What are YOUR problems with guitars?

[GuitarBizarre]

Simply put, after reading here for a long time, I've realised something. Whenever we make a reccomendation thread, we all make a huge mistake. We ask for 'more of this' or 'less of that' without going into enough detail on what we WANT and need out of a guitar.

So in this thread, I invite everyone to think, seriously, about what their guitar needs to do for them and what their guitars currently don't do.

Heres a beginning we can all reference when we ask for help on things.

Mine:

1 - "Direct" feeling in the instrument.
I want 7 strings, because they sound huge, but I want an immediate physical connection to the string. A flabby string for me is the same as a thin pick, I just can't get on with it, it feels like I'm always waiting for it to let me play the note. In comparison, my acoustic 6 string, tuned to standard, has almost exactly what I want here. An immediate attack with no trace of sluggishness to the sound, that responds immediately WITHOUT losing any bass response and without sounding muddy.

This is a problem lots of 6 strings have too. I don't know why it is, but for some reason I just can't get on with the lower strings on most guitars. Those are the strings I want to have the most immediate attack, the most direct connection (When I want it, but its easier to make a soft sound via playing style than it is a hard one), but they ALWAYS dissapoint and make me think 'Thats flabby'

On a lot of guitars though, I have the opposite problem with the HIGH strings. They're SHRILL and harsh, they don't have that pleasant, rounded 'singing' quality to them that I want. The pick attack comes out too much on fast runs and clicks and clacks horribly, when I want a fluid run with defined attacks, where the sustain rings with a warm roundness to it, it comes out as either sloppy mush with the desired sustain, or a clacky mess with shrill sustain!

2 - SUSTAIN - WHats wrong with me? Am I asking for too much? Maybe its because I don't own a neckthrough, but why do guitars seem to be built to hinder sustain? Gaps between the neck pockets and the neck, bolts that just don't provied enough clamping force, bridges that are put together merely to function and not to feel like a cohesive unit, so much so in fact, that every bridge I've ever played has a fault that ruins it for me. (Continued next point)

On top of this, pickups that move uncomfortably and produce feeback at high volumes, tremolo springs where TO THIS DAY no manufacturer makes a solution to the spring ringing problem that plagues all tremolo bridges. This also contributes muddiness to the tone like you wouldn't believe. A sloppy sounding guitar can be tightened up considerably by rolling pieces of paper into the springs and damping them that way, why does no manufacturer or company make something to fix this PROPERLY? a half assed fix like that isn't something I want to have to do to all my guitars.

Pots that aren't mounted to plates bug me too. I want a guitar made where EVERY possible part is mounted either with woodworking techniques or with machine screws going into inserts on the guitar body. I want a guitar where stripping a screw is never a problem because the screw goes into an insert capable of handling the pressure. Wood screws are not an effective way of fixing things to other things.

The above point also concerns tuners, bolts, everything that isnt wood to wood. Especially bridges! I want every adjustable part of a bridge to be made to fine tolerances, and wherever posible, to have seperate adjustment and locking. Adjust the part, LOCK the part in place.


3 - BRIDGES

Fender bridges - "String tension will hold the saddle down, no problem." - **** YOU, I want my saddle to lock down into place and stay there as tight as possible. I want machine bolts to do that for maximum pressure, making the saddle feel like its merely a part of the baseplate that happens to be adjustable.

Floyd Rose Bridges - Suffering from the above also. Sure the saddle locks, but the whole bridge assembly on any type of floyd FEELS like a conglomeration of parts, rather than a single unit. When I pick up a bridge, I want it to feel like a single piece of metal with movable parts integrated into it, not like this! The main culprit in this case though tends to be inexact threads. Everyone has at least once in their lives I'm sure, picked up something with a screw in it and when tightening it realised the screw thread has no play in it at all and moves smoothly. Bridges just dont get that, we get screws that wobble in the threads and turn with a vague resistance, meaning tolerances just aren't tight enough! Or that if they WERE, the metal is too soft and has WORN!

Another particular problem is tremolo arms. fender type arms don't have enough bend so they bottom out early. Floyd type arms rely on a washer, rather than a proper system, so the arm has a whole crapton of play in it unless you tighten that washer down all the way. I want a solid, well made thread, screwing into SOLID METAL the whole way down, preferably into the tremolo block itself if at all possible so that the arm has a direct connection with the bridge.

