Duff
November 18th, 2008, 11:39 PM
I A/B'd several of my guitars and my universal conclusion, to my ear, was that, simply put, the substantially more expensive guitars sounded way better in close timeline proximity A/B comparison.
For instance: My Fender Hwy 1 unmodded except for stainless steel saddles instead of the stock bent metal ones, sounded superior by far to my Squire, '08 "Cherry Burst" standard strat. Although the Cherry Strat is an outstanding sounding instrument, very bright and nice, it did not have the chime of the Hwy 1 and harmonic overtones and undertones of the Fender. Plus my Hwy 1 is the ssh model fat strat and the humbucker atomic sounds great. I did not A/B it to my Squire Deluxe.
I A/B'd my G&L Tribute semi hollow swamp ash top semi hollow incredible '07 Classic Telecaster to my Squire standard '07 telecaster to no comparison. The G&L was totally "tele" in tone and playability and significantly more expensive. The American made MFD or whatever they are pickups sure sound good, waxed cloth winding wire too. The G&L was awesome. Never noticed that before.
I did not A/B the G&L to any of my Peavey Generation EX tele's but will soon and give a report.
I also A/B'd my Squire Telecaster Custom II with P90's '07 to my SX copy of a Gibson LP Special with two P90's also an '08. The Squire sounded substantially superior with the duncan designed P90's and is hum cancelling in the middle switch position unlike the SX. The all mahogany set neck, even mahogany neck, SX would probably benefit from some Seymour Duncan stacked P90 humbuckers reverse wound, or even regular SD reverse wound P90's.
I A/B'd my Birdseye maple top Epiphone LP limitted edition standard with real Seymour duncan open coil hot rodded pickups from the set; jazz in the neck and JB in the bridge, to my ESP LTD EC-50 great sounding and even greater sounding LP copy after I put the original Epi nickel plated pups from my new Epi LP Standard plus top in it, and it did not sound anywhere near as good as the Epiphone LP standard Birdseye. The Birdseye is a much more expensive guitar.
This is a generalization and not meant to reflect anything but the observations of my semitrained ear and limitted depth of understanding of tone and musicality; but I think it goes to show that you are better off getting a really good guitar by actively comparing guitars in the store than going just by a vague unsubstantiated feeling you get playing just one guitar; you might be right, but maybe verifying it right there in the store would be a beneficial experiment and could be really revealing and might save or cost you some money but you will know you got a really nice sounding guitar, not a supposedly nice sounding guitar.
Hope this helps someone considering a holiday guitar or such.
Duffy
For instance: My Fender Hwy 1 unmodded except for stainless steel saddles instead of the stock bent metal ones, sounded superior by far to my Squire, '08 "Cherry Burst" standard strat. Although the Cherry Strat is an outstanding sounding instrument, very bright and nice, it did not have the chime of the Hwy 1 and harmonic overtones and undertones of the Fender. Plus my Hwy 1 is the ssh model fat strat and the humbucker atomic sounds great. I did not A/B it to my Squire Deluxe.
I A/B'd my G&L Tribute semi hollow swamp ash top semi hollow incredible '07 Classic Telecaster to my Squire standard '07 telecaster to no comparison. The G&L was totally "tele" in tone and playability and significantly more expensive. The American made MFD or whatever they are pickups sure sound good, waxed cloth winding wire too. The G&L was awesome. Never noticed that before.
I did not A/B the G&L to any of my Peavey Generation EX tele's but will soon and give a report.
I also A/B'd my Squire Telecaster Custom II with P90's '07 to my SX copy of a Gibson LP Special with two P90's also an '08. The Squire sounded substantially superior with the duncan designed P90's and is hum cancelling in the middle switch position unlike the SX. The all mahogany set neck, even mahogany neck, SX would probably benefit from some Seymour Duncan stacked P90 humbuckers reverse wound, or even regular SD reverse wound P90's.
I A/B'd my Birdseye maple top Epiphone LP limitted edition standard with real Seymour duncan open coil hot rodded pickups from the set; jazz in the neck and JB in the bridge, to my ESP LTD EC-50 great sounding and even greater sounding LP copy after I put the original Epi nickel plated pups from my new Epi LP Standard plus top in it, and it did not sound anywhere near as good as the Epiphone LP standard Birdseye. The Birdseye is a much more expensive guitar.
This is a generalization and not meant to reflect anything but the observations of my semitrained ear and limitted depth of understanding of tone and musicality; but I think it goes to show that you are better off getting a really good guitar by actively comparing guitars in the store than going just by a vague unsubstantiated feeling you get playing just one guitar; you might be right, but maybe verifying it right there in the store would be a beneficial experiment and could be really revealing and might save or cost you some money but you will know you got a really nice sounding guitar, not a supposedly nice sounding guitar.
Hope this helps someone considering a holiday guitar or such.
Duffy