Yr pop-punkers sure do like Gibsons, don't they?

(Note: this "trend" has been determined through the totally unscientific method of going to concerts every once in a while and occasionally glancing at the television when my wife is watching MTVH1etc.)

Banana, I'd agree that a two-humbucker carved-top LP is clearly the superior choice in all ways. I would not say the same of the flat-topped, single-pickup Juniors and Specials though.

And I do like the way some people use an SG. I can't imagine Carrie Brownstein playing anything else, for instance.

I play a Fender Jazz (Mexi)....it's pretty solid, but I curse the stock bridge...I gotta get a Badass II....

And maybe this fellow:

http://pages.eidosnet.co.uk/johnnymoped/punk/rock/photographs/costelloelvis.jpg

I like to tell this story: I spent ten days in a really good recording studio last year and that was where I first played the '78 LP Custom (Black Beauty) they had in their guitars room, and the sound (through a National amp) blew me a way, and I wound up making my favorite song on the record with it. I get home and I am jonesing for that guitar. Never having been much of a make-n-model guy I do some pricing and am quickly schooled. But I was in touch with an old friend who used to play a lot of guitar & was super-elite connoisseur dude about it but who got carpal tunnel and can now only play chapman stick. I wrote to him and asked "do you have this guitar?" 'cause when he was first gettin' into guitar was right around '79. He says no I don't, but do you remember our friend Brian? He had one, I'll bet he still does. I get in touch with Brian who says "you know just last week my mom asked me to come get my old guitar out of the garage!"

It was a '79 actually - the KM, one of the last 1500 made in the Kalamazoo, Michigan factory - and it had been sitting untouched in its case since about 1981. It now sits about two feet from where I'm typing this.

I have a mexican tele with three pickups. the twang is really something else...

Why would they, though? They can get their big full bland sound with the Precision and their big solid state rig just like the guitarists are getting their big full bland sounds with their Gibsons and whatever rigs they have. Wouldn't want to rock the boat!

"I don't see too many of them gravitating toward the Firebird bass or toward Rickenbackers."

I think this is because Gibson Les Pauls, Firebirds and Ricks cost a few hundred bucks more than a P-Bass or a SG. Criminy a new Gibson LP Standard is like $2200 bucks...yikes.

That being said, I think an SG is a pretty brawny sounding guitar, especially considering it is such a smaller and lighter instrument.

SGs are great, but I never felt really comfortable playing them. The "devil horn" cutaways just don't do it for me.

There are an AWFUL lot of emo/screamo/hardcore/punk guitarists sporting Les Pauls, however.

I could never commit to one guitar. I rotate between two Strats, a Les Paul and a Jazzmaster for recording and gigging. Don't have a Tele or a good hollowbody right now, but i'll rectify that one day.

-- The Mad Puffin (pfnwrit...), August 31st, 2005 6:29 AM. (The Mad Puffin)

Maybe it's a flashback to the late 80s/early 90s (Replacements, Superchunk, etc.)

The Jaguar/Jazzmaster fetish is rooted in surf-rock, then Television/E.Costello, then Sonic Youth/My Bloody Valentine/Dinosaur Jr.

(It should be noted that I hate EMG's about 90% of the time anyway.)

(Brooker, my Les Paul is abominably heavy, but a supah-padded and thick strap has definitely improved my ability to play it for long periods of time. That and occasionally playing ye Strat.)

These are excellent and pretty hot for a single coil bass pickup. They also cost less than the Fender vintage replacement pickups. I tricked out my Mexican Jazz bass with a set of the Quarter Pound pickups and a Leo Quan bridge.

The fact is that new Gibsons are ridiculously expensive and pretty poorly put together while vintage Les Pauls are even more expensive so naturally people turn to the cheaper vintage gibsons and the newer budget models like the faded DC and SGs.

how much are those? around 100 like the badass II?

If there's one thing Fender cuts corners on with their Mexican output, it's the pickups.

You'd do well to read up and shop around on all the options for replacement pickups. Stay away from EMGs, though. They are soulless.

Those cheapy Epiphone LP Juniors with the single humbuckers and the bolt on neck are nice for the money. A friend of mine picked up one at a guitar show and some older Tokai humbucker this spring for about $50 bucks. After swapping out the pickup, that guitar sounded great. A mahogany guitar that will stay in tune with a decent humbucker will go a long way.

I know many a person who has swapped out pickups on all manner of cheapo Epiphones. A world of difference!