Fixed Bridges - General user unfriendlyness and a stubborn refusal to change. I've never played a tonepros bridge, but why did it take so long for someone to lock the parts together like that? LAZINESS! And WHY are the intonation adjustments on TOM bridges in such a bastard place to get to? Argh!


4 - Frets - **** YOU NICKEL SILVER. You tarnish, you wear, you come from the factory with high and low spots then my local luthier fixes you and you STILL fret out on big bends because your radius is ****ed. Stainless steel PLEASE. OH WAIT, **** YOU INDUSTRY, YOU WONT GIVE US THAT BECAUSE ITS TOO EXPENSIVE.

5 - Necks and Neck Pockets OK, screw this for a lark. I do NOT want a shim in my neck pocket. What I WANT is a neck that FITS CORRECTLY. So many people on here post their awesome NGDs and I can see that their guitars have shims, or that the neck has just a tiny bit of play in the pocket from side to side.

Also, I WANT A VOLUTE in my necks. Why? More mass, less headstock vibration to lose energy in the tuners and make the strings ring behind the nut. They're only going to do that if I hit them, in my perfect world.


6 - Shielding This one really gets on my nerves. ALL my guitars buzz when hear electrical equipment. Why? Because they aren't ****ing shielded properly. They have HUMBUCKERS for godsakes. They shouldn't buzz at all, yet buzz they do! (This is also partially to do with unequal windings on the coils. What a RETARDED idea, THANKS dimarzio.) This is even worse on FR equipped guitars, or ZR guitars. The ZR trem has a massive metal plate in the back, which is grounded but not shielded and doesn't act as shielding. Buzz gets into it like a mother****er! And not a trace of copper to be found anywhere in the shielding of any guitar I've ever owned! Conductive paint isn't worth **** either, its useless and theres only ever one coat of it anyway.


I have a whole crapload more pet peeves, but here we go.

[shreddersymphony]

Hello sir, let me open you up to the amazing world of custom guitars. I entered this world 3 years ago and have not looked back. With it, you get everything you want and nothing you don't. .

Jokes aside though, custom is the way to go for people like us dude. I'm the same way. I find something wrong with every "company" guitar I play. That's why out of the five (soon to be six) electrics that I have, only one is truly a company guitar (my new Schecter). And even that is only because I wanted to try out owning a V shape for a while before deciding if it's worth diggin' out the cash and effort for a custom one.

[Homebake]

i hate the fact guitars can go out of tune

if i'm looking at a guitar with a tremolo, the issue with PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE is how well it stays in tune. if it sounds amazing, plays great but doesn't hold tune so well, i won't even give it a second look.

tone, playability and everything else comes second. i want my guitars to function well at the basic levels.

[newbieguitarmaker]

Custom is my friend but I can't afford any customs yet, not even if I make them for myself >_< DAMMNNN

[GuitarBizarre]

Originally Posted by Homebake

i hate the fact guitars can go out of tune

if i'm looking at a guitar with a tremolo, the issue with PARAMOUNT IMPORTANCE is how well it stays in tune. if it sounds amazing, plays great but doesn't hold tune so well, i won't even give it a second look.

tone, playability and everything else comes second. i want my guitars to function well at the basic levels.

ZR trems.

[Laionel]

Well first as a bad player I tend to criticize my tools a bit too much...
Anyway, I have some complain:
First the guitar I would want doesn't exist.
Secondly guitar has become a too much of big business, ok manufacturing quality has made progress but I guess marging is growing and low quality part (hardware) seems more and more common.
For example it seems clear that AANJ like neck join steal a bit of the sound, right? It would not be hard while still using a more ergonomic shape than square to use a non squarish metal part... It would go a long way insure the contact between the neck and the neck pocket is more uniform. That just an example.
I agree with GuitarBizarre now you find beautifully finished, well playing guitars which come with too cheap hardware: bridge alloy... frets alloy...

[rastachild]

regarding your rant about nickel silver alloy frets, i too share your frustration because i feel they wear way too quickly. but stainless steel is not without its faults. a lot of players don't like the way they sound (tinny) and luthiers hate working on them because they tend to wear down their tools. my luthier (also eric johnson's guy) flat out refuses to work on them. it's all a matter of taste, but i do have one custom build with stainless steel frets and it does not sound nearly as warm (amplified or unamplified) as my other guitars.

[nato101010]

The prices.

Most have crap upper fret access.

