The worst guitar color of all time
There are some guitar finishes that look just plain bad...
...and this one is the worst, the Fender Jim Root Telecaster. This guitar at the time I write this is the ugliest guitar made because of its white finish.
Now bear in mind the white on the JR Tele isn't just any white. It's flat white, meaning it has no gloss, no sheen and has the appearance of being unfinished in the worst possible way.
The reason people hate white guitars is the same reason people hate white rental cars. It looks lifeless, dull, boring and cheap. It doesn't matter how well-made the instrument is. Stark, bright white, especially a flat white, is literally the worst possible color one could choose to put on a guitar.
History time!
The reason almost zero white vintage electric guitars exist is because they looked horrific on television. In the black-and-white days of TV, white guitars would always "wash out" when filmed, hence the reason Gibson came up with the color TV Yellow which on camera would look white but in reality was a yellow finish.
And guess what? Stark white guitars even today still look terrible when filmed with HD cameras. There is simply no way to make a bright white guitar look good.
"But the JR Tele is a tool guitar!"
So what? It's still fugly.
Back in the day, the #1 finish Fender used on their solid-body electrics was sunburst. This was chosen not only because it was cheap to apply but it also gave the guitar a woody look to it. Sunburst isn't a solid finish so you can see the nice wood grain come through and it just works.
Gibson did the same thing by offering a ton of their guitars in sunburst as well, with the difference being there was more red in the finish (hence Heritage Cherry Sunburst).
Both companies avoided white like the plague. This isn't to say there aren't a few examples of vintage white electrics, but it was never stark white. Olympic White has some blue in it, Arctic White has yellow in it and so on.
Avoid bright white guitars, and especially avoid the Jim Root Telecaster in that finish because it's the worst.
On a final note, the JR Tele is one of the few electrics I've ever known that actually looks worse in person compared to online photos like the 7UP Green Clapton Stratocaster. Yes, it's that bad.
Best Christmas guitar gifts for 2017
It's no surprise at all that almost all the best seller guitar gifts this year are on the low-priced end of the spectrum.
Why are lower-priced guitars selling better? It's not just because of price. Build quality has increased tremendously across the board compared to 10 years ago. The only time you get something truly bad is if the guitar is a toy. None of what's listed below are toys. And with that said, here are the hot guitar gifts for 2017.
This bundle includes a gig bag, tuner, extra pack of strings, strap, picks, polishing cloth and an instructional DVD. The guitar itself is Fender's FA-100 model. You can get just the guitar to shave off a few bucks, but if giving the gift to a total beginner who has never played guitar before, giving the bundle is better and doesn't cost that much more. The price is already cheap as it is.
This full-size acoustic sells for well under $100 new and easily beats the price at guitar stores considering the shipping is free. It's very highly rated as a genuinely good acoustic guitar by those who have bought it.
Simply put, this is as cheap as you can get while still getting a good acoustic guitar. Anything cheaper than this goes into "toy that will break in a week" territory.
Hinkler EBB Electric Blues Box Slide Guitar Kit
This is a very simple guitar, but it's fun and has genuine character to it. Even if it's never played, it would still look cool hanging on a wall. This is traditionally known as a cigar box guitar.
Squier Bullet Strat HSS Hard Tail
The Hard Tail Bullet Strat was introduced this year, and many are flocking to it because a lot of players consider it the easier guitar to deal with since it has no tremolo system. This guitar has sold well since its introduction and continues to do so.
Squier Vintage Modified '70s Stratocaster
The '70s look for guitars is definitely the "in" thing at the moment, but aside from that, some players genuinely like an all-black Strat with the all-maple neck. This guitar definitely delivers that. Compared to the Bullet Strat HSS Hard Tail seen above, this is a traditional SSS with the tremolo system.
I was genuinely surprised to see this one make the list, but upon closer examination I was able to see why. This guitar is just plain gorgeous, has set-neck construction, 24.75" scale, jumbo frets, thin "U" shape neck, and most importantly, also comes in a lefty version. A lot of guitar companies ignore lefty players. LTD did not.
