Struggling with my guitars....

[mirth]

I’ve been playing my Carvin mostly exclusively the last couple months, it plays really easy and since changing the wiring around, it sounds a lot better now. However, I was playing with my G&L legacy last night, which was my main guitar for the previous couple years, and the rythmn, percussive kind of playing, it just sounds a million times better than the Carvin. However, for soloing, the way I want to, it falls short. The notes are much shorter sounding, and not as liquidy as I like. But at the same time, there is a bit of a generic quality to the way the Carvin sounds to me (which I hear in most super strats) that kind of drives me nuts.

Any good guitars for getting that sort of awesome quacky, funky strat thing for rhythmic playing/comping etc… but also liquidy with tons of sustain for “lead” sounds? BTW, I do have coil taps on the carvin, it’s just not the same, I think it’s the fingerboard possibly. Every ebony guitar I have just doesn’t seem to have much funk. I also think that possibly neck through doesn’t have much funk, but bolt-ons don’t seem to have as much sustain….hmmm…

I only have one guitar with a set neck, it might be closer, but it’s a semi hollow and misses other features I kind of like (whammy bar for instance, and coil taps), so I’m not sure if it would fit the bill either.

I suppose my vision for my own playing is some kind of mix of Wayne Krantz/Scofield/Meshuggah? Rhythmically and more of a sax Brecker/Coltrane/Liebman kind of sound for soloing, with the ability to sort of fade into that sound with the volume knob or something.

I wonder how the Morse guitars would be? Or something like that. (of course they don't come lefty though)

[mirth]

I realize this is something that has been worked on for a long time too...

I wonder if a strat with hotter pickups would make sense? Anyone have any experience with hot single coils? Or maybe it's the other way around...very quiet humbuckers?

Or maybe I should consider a HSS guitar, with split coil, bolt on neck, vintage strat bridge, wide fretboard, jumbo frets...hmm....

[brucestevens]

I don't have one, but what about a PRS? Mark, thoughts?

[paulc]

Use a compressor for leads? I have the TC one and it is great for that.

[Infinite Ego]

It's tricky because I know you like a wider neck. I put a hot rails in the bridge of my Legacy and I can still get that funky thing going much better than I thought I would.

I doubt any EBMM guitar would suit you due to neck geometry....except maybe a PJ (I think they made one lefty model)

I suspect you need a Suhr or a TAG with HSH config

[mirth]

Yeah I wondered if that might be the case... hard to find out with just ordering one... hmm..

[sonicdeviant]

Tim, just learn to play righty and then buy the Morse model. 😬👍🎸

[mirth]

or just build one...ha

[Infinite Ego]

you can put a good Warmoth together....the trick is the final details. You can slap it all together and get 95% the way there but it takes skill to tweak it and get the frets perfect. Might just take it in for a fret leveling and nut adjustment at the end

[mirth]

I've been thinking about building a lot lately. I should probably start with a warmoth kind of thing. I have an idea about some body shapes too, but first Warmoth rout I think. I've done some fret work myself (leveling, crowning) on other guitars, probably could get that stuff down. Hmm...

[Infinite Ego]

Yeah, it's not rocket science, just takes the right tools and patience.

[asb]

The problem with lefty guitars is there's so limited a quantity - no matter where you go you are at the mercy of what's not been pawed over by monkeys at your local store, so building one isn't a bad idea.

I did find this if you were looking for Fenders of various ilks at various prices:
shop.fender.com/en-US/search?q=lefty

It also appears that Chapman guitars has come up with a left handed vote by prospective buyers for what might be desired and the final results are here:
www.chapmanguitars.co.uk/voting/

You gotta love a guitar company that actually uses the color name "incarnadine"...

I know the whole "I hate these guitars, I need to get something that's going to work better for me". I saw one today that made me want to get rid of a couple and just get THAT one. But it's as green as one of those jackets the guys that direct traffic wears. It's about two pounds lighter than my existing soloist and plays nearly the same. Hum.

[mirth]

Yeah being lefty, I have never, not once, bought a guitar that I actually got to try before buying.

I have no idea what the majority of guitars are even like. There is just nowhere to even try them out. Sure, I can pull down a righty and sort of feel it out, but trust me, it's not the same.

It's annoying.

[Infinite Ego]

I think you can order any Tom Anderson left handed. you couldn't go wrong there

[mirth]

Yeah you can. Quite the bit of change for me at this time though. I'm sure it would be great.