One electric that can actually do it all or very close to it

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by Steve-B

I submit that there is such a guitar that can do it all, do it kick***, and already has, in spades. It's a guitar designed and built by a widely appreciated guitarist but it's a greatly underappreciated guitar. It's the Brian May Red Special.

If you want to cop a bunch of other guy's sounds, then its tough, I've just always chased tone that made my playing style sound as good as possible... and have never much needed more than the right guitar run straight into the right amp to get it done.

Depending on the amp I was using at the time, I've used both Tele's and Les Pauls for everything from hardcore to jazz.

I once worked on a recording where the sound engineer was a guy who had an extensive arsenal of guitars, a half acre peddle board, and a couple different high dollar amps. I was running a Les Paul studio straight into a Marshal JTM 60 halfstack at that time. The only other guitar I owned was an Epi Les Paul that I used for a backup. That particular project had everything from Metal and Punk tunes, to some reggea and surf stuff and basically the only dials I was even adjusting from song to song were my reverb and countour knobs. After a couple sessions he made the comment "I dont get it, I chase tone like crazy and can never seem to get it quite right... you just plug in your guitar and there it is!" Just give me tone that makes my playing sound great, and I'll play you anything you want.

[Davis Webb]

Squier Bullet

Srsly.. can do it all. Classic sounds, great play feel.

Cheap

[vcs700s]

Originally Posted by Davis Webb

Squier Bullet

Srsly.. can do it all. Classic sounds, great play feel.

Cheap

Some will laugh at this but not me. I just checked the setup on my Affinity Telecaster. All I had to do is intonate the low E string. Otherwise perfect.

After playing it a bit I said to myself, “I could gig with this.” Great bang for the buck.

[Ian111]

To throw a monkey wrench on this thing. People in the audience really aren’t particular about tone. Play metal on a hollow body Gretsch. Play surf on a Gibson SG. Ditch your expensive tube amp for a SS. No one will complain.

But they do know if you suck at guitar.

[stephenT]

Forgive the additional post. Here's my premise better stated.

1: The telecaster is the closest electric to an acoustic guitar.

2: Like an acoustic guitar the tele sound depends entirely on the input, the player.

3. Like an acoustic, the tele has an infinite tonal palette. Country to rock to punk to blues and to whatever.

Glad I could clear you'all up on this point.

[Steve DeRosa]

Originally Posted by stephenT

Forgive the additional post. Here's my premise better stated.

1: The telecaster is the closest electric to an acoustic guitar.

2: Like an acoustic guitar the tele sound depends entirely on the input, the player.

3. Like an acoustic, the tele has an infinite tonal palette. Country to rock to punk to blues and to whatever.

Glad I could clear you'all up on this point.

Speaking as a former Tele owner (one of the first '52 reissues from 1982), you've just summed up all the reasons I keep coming back to one of my Gretsch instruments: handles like an acoustic (and the 16" hollowbodies weigh about as much as many USA Westerly Guilds), very sensitive to variations (and unforgiving of any sloppiness, particularly with cleaner styles) in touch/picking technique, and although I've never tried my 5622 semi could probably cover some of the heavier stuff...

[stephenT]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

Speaking as a former Tele owner (one of the first '52 reissues from 1982), you've just summed up all the reasons I keep coming back to one of my Gretsch instruments: handles like an acoustic (and the 16" hollowbodies weigh about as much as many USA Westerly Guilds), very sensitive to variations (and unforgiving of any sloppiness, particularly with cleaner styles) in touch/picking technique, and although I've never tried my 5622 semi could probably cover some of the heavier stuff...

We have our personal favorites, no doubt. I hear a the sound signature of a traditional Gretsch before I hear the player.

[Joe Beamish]

Sorry to revive a thread, but it’s a cool topic with some interesting posts.

I have a Squire tele, made in China in 2009. Got it used for almost nothing. I had different pickups put in, and some rewiring done. I’m an acoustic player, so it’s been in storage since a move.

I lack an amp, so who knows how I’ll feel about the guitar once I hear it again. I love it acoustically, the whole thing vibrates. It feels super solid. I’ve got flats on it.

