Help finding the right guitar for me

[Facemask93]

Right guys , your task is to find me the right guitar for my needs , using your experience of many years of playing Electric guitar , as you might know , I'm basically an acoustic player , who dabbles with other instruments , but i would like to expand my playing skills somewhat with electric guitar.
My problem as i see it is this , the two electrics that i own--a PRS singlecut SE , cost me about £450 and a Yamaha Pacifica , cost £60 second hand , have done me well up to now , and recently i purchased a Pod HD 500 , which i do really like , but i feel that the guitars that i have don't really cut it when trying to playing solo's , don't ask me what mean cus i really don't know myself , but they just don't produce the sounds I'm looking for in my head , and having a pod HD i really thought that i would get these sounds.
Listening to Bruno of late i would like to get that kind of sound ( Tony Iommi ) comes to mind , also Tony Jones ( Witchita ) when he plays those clean haunting sounds , somebody said i should look at maybe Fender Strats ( Standards ) single coil type guitars , anyway I'm prepared to spend up to about £700 , any help would be greatly appreciated

[Bluesberry]

Hey Rob, the one I like a lot and sounds like what you are describing is my Epiphone Sheraton.  I love the semi-hollow tone, it just sings and soars.  Because of the big body it feels and plays a little like an acoustic which I also like.  I play electrics a lot, but I think my first and truest love is acoustic guitar, like you, and the Sheraton really appeals to me.  I have a few electrics, Strat, Tele, Les Paul, Godin, and my Sheraton.  That Sheraton is my favorite and the one I would keep if I had to get rid of the lot some day. It even sounds nice just strumming unplugged.  Thats my advice for you Rob, go look at some semi-hollow body electrics.  The Sheraton is one of the best values and best built of this style (IMO).  

Here is an example of how they can soar when played into a hard driven amp.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Ol6I0LoqMU
and clean they are beautiful too

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTtq3fnXTQw

[Blooby]

I think it boils down to the tones you are trying to achieve.

Like BB, I mostly play a 335-type semi-hollow (and you can play many different forms of music on it), but it doesn't sound like a Strat or a Tele.  If I had to have one electric, it might be a Tele. I can get many tones out of it, and I can still probably row a boat or chop down a tree with the thing. It's all subjective, though.

Starting this thread was a good idea for you. The ensuing discussion will probably help you narrow your choices. I would say since you already have the PRS with what I am assuming are two humbuckers, start your search with something different. 

Blooby

[Farrell Jackson]

Ummm....that's a tough question to answer Rob. The PRS into the POD should produce just about any sound you would want. Do you preamp the sound into the POD? I find pumping up the sound via a preamp before most modelers gets better results.

Having said that, do you prefer the sound of humbucker pups or single coil pups? The quick description of that is the Gibson sound or Fender sound. As mentioned already, since you don't have a hollow or semi-hollow body guitar you might check those out. The also come with humbucker and single coil pups (usually a P90). Epiphone, Gretch, and Ibanez come to mind which would fit easily into your budget.

Good hunting!

Farrell

[steelguitar]

About the Epiphone Sheraton II, I totally agree with Bluesberry

You can play some excellent clean sounds. I played on a video throuht a Marshall Amp, no effect at all.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJ_2Wp-DVoM

An other choice : a Fender American Standard Statocaster should be a good advice. An other type of excellent clean sounds, but in a very different way.

New for 2012, Fender American Stratocaster are now upgraded with Fender Custom Shop pickups
http://www.fender.com/fr-FR/products/americanstandard/models.php?prodNo=011040

As said Farell, you have to decide between single coils or humbuckers, or both : there are Stratocaster with both pickups : http://www.fender.com/fr-FR/products/americanstandard/models.php?prodNo=011010
One humbucker, two single coils....

Jean-Sébastien

[bruno]

What a question - so many choices.

