The right instrument for the job

Froot

What's the right instrument for blues guitar?

My idols would be John Lee Hooker, Howlin' Wolf, BB King, Creedence Clearwater, Muddy Waters, Tom Waits and to a lesser extent Rory Gallagher.

I'm aiming for the kind of music played by the artists above, preferably slide and also non slide guitar. Give me some help here people

A few songs I'd be looking at would be:

Keep On Chooglin' - Creedence
Smokestack Lightning - Howlin' Wolf
LowDown - Tom Waits

Etc.

judas101

Gibson Dot perhaps?

Beautiful instruments but very pricy

How bout a Gretch?

Ravelleman

To be honest you could go with pretty much anything. How much do you want to spend?

The guitarists you have mentioned have been known to play: Telecasters, Strats, Les Paul Customs, Sheratons, ES 355s etc etc

Froot

Sorry, didn't see that you asked for a price range. I would say anywhere from 500 to 1200 euro. Though I would have to think long and hard about a guitar at the upper end of that bracket.

Yeah, the way I see it is that a lot of the sound is the way they play it rather than the guitar itself. I know that they all play different kinds, Hooker plays a Sheraton afaik and I would assume Fogarty would have an arsenal of guitars with Creedence.

Its a section of playing that I have never delved into but a recent chat with a friend of mine followed by about 7 hours on youtube being shown all these new types of music (all live) which I had never really thought about before opened up my eyes to the whole thing.

I have always been a fan of blues but only recently have I managed to shake my opinion that a lot of it was simplistic and easy. I mean no matter what way I look at it now the guys I mentioned above are all excellent players in their own right.

I have never even set my eyes on a Gretsch in addition to never having heard one.

punchdrunk

this is a beauty!
http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Fender-Muddy-Waters-Telecaster-Electric-Guitar?sku=510630

heres a pic

Dord

I don't think the guitar matters really for blues. I've seen blues guitarists use anything and everything, including 80's style metal guitars.

eoin5

Froot wrote: »

Sorry, didn't see that you asked for a price range. I would say anywhere from 500 to 1200 euro. Though I would have to think long and hard about a guitar at the upper end of that bracket.

In that price range youll pick yourself up a nice strat. For a strat the setup is all important imho, otherwise they can be frustrating tuningwise. Theres a great haynes manual on them even though it goes a bit ott on certain aspects of the guitar.

I'm also a big fan of the Cort KX1Q. Its got two EMG humbuckers and with the coil tap its an extremely versatile guitar.

fish-head

I've had a Sheraton for 3 years now and it has never let me down, always played beautifully, always sounded good (sounds even better now I've got p90s in it), takes one hell of a beating due to it's good solid construction and looks very hot.

Get it!

Either that or a Telecaster.

Froot

Yeah I love the look of the Sheraton because I don't think it tries to look cool :P

I'm glad to hear that Fenders can be used for this type of music. I guess I'm choosing between a strat, tele or an ES/Sheraton. I'll throw up a post with pics when I get around to buying it.

Thanks

Blackhorse Slim

Although you can certainly play blues on a strat or tele, it will not sound like an archtop type guitar. If you want to play blues that's fine, but if you want to sound like John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Lightning Hopkins etc a single-coil guitar may not be your best option :-)

I'm a blues player myself, I play a strat as my first choice (and backup), and an old Korean ES335 copy for different tone. Both are great, but very different.

Both are fine for slide too, but I like to have a low action on my strat which is not ideal for slide, so I keep the action on the 355 a little higher. It's a very personal choice, but it sounds to me like an archtop guitar is what you want.

Blackhorse Slim

Joe Robot wrote: »

I don't think the guitar matters really for blues. I've seen blues guitarists use anything and everything, including 80's style metal guitars.

Albert King famously played a Flying V - it always looked incongruous to me, but you couldn't argue with the man's tone. It worked for him.

