[HELP] Need advice on deciding which guitar to buy!

[Gary.Blackmore]

Hey Softies! I'm planning to buy a new guitar, I play mainly blues and metal. For those who owned the following guitars, please describe the feel of the guitar, is the neck comfortable for playing fast, easy to reach twenty third fret, versatility and price!

Does anyone owned a
Gibson Les Paul, those that Slash and Gary Moore uses
Ibanez PGM ( Paul Gilbert)
Ibanez JEM

Please help a fellow player out !

 

[KeeZ]

i owned a ibanez pgm without the tremelo bridge.. nice bro !!! more sustain.. n nice guitar.. but pls try all the above guitar.. u must try for all guitars upon buying... its ok if u try for 2 hrs ... by the way bro i dont recommend gibson guitars!! for this year

 

[KeeZ]

if u wanna buy .. tag me along bro,... if ur budget is $2k.. we go to best place to try an expensive guitar

 

[relinquish69]

Is this going to be your first guitar? In terms of comfort, you have to try the guitar out yourself. In terms of versatility, most guitars are unless it's something specific like a hollowbody single pickup kind of guitar. What amplifier would you be using?

I assume you are still very new to guitars so try to take things a step at a time. No point spending $3k +/- on the "best" guitar only to find that you don't like it.

 

[CaboWabo]

by the way bro i dont recommend gibson guitars!! for this year

explain?...

 

[J.custom]

please describe the feel of the guitar, is the neck comfortable for playing fast, easy to reach twenty third fret, versatility and price!

BTW Most Gibson Les Pauls DON'T have a 23rd fret, and no they're not that easy to reach. Judging from the description of the players you've given, I think you're leaning more towards the blues rock side. To get a guitar that can do both, i think a guitar with HSS pickup configuration may be more suitable for you. Bluesy tone in the neck single coil pickup, when you switch to the bridge humbucker, you get a full fat tone. Check out the EBMM Steve Lukather's signature model, HSS, EMG Pickups.

I own a j.custom, which is pretty similar to the JEM, doesn't do blues too well. Great for rock, straight up shredding, fusion, metal.

Then again, like what reliquinish69 has said, the amp that you're playing through is very important as well. You can't expect to get a great bluesy tone from a 5150 or Triple Rectifier because they're high gain monsters.

What I would do if I were you is to get an amp with great cleans, then get your drive tones from pedals.

 

[faekildare]

I own a Jem. You can read about it here.
http://theguitarotaku.blogspot.com/2011/09/ibanez-jem-7v-mnb.html

 

[CyanideJunkie]

You can't expect to get a great bluesy tone from a 5150 or Triple Rectifier because they're high gain monsters.

Heh... I disagree man! My brother-in-law's Triple Rectifier does a mean blues tone if EQ-ed properly.

Even though I thoroughly dislike Ibanez guitars(with the exception of the Artcore series), if you're looking for fast necks, they're your best bet.

 

[Brenkoh]

Hey there.

Most les pauls are heavier (in terms of weight and tone) and have thicker necks. They are generally heavy due to the heavy wood involved and tend to sound fuller and mellow. On the other hand, ibanez guitars have thinner necks (Wizard II , Wizard III, Wizard 7 Prestige). So I guess you fall under this category. You know how people always associate fast necks with ibanez guitars whether the prestige or the RG series. The distance between the frets is also lesser as compared to les pauls. There are 2 prices for PGM (The $800+ one at SV Guitars or the $1.8-$2k) I suggest you go research on which particular model of PGM you are looking at. From hearsay, the bridge on JEMS are unstable so I wouldn't advise going for JEMs.
PGM LINK: http://www.ibanez.com/ElectricGuitars/Series-pgm

Ultimately you need to test the guitars to see which one is your other half. Happy hunting!

 

[faekildare]

Hey there.
The distance between the frets is also lesser as compared to les pauls. There are 2 prices for PGM (The $800+ one at SV Guitars or the $1.8-$2k) I suggest you go research on which particular model of PGM you are looking at. From hearsay, the bridge on JEMS are unstable so I wouldn't advise going for JEMs.

The distance between the frets of Les pauls are actually shorter compared to Ibanez/Fenders. It's called shorter scale. Les Pauls has 24.75 while Ibanez/Fenders has 25.5.

The 2 different prices for PGM are the difference between the Lower end Made in Indonesia model, mean to counter counterfeit Chibanez models (PGM3) and the High End Prestige Series (PGM 100 or whatever high end model numbers)

The Quality of both guitars differs in leaps and bounds. So try not to compare those together.

Likewise the Jem. If you are talking about Jem 7V with an unstable bridge, I think you are highly mistaken. The Edge, Lo-pro, Edge Pro are probably the most stable of the Tremolo Vibrato Bridges out there. You are probably talking about the JEM Jr, which once again is a low end model mean to counter counterfeit Chibanez. It sports an Edge III which is pretty bad. Once again, try not to mix them together.

 

[zesn]

This confuses me because my Fender and Ibanez has different fret spacing though on a 25.5 scale.
It's like when past the Fender's 12 frets, it still fits my fingers just nice.
But for the Ibanez, they're kind of too small for me.

Is it because the ibanez has 24fret and the fender has 22?
What's this called?

 

[J.custom]

Hmm maybe it's the string spacing?

 

[faekildare]

Fender and Ibanez has the same scale length. J Custom is right. It might be the string spacing. Ibanez has 43mm nut size while fender generally has 41mm/42mm nutsize. This can make the neck feel smaller at the hand. Space in between fret-wise, they are definitely the same unless you are comparing to Ibanez RGD, which has a longer scale length.

 

[zesn]

Okay nvm, maybe it's just the feeling it gives.

 

[pokoot]

Here is the answer:

To me buying guitars less than $500 is a waste of money.

Here is my 2 recommended guitars for intermediate to expert players.

- Fender Highway one stratocaster ( Made in the USA, maple fretboard, Alnico pickups, Can play to jazz, funk & rock but not heavy metal songs, jumbo frets). The price is $1200.
- Ibanez MTM2 (only 1 volume, this guitar is specifically for heavy metal players, Slipknot signature series, Jumbo frets). $900.

Highly recommended humbucker pickups:
- EMG 60
- EMG 81

Single coils:
- Stock pickups of fender & gibson will do the job.

I notice that in your post that you are buying a gibson as your first guitar right? For me I will never buy a gibson as my first guitar. Have you ever heard that a woman's first bag was a CHANEL? No right, it could be her fist bag was a Charles & Keith. Hehehe. Sorry my example was a bit out of topic. HAHAHAHA.

Your best source is:
musiciansfriend
zzsounds
guitarcenter
sweetwater


I hope that helps.

 

[CyanideJunkie]

Heck, I wouldn't mind getting a Gibson for my first. Get it done right the first time round!

 

[zesn]

Why not pay $80 more and get the American Special rather than the Highway One?
Am.Special has texas specials pickups =D, unless you don't like em..

 

[CaboWabo]

not to mention the beautiful 70's headstock too haha

 

[CyanideJunkie]

Changing the pickups doesn't cost as much as refinishing the body in nitro I reckon.