I'm at the other end of the scale - really and electric player trying to get a really nice acoustic sound. The guitar sounds great where-ever I play it, got a great mike - but am never that satisfied. Go figure

The War Pigs song was with a PRS, I bought it last year - but was a old american CE (rather than an SE) - 1992, cost me £900 - not sure if it was a bargain or overpriced - not many on the market. I thought the sound of the USA/older guitar was better - glad I did, cos it has 'that' sound. However I did play an SE at the time, and thought it was a very good guitar, but I like older guitars. The CE is a humbucker beast! The Music Man Luke was more expensive (£1200), again a USA made guitar, and is a pro-guitar - and has a wide range of sounds - but guitar sounds/tone is a mine-field, and you can spend thousnads and not get back what your are after.

NB the Sabbath guitar sound was completely from the BR1600 COSM - however, I will say you need to tweak the out of box sounds - they always set (on the 1600 at least) to speaker emulation ORG - which I hate - so either a 2by12 or 4by12 for me - and I tend to keep the chain pretty simple, so no emulated distortion pedals, but use the emulated amp overdrive - or plug a real analog distortion pedal into the POD. I don't know what parameters the POD offers - but I'm sure it will have all kinds of parameters to tweak. I think manufactures tends to over-effect things to make them sound good in the shop - I recon if you really tweak the POD with the SE - you can get great sounds out of the PRS - less is definitely more.

A single coil strat is great and distinct - but you can get rubbish fenders, and price isn't normally a guide - you can get great sounds out of a cheap guitar - my Squire tele cost £120 and sounds just like a ... well a Tele! I guess what I'm saying is that by spending more money may not necessarily solve your problem - so first  I'd dig deep with the SE, and if its not doing it for you, then bring the POD in with the PRS and a set of cans in a guitar shop and play and A/B test - until you get the sound that you're after. Then look at the price-tag after :-)

That's about it - apologies for the meandering thoughts - hope it makes sense. Note that the one thing that experience has taught me is that this is a never ending quest - we guitarists are never happy!

Bruno

[Bluesberry]

Note that the one thing that experience has taught me is that this is a never ending quest - we guitarists are never happy!

ain't that the truth

[T.C. Elliott]

Have you tried tweaking the settings on your modeler? I have found that most presets suck. They are like the news anchors on tv. If you see them live they are made up like wax dolls or hookers with way too much lipstick etc. The idea being the preset really gives you an idea of what can be done. But generally you'll have to back off the reverb or the chorus or the distortion or what not. Or sometimes tweak all the settings.

Strat style guitars (BIG generalization) suck on the bridge pup while Gibsons etc generally rock on lead tones on the bridge pups.  Oh, try adding a bit of compression to a tone, not too much, to give you a bit of either sustain or oomph. Too much can suck (well it can be cool sometimes) but an amp, a guitar and a modeler are all things that can be tweaked. Hell, just the BR 900 needs quite a bit of tweaking when I do my demos. If I'm lazy the tone really suffers for it.

Anyway, good luck. My best advice is to go play lots of guitars till you find one that both feels good and sounds good.

[Facemask93]

Im beginning to think after this great advice is that , it may be that I'm the problem and not the guitars that i own , when i first started to play electric , i learnt the minor pentatonic scale in A , but still felt that i couldn't play the blues ,never sounded like what everybody else doing , maybe i don't have a soul , i certainly have enough shit going on in my life to warrant being able to feel the blues , and thanks  Dave & Steelguitar , many years ago i did own a Sheraton , and did love it ( i had to sell it when my first marriage ended ) never played it through an overdriven amp though .
Bruno , Farrell , thanks , you are probably right , i do need to tweak my Pod , i have heard my model PRS played by a good musician through an amp the same as mine ( Fender Blues ) and it sounded amazing , but as Blooby said , maybe i should try something different , with single coil maybe , the quest continues

Rob

[Flash Harry]

Have a look at the Godins. You get a fabulous guitar at a really good price. They do semis, solids and modelling/synth access stuff. The entry level radiators are as good as any fender for quality and flexibility.

I have a Solidac, humbucker, single, humbucker and piezo. £500. And a neck to die for. Sounds great through Twins and AC30s and cheapo Marshall stuff too.