Advice on guitar for Pink Floyd tribute band

fremen

fremen

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Hi guys, I'm on the hunt for a Strat for a Pink Floyd tribute band. I have a limited budget unfortunately (800euros max, I would like to pay less), so getting a Gilmour Strat won't be possible. So far, I have my eyes on these :

1) http://intl.fender.com/fr-FR/guitar...-tremolo-maple-fingerboard-aged-cherry-burst/ - I can get one second hand but brand new for 500 euros. I love the look. What's bugging me is that it has only 21 frets ; and maybe the Floyd Rose would affect the Strat tone ? But I'm used to Floyd Rose, I trust them much more than traditional vibratos... Also, it's a Mexico...

2) http://www.thomann.de/fr/gl_tribute_s500_rw_3ts.htm
Not a Fender but the reviews are good. Anyone has one and can confirm ? Big advantage over the Fender, I can have it delivered to Mauritius

3) http://www.thomann.de/fr/gl_tribute_legacy_blb_mn.htm
cheaper than the other one, why ? I like the look more, and the maple neck too

At Thomann there's also those :
http://www.thomann.de/fr/fender_hss_strat_plustop_acb.htm I like the look but I miss the 22th fret, and not sure about the vibrato
http://www.thomann.de/fr/fender_std_strat_hss_floyd_rw_slvr.htm not a fan of the colors available for the Floyd models, and still only 22 frets...

If someone in Europe can suggest/propose something else, I'm all ears ! :)
 
A Floyd might reduce your sustain a bit (easy to work around at volume), but it won't change your tone much.
 
Don't buy a new guitar, especially within declared budget. I made this mistake (bought MiM standard strat @ thomann.de 3 years ago) and it took me quite some time (along with several upgrades) before my guitar started to sound really good.

Guitars in this price range always require several months before wood they are made of will dry to optimum level and start to resonate at it's optimum. During this process you can expect that neck will shrink a bit and in result minor geometry imperfections can appear (guitars like this doesn't have a neck made of quartersawn wood and this drying process can make them warp a bit).

Of course it can be corrected by luthier with simple fret leveling (or later with fretboard leveling on the occasion of replacing worn frets), but make no mistake - if you buy a new guitar in this price range you have to be prepared for dealing with it's "childhood diseases". Been there, done that.

If I were you I'd look for used MiJ strat, you can easily find one at ebay withing declared budget.

And don't bother the lack of 22nd fret - I was in the same situation with my strat and dealt with it. All you need is a luthier who will implant (so to speak) an additional piece of fretboard to you guitar - pretty simple and inexpensive to do (I've payed my luthier about 50€ for this modification) :)

Check this out:

fretboard_implant_01.jpg


fretboard_implant_02.jpg
 
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I would without a doubt buy the first one for 500 euro, the sustain is no problem when playing with some volume, and if it would turn out that you feel it lack sustain, you can easily "upgrade/replace" the tremolo block .. that makes all the difference in the world.

I definately share your "trust" when it comes to FR styles tremolo .. the whole thing is to know how to adjust and maintain them, and you already know that so :)

And then I would have the 300 euro to maybe change some pickups if I felt that was needed .. or some other cool mod to make it suit my needs better.

just my 2 cents fwiw

:)
 
If I were you I would try to get a second hand american standnard. They are great guitars and lots of them have the 22 frets option with 3 single coils and a more modern tremolo (Standing on 2 knife edges instead of 6 screws). I think this particular setup would be great for a Pink Floyd tribute band.
 
Thibault ,
I have an American Strat 22 fret from 2008 , ash body maple neck, SSH Suhr pickups (SSVplus,and ML single coils),Gotoh 510 2 point trem , locking tuners...
If you take in charge the shipping , I will be glad to offer it to you.
 

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These Dean Zelinsky Guitars are absolutely awesome at any price. They are extremely reasonable new and many times he puts out some refurbs and I've seen a few on eBay under $500.00 with hardshell case. You could wind up with high quality and easily do a Gilmour type pickup upgrade on the cheap.
 
The Strats with the Floyd Rose get my vote. If you want more sustain just add a brass trem block. A really nice inexpensive mod, that's easy to do.
 
I have one of those G&L S-500s. Not a bad guitar, it's easy to play, comfortable neck (for me). I'd say it's on a par with something like a MiJ (which I've never played). Like most guitars in that price range, you'd probably want to do a little work on it - mainly the nut to help w/ tuning. I mostly use it to get super funky but I'd think you could get in the Gilmour range, especially since you're a master at dialing in the AFX ;-)

And yea, if you can find a used Am. Standard, I'd say that's a good option too.
 
dpavel said:
Thibault ,
I have an American Strat 22 fret from 2008 , ash body maple neck, SSH Suhr pickups (SSVplus,and ML single coils),Gotoh 510 2 point trem , locking tuners...
If you take in charge the shipping , I will be glad to offer it to you.
Click to expand...
Can the bridge pickup be split to single coil. I'm just curious because the pink floyd sound uses single coils.
Thanks Nick
 
dpavel said:
Thibault ,
I have an American Strat 22 fret from 2008 , ash body maple neck, SSH Suhr pickups (SSVplus,and ML single coils),Gotoh 510 2 point trem , locking tuners...
If you take in charge the shipping , I will be glad to offer it to you.
Click to expand...

Dude that's awesome. Kudos for you. Respect!!
 
The other thing to check out would to pre-wired Gilmour pickguard with the EMG pickups, mid boost, etc. You could drop that into just about any Strat type guitar and should be able to nail his tone.

Re the 22nd fret, I read that he switched guitars for the second part of the solo when recording it, just to get that extra fret...

TT
 
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