Thing is, I’m really attracted to a guitar with a great tremolo system, which is drawing me to a Jazzmaster.

Maybe between the Tele and a JM, I can do everything I want.

Any JM people here?

[Rick Jones]

I used to play in a cover band that was a cross between the house band for a venue with ‘‘the longest bar in Europe’ (at the time) and a backing band for visiting singers. I live on an island that used to have a thriving tourist industry and it was often easier to bring a ‘famous’ singer over with part of their usual band or none at all. Rotating line-up with 10 musicians working 5 nights a week and having a ‘weekend’ that fell on ascending days of the week until when it got to Friday, you’d get a ‘long weekend’ every 5th week.

The place famously only closed on Christmas Day and up until covid has had a live act seven nights a week for 40 years. Competition for the house bands slots was fierce. It paid well and you’d get a meal a day thrown in fro their amazing kitchen, plus discounted bar on nights off.

We’d get our set lists for given weekends two weeks in advance and be expected to be ready to go on the night. It was ALL kinds of music. That job improved my guitar playing like nothing else.

Anyway, I quickly learned that whilst an audience didn’t care if you were playing a Les Paul on a Hendrix cover or whatever, if you sounded ‘bad’ you sounded bad and were told so.

Switching from a Les Paul to an entirely ash-bodied 1994 PRS CE24 (which I bought in 1997) was a revelation.. Once I got used to the 5-way rotary switch for the pickup positions (which initially really threw me) I could get that guitar to sound good playing anything from metal to R&B to something like Buckley’s Hallelujah.

I plugged into an ADA preamp and went via an Alesis midiverb into a Marshall 50/50 power amp then out to two Marshall 1x12 cabinets.

No tone was ever a problem to get close to… and sound ‘good’.

Although, saying that, modern me would cringe at 90’s me using chorus on about everything!

I still have that guitar. I used it in some session work just a week ago.

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by Joe Beamish

Sorry to revive a thread, but it’s a cool topic with some interesting posts.

I have a Squire tele, made in China in 2009. Got it used for almost nothing. I had different pickups put in, and some rewiring done. I’m an acoustic player, so it’s been in storage since a move.

I lack an amp, so who knows how I’ll feel about the guitar once I hear it again. I love it acoustically, the whole thing vibrates. It feels super solid. I’ve got flats on it.

Thing is, I’m really attracted to a guitar with a great tremolo system, which is drawing me to a Jazzmaster.

Maybe between the Tele and a JM, I can do everything I want.

Any JM people here?

A Telecaster is my electric guitar hometown, but I've increasingly been drawn to Jazzmasters. I started with the Squier J Macis Jazzmaster over a decade ago which is a model easy to adapt since it comes with a simple Tune O Matic style saddle that everyone and their cousin knows how to adjust. Like the neck on it quite a bit. The pickups are sotra P90 like, which isn't a bad thing (I love P90s). Earlier this year I got one of the regular Squier Classic Vibe 60 Jazzmasters which has beautifully setup and it's become an addiction. The pickups have a different sound and response than the ones in the J Macis model.

Overall, I prefer the Jazzmaster trem to the Stratocaster scheme. There can be a little noise to that mechanism (almost none for my J Macis, more noticeable for the CV) but I'm funky enough to enjoy it, and so I've not gone for any of the ways to minimize that. I like the odd-ball rhythm circuit, the sound of the pickups, the alignment when playing standing or sitting down.

If you're looking for a sub $500 Jazzmaster, those are two models to try out.

[Joe Beamish]

Awesome. I always hear good things about the Squire J. Mascis, with the only exception (in a few remarks) being the tremolo, which apparently is a bit different from the usual JM. Personally, I have no idea whether this matters.

I’ll be on the lookout for a JM.

[rmp]

Originally Posted by Nama Ensou

Any decent guitar with at least two pickups and a tremolo can do it and the most important part is the player.

Mostly this ----^

all day long..

