I personally like the idea of a robo-tuned guitar, especially for live performances.

Since I use a variety of tunings (for both slide and finger-picked songs), I have to carry two or three guitars to every gig. If there were user-programmable settings on a robo-tuner, that would be great...especially when I need to go from Open G to 440/standard pitch to Open D to Open Dm to 430/down a pitch within one evening...you can only do so much with a capo, sometimes you just have to re-tune the guitar.

I have read that the same technology used in the robo-Les Paul (does that mean that Rhubarb Red has been resurrected digitally? I digress...) can be installed in a Stratocaster...that would make me pretty happy, on-stage.

However, then I would have to figure out when to use my Telecaster or my G&L F100 live...hmm...I guess I'll just have to carry a couple of axes...

The Strat VG just didn't "feel" right...although the technology has come a long way, most digital musical instruments and effects still have some of that digital artifact and lag (my Boss Rotary Ensemble excluded, LOL). The VG was a great idea that the technology just hasn't caught up with yet.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Ha - OK, thanks for the correction. It's a mouth watering photo, whatever the model numbers! Oh, and . In the nicest possible way, of course!

Cheers man - C

I will re-word my previous post so i can better what i meant, Gibson make some wonderful guitars!! and right now im more partial to a Les Paul than my Strat, However i wish there were a couple more variants of the Studio Les Paul.
And i meant no offense to people who own Gibsons you are highly fortunate and no doubt deserve your guitar after hard work and probably much stress to accompany that.
I am 18 atm and looking for work because as many of you will know England has jobs for probably 30% of the people who need one.
I'm growing a little anxious with things and so i was a little blunt and unclear with what i meant.

Sorry to anyone who looked at my post and thought "DICK!"

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A painter paints pictures on canvas. But musicians paint their pictures on silence. ~Leopold Stokowski~

Thank you turrican, for saying largely what is in this mind.

It's kind of a pity for the industry, that the TRUE electric guitar immortals, the Tele, Strat, LP, SG, ES-335, ES-175, Jazzmaster, EDS-1275 double, Jaguar, Flying V, Firebird, Mosrite Mk I, Gretsch 6120 and Ric 360...

...did come along so fast-sequential and so "early" in the history of electric guitars. But they were SO GOOD!!!!!! And remain the pinnacles of electric guitar in the vast number of opinions.

In this opinion, to all practical purpose, almost ever since, veritably all the other manufacturers and even boutique cats have to reach for technology, easthetics, sound, qualities, layout and looks of the legends in order to build virtually any electric guitar "something."

It's pretty much impossible to think of fender in a positive light after they discontinued the Guild electrics... (bluesbird, starfire, x170 etc...)... I mean how do you completely screw up a line of guitars with the reputation they had ??

One thing I think is an issue is that the market is simply flooded with guitars... And there aren't that many people playing them.. I myself very rarely buy a new guitar... It's just no economically feasible..

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In Reference to Blues Legend RL Burnside:
After a heart attack in 2001, Burnside's doctor advised him to stop drinking; Burnside did, but he reported that change left him unable to play.

+1 on both subjects...

I really liked the Guilds that were being produced just a few years back; they were Fender-esque enough to satisfy me (a lifelong Fender/G&L enthusiast) but Gibson-esque enough to make it interesting (tone and looks-wise).

I will probably never buy a new guitar again (I've only bought two new ones my entire life, out of the dozen or so I've bought and sold). The cost vs. value of a new guitar (or at least any guitar I want right now) is wa-a-a-ay out of whack.

Probably the only way I would buy another new one would be if I got one of those "deals you can't pass up", such as the new/demo/floor model Danelectro DC3 Pro I bought at GC for $99 at a President's day sale a few years back.

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Good Vibes To Y'all!



Screamin' Armadillos
Texas Roadhouse Music
Guitar/Slide Guitar/Harp/Vocals

Sorry guys I'm going Gibson. It's my all time looker and they even managed to fret the neck properly LOOK




$6K, its a steal.

It's like they built it just for me to buy and shut up moaning about them. Just think, I dont have to write Henry that letter or send him that book on fretting guitars.

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No no and no

This has to literally be the worst apples-to-oranges argument around. But, ok, I'll play.

