I’m not sure how many guitar players we’ve got here, but there have to be at least a few. I’m looking at getting my first electric guitar soon, and I’d like some advice.

My situation: I’ve been playing guitar for years, mostly acoustic, though in high school my dad did have an old Kramer guitar I used to mess around with. I currently play a Martin D-28 and use as my primary instrument live, though I do play electric on a few songs. Our style is folk/pop to folk/rock, and it is the more rocking songs on which I play electric. Currently for shows I use a friend’s Mexican Strat (w/ modifications) through my POD with his floorboard.

So my questions:
Single Coil or Humbucker? What is the real difference between the two? From what I’ve read it sounds like Humbuckers are better, but I’m a little concerned that the sound might be overpowering when I’m playing a more “textured” electric part behind the other guitarist’s acoustic. However, on at least two songs the electric guitar is out front with a lot of distortion and very much the lead rock instrument.

Maple or Rosewood neck? What is the real difference, or does it matter?

Finally, I’m trying to stay at or below $600, though I might be as willing to go as high as $800 if what I really need is an American Strat. Any recommendations on a solid, usable guitar in that price range? I am very willing to buy a used guitar in good condition. So far I’ve been primarily looking at the Mexican Strats and Japanese Wolfgangs (you know, Eddie Van Halen’s guitar). Both are foreign made, but should that really matter? It does seem that there is more difference between the American/Mexican Strats than the American/ Japanese Wolfgangs. Because of our style I’m really looking for something that will texture well behind an acoustic as well as get out front and really rock.

Any input would be greatly appreciated!

I'm not an expert, but from what you're describing, I think that humbuckers might come across a little harsh. They tend to pick up harmonics better than single-coil pickups and have an edgy quality to them, making them really good for distorted or overdriven amplification, but make them a little ... tinny? ... for clean playing.

Without having heard the music you're playing, I'd take a guess and say that you'd probably be happier with a semi-hollow-body Rickenbacker or maybe a Telecaster. They both have good folk-rock roots, especially the Rick; the Tele is more countrified. A Strat is more the jack-of-all-trades guitar, and you won't go wrong there. (Though I don't think that Fender's quality has picked up enough to really merit spending the extra dough over a quality knockoff. I could be wrong, though, as I haven't checked in recent years.) I also think you won't go right. There's always something better than a Strat for whatever you're playing, but if you change styles enough, buying four guitars may make less sense than buying one that do them all reasonably well.

Good input. I actually already knew about the Rick and plan to buy one at some point, but I'm not sure how we'll I'd work for the lead stuff. Maybe the Tele would work better; I hadn't even considered it.

As for the different styles of guitar, I was thinking I'd pickup up a "Rock" guitar right now (hence the interest in Humbuckers), and then a "texture" guitar at a later point. True that a Strat would probably do everything well enough, so maybe that's my best initial step.

I've now talked my office into going to look at guitars, so that's where we're headed now!

You could try looking at a guitar that has a humbucker bridge pickup and single-coil middle and neck pickups.

Edit: Like This Epiphone Strat knockoff. I know Epiphone is cheap-level Gibson, but Gibson has improved its quality enough that I can believe that Epiphone is not bad.

You might want to ask the guys at the guitar shop what they think is quality

You know what? Tinny is not the right word. That implies a brightness that's not there with humbuckers. It's like tinny if the treble has been EQ'd out.

Well I just got back and I have to tell you, I was pretty impressed with the way the Mexican Strat sounded and felt. The Wolfgang was nice, but you were right about the humbuckers: the single coils sound better for what I’m doing- even the rock stuff. For the money the Strat is going to be hard to beat, though I’ll try a few of the knock offs. The one thing I did decide: I like the maple neck over the rosewood. Oh, and the guy at the store’s opinion: “you can’t go wrong with a Strat.”

On a tangent, one thing I don’t get is why guitar shops are still showing these things prices at the “suggested retail” point and trying to mark it down. The Strat I played was marked at $500 when I know for a fact I can buy it online for $350. I realize the first thing that would have happened if I’d asked about it is that the sales person would have “given me a really good deal”, but it’s not doing shops any favors to have prices listed higher than was can easily be found online.

What brand was the Mexican Strat? I have a Fernandes and have been pretty happy with it, though I don't play much anymore. Of course, looking at their web site, it looks like Fernandes has decided to go away from the knockoff route.

