Popular Electric Guitar of this Generation

[Gr3y]

Hi guys,

let's talk about something subjective. hehe.
We all know that electric guitar's shape comes in many different form and each significant one resembles a certain era. Generally we have our strats and tele from the 60-70s, our ibanez or jackson in the 80s-90s and thus i'm wondering what's the most popular design teenagers look out for this generation.

We listen to SRV, Jimi Hendrix, Led zep and it change to Joe Satriani, Vai, Malmsteen and now the teenagers listens to A7X, My Chemical Romance and Children of bodom and such. It really shows how our taste changes.

So my point is, i'm pretty sure the liking of electric guitar shapes have changed over the generations and would like to know which are the most popular models out there. It'll be best if you state
-Why you think it's popular (e.g. because of the current top bands or because my friends all have 1 )
-Which specs of the guitar makes it popular? ( e.g. it comes with emg instead of the old sch single coil)
-What is your age group.

I hope we won't start to see some "ABC guitar is the best, just get 1!" or any of that sort. I myself owns quite a couple of guitars and i am still a very Paul Gilbert, Steve vai kinda person so i'm just curious what's the current "fashion" in this industry or say in our SOFT community.

**hope i didnt post at the wrong section **

 

[bouncy]

Firstly Grey, yes I do agree that this topic is extremely subjective.

I am 18 this year, but anything kind of rock that revolves around the artistes you mentioned (MCR, A7X etc) is not welcomed by me. And yes, I listen to SRV, Jimi Hendrix, Led zep most of the time.

Upon saying that, I would like to clear the misconception that most elders have that teens these days listen to nothing except emo/punk/anti-establishment/you get my idea- rock. YES, a good deal of youths indulge in those genres, BUT there are much more teenagers that you think who refuse to let go of the good old times.

Now answering your question, I think that the type of genre one plays makes up an integral part of his taste of guitar/body shapes. For me, I will always look up to the Strat, Tele and Les Paul simply because of the way they revolutionized the solid-body electric guitar. Just think about it; in any picture, reference, or symbol of rock and roll that has an electric guitar in it, the chances of you coming across any of the 3 mentioned is close to 100%.

Fans of super strats and other types of guitars may call be biased, but just think about it, if there was no Strat/Tele/Les Paul, would there be this much of variations of electric guitars present today?

Its just like, sure SRV may own Jimi bigtime (subjective), but if there was no Jimi, would there be an SRV?

I love the guitar so much because it is one of the few things left in the world where people stick to the old ways and not welcome improvements that much. Nothing like the old times.

My 2 cents worth =)

 

[kerplunk182]

Somehow... I see lots of local bands playing SGs and Teles right now...

 

[wayne1991]

yeah SGs!! light and rockable, most of the emo/hardcore/metal bands i see use it!!
superstrats too.. but i prefer SGs!

 

[remy]

17 this year
LOVES the telecaster shape and sound;LOVES active pickup
LOVES all types of music but mostly metal
specs wise: as long as it sounds good, it feels good

Everyone of my friends says the telecaster is the ugliest guitar shape, particularly those people who plays punk-heavy metal

 

[ungauged]

I think the popularity of certain guitars still remain the same except for a few new brands that have designed their guitars for more modern sounds. The Les Paul, Strat, Tele, SG, Hollowbody(ES style) will always be a guitarist's favourite. Reason being because these are the guitars that made rock & roll. Ibanez, Paul Reed Smith, Ernie Ball have emerged with fairly similar deisgns with a few creative changes hence the new popular trend.

Hendrix, Clapton and SRV made the strat a huge success, Slash and Zakk Wylde took the Les Paul to greater heights, Santana and Tremonti made Paul Reed Smith popular while Steve Vai just made everyone think they would play like him if they bought an Ibanez and not forgetting the Ernie Ball guys with lightning fast fingers. Guitarist will always evolve around these few designs or brands.

If some new guitar god of the new generation were to use the new Gibson reverse flying V, the new generation will follow even though it's really weird looking. I guess it's really down to who's going to be the next big guitarist and how well marketed the guitar endorser is going to market him. To me the only notable new age guitarist worth mentioning is John Mayer and guess what, it's a Strat! Pickup wise is really down to what kind of music you play.

Btw, I'm 23 and I love Paul Reed Smith for their unbelieveable construction and consistency while Strats, SG, Teles and Les Pauls for the fact that they are historic designs that will never go out of trend and have their own loves and hates.

 

[Plastic]

I'm 17, and I listen to the likes of ACDC to Queen to SRV to BB King to so much more.

Guitar likings probably has some connection to the people you listen to, like I love the SG, probably because I like ACDC alot..
And the strat.
And the tele.

