5 Must Have Guitars For Every Player

so if you're just starting out on guitar or you've been playing for years more than likely you've asked yourself the question of how many guitars should i have how many guitars do you need it's a really popular question that other youtube channels have tried to tackle and have been discussed online for years i'm not going to try and answer that specific question in this video but what i am going to do is recommend five guitars that i think every guitar player should have in their setup whether you're playing at home for fun or you're playing on weekends gigs or if you are wanting to become a professional guitar player where you earn a living with a guitar in your hand i think these five guitars are totally necessary for all of those situations now if you're new to this channel my name is rhett shull i play guitar for a living i've been doing that for a little over 10 years from now and these five guitars are ones that i picked up through my time of gigging and doing sessions and spending time on the road that i absolutely could not live without i couldn't work without these five models so without further ado here are five guitars for every guitar player now before we get started quickly if you're interested in learning how to find your sound on your guitar or learning more about great guitar tone i made a video course on that called the tone course it's available in the description box down below and if you go through that link you're going to get 20 off of the tone course so if you're interested check that out let's get started so the first guitar on my list is pretty self-explanatory and in fact most of you watching this video probably already have this guitar in your setup and that is a good acoustic now like many guitar players i started off on an acoustic guitar now if you're watching this video and you're thinking about getting your first guitar i'd probably recommend starting with an acoustic because it's completely self-contained you don't need anything else to play guitar other than the guitar itself there's no amps or pedals or computers or cables or anything you just need the guitar probably a pick and some kind of tuner plus no matter how far you get as a guitar player you go all the way to being a pro you're gonna need an acoustic i can't tell you how many times i've taken this guitar to sessions or used it on gigs or taken it on the road i couldn't do my job without a good acoustic in my setup now what acoustic would i recommend that's actually kind of impossible to say the world of acoustics is wide and vast and there's as many different acoustic guitar shapes and wood combinations and styles as there are players almost now i made an entire video on this very subject how to find the perfect acoustic guitar last year you can check it out up here or down in the description box below when it comes to buying an acoustic i would tell you to go to a local guitar shop speak with someone who knows what they're talking about and just try some stuff and whatever resonates with you is the guitar that you should get next up on my list is arguably the most famous guitar and most recognizable guitar of all time and that is the strat now no list of essential guitars is going to be complete without this thing this guitar literally changed history in fact two of the other guitars on this list changed history but we'll get to this in just a second 1954 leofinder introduces the fender stratocaster to their lineup and music and as a result culture was really never the same since this truly is one of if not the greatest guitar design of all time you've grown up listening to this guitar whether you realized it or not and for many players this is the one guitar to rule them all plenty of well-known and famous players have relied on the strat for their sound and for good reason first of all it's just a perfect guitar design when it's sitting in your lap it's really comfortable the neck is in the right place the body contours fit really really well it just feels right then we have the three single coil pickups and this is the strat sound this is the whole reason to have one of these guitars or a guitar like this because it's the most popular guitar ever it's the most copied guitar ever so you don't have to go to fender to get one of these guitars or a guitar like this but to me the important formula here is the three single coils the bolt-on neck and the fender scale length all that in combination with the five-way selector switch really is the sound now to me my favorite part of the fender stratocaster is the neck pickup in fact i've joked that i could probably have a strat that's just the neck and i would be totally fine but if you're not familiar with the sound i mean this is it [Music] i mean that that sound is so famous it's so well known and to me it's one of the best sounds in all of the guitar world but it's not all about the neck pickup the bridge pickup is just as important it's bright and spanky but without being too harsh or brittle in most cases [Music] plus it takes overdrive really well it's that bridge pickup that made this such a popular guitar for rock stars of yesteryear and even today but there's also the quintessential strat sound which is the two and four position which is on the selector switch if i go to position two i'm combining these two pickups the bridge in the middle and if i go to uh selection four i'm combining the neck and the middle and this is the sound where you get all of that [Music] that's super quacky you know [Music] that's instantly recognizable as a strat so these guitars are incredibly versatile they're super comfortable to play but another reason to own one is the upgrade ability the aftermarket support for the fender stratocaster is massive you can literally completely rebuild this guitar from the ground up with aftermarket parts everything from pickups and switches and bridges and tuners and even necks and bodies to build your own strat from scratch the strat sound is so unique and so widely used that i think it's absolutely essential for every guitar player out there [Music] [Laughter] [Music] me [Applause] [Music] so arguably not quite as famous as defender stratocaster but equally as powerful and influential is the gibson les paul and this is another essential guitar in my opinion even if it's not a gibson brand itself some kind of dual humbucker solid body set neck guitar that is a combination of mahogany and maple construction that is the les paul formula and it really is one of the best