I forgot about the rosewood vs. maple thing. Honestly, I don't think that they sound that much different. I think that the electronics and strings make up a lot more of the sound than anything, followed by the hardware, followed by the body, followed dead last by the fretboard wood. On the other hand, the different finishes that they put on maple vs. rosewood makes a lot of difference in how its played. Personally, I think that the thick lacquer that they tend to put on maple makes it sticky, and I tend to like the finish that's on rosewood better, but at the same time, I don't think that I'd make a decision based on that. I'd be more concerned with things like how thick and wide the neck is first.

Oh it was just the standard Fender. It played really well, though, and sound pretty darn good.

As far as the maple vs. rosewood, it didn't change the sound at all, but it did make a difference in feel. Actually the Strat I played was rosewood, but some of the other guitars I tried with maple just felt better to me. Since the Start can come either way, I figure I'll get one with the maple.

And actually I did try the Telecaster as well. It sounded good, but I didn't care for the feel at all. It felt much too thick and bulky.

Single Coil or Humbucker? What is the real difference between the two?

Single coil pickups sound brighter and sharper. Their sound is characterized by the Fender Stratocaster and Telecaster models. A musical example would be the "skank" upbeat strokes in reggae music.

Humbucker pickups sound warmer, fatter, with more low end and less brightness. Musical examples would be any basic power-chord rock with lots of beefy low-end chords. Think AC/DC. When played clean without distortion, a humbucker pickup will tend to sound more appropriate for Jazz music.

A humbucker pickup is merely two single coil pickups side-by side, wired in opposite directions. The purpose of wiring them this way is to cancel out any external hum caused by nearby electrical equipment. A guitar pickup is more or less an electromagnetic antenna, and a single coil pickup that's near a 60-cycle electrical source (such as a computer monitor or a fluorescent light) will pick up that sound and amplify it.

Some versions of Fender-style guitars have had the option of a "stacked humbucker" which has the two coils stacked atop each other instead of side by side. This comes close to having the sound of a true single-coil while still having the noise rejection features of a humbucker.

Something very important you should know about humbuckers: Many guitars with humbuckers (such as my old Aria Pro guitar) have a switch called a coil tap which deactivates half of the humbucker, turning the guitar into a single-coil guitar with a flick of the switch. So I can go back and forth between single-coil and humbucker right in the middle of a song if I want to.

Finally, you might want to look into the Roland V-guitar system, which lets you turn any electric into any other electric+amp combination via sound modeling. Note that this is not a synthesizer system so it doesn't suffer from tracking delays... everything comes through including string scraping, feedback, whatever you can play, exactly as you play it. Got a cheap Japanese guitar, but you want to sound exactly like a Fender strat through a Marshall stack with Celestion 12's? Press a button and there you are. Want to sound exactly like Keith Richards on "Start Me Up", including the guitar, amp, and the nonstandard tuning? That's a named factory preset. Very much worth looking into if you've got the cash.

I disagree somewhat with:

Many guitars with humbuckers (such as my old Aria Pro guitar) have a switch called a coil tap which deactivates half of the humbucker, turning the guitar into a single-coil guitar with a flick of the switch. So I can go back and forth between single-coil and humbucker right in the middle of a song if I want to.

While it deactivates the electronics in one of the sets of pickups, thus reactivating the hum and deactivating the weird harmonic stuff it does, you still have those extra magnets there affecting the string. It does sound a lot like a single-coil pickup, but not exactly.

Fair enough. But for someone who mixes styles in their music, or for someone who can't decide between the two pickup types, it's very useful.

Damn straight.

Oh, and the guy at the store’s opinion: “you can’t go wrong with a Strat.”

I disagree. Strats are too heavy for my liking and haven't evolved much beyond their origins. Their history is too steeped to allow change.

But that is a personal preference.

One thing to consider is that many humbuckers have a center tap which allows them to be used in a single coil mode, meaning that you can have your cake and eat it too.
The intended purpose of a humbucker is to increase the signal to noise ratio - effectively they can double the signal from the strings whilst eliminating pickup of background electomagnetic noise. While you may prefer the single coil sound, you may find that on occasion the humbucker is useful. A center-tapped humbucker would give you this flexibility. Another option would be to find a guitar that has both single and humbucking pickups installed.

Don't forget to check out other manufacuturers too. eg, Ibanez. The S470 falls into your price range, has 3 pickups in a HSH configuration, a lightweight mahogany body, rosewood fingerboard on a maple neck yada yada...

[edit]
I see that Tony and Bitt got in here between me writing most of this post and actually submitting it. Oh well.

Strats are too heavy for my liking

Apparently, you've never held any Gibson guitar.

