Sorry if this is the wrong forum to post this in...

I'm a bass player mostly, but I'm looking to get a guitar now. I play guitar, *cough* somewhat *cough*, but I only have an acoustic and I'm liquidating a lot of gear so I'm selling my only electric (which is a piece of crap anyway).

So I've done quite a bit of research myself as far as googling and just going out and trying some guitars out, but I still need some help. The tricky part is finding some thing that is versatile enough.

So as far as music goes.... I'm currently in a Post-Rock group. I jam with some friends who play surf-pop. And my favorite genres are reggae, indie, garage rock, and math rock. So basically a guitar that is light and jazzy but I can get some really raw tones out of when I need to. Favorite bands (who doesn't want a guitar just like their idol plays) are Sublime, Nirvana, Best Coast and The Strokes

Looks and price are the next priority. Under $900 or so, I like pastel colors (or ANY form of white), and I like maple fingerboards.

I've checked out some guitars too:
CV White Tele- SUPER HEAVY (weight wise, butnot that big of a deal) and was kind of an one trick pony
KC Sig Mustang- Really dug the over-all feel but the humbucker seemed too hot
Squier CV stratw/ lipstick pups- great surf and reggae tones but I couldn't get it rough enough for anything else

The list goes on and on... its either one or the other, never both. I generally have been leaning more towards the teles and mustangs rather than strats or other guitars.

If anybody has any suggestions, I greatly appreciate all the help I can get.

Thanks much!

I'm able to get quite a bit of versatility out of my strat. Just from the dynamics of my playing and switching pickups I can go from mellow melodies to driving rhythm. All with the same amp setting.

I almost never use heavy distortion.

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In my opinion Leo Fender had essentially perfected the guitar amplifier by 1964.

any suggestions on a particular strat?

Jazz and Surf and Maple neck = Jazzmaster. In your budget range the Classic Player could be a winner.

Cheers,
John.E

do you have an amp?

@Captain Eyeball - Yes I do have an amp. I'm currently running through the fender mustang 1, which is one of my favorite amps of all time! I really wish they had a version for bass (my main instrument). I do know about the B-Dec (something or another?) but it'd not quite the same IMHO.

@John.E -Oh! and I've yet to play the Jazzmaster! I'll have to check it out. The only similar thing I've played was the Kurt Cobain Sig Jaguar (or is it a Jazzmaster?) and I didn't like it AT ALL, which is pretty funny because I am a HUGE Nirvana freak... I couldn't even cop his sound.

@Violin Parent - That was a great video, I love the Black Keys!! Funny that you post that, because my brother saw them at Emo's but I think he saw them in '08. I've only played Mexican Teles, with the exception of my friend's Hw1 Tele. But I've never gotten that kind of variety out of one. Are the Americans worth it? They are a little expensive. I have up to $950 or so to spend (easily the cost of a used one), but the less I spend the better... More money to spend on basses, better recording equipment, etc

---Sorry for derailing a little, I tend to be kinda chatty---

Thanks again for all the help! It is GREATLY appreciated!

The Fender Balcktop HH Stratocaster is a versatile guitar. Split coil pickups so you get humbucker and single coil sound all out of one guitar. Check one out.

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I remember when we were free!

I get tonnes of variety out of my teles, one Mexican Standard and one American Deluxe. You might consider buying an Mexican one and adding a series/parallel switch, or you could try the baja tele.

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Rated "M" for meaty.

+1 for the blacktop recommendation. I play in a reggae band and add blues and hard rock solos. If you're going for versatility, you need something that can be clear in the clean channel, and kick distortion smoothly. I don't use any SSS guitars for our shows. The reason being, that they don't kick the distortion hard enough. Single coils just sound weak in comparison.

With a Blacktop, you'll get great cleans, you can kick any distortion hard enough, and get everything in between from dirty cleans to mellower rock tones, Jazz tones, etc. A blacktop would be my #1 choice of the Fender models. My opinion of course.

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Jazzmaster and Jaguar have similar voices, to my ear the shorter scaled Jaguar sounds harsh when compared to the mellower Jazzmaster. A few examples below.

http://youtu.be/tBbM0DLjhCs

Hope this helps with your quest.
John.E

Thanks for all the suggestions! I'll go out later this week and check out a lot of teles and a blacktop or two! Should I check out the Pawnshop Mustang then? It looks pretty similar.

How's the squier VM line though? I know the CV line is fantastic but is the VM the same? If so I could get a mustang, jazzmaster/jaguar, and a tele for less than one of the Classic players! I hardly need 3 guitars though. But I'd much rather spend $200 on something that is pretty darn close.

