New Guitar - eeny meeny, miney mo

Dun

Fed up of my knockabout £200 electric, so I want to upgrade. Not quite ready to take it to the €1000+ range yet, as I'm not playing that long.

I've had my eyes on two guitars..

Epiphone Black Beauty

(and before anyone says, yes I know Epiphone isn't Gibson )

or a Fender Fat Strat.

Anyone have any idea if these are good? Which is better? And I'm guessing both would have a reasonable resale value..

(I like playing Metal/Hard Rock.. let's say typical Metallica sound sometimes and typical Nirvana sound othertimes.)

Ta!

Oeneus

Personally out of those two, I'd go for the black beauty.

I'd make a lot of changes to it afterwards though, like pickups etc.

Also, there are a lot of things about Epiphones you should be aware of, like crappy wiring and sh1t machineheads.

Dun

Already aware of the cráp machineheads - my G string is usually an f# string after a song or two (I've a mega-cheapo Epi SG Special at the mo).

Is replacing the wiring a big job? Something to be done at the same time as fitting new pickups? Is there anywhere you can recommend about choosing new pickups, or do you have any ideas yourself?

I'm ok with electronics usually, I have tons of patience with fiddly things and I always RTFM

Oeneus

I'd put in some Seymour Duncan Alnico 2 pickups, simply because I prefer them.

I myself wouldn't go near the electronics because I'm inexperienced, although, I've soldered my input jack back on once after it snapping off but thats just a simple 2 wire thingy. I would generally get a pro to do the more complex things.

The main thing that needs to be done with Epiphones is having all the electronics checked, cleaned and lubricated. Because when the Guitars are manufatured, their surface is cleaned with this stuff which after its set it turns into a dust. On the Gibsons, the manufacturers tend to clean all of this away. But the Epiphones are just made and then thrown in a box to be sold. There not as well serviced as the Gibsons.

And this dust gets into the electronics and can interfer with the sound quality, and often get a really crackly sound out of it.

Thw two main areas that will probably need to be serviced are the pickup toggle switch, and the input jack.

Whoever you get to do it, go to a proper experienced Guitar Luthier. Don't go into Walton's, they were ****ing useless for me!

lethal dose

The Black beauty would suit you better. If you buy a new one it should have the PAF pickups fitted as standard and they are supposed to be an improvement as they feature alnico magnets and have a better form of vacuum wax dipping. Hope this is of some use.

Dun

Originally posted by lethal dose
The Black beauty would suit you better. If you buy a new one it should have the PAF pickups fitted as standard and they are supposed to be an improvement as they feature alnico magnets and have a better form of vacuum wax dipping. Hope this is of some use.

Don't know exactly what it means, but I'll take your word for it

Ta!

Diarmuid

I must say that I like the look of the Epiphone Goth Series

Treebeard

If you're into metal stuff and grungy stuff like Nirvana the Strat would probobly be you're best bet, if you change the pickups, although the LP has the advantage of the better sustain. Some good metal pickups would be a Seymour Duncan Invader or JB(Megadeth use JBs), EMG 81's (like Kirk Hammet) or a Dimarzio. I would also recommend you check out the Ibanez RG series because they are sort of half way between those 2 guitars. Musician inc have loads of Ibanezs

Karl Hungus

Originally posted by Diarmuid
I must say that I like the look of the Epiphone Goth Series

Oooh god no!
That just screams of that stupid kid on Grafton street, with all those korn hoodied losers thinking he's in some way good, and not actualy strangling the life out of the guitar... No thanks.

Personally, if I was getting a new guitar, I'd be getting this: http://www.shadow-within.com/darkstar/fb5a.jpg

But seeing as I've really cleaned up my current one, I doubt I'll actually need another for years.
Hell, maybe I'll win the lotto?


Ok, Dun Do Bheal...
I'd say dont go for either guitar.
Epiphones are dodgy at best, and I personally can't stand Fenders (Necks like baseball bats).

You could easily get a mid-range Jackson, Ibanez, or if you're a man of my calibur, BC Rich.
Like Oeneus said, you'd have to do a bit of modification whih'll probably cost you a bit more.