Need Help Guys-Guitar suggestions

Stratman68

Axe-Master
Many of you have seen my post about arthritis in my hands. well, long story short-I am thinking maybe a shorter sale would be better for me now-I have played Strats and Teles all my life (My Present tele has HB's).
I was looking at this because of price and slim 60's neck
Gibson Les Paul '60s Tribute Min-ETune Electric Guitar (with Gig Bag), Vintage Sunburst, with Chrome Hardware $899 at zzounds. I have 2 Strats (USA) I can sell and still have my Strat and Tele I love)

I hate the tuner crap but yu cannot buy a new one without it unless you get up towards $2,000. But the tuner can be removed easy enough if it totally sucks. I mostly record at home these days.

Any opinions? Suggestions? I hate to just get a cheapo, rather stay USA for better or worse, maybe it's the Vet in me :)

Thanks Guys

Frank
 
How about a Fender Jaguar? 24" scale, US made, still a Fender.

Edit: I think the American made series retail at around $1500 and up, so might be a little too pricey.
 
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Actually I don't hate on the robotuners except for the fact that they aren't locking.

Seems like a decent deal, but I'd go over the thing very critically when it showed up to make sure there aren't any intonation/bridge placement issues. I'm surprised these have rosewood fingerboards. At that price point I was expecting richlite or something.
 
Any particular reason for wanting a shorter scale rather than maybe just whacking lighter strings on the guitars you have? I mean, in terms of actual reach, it's not like a less than 1 inch difference would change all that much. So I'm guessing it's more the string tension you're looking at.
 
String tension makes sense to me. I have a travel electric guitar with a scale length of 21.85". If you string it with a pair of 9s it can be a floppy mess.
 
Any particular reason for wanting a shorter scale rather than maybe just whacking lighter strings on the guitars you have? I mean, in terms of actual reach, it's not like a less than 1 inch difference would change all that much. So I'm guessing it's more the string tension you're looking at.

True- I am already at 9-42. I have thought about 8's which many great players used-Jimmy Paige I believe is one of them. Or just changing the top 3 9-11-16 to 8-10-15
 
Actually I don't hate on the robotuners except for the fact that they aren't locking.

Seems like a decent deal, but I'd go over the thing very critically when it showed up to make sure there aren't any intonation/bridge placement issues. I'm surprised these have rosewood fingerboards. At that price point I was expecting richlite or something.

I thought it was a pretty good deal also-I also expected non-rosewood and was surprised.
 
How about a Fender Jaguar? 24" scale, US made, still a Fender.

Edit: I think the American made series retail at around $1500 and up, so might be a little too pricey.

Bit pricey - also in my 30+ years playing I have owned only Fenders-thought it might be cool. as I said- My Tele Select-my avatar is HB's so I am used to HB's, albeit Fenders not PAfs.

There are a bunch of 60's tributes used for aroung $750 Gibson, USA but with P-90's. Never used P-90's-
 
Well, I forgot all about the radius-But my tele select is a compound radius so it's about 12 at the 12th fret-so I guess I could get use to it. Need to mention-with the arthritis, stretching some chords I used to do is too hard now, so even a little help might be good.
 
You sir have done your homework. I couldn't find another Gibson or Fender made in the USA at such a low price point.

I wouldn't worry about the tronical tuners, if you don't like them you can sell them and put whatever tuners you want on the guitar. The sale of the tronical tuners, while a pain, should cover whichever tuners you choose as replacements. I had a Gibson Darkfire once upon a time, was the only Gibson guitar I could find with 13-pin built in, and ended up loving the ease and convenience of the tuners. If you only have a few minutes of play time, why waste even a precious minute tuning?

Never tried the 60's tribute out, but if it's like a Gibson Studio, it should be decent. I haven't weighed in over on the Gibson bashing thread, but they got it pretty right. Gibsons are sporadic at best in regards to their setup out of the factory, so here's hoping you get one of the better ones.
 
You sir have done your homework. I couldn't find another Gibson or Fender made in the USA at such a low price point.

I wouldn't worry about the tronical tuners, if you don't like them you can sell them and put whatever tuners you want on the guitar. The sale of the tronical tuners, while a pain, should cover whichever tuners you choose as replacements. I had a Gibson Darkfire once upon a time, was the only Gibson guitar I could find with 13-pin built in, and ended up loving the ease and convenience of the tuners. If you only have a few minutes of play time, why waste even a precious minute tuning?

Never tried the 60's tribute out, but if it's like a Gibson Studio, it should be decent. I haven't weighed in over on the Gibson bashing thread, but they got it pretty right. Gibsons are sporadic at best in regards to their setup out of the factory, so here's hoping you get one of the better ones.

Thanks KJ- As a Fender guy for 30+ years I must throw in that Fender is no better. Basically the big 2 who started all this have gone to crap (or is that profit?)

I put a hold aon that Gibson. I have 12 hours to order-they have a few.