Seziertisch

Off the top of my head, I would say something (semi) hollowbodied, with P90's maybe or possibly Filtertrons (TV Jones makes some excellent pickups that would be very suitable for the sound you are after).

Alanstrainor

Since your tastes in tone seem to be pretty broad i'd be thinking a telecaster or a strat perhaps, Both would give you shimmering highs, like muddy waters, and they're versatile enough to give you a nice Bass response too. There's really no one guitar that'll give you that range of tones, well not unless you go down the variax bells and whistles road. I'd say head into town and try out piles of guitars and decide which is the most comfortable for you, and then with that in mind decide on which will give you both "your" sound and comfort.
I have both a strat and a tele, and love them to death!

Ravelleman

Blackhorse Slim wrote: »

If you want to play blues that's fine, but if you want to sound like John Lee Hooker, Muddy Waters, Lightning Hopkins etc a single-coil guitar may not be your best option :-)

Wasn't Muddy famous for playing a Telecaster though?

Blackhorse Slim wrote: »

Albert King famously played a Flying V - it always looked incongruous to me, but you couldn't argue with the man's tone. It worked for him.

The original Flying V is very much a 50s style guitar though. I never thought he looked out of place playing it as a blues man- it suited the time.

Blackhorse Slim

Ravelleman wrote: »

Wasn't Muddy famous for playing a Telecaster though?


Of course you are correct. My bad.

Paolo_M

Joe Robot wrote: »

I don't think the guitar matters really for blues. I've seen blues guitarists use anything and everything, including 80's style metal guitars.

+1,
just keep the action high for slide and use reasonably thick strings, no 9's!!
'course if you can find a nice vintage valve amp alls the better...

tibor

fitz

Can't speak for the Epi version of the Lucille, but I have the Gibson one, and it's awesome. Great range of sounds possible with the varitone.

Gaspode

Cigar box guitar, as used in the very early days of the blues guitar.













PS - hope this wasnt posted already - using Seniors work laptop and it blocks most image hosting sites so I cant see everything thats been posted

darrenw5094

You have to try out a Gibson Flying V.
Doesn't look like a blues machine....untill you play one....the tone is spot on.

Albert King used one....so if it's good enough for him...it's good enough for us.

Rustar

Cigar box FTW!
+1 on any sort of ES335 for versatility in blues-rock, blues, and jazz-blues.
Stratocaster for them 'ole electric blues.

fish-head

Rustar wrote: »

.
Stratocaster for them 'ole electric blues.

What, like, "I got a mean ol' fusebox, she won't light for me no mo" sort of thing?

Rustar

fish-head wrote:

What, like, "I got a mean ol' fusebox, she won't light for me no mo" sort of thing?

Exactly.

Got a sweet little girl, they call her Run-around Sue
She's kinda rank-lookin', but she knows how ta do
I say ole Suzie's got a boyfriend, they call him Gentleman Jim
I said, "Listen, Susan, sweetheart, choose me or him"

She said "You lose."
You've got to suffer if you wanna sing the blues.

Froot wrote:

I have always been a fan of blues but only recently have I managed to shake my opinion that a lot of it was simplistic and easy. I mean no matter what way I look at it now the guys I mentioned above are all excellent players in their own right.

You've heard what they say, right?
"The blues is easy to learn, but nearly impossible to master."

darrenw5094

[You've heard what they say, right?
"The blues is easy to learn, but nearly impossible to master." [/QUOTE]

What happens if you can't learn or master the blues???
Does that mean i am completely crap.:p

Rustar

darrenw wrote:

What happens if you can't learn or master the blues???
Does that mean i am completely crap.:p

No, it doesn't.
Play other styles
OR
accept the Peter Principle -
"We all rise to our greatest level of incompetence." :pac:

That's no relation to the Dilbert Principle, that "companies tend to systematically promote their least competent employees to management."

Nahguavkire

Try a PRS Hollowbody, you won't be disappointed!