Is it worth building a guitar?

[blueruins]

The evolution of electric guitar peaked at the Stratocaster...everything else is a mutant that should be aborted. :icon_tongue:

 

[Jusatele]

The evolution of electric guitar peaked at the Stratocaster...everything else is a mutant that should be aborted. :icon_tongue:

Funny
and could be true

I have a friend with a Korean PRS, not the same as mine by far

I think they talked to a lot of guys and gathered a lot of ideas before releasing the Strat. Have seen very little improvement to basic design since, have seen lots of improvement to parts, just the layout and shape just about nailed guitar so far.

But then a lot of us could care less about stuff and want a style we just identify with, I am a tele guy, so I buy teles, but I have to admit a strat is a sweet design

 

[stubhead]

I pretty much go out of my way to have my instruments be as different from each other as possible. When I pick one up, it makes me play something I might not have though of if they were all the same. I've always been impressed by the craftsmanship of PRS guitars, one thing's for sure, they never, ever, ever shipped guitars with the razor-wire junkyard post-apocalyptic fret "jobs" that both Fender and Gibson borned in the darkest nightmare years of... well, they still do sometimes. But I can see why people could dislike PRS, because they really are designed to be an up-the-middle guitar, halfway between the poles in scale length, weight, tone. It's supposed to allow you to do many things well, but it can be just blah, too. They are surely better in high-gain situations than at any sort of woody-organic down-home barefoot hairy-armpit kinda thing. I can't really think of a reason to want one, you know?

They're right up the pike from me, about a forty-minute drive, I could probably go be one of their fret-monkeyboys but that sounds pretty blah too. It wouldn't take but a few weeks of M-F 9-5 wall-to-wall FRETS before I'd really, really start disliking them.

 

[blueruins]

Yeah, for two years I worked at Guitar Center in the late 90's and played every Gibson Les Paul that came through the door because I thought they were so cool...never found one that didn't lower my blood pressure once I got the beauty in my hands...talk about suck!!!

Fender was knocking them out of the park with exceptional quality and I never felt bad sending a kid home with one.

However, when the Melody Makers hit $300 couple'a years ago I took a flyer and that thing plays as well as my badass Albert Lee.  The tone though limited is friggin' sweet too.

That led me to the Faded V...meh....but it sure looks cool.

The Les Paul Tributes are seriously tempting...if they do a 70's tribute this year I'm doomed...for $800 it seems a pretty good gamble.

 

[ORCRiST]

Hey ORCRiST,
How does the neck on your Kamikazi compare to the Warmoth (Standard Thin?) ?...

Just played on both... back profile is very similar/identical as far as I can tell (by feel, no measurements), but my W
'standard thin' definitely has a little 'less meat' on the back when approaching the neck pocket.

I think the Kami has a straight 14" or 16" fretboard radius, and my hand would cramp up after a few hours of practicing - so
far, Warmoth's 'standard thin' is perfect for me (not to mention the compound radius, stainless steel frets, etc.) very comfy and no hand-fatigue at all.

On a side note: I have smaller hands, and I love my Jackson - but it has almost the exact opposite traits of the Kami. The Jackson's
neck is beautiful and fast (not to mention short-scale, which I dig), but I'd still get hand fatigue after a few hours as its a tad too thin for rhythm or acoustic work even
though overall more comfortable to play compared to the Kami due to it having a compound radius.

ORC

 

[DangerousR6]

I would never say they suck. I rather like them, actually. They're fine instruments in a large field of mediocrity. They're a tad pricey, but if you want high quality and American manufacturing from an established builder when the Koreans can put out better guitars than Gibson, what's a mother to do?

Anything he made before 1994 was decent...