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[Patrick]

Right, so gear whores of QC, I will be working this summer and am looking into buying another guitar, this time a lot less shitty than the ones I've been using for the past 3 years. I had previously been looking at this:



It's the '62 reissue Fender Jaguar, which runs at around $1400 US. But I have been lusting after this for quite some time:



The Epiphone G-1275, which is less expensive (by about $500) and arguably more versatile in a lot of respects, less so in others. And alongside it I'd order a standard Fender Stratocaster or a Gibson Faded SG and come out at about the same price anyway.

I'd like to know your ideas based on the following main points:
- sheer sexiness of the guitar
- your opinions of each instrument's versatility
- sound (if you've played either of them)
- what YOU would do if the decision were yours to make

Okay GO!

[Spinless]

I'd get any old halfway decent telecaster and never need another guitar again?

[Storm Rider]

Telecasters are weak. Get something with humbuckers.

[Johnny C]

I'd go with the Jag. From what I understand it's a versatile-sounding instrument and is a lot more likely to respond to whatever you coax it with.

[Patrick]

That's definitely true. It has 22 easily-accessible frets, too, which is just a bucket of fun for anybody who likes to do multitracked guitar layers like I do. I absolutely adore the sound of the Jaguar in "Under The Bridge" by RHCP, and Kurt Cobain's Jaguar sounded damn good too (even despite the fact that I don't like Nirvana)

The main benefit of having the doubleneck is, obviously enough, having an electric 12-string guitar. The Byrds had some damn nice guitar lines on the electric 12-string and nobody else in the world of guitar really seems to tap into the vast amounts of potential that a 12-string electric has in terms of doing beautiful fingerstyle rhythms.

I've played the doubleneck and I've heard many of the beautiful sounds that the Jag can make and it really is a tough decision.

[jeph]

Don't buy an Epiphone.

Get the Jag or the SG depending on whether you prefer the sound of humbuckers or single-coils.

Also, you DO have a good amp....right?

[BeoPuppy]

The trouble with the double neck is that you'll look like, say, Jimmy Page. If you are not as good as Jimmy Page you're going to look a bit lame. I'd go with seperate guitars.

[Patrick]

@ Jeph: Yeah, I've got a Marshall MG100DFX. She doesn't even let my Squier Bullet buzz and still sounds like Jesus in the process. If it wasn't for that guitar falling apart in my hands I'd stay with it, heh.

The thing is, though, I like the sound of either style of pickup. I love the guitar tone in the work of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and Frusciante uses that Strat almost exclusively, but I've also got a massive crush on the sound that Ted Leo gets out of his ES-335. That's why this decision is so miserably difficult :\

@ BeoPuppy: That is indeed a major concern. A potential solution to that would be to get it in white and do a custom paint job, but then I'll look like a crossbreed of 1967 Eric Clapton and Jimmy Page.

[öde]

'62 reissue Fender Jaguar.

It is sexy.

[Misereatur]

There is absolutely no need for a twin neck guitar ever.

I beg your pardon?


Also, anything that has more then four strings baffles me, bu I'd go for the Jag. But wait, are you ordering a Strat or a SG and the Jag/double neck? Because you could just drop the whole thing and go for the strat in that case.

[Thrillho]

Telecasters are weak. Get something with humbuckers.

So get one of the Teles with humbuckers.

But then I'm Tele biased.

I say go for the Jag. An epiphone double-necker sounds like a piece of shit waiting to happen.

[Patrick]

But wait, are you ordering a Strat or a SG and the Jag/double neck? Because you could just drop the whole thing and go for the strat in that case.

It's either the Jaguar as the only guitar I get (that fucker's expensive!), or the doubleneck and the SG or Strat.

Edit: @ Tommy: Telecasters do have their strong points, and I'll be damned if I don't love the sound of the Telecaster in the best of Alan Jackson's music, but I'm looking for something that has not only amazing tone but the looks of the thing are striking enough to win a bowling tournament. I'm also looking for something that can not only reproduce anybody else's tone but can also do something entirely different that is all me.

[godinpants]

Get the jag, i have a jap one and its amazing, although i do play alot of surf rock on it (the high pass filter really comes in use).

I also use mine for metal when i jam with mates occasionally, it basically can handle anything, i was really surprised with the chunk this thing can bring out.

I think the only other guitar i could want would be a rick of some sort.

Also, im primarily a bassist so feel free to ignore anything ive said here.

[Gryff]

I am so against having a twin-necked guitar that this isn't even a contest.

