The Guitar (and Other Musical Instruments) Thread | Page 4 | Fab Forum | The Beatles Bible

I understand where you’re coming from but unlike the difference between a Fender and a Gibson, there’s quite a notable sound difference between an acoustic and an electric guitar and playing a song like Paperback Writer or Lord Of This World on an acoustic guitar can be done but it would sound considerably different.

I wonder, do any of you guys watch Rob Chapman’s YouTube videos. It’s pretty much 2 guitarists reviewing different guitar models, as well as occasional challenges and some other stuff.

Nothing better than watching 2 guys sit around and talk about guitars while doing jams in between.

I don’t think that was the Epiphone vs Gibson one. He sure knows his guitars, i bet i could play him a Beatles song and he’d be able to tell me what guitar model is being used in less than 10 seconds. As for Rob mainly using distorted tones, he’s a metal guitarist so it fits him better and also some guitars like a Gibson SG or a Jackson King V are meant to be overdriven and sound terrible clean, at least to me. But he does use some clean tones occasionally.

I’m planning on getting a new guitar soon as the blue Fender was having problems with the action and will be missed but I wasn’t going to spend another 50 bucks on him after wasting $70 on him so he had to go, I’d write a eulogy but I don’t like getting sad and I’ve had him for 2 years which is impressive considering that I don’t typically keep things for very long but he was a great guitar, a 2004/2005 Fender MIM Stratocaster.

Anyways, this may seem hypocritical considering how I’ve negatively mentioned them in the past but I was thinking about getting a Squier mini Stratocaster or a Squier Bullet Stratocaster, preferably one in a color that I like so I don’t get the urge to refinish it. I like the small size of the mini and how it only has 1 pointless knob instead of 2 (I consider tone knobs to be pointless) and it makes you feel like you have more control and it’s also slightly cheaper but on the other hand I like that the bullet contains a tremolo system so if I want to do my best Jimi and mess around with the whammy bar I can.

I’m thinking about buying a right handed Stratocaster and converting it for left handed use so I hope these guitars can handle it which they should because they have a reversible nut and a straight bridge. The only thing I’m worried about is that I hope I like it because if I get one of the guitars the first thing I’m going to do is reverse the nut and put the strings on in reverse (as well as readjust the intonation if needed) and I don’t think they’d let me return the guitar after doing that so I have to be 100% sure that I love the guitar before buying it. What are your thoughts.

Dark Overlord said
I like Telecasters too but Fender Stratocasters are my favorite type of guitar and since I only plan on buying one guitar, it’s going to be an S style guitar, preferably from Squier since I don’t want to spend a lot of money although if I really like the guitar I’m going to replace the Squier logo with a Fender one.

There are a few things I am worried about though:

1. The tremolo system being there just for decoration (AKA guitar goes out of tune even if I just do some Hank Marvin style vibrato)

Be prepared to make modifications, Squires are a great choice for this. There are great 2-point bridges out there that can replace the stock one which will give you all the tremolo you need without going out of tune. Talk to the guys at the shop!

2. The mini is made of laminated hardwood and the bullet is made of basswood and I’m worried that it won’t sound exactly like a Fender Stratocaster which is an alder body because wood supposedly affects tone

Basswood is fine. I have a whole bass made from it, its a perfectly fine wood that will sustain. What’s important is that the hardware transmit that sustain to the wood, and as long as it does that (and Strats do), the tone will be fine. Just realize that you can’t have “the” perfect tone, all guitars even of the same model will have different tone. Your strings and your pickups will have a greater effect on tone than the wood, believe me.

3. If I buy used and have to have my local Guitar Center order it for me from a different store I’m afraid that the guitar might need refretting (something I’ve seen on guitars in Guitar Center in the past) or might have paint chips off of it or will have intonation problems and will need a setup and I’m afraid that I won’t be able to return it because it came from a different store

I can’t speak to that but if they’re reputable, they should have a reasonable returns policy, and I’ve heard that with GC it’s pretty good. Ask first and make sure of it.

4. I’m worried that once I play the guitar for a few months that it’ll need to be refretted or the pickups will blow or there will be intonation problems

You’d have to play the guitar for quite a long time before refretting and I’ve never heard of, or seen, a pickup blowing. Intonation is something you can fix yourself or get a good setup from a music shop (again, might be a good idea to ask your local GC about that!).

5. Being left handed, I’m worried that I’ll keep bumping the tone control which would suck because I like my guitars as treble-y as possible although if I really like my guitar and this becomes a problem, I can just snip the tone pot therefore in theory giving me tone bypass

You might have to modify your technique, but Jimi did ok 

6. I’m also worried that once I buy it, reverse the nut, and put the strings on backwards that they won’t let me return it if I have a problem with it because I put the strings on in reverse and removed the nut.

Again, talk to the guys at the shop about this, I’ve no doubt they have experience with this, you have to try and trust that. 

I’m left handed but am a sucker for righty to lefty converted guitars, mainly because of Jimi Hendrix, who used converted Fender Stratocasters even when he could afford a genuine left handed one, such as when he used a 1968 Fender Stratocaster at Woodstock and even if I wanted a genuine left handed guitar, the cheapest Squier would be their Affinity series which is $200 and only comes in sunburst so I’d rather get a right handed Squier in a custom color such as candy apple red, lake placid blue, or Olympic white.  

You never know, they might have what you want already lefty in the right colours, but don’t sit and brood about this, go there and talk to them! Most of your worries here can be dealt with by just asking, that’s what they’re there for.

Speaking of guitars, I’ve paid off over half of my Epi so far, by November it should be here! 

Since this is a guitar thread on a Beatles forum, I think this is an appropriate video to cite:

I quite like this guy’s tutorial style, LOTS of style videos from most of your rock heroes! I was fascinated to see Alex use a Fender Jazzmaster for this, with those lovely P90’s. Mentions some interesting tricks from George and John, even Paul! Listen to the sound he gets when demonstrating Helter Skelter , it’s quite close. It was an odd bit of synchronicity that came along today because yesterday I was watching this:

Mike demonstrates some great stuff of John’s on an Epi Casino, P90’s again! He does George (Gretsch) and Paul (Gibson Midtown Kalamazoo (!) and an accoustic I’m not familiar with) on other videos, worth checking out too. The John one really impresses me though, so many unheralded tricks, particularly those triplets.