Controversial guitar opinions you have.

flying_pie · August 2023

Playing chords is only for talentless wankers

flying_pie · August 2023

stratman3142 said:

Who's going to break first and get tetchy?

Jeff Beck was the most overrated guitarist of all time

Octavio · August 2023

If it's not made in America then don't bother (exceptions Japan and local luthiers).

p90fool · August 2023

Lessons in rock n roll guitar are a contradiction in terms.

flying_pie · August 2023

The Fretboard Forum is a fantastic place for creative, young female guitarists to hang out

flying_pie · August 2023

You don't need to upgrade the pickups in a Harley Benton to make it better than a Gibson

RocknRollDave · August 2023

Middle pickup alone on a Strat is a horrid sound that should never be used.

AndyGT75 · August 2023

RocknRollDave said:

Middle pickup alone on a Strat is a horrid sound that should never be used.

I absolutely love Strats but agree with this, lol! Second position and neck only for me lol.

ICBM · August 2023

Nitro is not a very good finish - it feels sticky, reacts with stands/straps/some case linings, and is really just a bit crap. A nice thin polyurethane is far superior and actually ages in a comparable way, just more slowly.

Roasted maple is a horrible idea and a way to ruin good timber. It's weak, brittle and soft all at the same time... vile.

Middle pickup alone is the best sound on a SSS Strat.

Brio · August 2023

You only need one guitar. And it wont be as good as mine.

Kateskogs · August 2023

Guitar techs aren't Guitar Luthiers.....I knew a so called Luthier who used alot of dubious methods to make an old Harmony acoustic playable. The guitar came back with terrible intonation, cracked heel and basically bodged together. He was only good for setting up guitars to a degree and yet he still calls himself a Luthier!? Never again!!!

ScreamingDave · August 2023

Don’t keep changing guitar during a gig. The only good reasons to change guitar mid set are:
a) alternate tuning
b) fundamentally different type of guitar e.g. switching to an acoustic or a 12 string
c) broken string or guitar malfunction
Find a good gigging guitar and stick to it.

Nobody at a live gig cares about your tone. Not even the rest of your band. The place for being picky about tone is in the studio, not live. Just get on with playing and creating an energy between you and the rest of the band.

Don’t drink when gigging. You can’t play better when you’re drunk, you just think you can.

AndyGT75 · August 2023

ScreamingDave said:

Don’t keep changing guitar during a gig. The only good reasons to change guitar mid set are:
a) alternate tuning
b) fundamentally different type of guitar e.g. switching to an acoustic or a 12 string
c) broken string or guitar malfunction
Find a good gigging guitar and stick to it.

Nobody at a live gig cares about your tone. Not even the rest of your band. The place for being picky about tone is in the studio, not live. Just get on with playing and creating an energy between you and the rest of the band.

Don’t drink when gigging. You can’t play better when you’re drunk, you just think you can.

100% spot on!!!!

stratman3142 · August 2023

flying_pie said:

stratman3142 said:

Who's going to break first and get tetchy?

Jeff Beck was the most overrated guitarist of all time

Almost got me going there, but I decided to take deep breaths, pace around the room, then drink more beer. I'll have calmed down by the morning.

KevS · August 2023

We are chasing the same guitar sounds and tones in our heads,we are chasing us..
Whether on 2 Boss Pedals and a Peavey Bandit or a Line 6 Helix..

Or maybe I am just chasing me and other people aren't..
When we get very different equipment,we are often actually trying to find very similar sounds..
A different journey to the same destination,,sometimes a complicated journey to achieve the simple....
So we are best to buy the equipment that works as an extension of us to do that....
This has either came to me via a hard search,or just luck..

With me,It can turn out with pickups to affect how obvious I hear certain chord types,,
How obvious those interval pitches pitches are,,for me this is huge,but I haven't heard others mention it..,Or how responsive we can find pickups to our playing touch..
Most Strat pickups are fine to listen to other people playing on,when I'm playing them, 99% of them sabotage me..
I didn't realise this for decades..
There was a time I just made do with what I had,but as I developed and had financial access to more gear, I realised these subtleties and not so subtle things too..
So many Strat Pickups go Plunk before you get anywhere near your highest dynamic range in your playing..
If you are going to do a spanky rhythm with accents,are these plunky pickups any use..?
Too low output,you get thin with no presence or sizzle..
It is the exact same with Telecaster Pickups..There is only one set I actually like..
Are they boutique ?..nope...Am I fussy,if I have that opportunity,damn right I am..I know what I want..
So many products offer,but don't deliver..
Humbuckers, I can get into more of,but many that are very expensive and also many actual Gibson ones I think sound beyond awful and don't respond dynamically,or I can't hear the part of the sound that helps he identify intervals resonating with each other..Or just thin,lacking mid,,or where I like mid to bloom,,not at 1 Khz by the way..

Even my plectrum choice changed and is not just chosen from how I pick but also the plectrum to me makes a big difference to guitar tone,I realised for me,too thick when playing rhythm was making chords sound like big congealed,claustrophobic lumps,,they were shouting,,Give Me Air,open up my sound..I don't care what works for Yngwie or Schenker..
Yes they have more shred ability than me,I can still love what they play,but my ears,hands,arse etc respond differently..