[McTaggart]

I dunno, if you put a steel bar across the two necks and string it so they're all kinda resonating you could probably coax some wierd sounds out of it. I'd like one to play with, but I wouldn't buy one.

[David_Dovey]

You people are so un-rock.

Doubleneck Doubleneck Doubleneck! (plus Strat... you said you were looking for versatile...)

[Patrick]

Idunno, man, I'd be the only dude on the block (and probably the only dude in the Balkans) who could ever accurately cover anything the Byrds ever did.

[öde]

Truth + namedrop.

[The Kangmiester]

The double neck will make you look like a dated cock. Go with the Jag.

[Johnny C]

Truth + namedrop.

I love reading these posts, though, Tommy. They make me feel like someday I can hang out with rockstars too.

Anyhow, my guitar is an Epiphone and it works marvelously. On the other hand the shape of it is borderline embarassing, something I've only managed to remedy slightly by sticking on a Hemi decal from an actual car factory. It's a versatile instrument that responds well with a shitty amp and remarkably well with a good amp, but I still feel like a tool when playing it.

[Patrick]

Dude, see, this is why you're supposed to make like Billy Gibbons and put fuzzy shit all over it.

[valley_parade]

A Jaguar?

No, no, so close. Get a Jazzmaster!

[Misereatur]

It's either the Jaguar as the only guitar I get (that fucker's expensive!), or the doubleneck and the SG or Strat.

Almost every good guitarist I know uses a Strat and it sounds amazing. The Jag is a great guitar, no doubt (I think Kevin Shields from MBV used one), but I think you can get the Start and the Tele for about the same price.

But then again, I am a bass player.

[amok]

Buy the one with two necks and cut it in half lengthways. Then you have two guitars.

[Johnny C]

For all I know they did one tour ever and never recorded a single note.

Is there anything more rockstar than that don't-give-a-fuck-about-your-machine,-man attitude? I submit that there is not.

[godinpants]

what would Bootsy choose?

Thread over?

[BeoPuppy]

Thread over?

God, I hope so. That last pic was so scary.

[Chad K.]

You could always buy a strat with humbuckers and install a coil tap; that way you'd have the humbucker or singlecoil as options.  I wouldn't buy the double-neck, though.  They're heavy, it's hard to reach the six-string, they are a bitch to tune, they're unwieldly on a stage.  Also the odds of really needing to switch back and forth between a 12 string and a 6 string are slim, even if you're Jimmy Page.  

Of course, you could always go the ultra-original route and buy some vintage japanese guitar (I am a big advocate of this approach).  There are HUNDREDS of alternatives to Gibson and Fender of as good or better make, for a fraction of the price.  The Matsomoku factory gets the most praise, but really most manufacturers from the mid-70's to early 80's were generally smoking their competitors.  I have a '79 Aria that is totally refinished in a deep maroon natural stain with twin humbuckers and coil taps that every guitar player I know wants more than anything- and it cost me $250.  My bass (my main instrument) is a 1978 jazz copy with a natural ash slab board body with EMG upgrades and a Baddass II bridge.  It plays, looks and sounds as good as any pre-cbs Fender, and I can modernize the components without destroying the value of the guitar. After getting it I actually ended up selling my American made G&L L2000 because I wasn't playing it anymore.  Just something to think about.

[Patrick]

That is indeed something to think about. I've played several Martin acoustics that I absolutely abhor, but I bought an old 1953 Kay acoustic off of Ebay and it's got the sound that can make people weep and the playability of the instrument that comes to you in your dreams at night.

In any case, I think at this point in the thread my mind's pretty well made up in favour of the Jaguar. But before I make a definite decision, this is what I want to be able to say about the guitar after I buy it:

1. On a clean and dry amp setting, pianissimo is light but pronounced, and fortissimo overdrives the amp just enough to get that very slight, very beautiful crunch out of it.
2. This guitar's tone is bright and mellow. For both pickups, one tone setting allows me to have bright highs and mids and have a more laid back lower end, and another tone setting lets my guitar give a thicker middle and low range.
3. This guitar screams "I AM ABOUT TO ROCK YOUR FUCKING FACE OFF" just by hanging off of a strap.
4. The body shape lets me reach fret 22 (20 in the case of the Epi) just about as easily as fret 3.

I'd mention how easily you can do chords near the nut with the scale length of either guitar, but with a 16cm forefinger to pinky spread, I've never once met a guitar that didn't let me put my forefinger at fret 1 and my pinky at fret 5.