Certain models for certain genres?

[grandmaster]

I was having a talk with my freind, when I mentioned my SG. He said they are "heavy metal guitars" which I immediatly objected to, ofcourse. :) But it made me think, are certain models better at certain genres? Such as a Epi Dot is probably better suited for jazz then an Explorer. Anyone think this as well, or not? :)

[Whitmore Willy]

But it made me think, are certain models better at certain genres?

Makes sense to me....What do you think?

After all that's why some guitars are referred to as "Jazz Boxes"...right?

Some are good for many things depending on the pickups, amp and overall setup.

 

When is the last time you saw a classical guitarist playing a Thunderbird?

 

What kind of music do you like? A lot of great Rock has been made on SGs. A lot of heavy metal has been made on guitars that are not.

 

Just my thoughts.

 

Willy

[grandmaster]

I am into most classic rock, from AC/DC to Jimi hedrix to The Beatles. And I am a great fan of blues music.

[bigneil]

I do think that in some cases guitars are geared to appeal to musicians of particular Genres, and i also think that certain models of guitar have become synonymous with certain genres because they are the chosen axe of a big famous player....we tend to think of SGs as Rock guitars because we are used to seeing them in the hands of "Angus Young" "tony Iomy" and "Pete Townsend", but they are or were also played by the likes of Robby Krieger and Sister Rossetta Tharpe for very different styles.

[animalfarm]

Very thought-provoking! Your topic immediately made me think of

a gentleman who has recorded many wonderful albums playing primarily

a.....

 

JAZZ GUITAR!!!!

 

 

 

[brianh]

Joe Pass playing a Fender Jaguar:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2IDvFRqo04g

 

Ted Nugent playing a Gibson Byrdland

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHDA5nHlDrQ

[Supersonic]

Mr. Harrison played an SG too.

 

[tweed2]

The guy that inspired my to save up my money and buy an SG? Terry Kath. An underrated guitarist, one of the few that Hendrix actually named as a peer. Very distintive style. When he died, Chicago lost it's soul. 1+ on George. Also liked his walnut Tele.

[Parabar]

On the one hand, it IS true that one can play any style of music on any guitar. It is also true, however, that the tonal properties of certain guitar models lend themselves better to certain playing styles and tones than others, which is why (for example) deep hollowbodied archtops are associated more with jazz or rockabilly than they are with metal, and why solidbodies with active pickups are associated more often with metal than they are with jazz or country.

 

Part of this equation has to do with the kinds of tones valued by players in different styles. The SG was first produced in 1961, and heavy metal music would not appear for quite a few more years, so SG's were (and still are) used for many other styles. They do have tonal properties, though, that make them a good choice for metal, because they have a good balance between punchy sustain and brightness of tone that allows for note clarity even with heavy distortion, along with excellent upper fret access.

 

There are also different tastes. I know some great jazz players who love hollow bodies, but prefer the brighter sounds of single coil pickups to the fatter tones of Wes Montgomery or Kenny Burrell, so their "ideal" guitar is a Gretsch with Dynasonic pickups instead of the more typical Gibson or D'Angelico. Ted Nugent plays metal on a Byrdland, which is often thought of as a jazz guitar, but it was developed by and for Billy Byrd and Hank Garland, both of whom were often thought of as country players. The semi-hollow thinline (like the Dot or Sheraton) has been a favorite among blues players because it combines good upper fret access with warm, rich tone, singing sustain, and is less prone to feedback when played loud than a full hollowbody.

 

Some of the fun of guitars comes from being able to try different styles on different guitars, and discovering new combinations that match the sound in your head and the response in your hands --- or that surprise you with a different sound than you imagined, but one that pleases your ears. The common associations we have about which guitars go with which styles are useful as a starting point, but shouldn't be taken as cast in stone. Here are some facts that many find surprising:

 

Led Zeppelin: Jimmy Page is thought of as a Les Paul guy becasue he used one onstage. But ALL the electric guitar parts on LZ's first album (and many on later albums) were played on a Telecaster.

 

Jimi Hendrix's first hit in England was "Hey Joe." He played it on a Tele, not a Strat.

 

Who's Next: Pete Townshend is usually associated with SG's, Strats, and Les Pauls, but he played almost all the electric guitar parts on this classic album on a Gretsch Nashville.

 

Joe Pass, who has an Epiphone signature hollowbody, has performed and recorded classic jazz on a Telecaster, a Fender Jazzmaster, and other solidbodies.

 

Fender introduced the Jazzmaster intending it to be for jazz players, but it never caught on with them. Instead, it became one of the most popular guitars for Surf music.

 

So again, they're not rules, only guidelines, and any guitarist who wants to reach their full potential as a player owes it to him or herself to experiment and find out about different guitars by playing them, thus learning what works best for THEM, not just what's expected.

[brianh]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ What he said ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

[Morkolo]

Jerry Reed was known to pick up a Les Paul every blue moon, though I preferred his sound when he played the Baldwin.

[bigdaddyguitar]

Well put , Parabar .

[bonzoboy]

The genres that a guitar is useful for rests almost entirely in the hands of the artist although SGs are largely regarded as rock/metal guitars they can also be used to create some beautiful jazz tones.Jazz great Ed Bickert from Toronto has relied on nothing but his old 50s Telecaster for creating some of the most memorable jazz riffs ever played yet it is largely regarded as a country guitar.Ted Nugent has relied on large bodied Gibson jazz boxes for his trademark hard rockin'.Granted some guitars may be aimed largely at a particular genre such as the single pickup,single volume control,flat radiused solid bodies used mainly by shredders.The majority of guitars can bridge across several genres.

