How not to choose an electric guitar. Take 2. Personal ramblings.

Since a few months I actively consider buying a new electric guitar since my old was way too much around and can’t handle the stress anymore…

So, lately, each time I open my computer I look for possibilities, I evaluate features, prices, shapes, pickups, tuners, sounds, artists, damn, I feel I am going crazy!

Of course, because there are so too many possibilities out there, I can not make up my mind. Of course, first I should define my needs, this should be the first step.

So, what exactly do I need? I need a versatile guitar, since I play a lot of pop rock music and alternative also, I need a guitar that allow me to go from a clean sound with personality (read sparky Fender Stratocaster) to a sweet and non aggressive distorsion tone for hard rock, to crunchy metal tones for the black side of me…

I would also like the guitar to have “the look” and have a Floyd. Period. Ah, yes, and of course, be affordable!Doh! So, let’s evaluate the possibilities…

How about an Ibanez guitar?

I love Ibanez guitars. I am a fan of Ibanez since my early years. Lovely shapes, fashionable guitars, Floyd, crunchy tone, affordable. I refer here to RG and S models, mostly. Then? Well, they don’t have that sound that only Fender provides, or the sweetness of tone, IMO. They are guitars for hard and heavy guitar player or for Satriani fans (even I am one of them, I don’t play what I preach). Also, after a tone test of an Ibanez RG against a Carvin guitar, I was so disappointed that for months I didn’t want to hear about Ibanez guitar. But, as you see, first love never dies…

Or a good old Fender Stratocaster?

I also like Fender guitars very much. They give me the sparky sound on clean, sweet distortion for rock songs. Also I have always played Fender shaped guitars so I am very familiar with the position of knobs, blade, etc. I realized that when playing a few Fender-like guitars, it came very easy to play them, comparing to playing on a Yamaha, I think, when I even hurt my pinky finger trying to turn down the volume. The knob was too close to where I had my finger and I didn’t realize so I came too hard on the knob. Of course, this is not a reason, it is just something I remember.

What I don’t like at Fender? (I speak about Fender Stratocaster). They don’t have a Floyd. I don’t have one on my current guitar but I consider having one for this next one. There is a model with Floyd but it seems like a model to please the idiot that asks for a Floyd on a Stratocaster. Namely me. So, it is is not a standard, proven solution, but kind of a hybrid. Also, prices for a good guitar, not made in China or Japan are high. But again, Ibanez is so affordable exactly because they make a lot of their guitars in Japan, I think.

Or a Jackson guitar to rock the house?!!

Yesterday I was looking at a Jackson guitar, which I love as shape and feeling. But man, the guitar I was looking at, a Randy Rhoades model, does not represent me at all. Plus that it is hard rock all over it. Too bad, a beautiful guitar. The same for the rest of Jackson models.

Variax. The guitar collection seems better than all the ones above enumerated

The one that I actually set my mind on and I really considered lately is nothing else but the Variax 600 model that I really studied in the last period of time. If it comes to being versatile, I think that we can all agree that nothing beats a Variax. Nothing CAN beat a Variax, really and I don’t think anybody would argue that. The reason is simple: every guitar, as much as you would change it, has a tone range where it can move while a Variax has 28 tone ranges…to put it this way…

Variax seems to be, so far, the one that weights the most in my options, like 70-80%. However, it has no Floyd, even if I can live with that and it is a not yet stable technology, which I am a bit afraid of, since if something happens to it, I won’t be able to fix it. With a regular electric guitar, with a screwdriver, a bit of work and an iron you can do whatever you like. With a Variax guitar, well, not quite…You need to go to the doctor.

I don’t have any problem with the fact it is a “digital” guitar and not a “regular” one. I play a processor and I am happier with it than with any stompboxes I previously owned so I am very open minded when it comes to the digital era products.

I specially love the fact that I can have my acoustic guitar and my electric guitar at a knob position away. This thrills me! Really! I have studied it, I have asked Silviu, my friends who owns one, I was speaking with him about a few of my concerns even when he was not here in Romania but on a beach in Bulgaria. Damn! I have listened to samples, recordings, live takes, the only think I would like to do is to actually play one to feel it, just that I need to take a trip to the store which is in Bucharest and I haven’t managed to find a day to go there in the last months. I must do it, I think.

So, what do you think? I am crazy or what? Considering my “needs” what would be the guitar you would advice me to buy? As you see, I haven’t considered any Gibson or Telecaster here. Even if I like them both, I wouldn’t buy one as my weapon of choice. Both have, in my opinion, too much character to fit what I want.

Any opinion would be welcome! Let me hear you!

Bookmark It