Stratovarius Community

Right, as most of you know, I am a bassist, but I have made the decision to actually get my own guitar. The fact that I have the guitar-playing skills of a quadraplegic baboon will not get in the way of the fact that I need to learn something about playing one in order to get my ideas down. I'll mostly be using this for recording for my horrendous black metal project that I will inflict upon poor listeners, and occasionally actually trying to play something worthwhile while constantly complaining about how the strings are too small.

I'm thinking of getting an Epiphone Les Paul Studio Gothic from thomann.de. Anyone have any idea how this guitar is? I've played on a few Gibsons and they were comfortable enough, how does the Epiphone compare? Remember I'm just using this for noodling about at home so the roadworthy, tank-like characteristics displayed by my Warwick bass aren't needed.

Cheers!

Les Pauls are a little neck heavy for me. Are you looking for something with fast action on the neck?
If so, I would recomend a Jackson, or a BC Rich, or my personal favorite a Fender!!

warrencurrymetal wrote:Les Pauls are a little neck heavy for me. Are you looking for something with fast action on the neck?
If so, I would recomend a Jackson, or a BC Rich, or my personal favorite a Fender!!

Nah, I prefer a big chunky neck with heavy strings (so as more similar to bass)... I play even worse than usual on my guitarist's Ibanez RG with the Wizard neck

NeonVomit wrote:

warrencurrymetal wrote:Les Pauls are a little neck heavy for me. Are you looking for something with fast action on the neck?
If so, I would recomend a Jackson, or a BC Rich, or my personal favorite a Fender!!

Nah, I prefer a big chunky neck with heavy strings (so as more similar to bass)... I play even worse than usual on my guitarist's Ibanez RG with the Wizard neck

First thing you need to do with a new guitar is replace the strings with .10 gauge strings, most guitars come stock .09, and although you could go to .11, don't. .10 is the way to go. Go to a pawn shop, get a shit guitar for like, $50-$80, play it until you actually have the skill to get a good guitar, and learn to arch your fingers a bit more for fretting (Most bass players, myself included, have a tendency to lie their fingers more flatly for fretting) or your chords will sound like shit because you'll be killing every note but the one on the lowest string.

I did the same thing you did, played bass until I was good enough at it, and got guitar for composition purposes.

Rebel wrote:

NeonVomit wrote:

warrencurrymetal wrote:Les Pauls are a little neck heavy for me. Are you looking for something with fast action on the neck?
If so, I would recomend a Jackson, or a BC Rich, or my personal favorite a Fender!!

Nah, I prefer a big chunky neck with heavy strings (so as more similar to bass)... I play even worse than usual on my guitarist's Ibanez RG with the Wizard neck

First thing you need to do with a new guitar is replace the strings with .10 gauge strings, most guitars come stock .09, and although you could go to .11, don't. .10 is the way to go. Go to a pawn shop, get a shit guitar for like, $50-$80, play it until you actually have the skill to get a good guitar, and learn to arch your fingers a bit more for fretting (Most bass players, myself included, have a tendency to lie their fingers more flatly for fretting) or your chords will sound like shit because you'll be killing every note but the one on the lowest string.

I did the same thing you did, played bass until I was good enough at it, and got guitar for composition purposes.

I've done the whole 'crap guitar' thing, and decided it would be better to invest a bit more for something semi-decent that would actually give me inspiration to want to practise and play more. Whenever I get tired of it I'll go back to bass but yeah it'll be handy to have around for jamming purposes, etc.

While you're too busy getting a guitar, I just stole your precious avatar!

You should buy a LTD I think. LTD makes good guitars, but we don't know what's the price you can pay.

Avatar Thief wrote:While you're too busy getting a guitar, I just stole your precious avatar!

Great! Free promotion for the band, thanks

Florian: I'm willing to pay up to 250 euros, roughly. I'm not looking to make a major investment, I save that for bass stuff but yeah, didn't think of LTD... I'll check them out, thanks for the suggestion!

NeonVomit wrote:

Avatar Thief wrote:While you're too busy getting a guitar, I just stole your precious avatar!

Great! Free promotion for the band, thanks

Avatar Thief at your service

NeonVomit wrote:

warrencurrymetal wrote:Les Pauls are a little neck heavy for me. Are you looking for something with fast action on the neck?
If so, I would recomend a Jackson, or a BC Rich, or my personal favorite a Fender!!