This guitar is best for players that prefer a "fast" thin neck on a guitar that turns heads, sounds great and plays great. This is a mid-priced guitar but is arguably better than anything Epiphone could offer, and at a cheaper price.
Also be sure to see the Lemon Drop finish option. Very cool looking.
What does a Fender Greasebucket tone circuit actually do?
I received an email asking what this specific circuit does and am answering it with an article on the subject.
The Fender American Special Stratocaster features the Fender Greasebucket tone circuit. This is something Fender introduced back in 2005 and was originally featured in Highway One models along with a few offerings from the custom shop.
A regular tone circuit in a Strat is a 250K potentiometer with .022 orange drop capacitor.
A Greasebucket tone circuit is also a 250K potentiometer with .022 capacitor, but with 4.7K resistor and .1uf capacitor.
With the regular 250K, as the tone is rolled off, there is an increase in bass frequency. And as you roll the tone knob back and forth, a "wow" or "wah" sound is heard.
With the Greasebucket tone circuit, as the tone is rolled off, bass frequency isn't increased. And as you roll the tone knob back and forth, less "wow" or "wah" is heard.
How does Greasebucket benefit the player?
The idea with the Greasebucket tone circuit is keep the bass EQ "flat" so as the tone is rolled off, bass boom isn't added in, thereby making the tone control on the Stratocaster guitar more usable...
...depending on application, which is something a lot of people seem to gloss over.
Typically, where the Greasebucket tone circuit works best is with effects in use such as overdrive, distortion, chorus, delay and so on. If you're the type of player that uses a lot of effects, Greasebucket is your friend. Having a tone circuit that allows you to shape the tone to an almost surgical level is nice to have.
Where Greasebucket does not work well is when going after vintage style Strat tones. An example of this is using the third pickup position (middle pickup) and then rolling the tone down to 5. With regular Strat wiring, more bass frequency will be heard. If that is the kind of Strat sound you're used to, then you will not get along with the Greasebucket circuit because that increased bass will simply not be there.
So in the end, if you're a Stratocaster player that actually uses the tone control and want something more effects-friendly, then yes, Greasebucket works great and that is its best application. But if you never use the tone control and/or prefer a Strat with more traditional wiring, Greasebucket really won't do anything for you.
And yes, there are wiring kits available to mod your own guitar to have the circuit.
Is the neck pickup on a Telecaster worthless?
It's time to talk about the mini single-coil in the Fender Telecaster.
The traditional pickup layout on a Telecaster is an overwound single-coil pickup in the rear and a mini single-coil (often mistakenly identified as a lipstick pickup but it's not) in the front. And more often than not, the rear pickup is trebly and twangy while the front pickup is quieter and has noticeably less treble response compared to the rear.
Whether it's a cheap Squier Affinity Telecaster, a midgrade Fender Standard Telecaster, or the more expensive Fender American Special Telecaster, if the guitar has the the overwound/mini pickup layout, that front mini pickup is usually a bit on the quiet side.
Is this normal? More often than not, yes it is.
If you take a look at replacement front pickups for the Telecaster by Seymour Duncan, you'll notice immediately that nearly all of them are low-output by design with emphasis on the bass frequency. Such examples are the Alnico II Pro Tele and Antiquity Tele.
Seymour Duncan does make a high-output front mini, the appropriately named Hot Tele pickup. And from DiMarzio there is the Twang King DP172...
...but is installing a high-output, high-treble front pickup in a Telecaster a good idea?
I personally wouldn't do it because it ends up being a bit of a clacky mess where tone is concerned.
If I really wanted a high-output front pickup in a Telecaster, I'd go S/H or HH. An example of S/H is Fender Classic Series '72 Telecaster Custom or Squier Vintage Modified Telecaster Custom. An example of HH is Fender Standard Telecaster HH or the Squier Vintage Modified '72 Telecaster Thinline.
Is there an easy and cheap way to get more treble response out of the Telecaster front pickup?