If they have action higher then 1.5mm, I'm no so fond.

Bull crap paint jobs, cough cough GIBSON

Lic. Floyd Rose.

[Ironjose]

i would have to say action... man now i learned the saying "if it isnt broke, dont fix it!!!" darn it... i had a perfect action and i thought it could be better... but i was wrong!!!
other wise...all my guitars are perfect!!!

[DavyH]

Originally Posted by GuitarBizarre

1 - "Direct" feeling in the instrument.
I want 7 strings, because they sound huge, but I want an immediate physical connection to the string. A flabby string for me is the same as a thin pick, I just can't get on with it, it feels like I'm always waiting for it to let me play the note. In comparison, my acoustic 6 string, tuned to standard, has almost exactly what I want here. An immediate attack with no trace of sluggishness to the sound, that responds immediately WITHOUT losing any bass response and without sounding muddy.

This is a problem lots of 6 strings have too. I don't know why it is, but for some reason I just can't get on with the lower strings on most guitars. Those are the strings I want to have the most immediate attack, the most direct connection (When I want it, but its easier to make a soft sound via playing style than it is a hard one), but they ALWAYS dissapoint and make me think 'Thats flabby'

On a lot of guitars though, I have the opposite problem with the HIGH strings. They're SHRILL and harsh, they don't have that pleasant, rounded 'singing' quality to them that I want. The pick attack comes out too much on fast runs and clicks and clacks horribly, when I want a fluid run with defined attacks, where the sustain rings with a warm roundness to it, it comes out as either sloppy mush with the desired sustain, or a clacky mess with shrill sustain!

Reverse headstocks and mixed gauge strings go a long way towards rectifying that.

I've purchased carefully and I can honestly say that any and all problems I now encounter - and there are many - are entirely the fault of the user and not the guitars.

[GuitarBizarre]

Originally Posted by DavyH

Reverse headstocks and mixed gauge strings go a long way towards rectifying that.

I've purchased carefully and I can honestly say that any and all problems I now encounter - and there are many - are entirely the fault of the user and not the guitars.

I've tried mixed guage strings, they didn't help, and with a locking nut, the reverse headstock wouldn't help greatly either.

[SonicProvocateur]

A couple of things: 1) the petty thing: aesthetics. I think several guitar manufacturers (mainly some large ones, and some smaller ones that also make fine instruments) are failing to deliver on the beauty of an instrument in both the relation to its price, and its value to a player. Instead they focus on its "cool" factor. This is where Ibanez comes out head over heels. They are both cool, and beautiful imho. Not gonna point any fingers, and I dont suggest you do either, just gonna leave it at that.

2) The holy grail: tone. Im a Mesa artist because im both a demanding player and tone is what we all demand. That said, its an amp that turns most guitars into gold, but also makes everything sound waaay different than what you'd expect sometimes. Right now, the finest guitar in my collection and I are fighting to get the tone I need, and it bugs the heck out of me. $1000+ guitar isn't delivering the goods; shame, and a cheaper Korean :cough: PRS guitar is delving out the hottest sweetest tones I want...

My point is my problem is I need guitars that I'm proud to flash on stage night after night, and still tonally deliver the goods live and in the studio. I still havent found my magic Ibanez yet, but god knows i'm looking like crazy. I yearn for the day I get to put my PRS on the side and say "now you're the backup guitar" to a JPM, or maybe a Jem777VDY.

And if I were gonna just straight up complain about ANYTHING? It would be fret dressing. Most companies do the most half-$*# job. The frets cut my hands during rapid fire shredding, reduces sweeping speed, just all sorts of junk. Also, crappy floating trem jobs. The saddles and screws are often 2nd rate and will mess up under stress easily; epic fail.

/rant.

[Cam-Vai]

my pgm trem was broken by mums drum teacher!
well she is 21 and owns a strat so she doesnt know about fr's

and!
i cant try out the guitar im abotu to buy!

[IbanezFreak777]

My J Customs serve me well, and the issues you complain about, I just dont get...

They sustain for days....

[DEADTUNES666]

I'm with Freak! ^^^

Maybe I'm just a meat and potatoes kind of player, in that I'm so god awfully crappy that when I get even just a little bit from a guitar it's more than enough.

That being said I don't like thick chunky necks, love H-S-H combination (position 5 for clean right?) although I've been playing a lot of H-H lately, and I need to have Dimarzio pups.