posted October 19, 2002 09:54 AM            

can you play all styles on any guitar, or do different guitars need to be used to play different styles. I'm talking about metal/punk (MetallicA, Pennywise, Nirvana, ...) and just normal rock (style Pink Floyd, Dire Straits). Can I play these metal/punk things on my Squier Stratocaster, and if so, how do I set my buttons, cause I can't seem to get that type of sound?
Or do you need to have a ESP (cause I noticed most metal guitarist use that - at least Kirk and James from MetallicA do), or Gibson guitar to do that?

Thx in advance,

posted October 19, 2002 06:47 PM            

Also, the bridge pickup on your current setup is great for metal, the neck pickup with the tone backed down below half way is great for a semi acoustic tone and the middle settings are, well you guessed it. Good for the middle of the road.

The most bang for your buck when starting, if you are just starting, would be a decent multi effects pedal. Like the ones made my Boss or Line6 etc.

They'll offer you different tones, not just limiting your guitar and amp combinations tones.

Good luck.

posted October 20, 2002 07:53 AM         

For metal and blues, usually a guitar with humbuckers is used as they generally give a nice rounded tone when used clean, and also tend to sound better distorted and with various effects. Ibanez have a lot of these.

For Jazz, a semi-electric is often used. You can spot these by the f-shaped holes they have in the body.

posted October 23, 2002 05:54 AM         

You can play just about any style on just about any guitar, with the exception of special hardware like a guitar with a tremelo arm being required for certain kinds of music (like faux Mexican-sounding soundtrack music).

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The problem comes when you want to get the same tones (sound like) songs or styles on recordings. You can play SRV's "Lenny" on a Epiphone Les Paul (esp. if you had some kind of whammy mounted for some bits) into a Roland Blues Cube, and even impress the hell out of people. However, it won't have the same sound as the recordings. The notes will be the same, but the tone and effect on the listener will be noticeably different.

Imagine hearing the melody to "Moon River" played on a trumpet. Now imagine it on a clarinet. Now a sax. Now a piano... The same exact notes, but very different. Once you get to know guitar tones, the difference between a Les Paul and a strat is as big as that between a sax and a trumpet.
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Not having the same tone as on classic recordings isn't neccessarily bad. That can help you find "your sound" and, in general, help music evolve instead of getting stuck in a rut like "you need a strat to play electric blues" (show up at any 'blues jam' to see this in action).
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posted October 24, 2002 02:04 AM         

The main point was, that unless a guitar has setup or other playing problems, you can play any style on it [but the 'tone' might not be exacly the "right" tone].

posted October 26, 2002 03:34 AM            

One more question though, what are humbuckers? Is this a special kind of pickup?

posted October 26, 2002 08:59 AM         

For pics, look on the left: http://users.chariot.net.au/~gmarts/pickupin.htm

Humbuckers eliminate the 'hum' noise that is inherent in single coil pickups. Unfortunately, they sound duller/less "clear" than single coils when played clean. On the plus side, they sound "fatter". A great example of theses sounds is Eric Clapton and BB King's recent CD 'Riding With The King'. BB is playing humbuckers while Eric is playing single coils. The two tones are dramatically different.

Where humbuckers shine, is with distorted tones. There's a power and thickness to humbuckers when distorted that single coils don't get. Crunchy chords, singing leads. Unfortunately, thick and sustain-y isn't always good, so single coils have their place here too. I know this isn't your style, but another example that's popping into my mind for distorted sounds is Clapton with Cream for humbuckers, Hendrix for single coils. Maybe someone else can give metal or punk examples?

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I think quite a few metal players use EMG 'active' pickups, but I've never tried them myself. They have solid black covers like this:
http://us.f1.yahoofs.com/users/f4583a71/bc/rig.jpg?bciYH49AU2C8WO3w
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I have single coils (on a strat), P-90's (on an SG) and humbuckers (on a Les Paul), myself. They're all good but quite different. In the future I might go with a guitar with a mix of different types, but I haven't decided what mix yet. I also have a PRS (yeah, too many guitars and this one's for sale as I think three guitars is my limit) with "splittable humbuckers" - you can split the humbuckers by pulling a knob to use only one coil, getting more single-coil like sounds. Try some different guitars out and have fun! I'm guesssing you're probably gonna want humbuckers, though, but you'll have to try them out for yourself.

-David

posted November 06, 2002 01:04 AM         

The wood has a signifigant effect, as does the bridge, neck, scale length, hardware, pickup type, pickup location, wiring, etc. The pickups can't "pick up" any sounds that weren't originally there (besides feedback, I guess). Besides the metal of the strings and bridge and fretwire, the main difference between guitars (disregarding pickups) is the wood of the guitars and the vibration patterns that wood absorbs and then imparts back onto the string. Maple, for example, vibrates and sounds different than poplar, which sounds different than mahogony. Also, individual pieces of mahagony (for example) will sound different than other pieces of mahogony. These differences seem subtle at first, but as you gain experience, they become ever more apparent.

For example, my friend has an all mahogony Gibson guitar that has a certain growl in the wood. If I play the guitar uplugged, lyin on my back, I can feel that growl vibrating my chest. I also have an all mahogony Gibson, but this one has a certain lack in the bass end. Again, unplugged lying down, I can feel it in my chest. I can feel it vibrating less when I play a bass string riff. Both of these guitars exhibit these same exact individual characteristics of their wood when amplified too! Different pickups will have their own sound characteristics too, but, they are amplifying what the wood is doing and that charecteristic will always be there.

Different kinds of wood will give the characteristic tone of that species, and individual pieces of wood within a species have their own individual characteristics. Sometimes the differences are subtle, sometimes they are really strong.

Note: enough distortion and compression can mask the differences between guitars.

Your strings are connected to the bridge, which is anchored in wood. On the other side they are connected to the wood of the neck via the nut or a fret. When the string vibrates, it vibrates the bridge which gets the body wood vibrating, and on the other end the fret and the neck wood start [really] vibrating. The vibrating neck and body vibrate each other at the neck joint. As the wood vibrates, it also vibrates the anchors (fret and bridge) of the string. The string isn't vibrating between two fixed points, but between two vibrating points. These vibrating string ends change the way the string itself is vibrating, making it more complex and giving the guitar it's individual sound.

posted November 06, 2002 08:03 PM         

After all that talk about wood, I just want to make clear that wood and construction is a factor, but so are pickup types. Two humbucker guitars like a humbucker equipped Tele and a Les Paul will both have a "humbucker sound". There will be obvious similarities.

On the other hand, a Les Paul with humbuckers, a Les Paul with Mini-humbuckers and a Les Pauk with P-90s will all show shared "Les Paul sound" qualities.

If this is hard to imagine, think of single coils as motorcycles and humbuckers as cars. A sportbike (motorcycle) and a sports car will show shared qualities (high acceleration, great handling, uncomfortable and expensive for commuting).