Here's my two cents.

Fender, by and by, will always be the working musician's instrument of choice. They're no nonsense instruments with the most straight-forward construction of any electric guitar. They're easy to modify and easy to repair and service. You break the neck on a Strat, you can simply buy another neck for about a hundred bucks, bolt it on, set it up, and go back to playing it. Simple as that.

You break the neck on a Les Paul or SG, it's never really the same again.

I will say that the two Epiphones I've had, a Epi LP Standard and G400, were well constructed instruments for what you typically see in their price range. While the better Epis run at higher prices than Squiers, I can say you do tend to get better quality consistency and more of a premium overall feel. (However, the Classic Vibes Strats and Teles are very nice; if only the Squier Standards were built to look, feel, and play and nice as the CV Series, then I wouldn't give the final nod to Epi here.) There are also a few mods out there you can do for them, so they actually tend to be more player friendly than their Gibson counterparts in that respect.

However, Gibson has Fender trumped in one area: acoustic guitars. Even the inexpensive Epi AJs sound pretty great and are built quite solid. There is no Fender acoustic than can compare to a Gibson Hummingbird or J-50.

I can think of three Fender acoustic guitars that I've picked up that had great tone: a newer Kingsman and a newer Malibu and an old '90s model AG-15 with the Strat headstock. I really pined for the AG; it sounded better than a Sigma I had picked up to compare it to, and the Sigma was a very nice guitar.

A large part of the Fender acoustics I've picked up and owned, though, I've had to put back down. I owned an '85 Gemini II that I couldn't bear to play because the quality and tone was so awful. By the time I had traded it off for the Ibanez acoustic I have now, the tuners were falling out of their holes and the bridge was starting to come unglued from the top of the guitar. The tone was always too deep and dark; not what I like an acoustic to sound like at all. It always sounded like it had dead strings.

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2006 Fender AVRI 70s Stratocaster: Natural Ash | Sovtek MIG 60 & A No Name Cabinet | Pedals & Junk

Sweet guitar Nik!

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

So you say, I seem to have seen a many many musicians playing LP's. In fact I would think I have seen as many Gibson's on stage as I have Fender's if your not counting Bass.
What do you mean by straight forward construction? You mean the easiest to build and lowest cost design? We all know that a set neck is a much more time consuming and costly build.

I don't know I just think its ridiculous to say its a working musicians guitar to many Gibbys and others out there being used. Even in the old days, Page , Allman, Beck, Edge, Mick Jones, Alvin Lee Freddie King, Nugent, BB, Sixx, Slash I guess non of these guys were working musicians. Don't forget Clapton and his ES-335 and the 60'LP he used when with the Bluesbreakers and Cream he even play a psychedelic SG them days.

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

Arguably my favorite Clapton era was when he was playing the fool.

I love the guitar owner's Hatfield and McCoy type feud over Fender and Gibson when contrasted with the delicious irony that Leo and Les (along with Bigsby,) were real life drinking buddies, that used to hang around at Les' house.

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I'm not an expert, but I play one on the internet.

See below.

And, no. I was not counting bass guitars. Different instrument. And, in that case, I believe it's obvious why you see so few Gibson basses. I'm not much of a bassist, but I like to screw around with them. Aside from the Thunderbird, the EB-0s and Les Paul basses are just ... wrong. There isn't a better word to describe it.



I really don't understand how you were confused by what I meant earlier, but ok.



I suppose your definition of a working musician is very much different than mine.

More to chew on: Slash's Les Paul that he used to record "Appetite for Destruction" was a copy of a '59 flame top. It wasn't an actual Gibson. His main live guitar was also a factory second; if you aren't familiar with Gibson's practices regarding seconds, they are usually destroyed using a bandsaw or even smashed against the side of the plant wall. When one occasionally squeaks out, it usually sells far cheaper than what you can buy the grade-a version for.

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2006 Fender AVRI 70s Stratocaster: Natural Ash | Sovtek MIG 60 & A No Name Cabinet | Pedals & Junk

Feck - have you actually dragged that one home, Ninja? I flippin' LOVE that top wood! Very cool if that has become yours - congrats!

Worth the search.

Cheers - C