The only other thing I might or should try is I have a Wolfes guitar 1/2 mile away. They deal in Heritage guitars-which we all know are the guys from the original Gibson factory. Guess I should see what he has......

I will post back.

He also keeps telling me about these MArsh amps-hand made and he says they blow boogies away-small combos-1x12-No circuiot board or some such nonsense
 
Have you thought about ... you know ... changing your playstyle? If you can't stretch your fingers just as good anymore, play simpler stuff:
Angled positions, more fret movement mit ringfinger/middlefinger action instead of hard pinky stretches, etc....

It's not like someone forces you to shred the fuck out of everything. ;)

Also, if you were playing lead guitar all the time, maybe it's time to unleash some tight rhythm guitar fury. Lead isn't the alpha and omega. Drop the sceptre for someone else and instead concentrate on looking damn slick while rocking out dat main riff.
 
Heritage guitars? No fair, I'm going to assume that any Heritage guitar you look at will bust the $899 price range out of the water, maybe starting at around $1300 used?
 
I know you won't buy a Fender MP Short Scale Tele/Strat (chinese production),
but i stumpled on a strat like this and I am ashamed to say, i love it :pirate:
 
We had bad luck with an auto-tuner LP. When put in the more precise mode it takes forever to wiggle back and forth into tune and then it's not even in tune. This is after several calibration attempts. So in the case of my friends luck it was not a good live guitar. On the plus side it was a great practice guitar for home as you could change tunings on the fly for song learning and writing. This was about a year ago. Improvements may have been made. YMMV.

FWIW Stratman for the stiffness in my hands I'm looking to go 'with' a Strat. Radius and neck width more comfortable to me.
 
We had bad luck with an auto-tuner LP. When put in the more precise mode it takes forever to wiggle back and forth into tune and then it's not even in tune. This is after several calibration attempts. So in the case of my friends luck it was not a good live guitar. On the plus side it was a great practice guitar for home as you could change tunings on the fly for song learning and writing. This was about a year ago. Improvements may have been made. YMMV.

FWIW Stratman for the stiffness in my hands I'm looking to go 'with' a Strat. Radius and neck width more comfortable to me.

I probably should just change the High E string and see how it feels. With the arthritis, it's the only string I cannot bend worth a crap- not even a whole step.

You know, I guess this arthritis crap has really turned my world upside down in the last 4 weeks. Sold my XL, got bummed and bought an XL+ a week later, now guitars, Jeezzz - But I have to play-no 2 ways about it.

I have had an ongoing issue with some kind of high end noise- I know it's my action-thing is the Axe is unforgiving- so I have to really cut some stuff.

I need to raise the action a bit and put the * on the hi E and if that's too tough I'll just try the whole 8 set- I have 3 sets sitting here. Man I sound like an old woman
 
Just an aside: I own a Gibson SG Standard and decided to install an Tronical tuning system on it a few years ago simply out of curiosity - and to see whether or not it would keep the SG in tune. Long story short, the system wasn’t my cup of tea and the tuning problem was due to the nut so I reinstalled the original tuners. However, since you suffer from arthritis the robo system might be useful.
 
Have you thought about ... you know ... changing your playstyle? If you can't stretch your fingers just as good anymore, play simpler stuff:
Angled positions, more fret movement mit ringfinger/middlefinger action instead of hard pinky stretches, etc....

It's not like someone forces you to shred the fuck out of everything. ;)

Also, if you were playing lead guitar all the time, maybe it's time to unleash some tight rhythm guitar fury. Lead isn't the alpha and omega. Drop the sceptre for someone else and instead concentrate on looking damn slick while rocking out dat main riff.
Or work on those slide skills. ;)
 
well, I don't shred-never wanted to. But I know you only used that as an example.

I have changed my style, believe-this didn't just happen overnight, like I woke up one morning and sad "oh crap, I have arthritis and it hurts to play"........so I have been adjusting over the years. Sorry, just funning here, couldn't resist.

You are correct I don't need to stretch like I used to so I guess that I need more adjustment in that area "again". I mean Django only had 2 fingers and he's a legend.

But I "must" bend strings-that is the soul of my playing - it's the language I use to create - I am in the middle of changing the High E, from 009 to 008. I think that will help a lot.

I joke a bit, but your advice is well received and has to be my next step.

Not mentioned here, but also part of this is the fact that since my Ultra in April 2009 to this day - I have battled this hi end distortion-fret noise-something I cannot name. Now with the new XL+ I am back at it. Only happens on the SC guitars-not on my Tele with the HB's. So it isn't just the low action. Must be a combination of the very low action-very flat neck and single coils. Tele select is set up exactly the same as my Strats (action wise I mean)- So raising the action is also in the picture.

This is part of why I want to try something I have never, ever owned-A Gibson type guitar - with a rosewood fret board-Never had a rosewood fret board either. How weird is that for 30+ years.

Of course I have played them at gigs, other guys guitars, but that's not the same as having at your house as your own and playing it everyday.

Whoa, sorry for the long winded post here.
 
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