Looking for the final guitar

[Kunji]

"I've been playing guitar for 12 years, jazz for the last 8 and I'm starting a decent career I think, so I consider myself to be an experienced player, but at the same time I have absolutely no clue about actual guitars."

So I have a question for you. How have you managed to play guitar for 12 years and yet apparently completely avoid GAS, with all of its longing for a particular model you just have to have so the universe can finally be complete, comparing of specifications of different guitars, looking at manufacturers web sites, youtube videos etc.? How'd you do it?

You could probably market your technique/solution/drug to the wives and girlfriends of guitar players accross the globe, and become a fairly rich man in the process.

Lots of good advice here, and I don't think you can go wrong with an Eastman or Ibanez.

Haha I wish I could help you, but like I said I do have a terrible case of GAS, only it's always been aimed at pedals rather than guitars. I was kinda pleased with the guitars I had, so I just didn't have the interest to look at them. Hopefully this is not a start.


Thanks everyone for your advice! Now if someone could recommend a huge guitar center in Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary etc., where you could spend a day just picking the right guitar, that would be great. If they allow you to bring personal gear even better.

[339 in june]

2000€


how much is that in normal money

2 000

I mean two thousand

[orri]

I think if you go from a 500EUR Ibanez to a 1000EUR Ibanez you get a lot for your money in terms of craftmanship, materials and quality.

There is a certain confidence in buying new and from brands with good reputation.
If a guitar feels good in the shop and you like it, you can be quite confident that you are getting good value for money (on the used market or buying lesser known brands or lesser known model, you need more skills and experience to evaluate if the price tag is reasonable).

IMO the the ~1000EUR price range is a sweet spot in terms of quality and value for money.
The guitars you get from Epiphone, Ibanez, Godin, Guild, Eastman are really good.
My suggestion would be to focus on that price range. At least to start with.
The 2000EUR and above price range is more appropriate when you know what you want and why you want it.

[dwparker]

Thomann showroom outside Nuremberg.

[christianm77]

2000€


how much is that in normal money

600,000 Kenobian wooden dollars
5 Ningis
12 Flanian Pobble beads

[Kunji]

I think if you go from a 500EUR Ibanez to a 1000EUR Ibanez you get a lot for your money in terms of craftmanship, materials and quality.

There is a certain confidence in buying new and from brands with good reputation.
If a guitar feels good in the shop and you like it, you can be quite confident that you are getting good value for money (on the used market or buying lesser known brands or lesser known model, you need more skills and experience to evaluate if the price tag is reasonable).

IMO the the ~1000EUR price range is a sweet spot in terms of quality and value for money.
The guitars you get from Epiphone, Ibanez, Godin, Guild, Eastman are really good.
My suggestion would be to focus on that price range. At least to start with.
The 2000EUR and above price range is more appropriate when you know what you want and why you want it.

This is a great point actually, I've been feeling really weird looking at a few 2k guitars and having no clue whatsoever if they're actually close to what I want. I think I need way more time for a purchase like that, after all it's a lot of money.

Right now I'm somewhere between Ibanez JSM10, JSM20, AS153, and Eastman 371 and 372. I think I'll drive to a huge store and try these out.

@dwparker thanks, I gotta check that out.

[joe2758]

What do you consider to be normal money? Pounds sterling? Yuan?

goats

[christianm77]

What is the goat/camel exchange rate?

[Ray175]

What is the goat/camel exchange rate?

It depends if the dealer has got the hump !

[Skip Ellis]

Not sure price should be the deciding factor. Try some guitars and find what you like regardless of price. Yes, a $2000 (or whatever currency) guitar is nice but but I've seen $2000 guitars that get blown away by a $399 Squier.

[rlrhett]

“Final guitar”. Hmmm. So sorry to hear. How long did the doctors give you to live?


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[Kunji]

Has anyone heard of Faber guitars? Supposedly German design, produced by Tokai in Japan.

