Does guitar choice make a huge difference?

M

Michael Lapp

Member
I received my AXE III last Thursday. In a million years, I never dreamed I’d plug into anything that didn’t say Mesa Boogie on the label. Now that I’ve had a few hours to tinker with the AXE I am delighted and surprised at the same time. This brings a question to mind, I have been a Collings freak for the past three years. If you don’t know their guitars check them out at Collings.com. They are something to behold. I’ve been rubbing my nickels together saving for another one. This would be my fourth electric to go along with my two acoustics. Given the performance of the AXE and the versatility of it, does it really matter what you plug into it? I know Single Coils versus Hum-buckers, I got that along with the obvious stuff. What about say a Gibson 339 versus a Les Paul or a Collings I-35 (I own one) versus a Collings City Limits (I want one). I have never had the luxury of being able to A/B stuff, I just order it and hope for the best. I made my first patch and used two Two Rocks along with some Reverb, I was looking for a Bonamassa type sound and much to my surprise, I get pretty darn close and it sounded good. That was with a 339 type guitar. What is the general opinion of you folks out there. I appreciate your opinions good or bad and thank you in advance for taking the time to share your thoughts.

Michael
 
i would suggest changing your title to "Does guitar choice make a huge difference?" or something more descriptive. your current title may not attract much attention.

i can change it for you - just post here if you want to and what you want to call it.
 
Does the guitar make a difference? I sure hope so! If I plugged into something and all my guitars got "genericized", I'd be very disappointed. With any of the FAS products, I've owned them all, the character of every guitar comes through.
 
All that eqing and TMA stuff will change the overall shape of a sound easily, but it will not make a maple fretboard sound like a rosewood fretboard.
So yes, try a lot of guitars to get out what materials and styles you like. And don't skip classics just because they look ugly, there's always a reason why they became classics.
 
If you go back to the early generations of modelling, especially the PODs - no it didn't (and that was why I and many other people didn't like them) - literally everything was made the same, especially on the high gain stuff.

Now it's completely like an amp, so it makes an amazing difference - I'm a vintage guitar guy, so just talking about the old Gibsons I have, there is a very clear and definite difference between my 53 Les Paul conversion and the 72 Les Paul Custom, and likewise between the 1960 Special and 1960 Junior.

etc.etc. (don't want to list the whole collection!)

Similarly I have two Tele's - both mid 60's one maple neck, one rosewood. The difference is night and day.

I sold my valve (tube) amps once I went Fractal, but I kept spending far too much money on guitars - and each one sounds like it did in the shop when I was using a traditional amp - I can't praise higher than that
 
Last year bought a $3,300 Ibanez J-Custom RG8550MZ, and it had a problem with a dead note. Furthermore, It had nothing to add to my old RG550LTD (except cosmetics). I was so upset of spending so much money for nothing that I hated it, and I sold it.

After that, I bought a $100 scalloped "Fender" Yngwie Malmsteen from Ali Express, just for fun. I installed a set of EMG SA pickups, Wilkinson bridge and Gotoh locking tuners. The tone is great, and I enjoy playing it very much.

So, yes, guitar choice makes a huge difference ;)
 
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I’ve found some of my guitars sound similar even though they are very different styles and other guitars, with different pickups, sound very different. So sometimes it’s the guitar, sometimes it’s the pickups, sometimes it’s both.

Of course two guitars that sound similar can play differently, which then makes me use them for different styles....

All really comes down to that one can’t have too many guitars lol
 
Piing said:
Last year bought a $3,300 Ibanez J-Custom RG8550MZ, and it had a problem with a dead note. Furthermore, It had nothing to add to my old RG550LTD (except cosmetics). I was so upset of spending so much money for nothing that I hated it, and I sold it.

After that, I bought a $100 scalloped "Fender" Yngwie Malmsteen from Ali Express, just for fun. I installed a set of EMG SA pickups, Wilkinson bridge and Gotoh locking tuners. The tone is great, and I enjoy playing it very much.

So, yes, guitar choice makes a huge difference ;)
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Wow. Never expected something like that from such a pricey guitar and especially not from Ibanez/ J-Craft. Surprise!
 
Huge differences: Everything: from the types of wood, hardware design and material, to the thickness of the finish and pickup construction and magnet type make some degree of difference: The most fundamental aspects are the overall resonance of the instrument (impacted mostly by the design: solid body/semi-hollow/ solid - but also by wood choices, scale length and so on) and by the pickups. And that is why many of us have more than a couple of guitars: for the unique range of expression each offers.
 
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Is your question regarding if guitar choices make a huge difference in general or with regards to when using an Axe-FX?

Regardless of what your answer is, the answer is the same whether it be an Axe-FX or any (ANY) other device used to take the signal from a guitar and process/amplify it.

Regarding guitars in general, there are huge differences between my Strat, Les Paul, Suhr Custom Modern and Tele without even plugging them in. When plugged in, even more factors come into play that make them different.

Some differences are more subtle than others but become more noticeable when using a different amp/amp model.

With regards to the Axe-FX, I literally don't think of it as being a modeler. I think of it as an amplifier - accept I have over 100 of them and more control over those amps than a traditional amp.

So yes, guitar choices do make a huge difference.
 
Michael Lapp said:
What about say a Gibson 339 versus a Les Paul or a Collings I-35 (I own one) versus a Collings City Limits (I want one).
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You're comparing semi-hollow bodies to solid bodies. Forgetting all the other stuff, that alone does make a difference, yes.
 
Some audible differences can also be noticed without even plugging an electric guitar into an amp. In fact, that's the first thing I do when I go looking to buy one.
 
I was worried when I first got into Fractal products that everything would sound the same and my guitars would lose their individuality. I love how they keep their characteristics
 
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