To find the best tone in whatever form
Alternatives to the big brand guitars
So you've decided you need a Fender Stratocaster, Fender Telecaster or Gibson Les Paul, but first you're considering your options.
Competition in the market provides us with other options
We're fortunate. Just because Fender make the Stratocaster and Telecaster, doesn't mean you have to buy one of their guitars. Look around at the market place and you'll find good Stratocaster alternatives, Telecaster alternatives and Les Paul alternatives.
The lists of advantages and disadvantages below are possibles. They don't apply to all brands or all options. Nor do they apply to the suitability for every guitarist. After all, we all have our own style.
Positives
The positives of buying a different brand guitar: Read more »
Fender Stratocaster Alternatives
Fender Stratocaster Alternatives
There are a number of options if you're looking for alternatives to Fender Stratocasters.
There are many good reasons to get a guitar that doesn't belong to one of the big brands. Fortunately, there are many good options out there. For more budget-friendly options, look at Cort and the mid-range Yamaha Pacificas.
I'll add to this list as I find more. Read more »
Fender Telecaster Alternatives
Fender Telecaster Alternatives:
The Telecaster was first of the mass-produced electric guitars. In many ways, it's still the best. Ok, that's open to argument but in the end it largely comes down to personal preference.
For me, I prefer the sound of this design to all other guitars. That twang is distinctive no matter what type of music it appears in; blues, rock, grunge, emo, whatever suits you.
G&L carry on this tradition, arguably better than Fender do. If you're looking for a Tele, then look at the G&Ls first. As mentioned previously, there are many good reasons for buying a guitar from one of the small manufacturers. Read more »
The cheapest way to obtain better guitar tone
The Search for Great Tone
In the aim of obtaining great tone, many guitarists go through a range of amplifiers, change their pickups, tried different strings, different speaker cabs and even different guitars. But they all cost both time and money. However there's one option a lot of guitarists don't try and best of all, it's probably free. All it takes is a bit of time.
The Solution
The solution is a actually question:
Are you standing in the right place?
New 15W Guitar Amplifiers
The last few years have seen a rise in the number of smaller, low-powered all-valve guitar amplifiers. These are great for achieving awesome tone at lower volumes and so we set up the Smaller Amps section. In the last few months, Marshall and Vox have both released small amplifiers; Marshall with their Haze line and Vox with the Nightrain. Read more »
How much should you pay for a speaker cabinet?
I remember paying between £300 and £400 for a Marshall 1960AV 4x12 cabinet about 10 years ago. The price has increased, as I'd expect prices to inflate over time. A quick search and I can see it on sale for £489. I could probably spend longer looking and find it cheaper.
And then I look at Engl. The equivalent Engl cabinet is the Engl Pro Cabinet E412. In the UK, it's £899! They make superb products and I like the cabinets a lot, but not enough to pay almost twice as much.
Think about this, they both contain the same drivers; Celestion Vintage 30s. The current retail price for 4 of these is £278. Remember that's the retail cost, not the wholesale cost and only for four, so no volume discount for 1000 speakers. Read more »
Which Valves in which Amplifiers
I mentioned that I thought of the Peavey Classic range as being a poor man's Fender (it's cheaper, but still good for blues and funk) and also saying that they have their own great tone. Then it occurred to me that they have different tubes inside them. I've always auditioned amplifiers rather than just buying based on specifications, but it raised an interesting question: Just how much can the choice of tubes in the amp tell you about its tone? Read more »
Fender Vintage Reissue 59 Bassman Ltd
What we say about the Fender Bassman 59 Reissue
This amplifier probably has more stories about it than any other amplifier. Buy this and get a piece of history. Well actually, you'd be buying a re-issue of a bit of history. If you find an original, then wow, they're hard to come by and the price reflects that. Read more »
Marshall 1960AV Speaker Cabinet
What we say about the Marshall 1960AV Cabinet
For any serious rock or blues tone, the Marshall 1960AV speaker cabinet is the minimum speaker cabinet you should be looking at. There are cheaper cabinets out there, same as there are more expensive cabs as well, but this should be your benchmark and your starting point.
The drivers
The cab features 4 Celestion Vintage 30 speakers. These are quite deep in tone and may not be to everyone's taste. If you've never heard your guitar and amplifier through four Vintage 30s, then you need to, at least so you have something to reference.