Nah, I prefer a big chunky neck with heavy strings (so as more similar to bass)... I play even worse than usual on my guitarist's Ibanez RG with the Wizard neck

Then anything Gibson is good. You probably want .11 gauge strings too for bass player fingers. (My preference is a hybrid setup for heavy gauge on the low end for thicker tone)

http://www.thomann.de/fr/esp_ltd_mh50_blk.htm

This is a good guitar, it's a little more expensive than what you want to spend, but it's just 19€.

Wow, looks nice, but I have to say I want something with a fixed bridge, I don't want something as fiddly as a floyd rose! Do LTD do anything similar with a fixed bridge (and a chunkier neck?)

NeonVomit wrote:Wow, looks nice, but I have to say I want something with a fixed bridge, I don't want something as fiddly as a floyd rose! Do LTD do anything similar with a fixed bridge (and a chunkier neck?)

Floyd Roses are epic. Get one.

warrencurrymetal wrote:

NeonVomit wrote:

warrencurrymetal wrote:Les Pauls are a little neck heavy for me. Are you looking for something with fast action on the neck?
If so, I would recomend a Jackson, or a BC Rich, or my personal favorite a Fender!!

Nah, I prefer a big chunky neck with heavy strings (so as more similar to bass)... I play even worse than usual on my guitarist's Ibanez RG with the Wizard neck

Then anything Gibson is good. You probably want .11 gauge strings too for bass player fingers. (My preference is a hybrid setup for heavy gauge on the low end for thicker tone)

.11 can be a bit much. .09 is what's stock, and I've been a long time bass player, the .10 fits well enough, the strings are sturdy, and it keeps the neck in line. Jumping straight to .11 might not be wise, I'd seriously start at 0.10

Rebel wrote:

NeonVomit wrote:Wow, looks nice, but I have to say I want something with a fixed bridge, I don't want something as fiddly as a floyd rose! Do LTD do anything similar with a fixed bridge (and a chunkier neck?)

Floyd Roses are epic. Get one.

I like things to be as simple as possible. A floyd rose would offer me no benefits as I wouldn't even know what to do with it and would just cause me trouble when I want to change strings to .10 gauge (as opposed to .11)

I'll be placing my order one of these days, I'll head into central London this weekend and try out different guitars and find which is best for me.

Watch this space!

Avatar Thief wrote:While you're too busy getting a guitar, I just stole your precious avatar!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA (this is THE funniest thing ive have ever witness on any forum period!!

NeonVomit wrote:

Rebel wrote:

NeonVomit wrote:Wow, looks nice, but I have to say I want something with a fixed bridge, I don't want something as fiddly as a floyd rose! Do LTD do anything similar with a fixed bridge (and a chunkier neck?)

Floyd Roses are epic. Get one.

I like things to be as simple as possible. A floyd rose would offer me no benefits as I wouldn't even know what to do with it and would just cause me trouble when I want to change strings to .10 gauge (as opposed to .11)

I'll be placing my order one of these days, I'll head into central London this weekend and try out different guitars and find which is best for me.

Watch this space!

The Floyd Rose allows you to stay in tuning REALLY well. I don't have a very good ear for tuning, and I'm a big fan of the whammy bar and big time bends (I listen to a lot of early Sabbath for inspiration, and Tony Iommi is a genius of using simplistic patterns and adding lots of vibrato and bends, but I've probably said that already). The Floyd Rose prevents your guitar from going out of tune quickly

Rebel wrote:

NeonVomit wrote:

Rebel wrote:

NeonVomit wrote:Wow, looks nice, but I have to say I want something with a fixed bridge, I don't want something as fiddly as a floyd rose! Do LTD do anything similar with a fixed bridge (and a chunkier neck?)

Floyd Roses are epic. Get one.

I like things to be as simple as possible. A floyd rose would offer me no benefits as I wouldn't even know what to do with it and would just cause me trouble when I want to change strings to .10 gauge (as opposed to .11)

I'll be placing my order one of these days, I'll head into central London this weekend and try out different guitars and find which is best for me.

Watch this space!

The Floyd Rose allows you to stay in tuning REALLY well. I don't have a very good ear for tuning, and I'm a big fan of the whammy bar and big time bends (I listen to a lot of early Sabbath for inspiration, and Tony Iommi is a genius of using simplistic patterns and adding lots of vibrato and bends, but I've probably said that already). The Floyd Rose prevents your guitar from going out of tune quickly

See, the problem is, I just don't want the extra hassle that a floyd rose is. Changing strings on one is way too complicated for me! I like simple simple simpe things.