Thanks!

[quote="ThomasGH"]@Captain Eyeball - Yes I do have an amp. I'm currently running through the fender mustang 1, which is one of my favorite amps of all time! I really wish they had a version for bass (my main instrument). I do know about the B-Dec (something or another?) but it'd not quite the same IMHO.

if you are happy with your amp then i would also suggest an american standard tele or strat. while i have a mim strat and love it, and have played several squires that were pretty good, my american standard strat(2009) and tele(2010) are great guitars. if you have $900 to spend you can easily find a used american standard tele or strat and with another hundred dollars you can get a new one. unless your a complete beginner, i always believe you should get the best guitar that you can afford.

or you cold always get a better amp and a squire cv tele...oh the choices...have fun and good luck.

You should try out everything you can. In my guitar buying experiences, there's always that feeling you get where you just pick one up and for some reason you just have to buy it. That's really when you know you've made the right choice.

I've gone through many experiences of trying to find that "everything" guitar, and find that it's nearly impossible. So I narrowed things down to what's most important to me. I need a guitar that can be very clean in the clean channel, and distort with a vengeance when that time comes.

Single coils usually do very well in the clean channel. However, I'm on the side that can't stand hum. And they don't distort nearly as strong as Humbuckers.

Because of that, all of my live guitars are either, HH, or HSH. Our other guitar player has a Blacktop, and it's probably the most versatile guitar we use. Although its a HH setup, there's something very "Fenderish" and glassy about the Humbuckers. I only have one other set of Hums that do that, and good luck finding them. They're Roland's.

Once you get into all of the different voices a Blacktop provides, you really discover that those pickups are really amazing. And when you distort them, they deliver without breaking a sweat. You definitely won't get a thin sound out of them. Anytime I hear the word "versatile", it's always my first recommendation. Our band does Reggae, R&B, Blues, Heavy Metal, Ska, Rock, Funk, country, etc.. We throw a lot of influences and Genres in our music. And if we HAD to use just one guitar for our new album, the Blacktop would be the clear-cut winner. And I have about 15 electrics.

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@Captain Eyeball - Oh I'm very happy with this amp! Best $100 I've ever spent. I'm a bass player first, and guitar player second... I've been playing bass for 6 years and guitar for about 2... as long as I have an amp that gets the job done (and the Mustang I does it well) then I don't need some $1k Marshall :p On the other-hand, I do believe having a guitar that I'm not only super-comfortable with but doesn't just do the job(s) but executes it(them) perfectly. I'd go the Warmoth route but I don't feel like forking out $1500 for an empty body and neck I still need to get hardware/electronics for.

@ Jah Soldier - I've looked a lot into the Blacktop on youtube and I've been VERY impressed. My only complaint is the colors but I can probably get past that. Hum isn't a huge deal to me either, so the hum-canceling does nothing for me But I'm playing everything I can get my grubby little paws on. Unless its a KILLER deal, I won't buy over the internet without playing it a ton first. Who knows, I may HATE one BT Strat and be in love with another just like it.

Thanks again guys!

Well, here's my own take on singles and hum. Why have it when you don't really have to?

A while back, I got on a Telecaster binge. I had a couple single coil Strats, and Telecasters do have a different sound to them. But just as I went through all of that, and going through the hum, and coming to terms that I was sacrificing having the hum for the sweet sound singles create, I started running across Humbuckers that sound just as sweet.

My first discovery came with a set of DeArmond Goldtone pickups. Anyone who has ever tried them will probably agree that they sound like a dead ringer to Telecaster pickups. The bridge is extremely bright, and the neck, full flavored and jazzy. If I were to play my DeArmond alongside my Telecaster pickups, you would only notice the difference by the absence of hum.

It raised my eyebrow to what other hums sound similar. Another one is the Seymour Duncan SH-1. That pickup is so insanely bright, it could very easily be mistaken for a Tele or Strat bridge. I have a few neck pickups that sound similar to Strats and Teles as well.

Of course, it's always subjective to people which are richer in "tone".. But I personally quit buying into the idea tha hums may be bland in comparison to singles. If I didn't go through my own experiments with some great Humbuckers, I'd probably still be inclined to believe that idea. Now, I'm at a point to where I just say "why bother with hoping a venue has good grounded power, or lighting, or whatever else that can create the hum". Even my own house is awful for it. I just refuse to deal with it anymore for live, recording, or practice purposes. And my own ears thank me for that every day.

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