There's this 335 model Faber ESP that I've been offered for testing, and I will try it out, but there's literally no other info on them online. They usually go from around €700 - €1000.

Some examples:
FABER ESP BS električna kitara
FABER ESP-VF Revival Semi Akustik Gitarre Premium | Musikhaus Zolch

I was offered the first one, though it's listed as €1000+ it was available at around €750 on Black Friday, so I could probably get it down to that again.

[don_oz]

Depends what you mean by a modern jazz sound. Are we talking lage Lund, kurt, gilad, Bernstein?

[mr. beaumont]

I think if you're almost always playing with a somewhat distorted tone, a semi hollow or even solid body is probably what you want.

Find a good 335. That'll suit you for life if you let it.

[Kunji]

I think if you're almost always playing with a somewhat distorted tone, a semi hollow or even solid body is probably what you want.

Find a good 335. That'll suit you for life if you let it.

Thats's exactly what I've been doing! But I live in a country where the used market for jazz guitars is almost non-existent, and guitar stores usually hold like 5 at a time, three of them either really cheap or way too expensive.
I've looked at all the Ibanez's and Eastman's (Eastmen?), but the Faber one from the link above got my interest because it's one of the rare guitars I actually have the option of trying out. I really don't want to buy a guitar before playing it. Sadly nobody seems to know anything about them, and its a 90-minute drive, so I might just be wasting my time. But yeah, I want to try out as many as possible...

Depends what you mean by a modern jazz sound. Are we talking lage Lund, kurt, gilad, Bernstein?

Let's say the middle two, although I love all four I don't think I'd need four separate guitars if I wanted to come close sonically to all four of them, so I'm just looking something that could bring me close to that vibe.

[mr. beaumont]

Thats's exactly what I've been doing! But I live in a country where the used market for jazz guitars is almost non-existent, and guitar stores usually hold like 5 at a time, three of them either really cheap or way too expensive.

That's why I suggested the 335. You should be able to find a used one in your range...might have to buy sight unseen, but in my experience, the "335 style" guitar is probably the one copied with the least variation. Basically, if you've ever played this style before, cheap or expensive, you'll probably like the 335.

[Jim Soloway]

If you're playing with a more modern slightly distorted sound, I'd suggest forgetting about getting a jazz guitar and just get the best guitar you can find that feels really good. That way you get to choose from a much broader pool and you don't have to fit your tonal preference to a preconceived notion that was really designed for something else.

[Bluedawg]

Haha I wish I could help you, but like I said I do have a terrible case of GAS, only it's always been aimed at pedals rather than guitars. I was kinda pleased with the guitars I had, so I just didn't have the interest to look at them. Hopefully this is not a start.


Thanks everyone for your advice! Now if someone could recommend a huge guitar center in Germany, Austria, Italy, Hungary etc., where you could spend a day just picking the right guitar, that would be great. If they allow you to bring personal gear even better.

I used to visit these guys in Waldorf, Germany occasionally when I lived in Worms.

I've been to their store in Frankfurt as well.

Musikinstrumente gunstig kaufen | session - Das Musikhaus

Worth checking out and the usually have some high end stuff, too.

I saw my first Gibson Citation in person at the Waldorf store.

[christianm77]

If you're playing with a more modern slightly distorted sound, I'd suggest forgetting about getting a jazz guitar and just get the best guitar you can find that feels really good. That way you get to choose from a much broader pool and you don't have to fit your tonal preference to a preconceived notion that was really designed for something else.

I think this is good advice. But I can only say it's taken a long time to find my instrument, and there's still chopping and changing. At present I am aiming to play one guitar as default unless specifically asked otherwise, because I want to get to know one guitar intimately and learn its kinks, and for that to be my sound.

I think of all of my favourite contemporary players and most of them have one iconic instrument - of any monetary value - that defines them, be it Peter Bernstein's hand built super valuable Zeidler or Nir Felder's Mexican Strat (apart from Bill Frisell who I always think of as wielding a Tele, but who actually as played a slew of diverse guitars.)

