Ibanez electric guitar?

[beats me]

OK, now for pickup configuration discussion. single coil, humbucker, how many, placed where, etc. Is there a specfic general jack of all trades configuration, overkill, under configured? I want something with range clean to ka-chunka rockin, but again, not looking to be a rock star...just don't need to be "I use this guitar for this, and this guitar for this, and...."

I actually have a 12-string I forgot about but those things are kind of a one trick pony or at least only good for certain things.

[Tone Deft]

you forgot you had a 12 string?

so take half the strings off the 12 string to make it a 6 string.


my electric has all the possible pickup combinations, each pickup can be a single coil or humbucker (call center tapping.) by far and away my favorite position is a humbucker in the bridge position. humbuckers are also quieter, hence the name, they 'buck' the hum.

humbuckers - richer, fatter sound, metal.
single coil - thinner, more acoustic type sound, think blues.

also read up on web sites for more info. surely the wikipedia page on pickups has all the info you could imagine.

[bagginz]

Humbuckers in cheap Ibanez guitars are horrible.

This isn't really a matter of opinion, IMO,

Lol! classic!

it's pretty well known. The nezzes with the cheap PUs are really pretty ordinary guitars. Best avoided IMO.

Russ aren't you a lawyer? I'm astounded that you don't know the difference between a fact and an opinion.

Consensus does not a fact make.

Once I replaced the single coils in my old guitar (actually an old Ibanez s260) with expensive Kinman pickups. The 3 x pickups cost more than the guitar.

But I preferred the sound of the cheap Ibanez ceramic magnet single coils to the expensive vintage mangnet nickel/Cadmium dummy coil Kinmans which are faithful replicas of the pickups in a 1962 strat (but are noise free)

Unfortunately I play gigs which often have large lighting rigs which create huge RF fields, therefore making ANY single coils too noisy for my application, so practical considerations have to trump tonal considerations.

Pickups on the original Fender Telecaster cost about 50c to make: a copper wire wrapped around around a cardboard bobbin containing six magnets. The sound of a back pickup on a Tele is one of the archetypal electric guitar sounds - along with a Les Paul and a Strat on pickups 1 and 2. Cheap, but sounds great

For many years JJ Cale's main guitar was a cheap old acoustic with no back, with a collection of pickups screwed onto the top including and inexpensive magnetic pickup over the soundhole. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1ETEkVfzlY (The story goes that Peter Frampton tried to buy if from him, JJ wasn't selling...)

Expensive doesn't equate to sounding good.

I preferred the cheap pickups. I like the sound that they make. They sound better.

But I'm clear that that's my opinion. Taste is always a matter of opinion.

cheers,
bagginz

[damien6]

I'm a big fan of split coils. My S470 has a Seymour Duncan Custom Custom Termbucker in the bridge, a Pearly Gates in the neck and the stock single coil in the middle (which I'd like to replace at some point). The pick up selector is a five way switch. I can get a nice fat humbucker tone out of the bridge or the neck (neck carries more bass than the bridge position), but tone it down to a nice single coil "strat"-ish tone if I am looking for that. You can see how the pickups are set up here:

http://www.ibanez.co.jp/products/eg_pag ... ries_id=59

I can do something similar on my RG321, but that was a cheaper guitar...

http://resources.ibanez.com/resourceser ... V_1V1T.jpg

I know the new Schecter Hellraisers have split coil EMG's. I haven't played them, but (IMO), I don't see any way EMG's could suck.

Mine is the older models with the 81/85's.

[ewistrand]

The #1 thing- play as many as you can before you buy. Also, how does the guitar sound unplugged? When I'm shopping for guitars, I very rarely play them through an amp; if the guitar's full sounding and resonant, you can always change the pickups if they aren't to your liking and come up with a good sounding guitar. However, if the guitar sounds like crap unplugged, all the electronics in the world won't make it great.

ew

[Tone Deft]

take a tuner with you, check the intonation at the 12th fret and along the fretboard. make sure the strings don't buzz.

but that's also stuff a luthier would fix for you.

you're starting out again, just get something that looks sexy so you'll play it more often.

dunno about hanging it on the wall, you've seen how I have my guitars laid out, nobody trips over them, they'd fall out the window and be properly disposed off if they tripped on my guitars.

[UKRuss]

If you like the sound of the PUs on the cheap nez then thats a matter of opinion, but the stock nez pick ups are shit, thats fact.

I am not a lawyer no. I do work for a law firm though.

