Good Guitar to play The Blues?

[Daddy-L-Jackson]

I plan on buying my first guitar soon. I know a little bit about scales and chords and stuff from the little keyboard I play, but what I really want to play is Blues-Rock guitar. So any suggestions for acoustic or electric guitars, as well as amps, for Blues?

[Mystery-Moon-Pie-Aud]

I don't know... I just produce the music, I don't play the instruments. You must be a bit new. Anyways, I guess really any guitar is good for it. What you really want to focus on is getting a rubber finger for playing slap bass. And I really forgot what the heck they are called, but it creates tons of different guitar sounds. Usually a pedal that you hit with your foot and it changes the sound style between the thing. I forgot. It's for electric guitars.

[CWN]

At 11/28/09 10:11 PM, Mystery-Moon-Pie-Aud wrote: I don't know... I just produce the music, I don't play the instruments. You must be a bit new. Anyways, I guess really any guitar is good for it. What you really want to focus on is getting a rubber finger for playing slap bass. And I really forgot what the heck they are called, but it creates tons of different guitar sounds. Usually a pedal that you hit with your foot and it changes the sound style between the thing. I forgot. It's for electric guitars.

A Wah.pedal?

You can play blues on almost everything.
But a fender stratocaster + a nice fender tube amp will get you that nice sound.
(Or Gibson.. Either you play Fender or Gibson.)

What kind of blues are you aiming for?

[Daddy-L-Jackson]

At 11/28/09 10:29 PM, CWN wrote: You can play blues on almost everything.
But a fender stratocaster + a nice fender tube amp will get you that nice sound.
(Or Gibson.. Either you play Fender or Gibson.)

What kind of blues are you aiming for?

Ummm, stuff like White Stripes or The Black Keys, as well as stuff like Hendrix. I know I also have to get a distorion pedal and other stuff as well, but I was just asking for what guitar makes a tone like those artists.

[Mystery-Moon-Pie-Aud]

It's not a wah petal. I think it might be a distortion pedal. I don't remember.

[loansindi]

At 11/28/09 10:37 PM, Daddy-L-Jackson wrote: but I was just asking for what guitar makes a tone like those artists.

probably at least 60% of your tone comes from the amplifier/effects, rather than the guitar.

[Psil0]

At 11/28/09 11:05 PM, loansindi wrote:

At 11/28/09 10:37 PM, Daddy-L-Jackson wrote: but I was just asking for what guitar makes a tone like those artists.

probably at least 60% of your tone comes from the amplifier/effects, rather than the guitar.

Wrong, your tone is based on the control with your fretting hands, your picking style, and adjustments on the tone and volume knob. All effects do is color your tone.

[Chozz]

At 11/28/09 11:05 PM, loansindi wrote:

At 11/28/09 10:37 PM, Daddy-L-Jackson wrote: but I was just asking for what guitar makes a tone like those artists.

probably at least 60% of your tone comes from the amplifier/effects, rather than the guitar.

That's where your wrong. Anything to do with the guitars material (different woods make different sounds), the guitars shape, the pick ups, the type of strings, the thickness of the strings, the tuning e.t.c e.t.c e.t.c.

What's your budget?

I recommend if your a beginner, to start with a squire stratocaster. It's a cheap version of the Fender Strat, it's good to learn on, it's good quality, and it caters for most sounds!

[Chozz]

Oh and for your information Hendrix used a Fender Strat mainly. Other guitar brands that are famous with the blues - Gibson, PRS (Carlos Santana used one of these).

I saw the Black Keys live, and I think he used a Fender Telecaster.

Here's a good site anyway:

Guitar Amp Keyboard

[loansindi]

At 11/28/09 11:56 PM, Nosferatu-of-Worms wrote: Wrong, your tone is based on the control with your fretting hands, your picking style, and adjustments on the tone and volume knob. All effects do is color your tone.

Nah. The way you use your fretting/picking hands do not 'determine tone' so much as provide expressiveness.

Adjustments to volume and tone knobs will interact with your amplifier, not determine your tone. Settings will sound different across different amplifiers.

That's where your wrong. Anything to do with the guitars material (different woods make different sounds), the guitars shape, the pick ups, the type of strings, the thickness of the strings, the tuning e.t.c e.t.c e.t.c.

Well. Sort of. The style of construction matters, sure. A hollow-body sounds different than a solid body. A single coil sounds different than a humbucker.

But I'd like to sit down with a few similar guitars with identical pickups and really hammer out the (in my opinion) miniscule differences in tone generated with different types of body wood, with different neck attachment schemes, with different fingerboard woods and so forth.

A lot of guitarists tend to discount the amplifier as part of their instrument, and that's a shame. Because it really is a very large factor in how your guitar sounds.

[Daddy-L-Jackson]

My budget? Hmmm, well, I have $800 to spend at max.

[loansindi]

At 11/29/09 12:28 PM, Daddy-L-Jackson wrote: My budget? Hmmm, well, I have $800 to spend at max.

The -most- important thing about a guitar is how it feels for you. Head down to a guitar store and play some. Even if you don't really know how to play, at least hold them, see how they feel in your hands.

I will say that unless you're 100% sure you're going to stick with guitar, $800 is a bit much to spend. I would definitely look at squiers, the quality is really solid for what you pay (around $250 for the affinity strat/tele), and will serve you well for your first few years of learning.

[Chozz]

At 11/30/09 03:30 AM, Jeffaro wrote:

At 11/29/09 12:28 PM, Daddy-L-Jackson wrote: My budget? Hmmm, well, I have $800 to spend at max.

