Crayon Sky Music

Which Guitar should I buy?

I want a new electric guitar. Right now I have an Epiphone Casino, and my tone is something like a cross betwen Pete Townshend in Tommy and a bitier blues like John Lee Hooker. I want to get a little edgier and sustainer, like Clapton/Cream or Hendrix but don’t want to sound metal-y and I’m not a big Fender fan, I’ve been looking at a new silvery-blue SG that I love, and a used Gibson ES-335 thats in good shape. Which one should I get? Any other suggestions?

I’d go with the SG. Don’t get a whammy bar, though, cause Gibson SG’s are made of walnut (still?) and are a bitch to keep in tune with a Bigsby (sp?) whammy.

The sound of an SG can be “bitey” and the sustain is not so great (not much body, lighter type wood) but the SG is easy to play, compact and reliable cause you aren’t gonna be banging it into stuff like you would with a semi-hollowbody like an ES-335.

I used an ES-335 back in the eighties and I hated the damn thing. I actually owned a Fender Stratocaster, but joined my guitar teachers band and he had me use HIS ES-335 and he used MY Fender Stratocaster and I let him cause I got to learn how to play from him, but I hated lugging the big piece of crap around with me, and trying to do fast runs on the thing sucked. It also fed back like a bitch and had horrible sustain. I would “borrow” my strat from time to time a could do all my fast runs on it with no problem and plugged into a Marshall it literally kicked butt.

If you can, get a Gibson Les Paul. There is no comparison.

I had a Kramer, which was decent and with the whammy bar I could sound really proficient with it (who couldn’t? Just hit a chord and pull on the whammy and you are Van Halen)

Well, I took it over to a friends place where there were 5 or 6 sitting around, all with their own guitar and amp, and we all took turns playing our guitars trying to impress each other.

This young kid had a Gibson Les Paul with a mini Marshall amp but was a new player and just did a few chords. I did my thing (I played most of a Randy Rhodes solo off the live album and the intro to Diary Of A Madman and part of the main song) but impressed no one.

Kramer, like a Fender, has a long scale and a thin neck and I just couldn’t get my fingers right to do any impressive thing with the damn thing, and the LAST thing to do to impress other guitarists is to use a damn whammy bar, which impresses the hell out of non guitarists, but not guitar players.

Well, every body else played and a guy who played an impressive blue grass thing with fast runs and interesting chord changes we all figured he was the most skilled guitarist there. The other five guys all knew each other better then they knew me so I was ignored and felt bad cause my friend said I was some sort of “hot” guitar player, but I literally was nondescript on that Kramer.

Later, the kid asked me if I wanted to try out his Les Paul and Marshall, and I said sure, why not, finally someone talked to me, and I never had played one before (and messing with one at the guitar store is not the same thing).

Well, it was like liquid glass. My fingers flowed over that damn thing and with its broad neck and short scale and WONDERFUL sustain and sound, the thing literally played itself. The kid asked me if I could give him guitar lessons and I was amazed by it and my friend (not a player, he had been the one who invited me over, was embarrassed that I wasn’t a good player on the Kramer, but was now smiling and saying “I told you all she can kick ass on the guitar!” when I played the Les Paul).

I don’t have 2000-3000 to get a Les Paul for myself, but if you can, I would say get it. I know you play a really decent thinline hollow body now, and wonder why you would consider a SG electric guitar, unless you want a BIG change.

A Les Paul I believe has something of a sound chamber in it and I think can sound very much what you shooting for in your tone. Good luck and happy pickin’.

1966 Gibson ES 335 Vintage Electric Guitar