Kurt has played a variety of guitars as well, but in my mind he is always associated with a 335 and/or thinline archtop guitars in general.

That said a lot of the modern Gen X/Y jazz players - Gilad, Lage Lund, Moreno, Kreisberg etc - do seem to favour archtops, laminate and carved - over say, semi acoustics or solid body guitars. Lage Lund in particular I associate with a very 'airy' somewhat acoustic tone. I don’t think he sounds remotely like Kurt.

But really, your guitar is your voice, and the choice of instrument is very personal. You may own more guitars than you play on gigs. Mike Stern owns a bunch of nice guitars, but you won't see him on anything but his Yamaha Tele on the gig.

[PB+J]

In my opinion you should get a telecaster and play the hell out of it.

A really hollowbody guitar, not a semihollow with a center block, has a very different attack/decay thing going on. The notes have a percussive attack and often a shorter sustain. It's a great sound and a great feel and it's hard to get with a solid body. If you want a traditional archtop jazz sound, you should look for, again in my opinion, a real hollow body.

If you have a more modern sound with lots of pedals and maybe overdrive, why mess around--get a solid body. They're durable, comfortable, they don't feedback.

A tele is a simple crude and powerful beast that in its stock form can run you from jazz to country to rock and back. It's very comfortable to play, at least for me, and the lack of ostentatious bling ion a tele makes me feel like it puts music foremost.

Single coil pickups have a directness and clarity the humbuckers never have, again in my opinion, and the buzz can be maddening but it's worth it. If you don't like the stock tele pickups there are a million aftermarket choices.

The guitar I play all the time is a hybrid--a tele with a fully hollow body that I made myself. It has a some of the attack/decay of an archtop in the form of a tele

[joe2758]

I want to get to know one guitar intimately and learn its kinks

i feel uncomfortable

[christianm77]

In my opinion you should get a telecaster and play the hell out of it.

A really hollowbody guitar, not a semihollow with a center block, has a very different attack/decay thing going on. The notes have a percussive attack and often a shorter sustain. It's a great sound and a great feel and it's hard to get with a solid body. If you want a traditional archtop jazz sound, you should look for, again in my opinion, a real hollow body.

If you have a more modern sound with lots of pedals and maybe overdrive, why mess around--get a solid body. They're durable, comfortable, they don't feedback.

A tele is a simple crude and powerful beast that in its stock form can run you from jazz to country to rock and back. It's very comfortable to play, at least for me, and the lack of ostentatious bling ion a tele makes me feel like it puts music foremost.

Single coil pickups have a directness and clarity the humbuckers never have, again in my opinion, and the buzz can be maddening but it's worth it. If you don't like the stock tele pickups there are a million aftermarket choices.

The guitar I play all the time is a hybrid--a tele with a fully hollow body that I made myself. It has a some of the attack/decay of an archtop in the form of a tele

Problem with a tele is it’s too versatile and can make me play like fanboy if I’m not careful :-)

[grahambop]

'Final' guitar? Illogical, captain.

[joe2758]

i own a tele and a 175. i much prefer the feel of the 175 (scale length maybe?) anyway my question is why do so many of the same people love the tele and shorter scale archtops when they feel SO different? i like my tele fine, but it feels very foreign when i pick it up

[mr. beaumont]

i own a tele and a 175. i much prefer the feel of the 175 (scale length maybe?) anyway my question is why do so many of the same people love the tele and shorter scale archtops when they feel SO different? i like my tele fine, but it feels very foreign when i pick it up

I don't know, really. I too, have a tele and a 175-style guitar, and yes, they're quite different, but both feel like home to me. Possibly much of it has to do with the fact that I've had that tele for over 20 years...the familiarity. And then maybe, I just really like the 175-ish body shape (actually, I've played 175's and like the shallower depth of my 575 a little more...)