Are you so used to one type of guitar that the rest just feel odd?

[TonalEuphoria]

I picked up my now classic ESP Japanese Horizon Custom I've had for too long now and it just did not feel right. And I hated playing it. I'm so used to the feel, fit, and fretboards of Fender Tele's now, I don't think I can play anything else and be as comfortable. And play them as well and as natural. Am I broken? Do I need a spiritual guitar pilgrimage or something. Maybe a lot of bran and a cleansing?

 

[Dogs of Doom]

you done broke yourself... ...

I don't have that problem, like that. My problem comes more from switching from guitar to bass, back & forth, because of string spacing is so drastically different. Some basses have drastically different spacing too...

Although, when you write a guitar part on, say, a guitar that has more range, like 24 frets, or 29 frets, then go to play that on a guitar like a Tele. or LP, it kind of leaves you wanting...

Just like when you write something w/ whammy bar stuff & you grabbed a guitar w/o.

 

[TonalEuphoria]

I feel broken. I'm going to have to sell the ESP.





And build a custom Tele with Lace Sensors.




And Babicz Full Contact bridge.

 

[DirtySteve]

I'm most comfortable playing a short scale guitar. LPs feel the best, but my Warmoth Tele builds with short scale conversion necks feel pretty good, too.

 

[TonalEuphoria]

I'm most comfortable playing a short scale guitar. LPs feel the best, but my Warmoth Tele builds with short scale conversion necks feel pretty good, too.

There's also how the guitar rests in my playing positions. A Tele just sits right. I've tried and had lots of guitars over the years. But I broken now I think. Only going to be able to play Tele's I think from now on.

 

[DirtySteve]

There's also how the guitar rests in my playing positions. A Tele just sits right. I've tried and had lots of guitars over the years. But I broken now I think. Only going to be able to play Tele's I think from now on.

Nothing wrong with that, we all like what we like. I'm broken too then. I like my Teles (with forearm contour) and My LPs, everything else feels...odd, especially Strat style guitars, can't stand 'em, which may seem to contradict something I posted earlier in another thread if you saw it, but not really and that's another story. lol

 

[junk notes]

Nice ESP superTele.

Am I broken?

you done broke yourself.

superTele pickup options aplenty and will not go broke
an Richie Kotzen is for you!

 

[Dogs of Doom]

Nice ESP superTele.


superTele pickup options aplenty and will not go broke
an Richie Kotzen is for you!

the nice thing about a Tele, is you can always get a decent cheap one & mod it however you want. Just pull out the router & carve! ...

Want a triple humbucker? route it out! Want a Kahler trem, route it out!

You probably won't do that w/ a Les Paul, Explorer, V or SG...

Want a thinner neck, grind it down!

My 1st Tele, was actually when I bought 3 bodies, that were throwaways from the Fender factory in Corona. 1st thing I did was pull out the router & made them double humbuckers, for 2 of them. Those were just normal '13 USA bodies. The other one, I left, as it was a US CS '52 body.

The bodies were rejected for glue issues, where they got glue on the body, where the finish was to be applied & they figured it was too much work - they'd never get a clear coat on them.

I didn't care & did black lacquer on the 2 US & just oil on the '52...

Players over case queens. I think I paid $25/ea for the bodies...

 

[Crikey]

I picked up my now classic ESP Japanese Horizon Custom I've had for too long now and it just did not feel right. And I hated playing it. I'm so used to the feel, fit, and fretboards of Fender Tele's now, I don't think I can play anything else and be as comfortable. And play them as well and as natural. Am I broken? Do I need a spiritual guitar pilgrimage or something. Maybe a lot of bran and a cleansing?

I have favs but i make myself play my guitars. Each one has its quirks.

 

[junk notes]

You probably won't do that w/ a Les Paul, Explorer, V or SG...

..or even a double bound Esquire, right

there are plenty of Affinity Squiers for that..

Use a handheld CNC router?

 

[fitz]

the nice thing about a Tele, is you can always get a decent cheap one & mod it however you want. Just pull out the router & carve! ...

P-90's, 2V - 2T.

 

[mickeydg5]

Simple answer, no.

 

[V-man]

Guitars are a thing to which one acclimates. Weight, thickness, cutaway access, balance, and neck profile all figure into the equation… and these are merely the objective elements.

The V-types were what did and do it for me. The balance and weight are superb. Upper fret access is better than average. I got it down to a the specificity of Norlin-spec Vs given the neck profile and body thickness.

After years of false starts, I ended up with a Studio. There is no binding (sharper edge) and they are allegedly a hair thinner than standards, etc. It was not an alien sensation picking it up, but there was/is an adjustment to weight and thickness.

This year I got my first SG. In the body department, everything great on a V is even better on an SG, with the added benefit of no wings to bang into shit and the easiest “seated electric” made. But everything gained in the body is lost in the bulbous BB neck than wants to yank the headstock to the floor without the right strap. Everything on an SG is more forward than on other guitars as someone once said.

Explorers are good too, but something to the LP as the SG is to the V… it’s similar but better in ways where it’s not in others. I can play all of these but I know what default setting should feel like- a particular kind of V.

