and the house is full I know which one I'd rather have:



https://www.sweetwater.com/store/det...tube-combo-amp

[fpuhan]

I'm with @imwjl: Delay gratification and try lots of stuff

In my 56+ years of playing I have never felt comfortable using a pick. I tell people that picks hate me -- they are always jumping out of my hands. Thus, I use thumb and fingers exclusively.

And I also describe myself as an "electric acoustic" player: I play mostly electric guitar music on acoustic guitar. But I have a number of electrics also, and what I change most when going from acoustic to electric and vice-versa, is what I do with my fretting hand, not my striking hand. Put another way, barre chords higher on the neck sound better to my ears on an electric. But the strumming and picking of my striking hand remains the same.

[GoPappy]

Here's a guy that knows a little something about getting tone out of his guitar with just his fingers.


https://youtu.be/8ixOi3dk4ts?si=sBIKznPSFiIF9Nmw

[perttime]

Electric is so similar to acoustic - and so different.

The sounds that come out are different, and the way you pick affects the sounds in different ways. Much of it is in the fingers and it is not the same as acoustic.

One thing could be the scale length and nut width / string separation that you are comfortable with.

Somebody already mentioned that "hot" pickups might not be best for articulation. I seem to find a good variety of sounds with single coil pickups or, for more body, "PAF" style humbuckers.

[Charlie Bernstein]

Originally Posted by perttime

Electric is so similar to acoustic - and so different.

The sounds that come out are different, and the way you pick affects the sounds in different ways. Much of it is in the fingers and it is not the same as acoustic.

One thing could be the scale length and nut width / string separation that you are comfortable with.

Somebody already mentioned that "hot" pickups might not be best for articulation. I seem to find a good variety of sounds with single coil pickups or, for more body, "PAF" style humbuckers.

Yup, that was probably me. And I generally prefer single-coils, too. Fender got it right.

[imwjl]

Originally Posted by perttime

Electric is so similar to acoustic - and so different.

The sounds that come out are different, and the way you pick affects the sounds in different ways. Much of it is in the fingers and it is not the same as acoustic.

One thing could be the scale length and nut width / string separation that you are comfortable with.

Somebody already mentioned that "hot" pickups might not be best for articulation. I seem to find a good variety of sounds with single coil pickups or, for more body, "PAF" style humbuckers.

I was trying to describe my long and obsessive trying/searching/shopping for wanting something like if not a 335, 175 and similar with my luck of Dave's shops and some great Chicago stores all reasonably close to home. I would also try guitars with same or similar amps when possible.

If not actual higher output - my impression of what the different guitars with same or similar settings did to same amps - there were differences where chords would sound less blended and individual notes could stand out nicely. An associate's old 335 and all the many guitars at Dave's demonstrated those Lollar low wind had the vintage tone, nice for acoustic player tone but can rock out.

The OP's budget could actually get a Collings. The bigger 16" bout models are not so common. The tonal difference is subtle but there.

This guy illustrates it really well and especially with the bare finger playing and that Carr amp. The SoCo 16 easily and totally sounds 335 like but they're just nutty/crazy loud unplugged and also have some spirit that is their own. You can find other demos that I consider more common tones.

Some Herritage models I tried should be considered. My recollection was they had Seymour Duncan pickups and one of the 535 or 575 had pickups more like vintage Gibsons and low wind Lollar.

Something else that stood out with the Herritage same as Collings over Gibson was the consistent good build quality. 3 recent trips to 2 of Dave's stores showed the Herritage 535s to have maybe even held or dropped price relative to some other brands and all the models were very well made.

Dave's is kind of other worldly. There had to be 20 or more Herritage in the store. I just looked and while Chicago Music Exchange has an impressive 27 ES-335s, Dave's has 102.

[KevWind]

Originally Posted by lfarhadi

Until very recently, I have been almost exclusively an acoustic player, and exclusively playing with the flesh of my fingertips.

For the past year, I have been immersed in theory and playing lead lines (to backing tracks), which has piqued my interest in electric. I consider myself very knowledgeable about acoustics but pretty clueless about electrics.

The only electric I have played for any length of time is a PRS SE Custom 24 that a bass player friend of mine took in on trade, and so gifted to me a few years ago. Overall, I enjoy it -- it's quite easy to play (especially coming from acoustics) -- but the tone/response is lacking when played with fingertips.

I would like to buy an electric in the $5-10k range (probably closer to $5k) that is better suited to someone who plays with fingertips. Ideally it would also be lighter and wider in the lower bout (closer to acoustic specs) but that is less important.

A couple guitars that have been on my radar are a Collings I30 or a custom shop tele with a hotter set of pickups (like the Texas specials).

I welcome any/all feedback and thoughts. Thanks in advance!

First I am no expert on electrics I played with electrics in the late 60's for a couple years then went straight acoustic for 50 years before getting back in electrics
So this is just my personal thoughts

Personally I was not after trying to simulate the acoustic sound with an electric
And yes there is always going to be a noticeable difference in the characteristics of sound. So I did not go down the hollow/semi hollow body electric path

Rather I just spent a lot of time going to guitar stores and playing all the makes

and models I could And ended up with a PRS CE 24 as my first electric

My thought process or perspective is since so much of the electric sound is in the pickups and amp I would spend 1/2 to 1/3 at the least on the amp
So say with a total budget of $5k I would likely spend $2500n to $3000 on the guitar and the rest on the amp

[Glennwillow]

Regarding single coil pickups and playing with fingers, I also really appreciate Fender single coil pickups and the way they sound.

I would like to add, however, that an ES-335 type guitar like my 1978 can have a coil splitting switch that turns the humbucking pickups into single coils. And this really makes a big difference. I have noticed that many non-Gibson modern ES-335 type guitars also have coil splitting switches. Also, the use of P90 pickups on ES-335 type guitars works nicely, as in the Epiphone Casino or the Sire H7V. Both of these guitars sound really good played with fingers.

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Originally Posted by imwjl

....

Yes, that is a very nice sound there. What a nice guitar! And very appealing playing, too.

- Glenn

[Glennwillow]

Here is Larry Carlton playing the Sire H7V with P90 pickups. The H7V discussion starts at 7:53.



- Glenn

[Cri75!]

I used to think that the Telecaster was the right choice, but I did not have one.
Now I have one and I know for real that the Tele is the right one, no dubt on that :-)

[Rudy4]

Originally Posted by Cri75!

I used to think that the Telecaster was the right choice, but I did not have one.
Now I have one and I know for real that the Tele is the right one, no dubt on that :-)

If you want super-light fingerpicking on a steel string don't stop there... get yourself a Jaguar!