Daniel Sorbera Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 My friend asked me for some advice the other day on what would be the best punk/rock guitar for $1500? I dont really know what guitars are good for those styles as I play diffrent stuff. So what would you recomend for that price range? He might just buy one of the ones I'm building now... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 punk is not about great guitars.punk is about doing it cheap. i think a $1500 punk guitar flies in the face of the whole punk motto,don't you? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Devon Headen Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 Exactly. Get one of those Delonge (sp) squier strats, refinish it with hot pink fingerpaint, make a strap out of duct tape, and have at it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThePlague Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 to be honest, there isn't really a set of qualifications that a guitar needs to meet to be a punk guitar. wes has the right idea. if i were to buy a guitar to play only punk with, i'd probably go find the cheapest mexi strat i could and mod it as needed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westhemann Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 definately a strat with noisy single coils Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 My friend asked me for some advice the other day on what would be the best punk/rock guitar for $1500? ← Answer: "The one I'm going to build you!" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
unclej Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 you beat me to it eric..for $1500 i'll make him the punkest guitar around. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crafty Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 Or for around $600 he can pick up a Music Man Sub 1 with the truckbed finish... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sepultura999 Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 or do what the nihilistic spasm band did. they made instruments out of everyday furniture. one guy made a harp out of a chair or something. one guy my dad knew in university made a guitar out of a baseball bat, also John Fogerty has one like that. Could come in handy when the crowd gets too rowdy -Jamie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 Echoing the above... Also, pretty even split between Strat-like and LP-like tones out there... can't go wrong with a craptastic LP ripoff, either. Even then... I don't know.... Just go to a pawn shop, ask them to line up all of the guitars they're selling for $200, play 'eenie meenie minee moe' and walk out with whichever one you land on. Single coil... humbucker... fat neck... slim neck... just beat it up and only occasionally tune it up, and you'll be getting closer to punk. Gre Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksound Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 Mosrite Ventures model. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 Walk, Don't Run to the pawn shop to see if they have one. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 . Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rob Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 les paul, les paul juniors, sg's, teles...pretty much any thing, I don't think it really matters, just as I wouldn't say $1500 is a lot to play punk with, times have changed and all that, to be honest theres just so much to everything, so I won't bother saying much Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksound Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 (edited) Johnny Ramone of course used a Mosrite...you can also check out Eastwood guitars, check out the Sidejacks on this page --your friend can buy FIVE guitars, then he'll have plenty to smash up on stage... ← I was gonna say Teisco, but then I saw the Eastwood site. Cool. My buddy (the one with all the guitars) has a green Teisco like that Del Ray. Edited April 6, 2005 by marksound Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mledbetter Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 Do the EVH thing.. buy a strat copy.. rip it up and outfit it with one humbucker and volume knob. Or better yet.. a single p90 or fat bastard.. If he wants to make his own.. hit WD Music and you can get a 1 HB strat body for 199 retail.. throw a neck on there and some basic electronics and that would rock. You have to do the eye bolts for strap locks.. Get some obnoxious stickers.. etc.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
erikbojerik Posted April 6, 2005 Report Share Posted April 6, 2005 I was gonna say Teisco ← I once saw a Teisco-like guitar with like 6 of those big rocker switches on it, some of which turned on little lights that were recessed into the front of the body. That's the way to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Bones Posted April 9, 2005 Report Share Posted April 9, 2005 The word "punk" doesn't really say enough to know what sound he's after. 1500 bucks would get that dude any tone he wants in the "punk" range. What's he into? My all time favourite punk rock tone is an old SG Jr with a p-90. You can play that through a Fender Twin (As long as the volume is right on 10 so the tubes break up nice) and you don't need no pedals. Or you can put it through a Marshall, Mesa, Hiwatt, almost anything and it'll sound good. guys like Johnny Thunders (Heartbreakers) and Mike Ness (Social Distrotion) play(ed) Les Pauls. You can get a pretty big variation of tone in there too though. Mike Ness plays LP's and Gretsch's. He uses one of those Yellow boss overdrive pedals with it. Gretsch's make great punk rock guitars. Rancid, Social D, The Hives last tour had the big guy playing a White Falcon! I saw him knock over his HIWATT stack with it to end the show. Tim from Rancid plays a hollowbody that looks like a 335. Joe Strummer played a Tele, and Mick Jones played a double cutaway Les Paul (at least some times). Tell him not to put a bunch of stupid stickers on it. And tell him NOT to go and buy a cheap strat copy. Strats are the last guitar you want to use to play punk rock. That's what I started on and it always sounded horrible. Punk has never been about sounding or playing crappy, it's just squares that don't understand who try to write it off that way. Billy I play in a garage/punk band and I run an old airline archtop that I put a p90 in, and I just built a copyof a vox phantom. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted April 9, 2005 Report Share Posted April 9, 2005 Let's face it. Punk isn't ALWAYS about playing crappy. But it can be, sometimes. Heck, Sex Pistols learned to play after they got a contract, really. You talk to a lot of punk musicians and they will say that the goal isn't to play crappy, the goal is just to play. And if you happen to be crappy at it, that CAN be part of punk, even if it's not the definition of punk. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mickguard Posted April 9, 2005 Report Share Posted April 9, 2005 Punk isn't ALWAYS about playing crappy. ← Well, I come from the New York school of punk where a lot of those guys (I'm thinking of Television especially) were excellent musicians. Listen to Suicide, you'll recognize the Martin Rev knew exactly what he was doing. And remember the Talking Heads came out of there too. Hell, even the Dolls knew how to play. That was before the Brits got hold of it, turned it into some kind of political movement...before that, it was just another way to have fun with music. And considering all you ever heard on FM radio at the time was Dark Side of the Moon and Stairway to Heaven, it was real nice.... Oh yeah, and I'll take just any garage rock band over Malmsteen, Vai, Satriani, anyday! Ah, memories! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted April 9, 2005 Report Share Posted April 9, 2005 Yup, some very cool bands out there. I went to the Warped tour the last year that it was still cool. Social D played, Pennywise... Royal Crown Revue... other good bands. But, some punk bands contain musicians who can't play very well. They're still punk. Is anybody cooler than Johnny Ramone? Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Billy Bones Posted April 9, 2005 Report Share Posted April 9, 2005 Everybody slags the pistols and says they couldn't play. Honestly sit down with Never Mind the Bollocks and try to say that. There's some real good Chuck Berry hooks in there. The Rythm section is amazing. Sid couldn't play a lick, but he's not on the album. They actually hired the original bass player to play the bass on songs he's written. Sex Pistols were'nt bad musicians. No virtuosos, but they were really solid. Some punk bands have mediocre musicians, and they can still "make it" because they've got some other charisma or something going for them. Johnny Ramone was only proficient at playing one style, but he was really good at it. I guess he was pretty rough on the first record, and the ethos is anybody can grab a guitar and you don't have to be amazing. But the idea that punk is bad musicianship on purpous is the creation of a media that doesn't understand it. That's all I was trying to say. Rancid and the Rezillos both have unbelievable bass players. The Toy Dolls have a crazy good guitar player. Punk Rockers don't think it's cool to not know how to play. They do think it's ok to fly at it before you're perfect. Johnny Ramone made me feel more with one note than Ingwe Malmstein (sp) ever did. I guess it is more about the way a punk rock guitar player can make you feel, than technical proficiencey, but I think that works out in most popular genres. Man you're right about the Dolls. Those dudes could play. I just saw that new Ramones movie, and the best part of it is the 10 seconds of Dolls footage. Billy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GregP Posted April 9, 2005 Report Share Posted April 9, 2005 But the idea that punk is bad musicianship on purpous is the creation of a media that doesn't understand it. That's all I was trying to say. ← Bang on. BUT, punk isn't really associated with any particular guitar or price tag, either. So, a $1,500 guitar would work for a punk player, but so would 3 X $500 guitars. Greg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
marksound Posted April 9, 2005 Report Share Posted April 9, 2005 My friend asked me for some advice the other day on what would be the best punk/rock guitar for $1500? I dont really know what guitars are good for those styles as I play diffrent stuff. So what would you recomend for that price range? He might just buy one of the ones I'm building now... ← Been thinking about it, and it's a no-brainer. Really. Tell him to find one that feels good and sounds good to him. Doesn't matter what other people think, or how much (or little) it cost. What's the point of spending the whole $1500 on something he might end up hating because it's uncomfortable or sounds like bat crap? Just because someone told him it was a good punk guitar? If $1500 is the budget, I'd find something for a lot less and spend the rest on other gear. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
psw Posted April 9, 2005 Report Share Posted April 9, 2005 A famous punk (may have been Johnny Rotten) was asked what he thought of the people who bought his records and replied something like "I F*&^&ing 'ate 'em,a true anachist punk would steal our records, the rest are just wannabe's!" or something to that effect. My experience of the punk era was something similar, you just permanently borrowed something from your mate, or more likely, your mate's brother cause he's gonna have better gear. I think that post againts strats is pretty right, typically punks leant towards a thicker humbucker sound. If I were a punk though, I'd do an EVH and take what bits I could get a hold of and make a bitsa guitar. The punk movement was really important and vital at the time (we were stuck in the disco era down here) and is still very important today. But I always thought that it was a political movement and some of today's "punks" come across as just so much posturing for no real purpose. The original punks tended to play to their ability and to some extent a band like U2 came from that era and ethos, their use of echo didn't make them particularly "pop" at the time with their earliest records. They really developed their own thing and their musicianship along the way. Same thing with the Police to a lesser extent and the pretenders, both of these bands had quite good players but were considered "punk" at the time. Who knows what today's punks are, probably anything someone my age hates! Rock'n'roll has always been that way. Was Presley a punk? pete Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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