Les pauls only one particular 59' re-issue, otherwise it's love hate thing. Cause it's the only good one, good = blow heads off kinda good, one I tried :mrgreen:

 

[kahuna]

im sixteen, listen to many genres of music,from blues to something core haha,i like teles,strats,lps and sgs

 

[taytehni]

i prefer superstrats lol and im 16 lol
\m/ Paul Vai Satch \m/

 

[Phanto]

The Telecaster in all its forms

-Multiple guitarists from top bands and genre specific post-rock/indie/alternative using it
-Distinct cutting twang that allows it to cut through the band mix
-Lookswise very customizable, classic looks to more outlandish looks
-Alot of variants that anyone can appreciate, (slopping humbuckers on, thinline, P90s)


Im 18 this year.

 

[Jugman]

i'm told that telecasters are used for indie. stratocasters are for jazz and blues. flying v's are for metal. and the rest for rock and such.

i think to each his own. wanna play metal on a telecaster? go ahead. create your own tone. be original.
i personally don't really care what kind of music one plays on a guitar as long as its acceptable to me. not sure about the rest of the people in the world though.

i'm 18 this year and i can't understand why i don't like lp's..the rest are alright though.

btw, interesting topic, gr3y.

 

[seanydon]

I think this is quite an interesting topic to discuss. Personally, in my not-so humble opinion, almost anything an everything in the past 50-60 years is based on at least one of these four legendary guitars: The Les Paul (which serves as a benchmark for all humbucking guitars), the Strat (which spawned hundreds of clones and variations, including S-H-H-S-S-S-H-H-S-H superstrats), the Tele or an ES-335 (the Adam of the semihollobody guitar). You can't escape this fact (unless of course, we're talking about jazzboxes or in a more extreme case, a Synthaxe.)

In terms of shape, sure, some people these days might think a Warlock or an offset V might raise more eyebrows, but let's not forget they're still in a way offspring of the guitars mentioned above. Borrowing certain features here and there and mixing and matching them but only putting them on a different body.

Also, I think there's this "classic revolution" in our generation where many young people like me (I'm twenty) who weren't born close to 1950 have came to realize the class and raw unadulterated sound of a classic guitar like a Strat, so yeah.

 

[seanydon]

I agree with you Jugman. The what guitar's for what genre concept is bullcrap and a very closed-minded way to look at guitars.

Also, I disagree on the stereotype that Teles are mostly for Indie music. If there's just one stereotyped genre for the Teles, it has got to be Country music. Yeehaw! But like I said, bullcrap. Muddy Waters used it for the Blues, Vince Gill uses it for Country, Mike Stern uses it for Jazz, Keith Richards rocks out on one, the guy from Coldplay uses it for Alternative and hell, John 5 even plays freakin metal on it! I can go on and on, but yeah, you get the pic...

 

[Crawldaddy]

Hmm.

You can probably say that I'm going off-topic here, but I think that nowadays, more and more people are playing this:

rather than the real thing.

However, back to the main topic, I still see alot of strat, tele and les paul copy guitars in the hands of today's players. Not least because they want to emulate if not entirely copy the sound of their heroes and with a significant number failing miserably in the process unfortunately due to disillusionment from wrong or inaccurate information sources.

While we can all preach individuality, originality and uniqueness... no matter what, there's bound to be some part of you that stays true to your original influences despite where you go and what you play, and that's the reason why the 4 main guitar shapes are still in heavy demand, despite modern interpretations of classic shapes.

 

[malaysian]

i am 23, LP, and slash alllllllllllll the way.
but among my guitar teacher's other students, seems like ibanez is the most popular.

 

[Jugman]

hey seanydon! i know you! you're in my contacts. haha paranoid_duh@hotmail.com

 

[vickomaniac]

i'm 15.
i listen to a7x, santana, eric clapton, linkin park, GnR, some mcr, michael buble.
you could say all of them use pretty different guitars.
im using an ibanez, but i do have a real liking for PRS.
in fact, my aim is to get a custom made raspberry one
i used to hate lps, but i am starting to like them more.
also we could talk about the COLOURS.

there was a cream strat, multicoloured ibanezes, sunburst teles.

the current trend for colours is not really fixed, but there are LOADS of black guitars.

so trends or not, i think it's still "to each his own"

 

[edyeo123]

im 15 this yr.

I listen mostly rock and pop this days...
Eg. john mayer, coldplay, good charlotte, santana, etc...
Usually for common rock music each days, they use les paul and ibanez while indie rock, they either use tele or strat.

 

[billthegeek]

I'm 17 this year. I guess the most popular guitar shape these days will have to be the Ibanez superstrats shape. I see them almost everywhere. These superstrats are rather versatile and could be used from jazz fusion to death metal.

 

[zullio]

les pauls are very popular now too right? but i think SGs are particularly popular amongst the youngsters these days..

but its superstrats/strats for me.. and maybe its just me, but im really not a fan of those awkward shaped guitars.. just not for me.