Controversial guitar opinions you have.

Lebarque · August 2023

Helix sounds shite

Philly_Q · August 2023

That bloke who did a bit of work on your guitar is not "your tech".

Hum-cancelling single-coil-sized pickups don't have to sound exactly like vintage Fender pickups to be any good.

GoldenEraGuitars · August 2023

A thin finish doesn’t let the wood “breath”. It’s dead. It’s been dead for a while. Stop talking shite.

StuartMac290 · August 2023

Relics are fake tans for guitars.

munckee · August 2023

Controversial opinions are nearly always wrong.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob · August 2023

Clapton ISN'T God.

soma1975 · August 2023

Fez said:

It's only a strat if it was made by Fender (or squier).

Weirdly I'm not as fussed about this distinction as I am about the SSS configuration.

GrislyFind · August 2023

The last (ever) guitar hero was Nuno.

soma1975 · August 2023

And he's becoming less and less of a hero every time he opens his mouth.

Wazmeister · August 2023

Nitro guitars DO sound and feel better, especially relics.

Steve Vai, all heavy rock, rap, drug music, Tom Quayle are all boring and shit.

guitars4you · August 2023

ICBM said:

Lewy said:

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

Duane Allman
Ritchie Blackmore

Chris Rea - misread this first time round - can't v can - So yes Chris Rea can sing

Alex2678 · August 2023

1) Objective truths and scientific comparisons don’t matter in relation to guitar - I’ve yet to play or listen to one from an objective point of view, and to try is to miss the point. You could prove there’s no sound difference between a lovely Strat and a piece of scrap wood - I don’t want your scrap wood.

2) Looks matter - there’s a reason there’s so many guitar players vs any other instrument and it’s that it looks so cool.

soma1975 · August 2023

7) Youtube gear guitarists and their love of John Mayer and wet music will be the death of us all.
8) Youtube channels are always so much better near the start when they can have opinions before they make enough to earn a living from them and have to be very sponsor-friendly and non stop pushing pushing pushing people to feed the machine.
9) Re youtube guitarists - An SRV tone is not the same as a Hendrix Tone!

TheBigDipper · August 2023

I'll play:

- Much as I love his playing, Ritchie Blackmore was wrong, the best pickup on an SSS guitar for sounding like "you" is the middle one.

- Good solo pianists make difficult keyboardists in guitar-oriented bands (a current concern, and not for the first time). Actually, this may not be too controversial...

- Ola Strandberg has moved the science of guitar ergonomics in the right direction - despite the way they look.

- One good note with a nice tone is all you need most of the time. Ask Dave Gilmour.

- Most guitarists are not very good musicians. They're not usually very good guitarists, either. But so what?

soma1975 · August 2023

10) Pink Floyd are incredibly overrated, pretentious and lyrically painful but have some nice chord progressions and a great lead guitarist playing over some of their tunes.

soma1975 · August 2023

11) The Barista-fication of the guitar industry is why we now have £10 worth of components being sold in an £12 enclosure in a layout that has been around for 60+ years for £1,000 and being told only if we have the Emperor's magic ears can we understand why it was totally worth the spend for these pedal artisans' glorious work.

They ruined coffee and now they are trying to ruin guitars.

Moe_Zambeek · August 2023

P90s are the worst of both worlds.
The best demos on YouTube if you want to hear how something really sounds are now from the amateur guys with an iPhone in their living room.

soma1975 · August 2023

12) Ariel Posen and Rhett Shull represent the two sides of all that is wrong with well, everything.

I think they might have been behind 9/11.

EDIT: Oh and the PRS Silver Sky.

The continual rounding off of the edges of what should be a spiky and raw music form until it is just a smooth, compressed easily-digested unchallenging mush selling you stuff.

louis_LLM · August 2023

soma1975 said:

12) Ariel Posen and Rhett Shull represent the two sides of all that is wrong with well, everything.

I fundamentally agree with this, but can't put my finger on exactly why!

AndyGT75 · August 2023

Is it just me or did anyone else read this thread’s title in Yoda’s voice?

ICBM · August 2023

guitars4you said:

Chris Rea

Chris Rea can sing though

. OK, the Middlesbrough accent probably doesn’t help

.

TheBigDipper said:

Much as I love his playing, Ritchie Blackmore was wrong, the best pickup on an SSS guitar for sounding like "you" is the middle one.

I think so too. The neck and the in-betweens tend to dominate the player’s tone too much. Bridge is better, but middle is best.

Blackmore would sound like himself with anything though, he’s a good example of ‘tone is in the hands’.

Jonathangus · August 2023

AndyGT75 said:

Is it just me or did anyone else read this thread’s title in Yoda’s voice?

Well, I am now.

stickyfiddle · August 2023

Strats have to be the right shape and SSS or they ain't Strats.