I have owned a few s series nez's. they were shit one and all, although playable of course.

I now have the JS1200 with the Di Marzios and you're in another world of tone and control.

I also have a US Fat Strat, which brings me back to the OP's latest query. It really is an allrounder with the coil tap and the HSS config.

Shame you cant spend a few more quid really...

[beats me]

Thanks for all the pickup info. Sounds like I want at least 1 humbucker and 1 single coil.

Since everybody is mentioning the used Ibanez idea (and I'm not ignoring the other suggestions but I think at this point there isn't a guitar manufacturer that hasn't been mentioned), what's the lower end of how much you would spend on a new Ibanez and consider it proper? Obviously if I was thinking $400 I'm not going to drop $1,400.

[UKRuss]

We seem to be split on that as you've read. Personally, I think the problem with the cheap nezs is that within a short period of time you wish you had a more expensive one...But others obviously differ in their feeling.

My 2c is they are disappointing, with a very disappointing tone.

[beats me]

We seem to be split on that as you've read. Personally, I think the problem with the cheap nezs is that within a short period of time you wish you had a more expensive one...But others obviously differ in their feeling.

My 2c is they are disappointing, with a very disappointing tone.

Yeah but at what price does cheap end?

[john doe by choice]

I'd probably go as high as $400 or a little over if it's really worth it.

I've never played Yamaha guitars but I'll have to check them out.

Might be worth going to GC just to get the feel of some guitars because they aren't one size fits all.

You should go to GC - check out the used guitars, and look at the tag, not for the price, but for the date - if you see a date marked on the price tag, and it's over a year old, knock $100 of the tag price immediately and offer to buy it for that price (if you are looking in the $400 range, anyway). Markup on used gear is usually anywhere from 50 to 25%, so do the math, pick one a little over your price range, then make the offer, saying that you'll buy it today if you can get it for _______ price (ask if they'll throw in the extended warranty on the price as well - you may get the warranty, but don't take the warranty if it isn't included). You could very well end up with a much better guitar than you thought you'd get. However, check the neck on anything over a year, as there may be issues that made it sit so long. If there's no problem, you've just scored.

[leedsquietman]

Laughing WITH Ewistrand - He doesn't like yamaha, and I HATE Charvels !!! (every wanna be metal guitarist in the 80s had these, and especially hated the cheapy ones with one pickup). Jackson and ESP were OK, I never liked B.C. Rich much either, all look and no substance, but I really liked Larrivee's they were quite rare in England and cost a ton.


Shows you how subjective this all is and the only way to decide is really to go down to a couple of stores and check out every guitar you like the look or feel of within your budget and pick the one which you think sounds best. The Yamaha SG is actually awesome too, but for me, The Pacifica (Strat shaped) is my baby. And I'm not a big fan of real Fender Strats (especially the Mexican and Korean ones, the Japanese ones weren't too bad) , although I have played some killer modded ones, a sunburst 1972 American Strat with DiMarzio pickups etc which my friend owned was pretty awesome.

[Sage]

Russ aren't you a lawyer? I'm astounded that you don't know the difference between a fact and an opinion.

Consensus does not a fact make.

Once I replaced the single coils in my old guitar (actually an old Ibanez s260) with expensive Kinman pickups. The 3 x pickups cost more than the guitar.

But I preferred the sound of the cheap Ibanez ceramic magnet single coils to the expensive vintage mangnet nickel/Cadmium dummy coil Kinmans which are faithful replicas of the pickups in a 1962 strat (but are noise free)

Unfortunately I play gigs which often have large lighting rigs which create huge RF fields, therefore making ANY single coils too noisy for my application, so practical considerations have to trump tonal considerations.

In this case, it is fact. The cheap Ibanez ones just sound like you've got the tone control turned down permanently, so horrible and useless.
I've not used Kinmen pickups, but I have often found myself preferring stock pickups to aftermarket ones, which mostly seem to turn guitars into one trick ponies in my opinion.

I'm lucky in that I can get away with lots of noise from my Strats and Teles, my guitars are never meant to sound pretty

[OvertoneZero]

Add me the consensus..

I have never been a huge fan of Ibanez pickups, but generally prefer a PAF type of sound from humbuckers. Not really into gainy shred stuff.

[Anubis]

I got this one. It feels good. Made in Indonesia. Them monkees been whittlin' on wood fer centuries. I don't really care about the pickups cause it goes straight into Ampeg SVX.