Yes. Use a pick that is thin celluloid, thin nylon or anything that is thin and has some flap to it.
Using a thin pick that flaps will make your strings "ping" more, and yes it really does work to get greater treble response out of the Telecaster front pickup since the guitar already rings and twangs by design.
I would try using a thin pick first before doing anything else. Sometimes a change of pick is all you need to get the sound you want out of your guitar.
So is the front pickup on the Telecaster worthless?
Obviously not...
...but I can understand the argument from those who say the Fender Esquire and Gibson Les Paul Junior, both of which traditionally have just one single-coil rear pickup, is all anyone ever needs out of an electric guitar.
I wouldn't even own a Telecaster if it didn't have a front pickup. While I can see the value of guitar minimalism, I do actually use the front single regularly. Going without it would not make me a happy camper, so I'm glad it's there.
Do I feel the need to have greater output and treble out of the front pickup? No. All I did was adjust a few presets on my RP360, grab a thin pick when I need a little extra treble and that's pretty much it.
I've found that the lower output of the front single is actually better for both chording and soloing. Strings are heard more and pick strike heard less, both of which are very good things.
Take your time with a guitar multi-effects processor
Once you know how to modify settings on one of these things, you can make any guitar sound like any guitar.
There's a video of me playing some dopey metal riffs with my Squier Telecaster. I did it for the reason that a lot of guitarists state that a Telecaster "can't do metal". Yes, it can. All it takes is running the guitar through the correct processing and ta-da, metal sound.
However, this is the exact same guitar I got an amazing surf tone out of.
How did I do it? By sitting down with my DigiTech RP360, spending time with it and going over every single thing it could possibly do.
Multi-effect processors can't be learned in a day
Whether you use the RP360, ZOOM G1Xon, VOX StompLab or whatever you use, there is no multi-effect processor that you can learn lightning fast. It's just not possible. These multi-effect units offer tons of ways to modify guitar tone, and it does take time to learn it all.
Actually, it would be more fair to say you learn some of what a multi-effects processor does, because nobody uses 100% of what it can do. Some sounds will be cool, others will be terrible, and you just pick and choose which you like, save the presets and that's all there is to it.
You probably will only use 3 to 5 presets at most, and they will probably be "scratch made"
The standard advice given with a multi-effects processor when creating your own presets is to "start from zero" or "start blank." You either create a new blank preset, or if the unit doesn't allow that, you modify an existing preset and take every effect out of it so you start from nothing and build from there.
When editing a preset on the RP360, the first and only thing I put there (and only because the RP360 requires at least 1 effect per preset) is the amp-cab simulator to initially shape the tone. Nothing else is present. No EQ, no compressor, no delay, no distortion/overdrive, no reverb, no gate, no modulation, none of that. Everything starts with just the amp-cab modeling to keep it as basic as possible.
Once I've found a good amp-cab combo that I like, then I'll start adding other stuff in.
Is this a time consuming process? Yes, but it's worth it.
I only have about 5 presets that I use regularly even though I have over 10 that I customized myself. Having a lot of presets is cool, but I stick to the ones where I can just plug in my guitar, start playing and not worry about fussing around with effects processor settings.
It really is true you can make any guitar sound like any guitar
Mess around with a multi-effects processor enough and you can get any guitar sound you want because that's what the processor is designed to do.
Buyers of multi-effect processors often say the stock presets are terrible. True? Yes! You're not supposed to simply accept the stock sound the unit gives you. You're to sit down with the unit, learn the thing and custom make your own presets that sound best with your guitar.
This is why I say to take your time with a multi-effects processor. You won't learn it in just one day, you will have to experiment a lot with it, and once you find the sound that works, that's when the magic starts happening.
On a final note, can a multi-effect processor be frustrating to use? Yes, because you have to deal with a bunch of menus among several pages of settings. But in the end, this is normal and part of the learning process. It does get easier the more you use it, so if you get a little frustrated with your effects processor, don't just give up. Sit down and learn the thing, take your time and good tones will eventually happen.