When I fire up my Headrush Pedalboard,I can get totally lost,but not one drive pedal model really works as an extension of me..
Yet I use the original pedal of one model and an update of another and wouldn't be without them,
to me they are part of how I get my set up to work for me....
Models may sound really close,but they respond to your touch very different..
It was obvious 20 years ago,it has got better but I think we are still decades away..
We can do an approximation of our heroes tones with these things..
We can kind of do a homogenised sounding version of us on them,
but are we in synch with them..
A simple TS9 Tube Screamer can work with my hands and brain beautifully,
yet lots of boutique trendy pedals I don't connect with..
Can a Headrush Pedalboard truly give access to do me.
I know I may sound up my own arse,but everything is a matter of degrees and that answer is no..

Ever so often,I try a bit of gear and genuinely go,,where have you been all my life..
It could be a plectrum,but be monumental and 50 pence..
I have my definite favourite Pedals,Picks and Pickups etc..

WHY ? because they work..
Or they do for me..
But maybe not for anyone else..

Now the question is how similar was that sound in my head in 1990 4 years into my playing compared to now..?

ICBM · August 2023

ScreamingDave said:

Don’t keep changing guitar during a gig. The only good reasons to change guitar mid set are:
a) alternate tuning
b) fundamentally different type of guitar e.g. switching to an acoustic or a 12 string
c) broken string or guitar malfunction
Find a good gigging guitar and stick to it.

This.

Fez · August 2023

Electro harmonix pedals are rubbish.
It's only a strat if it was made by Fender (or squier).

maharg101 · August 2023

Syd Barrett's Floyd would have done a better version of Comfortably Numb.

Ernie Ball Super Slinky 9s are the best strings.

Offsets are just plain wrong.

Lewy · August 2023

Peter Green wasn't all that.

The finest guitar solo of the 20th century was Louis Shelton's solo on "Hello" by Lionel Ritchie

You virtually never come across a good slide guitar player who can't also sing.

flying_pie · August 2023

Fez said:

Electro harmonix pedals are rubbish.

I thought this was supposed to be controversial opinions. Everyone knows the"reliability" is legendary

fretmeister · August 2023

flying_pie said:

Playing chords is only for talentless wankers

As a bassist I support this message.

willo · August 2023

It's worth working out if you are a guitarist or a collector.

GuyR · August 2023

Other people are wankers if their guitar related choices are not the same as yours.

ICBM · August 2023

Lewy said:

You virtually never come across a good slide guitar player who can't also sing.

Duane Allman
Ritchie Blackmore

rlw · August 2023

All Strats sound exactly the same.

ICBM · August 2023

True bypass is the most regressive idea in the history of pedals, and the fashion for metal click-type switches along with it.

fretmeister · August 2023

1) If a song sounds wrong when played using a raging JCM800 it is the song that is wrong not the choice of gear.

2) Bands that build their live sound from the rhythm section first always sound better than those who try to build it around the novelty acts out front.

3) Power trios are the best type of band. Each instrument has more room, the arrangements have to be inventive, the dynamics vary much more, there’s far less hassle organising 3 people than larger bands, and the money is only a 3 way split.

4) People who tune to D-D (or any other equally transposed tuning) but still use the same chord names as when using E-E should be forced to run a recorder and use group for 5 year olds.

5) There should always be 2 types of rehearsals. One is the performance rehearsal. The other is a technical rehearsal where the focus is getting the gear working right. This is getting more important as more bands go ampless and instead have a modeller with 300 sodding channels.

6) Lennon and McCartney were fabulous songwriters with terrible, awful, embarrassing voices. They should have hired a good singer or just written for other people.

Grumpyrocker · August 2023

Guitar is a terrible instrument for someone with neurodivergent and obsessive tendencies. Spent 30+ years learning that.

Grumpyrocker · August 2023

The idea of spending anything more than a few hundred of pound for something as simple as a Telecaster is mad. It's four bolts away from just being a plank.

KevS · August 2023

ICBM said:

True bypass is the most regressive idea in the history of pedals, and the fashion for metal click-type switches along with it.

I can get behind that..

rlw said:

All Strats sound exactly the same.

Fortunately not true,because you get some really thin cheese wire sounding strats..

Kateskogs said:

Guitar techs aren't Guitar Luthiers.....I knew a so called Luthier who used alot of dubious methods to make an old Harmony acoustic playable. The guitar came back with terrible intonation, cracked heel and basically bodged together. He was only good for setting up guitars to a degree and yet he still calls himself a Luthier!? Never again!!!

I would say I was mostly a peaceful chap..But the addition being out of pocket because of some loud mouthed A-hole knackered your guitar is not a nice feeling..Especially the ones who can't possibly be in the wrong..Some jobs are beyond me unfortunately..I can set up guitars,but I am very far from a Luthier or even a Tech..I set up for friends etc,but I don't charge...
I was offered a job as a repairman and said no,,because I am not a Con Man..
There are jobs I just can't do and don't want to learn on the job on people's prized possessions,I am not a bastard..

Also Techs who don't listen to what you want,,they know better,,even to the point of getting competitive..

I have had to pay for the same job twice from different sources so many times..
Some of these people have been at it decades..
You have to learn who you can trust the hard way it seems.
One of Scotland's leading repairmen can't solder..

I am not able to re fret a guitar,but neither were some of the people who confidently,bordering on arrogantly told me they could,,charged going prices and above,,then fucked my guitars..

There are people out there that are great at the job..I feel so sorry for them because of the people fucking it up for them..

Howdy, Stranger!

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Controversial guitar opinions you have.

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