[jfine]

parabar hit it right on the head--you can play about anything on any type of guitar. However, some audiences (and musicians) hear with their eyes instead of their ears. Les Paul recounted, how, when he first took the Log (which was just a neck attached to a 4X4 block of wood with pickups on it) to a gig, the audience didn't recognize it as being a guitar. The following night, he'd clamped two halves of an archtop body to the sides of the 4X4 so they'd know it was a guitar. I suppose they'd look at you funny if you showed up on a jazz gig with a Flying V, but tonally it could certainly be done--give me something with a neck pickup and a tone control and I'll get a reasonable jazz tone out of it. I've even heard tell of guys using a Les Paul Junior, with just a bridge pickup, for jazz. I've never done it--I've never owned a Junior--but it seems possible. I'm thinking of getting one of the new Epiphone Nighthawks because it seems like it should get everything from humbucker warmth to single-coil twang, and it looks traditional enough to be reasonably appropriate for any gig I'm likely to do.

[milod]

Well... and this is a deep subject like a well...

 

First, functionally speaking, we're all playing 1950s electric guitars with the possible exception of folks using active pickups. Yeah, the shapes, etc., have changed, but the basics remain.

 

All of these guitars were built with tube amplification in mind because functionally that's all there was available. All electric guitars are only half the instrument; the other half is the amp. Basically the amp didn't and couldn't do much with the signal from the guitar, so we messed with new guitars more than new amps or "boxes."

 

I've made some reeeally stupid trades of guitars that had great quality and I loved playing simply because the gigs I was doing at that age of my life seemed to require a different look. Note I didn't say a different sound, although that was "our" excuse - then and now. Yeah, a Gretch sounded different from a tele, but... so what unless you thought you wanted to sound like Clarence P. Picker?

 

A cupla years ago I was doing some drop-in gigging with some guys in a saloon and took a semi because it fit with "dad rock" as some here call it, and it was my least valuable and valued playable electric. But when the weather went odd, I took my old early 1970s Guild S100c and played with the guys, then when they all had to go home, I kept playing finger style jazz type arrangements.

 

Bottom line is that this "SG" with 8-38s was getting a lot more attention from some of the same crowd I'd played the same stuff for before and they kept telling me how great and jazzy the guitar sounded...

 

I think a player will play best in a given style when he's comfortable playing that style on a given style body and neck. Ditto with acoustics, btw. That's why I have the guitars I have - and (parenthetically) why I dumped the semi I'd been using for a Dot that also seemed to work that much better than the other one through the same amps/pa.

 

Today's amps also offer a quadrillion more choices than I had into the 1970s... not to mention "effects" both onboard and off. The problem with a lot of us - me too in my youth especially - is that we expect to use the same amp/settings and will buy a new guitar to change the tone. I think that's a pretty pricey way to play the game...

 

m

[Blueman335]

The guy that inspired my to save up my money and buy an SG? Terry Kath. An underrated guitarist, one of the few that Hendrix actually named as a peer. Very distintive style. When he died, Chicago lost it's soul. 1+ on George. Also liked his walnut Tele.

 

+1. Terry Kath was a great player, lost him much too soon.

 

I play blues, and from the Gibson side of the fence, guys use LP's, 335's, SG's, Flying V's, various hollowbodies, even an occaional Firebird. None of those are limited to blues only. All are used in other genres.

[Blueman335]

I was having a talk with my freind, when I mentioned my SG. He said they are "heavy metal guitars" which I immediatly objected to, ofcourse. :) But it made me think, are certain models better at certain genres? Such as a Epi Dot is probably better suited for jazz then an Explorer. Anyone think this as well, or not? :)

 

Derek Trucks plays an SG as did Frank Zappa, and a number of rock and blues players use 335's. Blues players Albert King, Lonnie Mack, and Michael Burks use(d) V's. There are no rules on what guitar to use.

[Notes_Norton]

+1 on Terry Kath - one of the under-appreciated greats and one of my favorite rock guitarists. He was also a very good singer. And Chicago lost it's appeal to me after he died.

 

+1 on you can use just about any guitar to play any genre of music.

 

Remember, Les Paul designed the LP to be a jazz guitar. A number of jazzers play on solid body guitars made by various manufacturers.

 

And the term "Jazz Boxes" is very recent. From Chuck Berry to the present, plenty of people play hollow body guitars for hard rock.

 

The division of Strats for Rock and Teles for Country is very recent too.

 

In the 'old days' it didn't really matter what kind of a guitar you played, there was no market driven pigeon holing of different guitars for different styles of playing. Today I think looks have become more important than they were in the past.

 

It depends on the player and his/her skills to play in the style he/she chooses and the FX/Amp to color the tone to fit the genre.

 

Notes

[milod]

Bob...

 

I think the "right kind of guitar for the music" was there already in the early '70s - and I was guilty of being in there thinking (stupidly) that you hadda have this or that if you switched bands and genres...

 

It cost me some really nice guitars in really stupid swaps. Luckily I still have two that I very highly value. One's that Guild SG clone and one's the 175.

 

m