Teles can be almost any config and they're still Teles, even the Jazzmaster-shaped ones - SS, SH, HH, thinline, custom, deluxe, etc etc

SGs and 335s are way better than Les Pauls

Locking trems are stupid. Strat style trems are also fairly stupid

Clapton in 2014 was honestly one of the least exciting gigs I've ever been to

Jeff Beck was very clever and also incredibly boring to listen to

99.9% of instrumental guitar music is dreadful

Good pop music is better than 95% of rock

Heavy strings are for masochists and idiots

Drop tunings don't make your riffs sound heavier or more menacing, they just make you sound more like a 15 year old in his bedroom

The only music that matters is the stuff that makes you want to sing, dance, punch the air, or cry.

Heavy relics are stupid. Shiny new plastic-coated guitars are worse.

TeleMaster · August 2023

PRS are awfully guady, the headstock looks wrong and there's nothing cool about them.

guitars4you · August 2023

Larry Carlton - His touch, feel, phrasing is sublime - Probably one of the greatest guitar players there is - But that is when he is playing with other artists as a guest/session player, or when he is playing other artists songs - His own songs/albums are boring and bland with instantly forgettable 'melody/tune ' - Kind of elevator music - And I say this as a LC fan - If I was his record company I'd say, look there is a choice of over 100 Beatles song, or Burt Bacharach songs, or from the American Song book writers etc - So now going and record an album, with 12 tracks from one of these writers and give it the Larry Carlton touch and feel - They know how to write a tune, you don't

Opposite to that - Hank Marvin - One of the most influential guitar players ever - Many well known songs/tunes/melodies - A very competent player - But watching a Shadows show, is about as bland as it gets IMO

OilCityPickups · August 2023

Genuine PAFs all sound very different and as such there are dozens of 'REAL' PAF tones .... and not effing one of them sounds like a fricking Telecaster ... right?

Guitarists who play a power chord then raise an arm to the audience in triumph ... should be taken from the stage to a lawful place of punishment, there have the offending limb removed by the most painful means - probably being nibbled off by a toothless goat. (unless of course it's Nigel Tufnel - he gets a free pass).

Michael Schenker is one of the most ludicrously under rated guitarists in the last fifty years.

The last thing you should worry about when playing a particular a guitar is what you look like playing it. If you are worrying about that - then the chances are you playing isn't good enough to hold an audience's attention anyway.

Most guitarists polish their guitars too much and practise too little.

Sadly one can't learn to be talented. Many that come to realise that wind up as guitar teachers - teaching those who will never realise it.

Bedroom players who can't be arsed to gig or even jam with mates have no room to criticise players who do. To play alone is to see the world devoid of colour. Don't be frightened - just do it!

munckee · August 2023

stickyfiddle said:

Strats have to be the right shape and SSS or they ain't Strats.

Teles can be almost any config and they're still Teles, even the Jazzmaster-shaped ones - SS, SH, HH, thinline, custom, deluxe, etc etc

SGs and 335s are way better than Les Pauls

Locking trems are stupid. Strat style trems are also fairly stupid

Clapton in 2014 was honestly one of the least exciting gigs I've ever been to

Jeff Beck was very clever and also incredibly boring to listen to

99.9% of instrumental guitar music is dreadful

Good pop music is better than 95% of rock

Heavy strings are for masochists and idiots

Drop tunings don't make your riffs sound heavier or more menacing, they just make you sound more like a 15 year old in his bedroom

The only music that matters is the stuff that makes you want to sing, dance, punch the air, or cry.

Heavy relics are stupid. Shiny new plastic-coated guitars are worse.

Right we’re all just here having a laugh and saying stupid shit to sound edgy but you shut your dirty fucking mouth about telecasters. There’s a line man!

GoldenEraGuitars · August 2023

AndyGT75 said:

Is it just me or did anyone else read this thread’s title in Yoda’s voice?

But only because you mention it, hmmm? Yes

Grumpyrocker · August 2023

While not as hideous a crime as a Bigsby, one sure way to make a guitar look hideous is P90 pickups.

Relic is just a finish option, rather than a recreation of something, and is fine.

Eight and nine string guitars are ruining metal. Get out of the bass player's lane with your horrible farty mid-focused gash.

It's about time Gibson had a modern Les Paul product that ignored the cork-sniffing past and offered things like a belly carve, ergonomic neck joint, a volute, thinner body, locking tuners etc.

The PRS neck joint is ugly, uncomfortable, and boring. An all access neck joint that swept into the body would be infinitely more attractive.

Valve amps are lovely and great fun, but no one really needs one anymore. And valve nostalgia is holding back the amp market.

Teyeplayer · August 2023

stickyfiddle said:

Drop tunings don't make your riffs sound heavier or more menacing, they just make you sound more like a 15 year old in his bedroom.

…which is where the term fret-wanking originated (for obvious reasons). It has of course developed to mean all mindless plinky plonk, widdly wee, wooo wooo, fiddle dee dum, guitar solos (thank you fireman Sam for that description). If anyone wants to hear these two extremes in their fullness, book into your local rehearsal rooms of an evening and then pop into the jam night on the way home.

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Controversial guitar opinions you have.

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