And then we have the subjectives. I had hated Teles with a passion (unsurprisingly not a LP,fan for most of the time too). There is something bulbous and crude and unfinished about them… unless maybe I see a TV yellow/butterscotch w black PG in Keef’s hands. Strats weren’t my thing (All Fenders aren’t but Strats are the least offensive… or so I thought), but after realizing their sounds, my Tele respect has grown my hatred for them has been replaced w the Strat and its 2/4 positions on the pup switch.

I bore you with the last paragraph to illustrate a point: the strat seems like it has to be the most comfortable guitar next to, if not above the SG. But the thing is Fenders do next to nothing for me, so I never try them and they feel more awkward to me than they would had I found them more enjoyable and tried them more often, A specific V makes me want to pick it up and play above all others. Unsurprisingly it feels best in my hands… for the things I like and the well-groved track of how I know/expect it to play

 

[Sg-ocaster]

V man try a faded SG they seem to have a thinner neck and less nose dive IMHO...........not to mention after you flog the crap out of it for 7 years it looks like a 50 year old guitar.
As for the esp/real tele debate....did ya mess with the setup a bit maybe its just a matter of a few tweaks...or perhaps the neck relief has changed after sitting dorment for months/years....just a thought.
In my case after playing my LP Jr for months I pulled out my trusty #1 SG and didnt like it I was surprised...then noticed the neck had come forward a bit put a small turn on the truss rod and there it was again.

 

[purpleplexi]

I almost always play the same guitar. I have another that I like a lot too but after a few minutes I just pick ol' #1 up again.

 

[10kDA]

As far as body and neck shape, I like Strat, SG, and Firebird shapes for sitting or standing. I surprise myself because a Strat is my main guitar but I like playing the Firebird just about as much when sitting, and the fingerboard is way out to the left when playing the Bird compared to the Strat. The Firebird for some reason doesn't feel like the scale is as short as my other short scale guitars but it is.I had a LP clone years ago and for some reason after about a half hour of playing, my picking hand would get cramped up. It happened standing or sitting. I tried adjusting the strap so it hung at different levels and nothing helped. I think it was from how my forearm contacted the upper part of the body and the angle of my wrist to strings due to the arch of the top. I never got comfortable with it.

But setup has big influence on which guitar I play most. All my short scale guitars are set up pretty much in line with what would be typical for a Gibson, but my Strat is set up like a 60s cheapo import on its way to becoming firewood. High action, HUGE tall frets, a lot of relief which is intentional and not a consequence of 60s imported cheapness. The Strat has a compound radius fretboard too, stock 9" at the nut flattened to 12" at the high end. I gravitate to playing the Strat, mostly because I can bend up a fourth on the 2nd and 3rd strings and a third on the top string without fretting out or breaking strings. If I try that with my Tuneomatic bridge guitars I break strings. But I probably could if I de-horned the saddles to remove stress risers at the point of string contact. I can't get comfortable playing a Les Paul, and almost nobody else can get comfortable playing my Strat. Good thing electric guitars have all those adjustable features or a lot of us would be SOL! LOL

 

[10kDA]

Use a handheld CNC router?

"Warning - Certain Content Could Be Triggering - Viewers Strongly Cautioned" on the user's you toob channel page.

 

[lespaul339]

I used to play nothing bet Les Pauls. So anything other than that used to feel weird to me. As the years progressed I realized LP's are great, but they can't do everything. I play and own all kinds of different guitars now. So nothing really feels weird to pick up anymore. My guitar choice now depends on what the song I'm playing calls for as far as tone goes. I like having tone options.

 

[TonalEuphoria]

I know a lot of you guys enjoy the diversity in guitars and tone. And that's cool. I'm simply the oddball. I am from most of my musician friends. I don't like the diversity in guitars. I like consistency and a particular tone. My tone. But I don't play covers anymore. And if you play covers and are looking to try and reproduce what the original guitar players tone was, you need that diversity.

Same goes for amps really. All I do is write and play originals these days. And refining my gear and tone has always been my focus. That ESP has to go. I tried to keep it, but it's one of two super Strat's I have left and has just been collecting dust so to say. I never play it, because of how it plays and feels. Someone would really enjoy it I'm sure. It has a very fast neck and light playing action. Tune-o-matic bridge with a stop tail piece and two Dimarzio humbuckers.

But I can't play it and enjoy it anymore. This epiphany moment does clarify what to do with the Mexican Tele I bought and upgraded but still didn't like. As Doom sort of says, route that puppy out and do what you want with it. as can be done. It has two Seymour Duncan Tele Hot Rails in it now and I see the clear thing for me to do to make it right for me is to route it out and put in a dual red Lace Sensor in the bridge and a Lace Sensor Tele single in the neck using one of Babicz Full Contact bridges.

 

[JPummil]

I could safely say that I have one particular guitar that I've had a long time that just feels "right" when I pick it up. I like all of the others, but it takes a second for me to adjust and get comfortable with them unlike the "fav"...