[FrankHudson]

Originally Posted by Joe Beamish

Awesome. I always hear good things about the Squire J. Mascis, with the only exception (in a few remarks) being the tremolo, which apparently is a bit different from the usual JM. Personally, I have no idea whether this matters.

I’ll be on the lookout for a JM.

Time for a deep dive. I may be wrong on some fact (I hope not) and I'll include opinions/observations secondary to my use.

A few differences, not clearly negatives, just differences. The current Squire Jazzmasters have a slightly closer bridge tailpiece to saddle distance that original models made back in the day. Minor thing. The distance between the saddle and bridge tailpiece had some s overtones many feel, part of the Jazzmaster "feature not a bug" attraction to some. Slightly shorter could mean slightly less, but one can still do the harp guitar thing behind the bridge. The shorter length also increases downward pressure on the saddles.

The Squiers do not have the tailpiece lock feature. Even with original Jazzmasters few used it. StewMac sells a drop in replacement tailpiece if one just has to have it.

Now onto the bridge. The J Mascis model uses a Gibson style Tune-O-Matic bridge. These are simple to adjust and intonate, work with all string gauges, and are well understood. The original Jazzmaster used a rocking bridge design which was supposed to move back and forth as gentle vibrato was applied with the tailpiece "trem" arm. The idea was that this prevented the strings from "sticking" in the saddle slots. With heavier, higher tension strings this system worked for gentle wobbles. For more aggressive post Jimi Hendrix vibrato with light tension strings, the system was problematic. If one steps back to the early Sixties the Jazzmaster and Stratocaster were more a parity with each other, the Jazzmaster even considered a more expensive upgrade where you could afford it. Post Jimi, the Stratocaster became the overwhelming hit as far as Fender electric guitars and the Jazzmaster fell out of favor.

Without attention to things like saddle-string break angle the OG saddles on Jaguars and Jazzmasters with modern-style strings would rattle, and the strings could even jump out of their bridge grooves disastrously.

Steve DeRosa may jump in and remind us that you can still use old-school heavier strings. Yes, you could. I do on at least one electric too. But no, at least with my fingers I can't do the Jimi and successors thing with .012 flats.

My rocking bridge Squire 60's CV Jazzmaster came with the deeper grooved barrel saddles and the rocking bridge decked. Someone may have done a setup or the neck angle may have just been right by accident to allow that. I have a Squier Jaguar where I needed to shim the neck to allow enough string break angle as the saddles, and that bridge still rocks. My Jaguar currently has the shallower grooved "bolt thread" style saddles. I can never strum the strings out of the grooves, but with wild left-hand vibrato I can rarely have issues there. The deeper grooved CV Jazzmaster saddles, no issues. The Mascis, no issues.

My Mascis model trem has little or no sound artifacts that make it out of the amplifier. The CV as I received it and still play it does have some of them (trem seems looser, probably lower spring tension) and I happen to like a bit of that.

Summary of this last part: The J Mascis is simple to setup, nothing to be learned or be concerned about. The OG rocking bridge can be adjusted and/or modified to work with common modern strings, but you need to understand it. I don't notice any marked difference in tuning stability with the Mascis, the decked CV Jazzmaster or the rocking Squier Jaguar. I love Tom Verlaine and others who use the Jazzmaster trem for extreme bends sometimes. While it's not a locking trem it's not markedly worse in any of those three guises than most other vintage style trems, and I happen to love the feel of the tailpiece more than other systems.

Hope some of all that helps.

[6L6]

A Gibson ES-335 does it all.

[Joe Beamish]

Originally Posted by FrankHudson

Time for a deep dive. I may be wrong on some fact (I hope not) and I'll include opinions/observations secondary to my use…..

This is super helpful. Thank you.

I’ve definitely heard that the Squire J. Mascis is pretty good to go out of the box.

Just so I’m clear:

Can I use flats on it?

I’m so glad that you are digging that model. My only reservation had been about the tremolo, which I understand is simply a little different, but still good. I’m less interested in Jimi Hendrix divebombing, and more interested in putting in a beautiful shimmer. (Think of Bob Bogle on the first Ventures album,)