Apparently, you've never held any Gibson guitar.

LOL. That was one thing I did like about the Wolfgang. It was pretty light.

Actually I liked the Wolfgang a lot, though it probably doesn't fit our style enough to warrant a purchase. For sitting around and just playing, though, I think it'd be fun to own. The drop-D thing was really cool, but while I use alternate tunings on my acoustics all the time, I just don't see me doing the drop-D grunge thing too often . . . then again maybe I just don't know how to best utilize drop-D on an electric. (As a side note, I'm playing in a church performance tommorrow night which requires me to Drop-D tune my acoustic. Ah the irony!). Also the guitar might have come off better if it'd been in tune or I'd had a hex tool with me so I could have corrected the problem (since the Floyd-Rose tuners were already maxed). I gave it to the sales person and he ran off with it, never to return.

I hate those Floyd-Rose things. Maybe it's just me, but they seem to go out of tune almost instantaneously. Of course, the only person I've ever played with who owned a guitar with one was the worst guitarist I've ever heard, so maybe he was just remarkably incompetent.

My dad’s guitar with had them and I didn’t have too many difficulties with tuning, but I also didn’t use the tremolo that much. Still, having a Floyd-Rose on my guitar right now would be another overkill feature.

The one thing I forgot to mention that I really liked about the Wolfgang was that it had zero tone control. Just a volume knob and a pickup combination switch, and the switch wasn’t located someplace I’d accidentally bump it. I’ve got all sorts of tone control on my effects, why do I need more on my guitar? That’s just something for me to bump while I’m recording and mess up my track. I prefer simplicity that works, which is probably why I’ve stuck with acoustics until now.

I have a friend with a Ibanez custom guitar, with a Floyd-Rose. His style has changed a lot from Van Halen (why he originally wanted the Floyd-Rose) to perfecting John Petrucci(Dream Theater), and now to softer song writing where the Floyd-Rose is such a nuisance that he jams pennies through the back side to help it stay in tune better.

I don't know if you would be into it as well, but you can always change out the pickups at a later date if your style changes. I am a beginner, with a cheap Ibanez POS. Although I haven't changed the pickups yet, I did rewire my humbuckers and went from a 3 position pickup switch, to a 5 position that mimics a PRS guitar. It cost me a total of $20 for pots and knobs, then just a bit of time to redo the electronics. Sounds much cooler! That's why I would say to make sure you like the feel of the guitar, and the wood its made of.

FR type trems are a bitch to tune and historically are a pain to keep in tune. The most important thing is to ensure that the strings are fully stretched to begin with. The root cause of the problem is that the tension in the tremolo springs is supposed to balance the tension in all 6 strings, so if one string stretches, the whole tremolo moves to equalise the tensions again, resulting in 5 sharp strings. Beyond that issue, the pivot is a 'knife' edge that is supposed to remain in a stationary point on the posts. In reality, cheaper FR-type trems have knife edges that aren't very hard so they can become rounded with use, resulting in them being able to 'roll' off of that pivot point. Change the pivot point, change the tuning...
This problem is also seen due to the tremelo post itself shifting. Setting the post height sets the action height, so they are nearly always adjustable, screwed into thread inserts set into the body. The metal-metal tolerances and vibration can allow the post to effectively move in 3 dimensions, enough to shift the tuning. Better trems have set screws to lock the posts to the inserts to avoid this from happening.
Of course, gross incompetance should never be ruled out either

Having said all that, I wouldn't recommend a FR-type tremolo for dropped tunings since you'd have to change the trem spring tension every time you change tunings (unless of course you can dedicate one guitar to each tuning!) FR trems are also useless for playing double stop bends since sharpening one string flattens the others.

Ibanez have recently introduced a new tremolo, the Zero Resistance tremolo which addresses most if not all of these issues. It uses ball bearings instead of the knife edge, and has some gadget that will keep the guitar in tune through a G/B/high E string break, and also allows double stop bending.
(It's included on the 2003 onwards S470 guitar I mentioned earlier)

Yeah, I've been thinking about that. The guitar I've been using in concerts is a modified Mexican Strat where he's changed out the pickups and some other stuff. His advice has been to do something similar: buy the cheap strat and upgrade as I need. I just want to make sure that whatever I get is going to be good enough that it will work in live shows right away. Otherwise I'd just buy a squire or some other insanely cheap guitar until I had more experience.

Apparently, you've never held any Gibson guitar.

LOL. Not for a few years, and never on a strap around my neck which is when weight bothers me the most.