If I was you I would spend 200$ on the guitar and 600$ on your amp.A good amp is key to a good sound.As far as Guitar brands go, Gibson,Fender and some Schecter models are good.Amp brands, uh..Peavey?

Yes but also those models are expensive. Peavey is a nice amp to start with, I've got a Line 6 spider at the moment which is okay, very modern though. I've heard mesa boogie and vox are nice amps to get, you could always try a marshall!

[loansindi]

Regarding amps, if you're just playin in the bedroom for a while, which you probably will, starting out, definitely consider some low-wattage/high quality amps. These'll let you get a good tone at relatively low volume.

If you buy a big cab, you'll probably rarely turn the master volume up beyond two or three, because those 100 watt heads are fuckin loud. I've heard some really good things about blackheart amps. That little guy's only five watts, so you can probably crank it hard enough to get into power tube saturation, which is where some of the better tube tones come from.

If you want some versatility, a modeling amp is definitely not a bad buy. I use a Roland Cube 30x and am a big fan. It can generate a great variety of sounds, the built in effects are okay, and the onboard tuner is handy. Plus at 30 watts it can get loud enough to practice with a drummer alright.

[Sialys]

In my experience, there is no good guitar for anything anymore. It's all about the tone your dialing in on your equipment.

All I can really say is, if you want a chimey blues sound, go Fender.
If you want a rhythm, chunky blues sound. Go with Gibson/Epiphone.

Personally, I prefer the low-end, and went Epiphone. I don't regret it for a single second, but I do wish I could play around in the world of Fenders. :P

[loansindi]

At 12/1/09 12:11 AM, Sialys wrote: All I can really say is, if you want a chimey blues sound, go Fender.

you mean a single coil pickup

If you want a rhythm, chunky blues sound. Go with Gibson/Epiphone.

you mean a humbucker

Personally, I prefer the low-end, and went Epiphone. I don't regret it for a single second, but I do wish I could play around in the world of Fenders. :P

you should look into coil tapping.

[jarrydn]

An Epiphone Valve Jr would probably be very suitable for blues. Especially if you grabbed a cheap second hand Boss overdrive pedal or something.

[Psil0]

Not sure if you'd be interested, but I might be selling my Epiphone Les Paul (along with the hard case) for $550.

[Sialys]

@loansindi

I know all about coil tapping, and different pickup types I was just trying to keep it simple, someone who hasn't been playing for awhile, or hasn't played at all isn't going to know much of a difference between humbuckers and single coils. And they especially won't know anything about coil tapping.

So I said Fender or Gibson/Epiphone because Fender is regarded as more of a single coil company. And Gibson/Epiphone is more of a humbucker company.

[Psil0]

Coil tapping is pretty easy to explain, it's a way for a guitar with two humbuckers to simulate a single coil. Usually there's a switch in the tone knob that activates it by pulling out on the knob. The guitar I'm trying to get money for from selling my Epi. Les Paul actually has a coil tap feature.

[loansindi]

At 12/1/09 06:31 PM, Sialys wrote: @loansindi

I know all about coil tapping, and different pickup types I was just trying to keep it simple, someone who hasn't been playing for awhile, or hasn't played at all isn't going to know much of a difference between humbuckers and single coils. And they especially won't know anything about coil tapping.

Why do you assume they're a dumbass? It's really not that hard to explain the difference between the two types of pickups, and it's a pretty important piece of knowledge. Once the difference is clear, it's even easier to make the jump to the concept of coil tapping. Here, I'll go ahead and provide that explanation, for the benefit of the OP and anyone else interested.

Okay. So a guitar pickup is kind of like a microphone (such that some display a generally undesirable tendency to act as a microphone [this is what the term microphonic, also sometimes used in the context of vacuum tubes, means.]) The action of the strings in the field of the magnets induces a current in the thin copper wire wrapped around the whole mess.

The earliest guitar pickups used a single unit like this, a lot of copper wire wrapped around some magnets. This is the 'coil' referred to in 'single-coil.' This works fine to reproduce the sound of the guitar string. However, it's also very susceptible to electric interference. Noise comes from many sources, it can be wiring in the wall, electronic devices, whatever.

This hum is sometimes undesirable. Someone got the idea to take two pickups and stick them together, wiring them such that the two pickups are wired such that any electronic noise gets phased out (the two pickups are wired with reversed polarity and phase.)

Since the humbucker has two pickups in series, they generally produce a hotter signal, which results in a 'thicker' sound quality, as well as more drive to the preamp stage of amplfiers. This is where the difference in tonality comes from.

So I said Fender or Gibson/Epiphone because Fender is regarded as more of a single coil company. And Gibson/Epiphone is more of a humbucker company.

But what if he wants to explore one of the -many- other guitar companies out there?

[Sh0ckFyre]

At 11/28/09 08:34 PM, Daddy-L-Jackson wrote: I plan on buying my first guitar soon. I know a little bit about scales and chords and stuff from the little keyboard I play, but what I really want to play is Blues-Rock guitar. So any suggestions for acoustic or electric guitars, as well as amps, for Blues?

You can't go wrong with Fender. Get yourself a Stratocaster and you'll be set for life.

[Psil0]

If you do try to get a guitar with coil taps, go with Schecter. You can almost never go wrong with them. Reliable/well made guitars at fair prices (unlike the two major money hungering powerhouses).

[loansindi]

I'd also like to throw my hat in with the schecter fan club.

[halen1]

Fender Telecaster
Vox Wah
Boss DS-1
also to have a bluesy tone, mix and match with the above and tune down to an Eb... if you work with it, it'll sound cool