I mean, Les Pauls are heavy, heavy, guitars, but the worst are the Firebirds; it's like their headstocks are made from lead. I'm pretty sure you could break your foot if you let go while one was strapped around your neck.

Ibanez have recently introduced a new tremolo, the Zero Resistance tremolo which addresses most if not all of these issues.

I'm going to have to look into this. Sounds fascinating.

I just recently did a lot of work on my guitar's tremolo to get it ready for the Blindsight recording session, and I'm keenly interested in tremolo technology.

Having said all that, I wouldn't recommend a FR-type tremolo for dropped tunings since you'd have to change the trem spring tension every time you change tunings

I think that's the whole point of having the D-Tune switch built into the guitar, but I can't say how good it works because the guitar wasn't in tune to begin with.

unless of course you can dedicate one guitar to each tuning!

Heh, I do exactly that with my acoustics. Of course, using a tuning of DGDGAD is very difficult to get to quickly from a traditional tuning. It just means I have to use one of my Takamines rather than my beloved HD-28. I have one guitar that pretty much stays tuned down all the time so I can just pick it up and practice.

I don't plan on getting into aleternate tunings on the electric though. It's already such a pain on the acoustics!

unless of course you can dedicate one guitar to each tuning!

Heh, I do exactly that with my acoustics.

If I recall correctly, Joni Mitchell has been using the Roland V-guitar system on tour recently because it allows nonstandard tunings at the press of a button...

If I recall correctly, Joni Mitchell has been using the Roland V-guitar system on tour recently because it allows nonstandard tunings at the press of a button...

Ok, Ok, you got my attention with that one!

Basically, the V-guitar system uses a hexaphonic pickup, just like on the guitar synths. Essentially a separate transducer for each of the six strings.

This means that it can process each string independently. Most of what it does is merely to sound-model the input from a given string to make it sound like something else when it goes out the outputs. But in addition to sound-modeling the tone and characteristics, it can also alter the pitch. So you can do a true 12-string, or a true nashville-tuning, or any combination of string pitches you want.

You could have the bottom two strings sound like a bass guitar and the top four strings sound like a mandolin. (For example.)

Or have all six strings sound like a specific brand and model of guitar and amp, but have them at your chosen pitches instead of the standard pitch.

Your original guitar has to be in tune, though. For instance, if you call up a drop-D patch, and your E string is a little off, then the dropped D will be a little off, too. It is sound-modeling the output, not mapping it to MIDI or anything like that.

Ok, well what about This guitar? I just found it while looking for your V-Guitar, but after buying a POD I really trust Line 6.

Edit: doesn't seem to have alternate tunings though. Still, I wonder how close these really are?

Yes, the Line6 Variaxe is a similar concept to the Roland V-guitar. One difference is that the Variaxe is a complete package, guitar and electronics, whereas the Roland V-guitar system is an external pedalboard with a hexaphonic pickup that you can attach to any steel-stringed guitar.

Line6 also has an amplifier with some electronics built in which does the same thing.

In fact, my friend Jeff has got both a V-guitar system and that Line6 amp, and he loves them both. Jeff's neighbor has a Variaxe, which is what prompted him to get the amp in the first place. As a pure side-note coincidence, his neighbor happens to be Ed Rotberg, one of the Atari programmers who worked on the original Battlezone arcade machines. Still haven't met the guy, stuff hasn't worked out for that yet. But I digress.

I just now tried to call Jeff to ask if the Variaxe does alternate tunings or not. He wasn't around. I'll be at Jeff's tomorrow, and if I remember to ask him, I'll post the answer here.

I just spoke to Jeff, here's the skinny:

Line6 Variaxe Guitar:
- Does pickup and guitar modeling only.
- Does not do alternate tunings.
- Allows you to duplicate the sounds of many popular guitars by using its selector switch and knob.
- Not programmable, choose only from its built-in presets.
- Form factor: Actual guitar.

Line6 modeling Amplifer:
- Counterpart to the Variaxe, does amplifier modeling only.
- I think it has some built-in effects.
- Form factor: Actual amplifer/speaker cab combo.

Roland V-guitar system:
- Does both amplifier and guitar modeling.
- Includes built-in effects as well.
- Programmable, can create your own presets by modifying parameters and saving them.
- Does alternate tunings and unusual instruments.
- Form factor: Floor pedalboard, can add it to any guitar by attaching the hexaphonic pickup.
- Works best when plugged directly into a mixer (so that your amplifier doesn't color its amp-modeling sounds).

So there you have it.