guitar designs of all time in my opinion it's certainly one of the best guitar sounds especially from my point of view to me the real secret sauce behind the beauty of the les paul sound are the pickups these are humbucking pickups more specifically in this guitar i have what are called paf or patent applied for humbuckers and i did a whole video on paf's that you can check out here but they really are unique to this guitar seth lover was a designer and engineer at gibson back in the early to mid 1950s and they were looking for a solution to a problem that all single coil pickups have which is they buzz they have a 60 cycle hum and so in search of a solution to that problem seth lover and gibson developed this pickup the paf humbucker now not all humbuckers are paf's and not all les pauls come with paf's in fact depending on what style of guitar that you might be trying to play you might not go for a paf pickup but for me they're my favorite now the reason i love the paf humbucker in a les paul is because of the wide range of sound you can get out of just a single pickup they have a clarity and a definition and a dynamic response that i think is pretty unique so if i go to my bridge pickup here and i roll the volume up about halfway they can be sparkly and clean and bright [Music] but if i roll the volume up and play a little bit harder [Music] and like the bridge pick up the neck pickup is just as versatile you switch the neck and roll the volume down you get a nice sweet sort of clarity that's not really muddy at all [Music] and then as you roll it up [Music] [Laughter] now part of what makes this guitar unique compared to something like the fender strat is the construction it's completely different than a strat in every single way in fact in the world of solid body electric guitars it's harder to get further apart than the gibson les paul and the fender stratocaster one of the big differences is how the neck is actually joined in the body this has what's called a set neck design whereas the fender had a bolt-on neck and we say bolt-on but it's actually screwed on they're not bolts but still also the neck angle on the guitar is different the gibson is angled back whereas the fender is angled straight on and the scale length or the distance between the saddles on your bridge to the nut on the top of the neck is different as well and if you're in the market for one there's a couple of things to look out for to find a really great les paul to me first and foremost is the weight the lighter the guitar for a les paul i think the better typically the lighter guitars are going to be more resonant they might be a little louder when they're played unplugged which is a good thing the other thing to watch out for with just about any style of gibson is whether or not it's had a headstock break if you are searching for a used one because of the angle of this headstock here it's common for these guitars to fall off of stands or get dropped in a case and have a break happen somewhere in this area so if you're looking at a useless pawl check the weight and make sure the neck hasn't been broken if it has and it's been repaired properly that's okay but it's something that you want to know if you're trying to get one [Music] now if you could point to one guitar that helped musicians more than others to shape a whole new style of music which then shaped culture as a whole has to be the fender telecaster this is without a doubt probably the most important electric guitar design of all time arguably one of if not the most popular behind the stratocaster now unlike the strat and the les paul and mini acoustics this guitar is pretty bare bones it's very utilitarian it's literally just a cutting board with a neck as brad paisley would put it now obviously telecasters are incredibly popular with country players if you know anything about the tele you probably think of it as a country guitar but this is probably the most versatile guitar we've talked about today and if you're looking for one guitar out of this list to have or to start with with the solid body electrics i might recommend the tele for a few reasons first of all the tone is completely unique it's not a strap it's not a les paul it's not anything else other than a telly telly's are known for being sort of twangy and spanky and bright on the bridge position and that's great for quick chicken pick and clean country runs which i'm not good at but it's also great for rock the clarity of that bridge pickup really helps this guitar cut through an overdriven amp and subsequently cut through a mix of a band on stage really really well and like the les paul like the paf bridge pickup this thing cleans up very very well and remains sparkly and brilliant and bright but for me one of my favorite things about the tele is the neck pickup now it is a single coil like a strat neck pickup but again the construction is different and as a result the sound is a little bit different as well [Music] and then when you combine those two pickups together in the middle position you get something that is also incredibly unique [Music] also because these guitars simple construction they're incredibly robust i mean they're basically bomb proof they stay in tune incredibly well if they're set up the right way they're not as susceptible to temperature changes and humidity changes and things like that as other guitars are i mean they really are a work in man's guitar and if you're a modifier or a tweaker you like to change things there's really nothing better than a telecaster to do that on like the strat the aftermarket for the tele is huge so much so that this guitar is actually not a fender this was a parts caster that i built about six or seven years ago the body was made by a local luthier i painted it i put all the hardware on it installed the pickups mounted the neck which was also made by hand by the same luthier but for all intents and purposes this is a telecaster but for me like the les paul when looking for a telly i like to look for one that's really lightweight that seems to be really resonant the guitar is loud unplugged which means the wood is resonating really well if you can find something like that i think you've got a really great guitar in your hands [Music] uh [Music] and last on my list at least is uh a p90 guitar literally any p90 guitar i think should be essential for every single guitar player out there this is mine this is a novo saras j i bought about actually right at four years ago now if you're not familiar p90s are these style of pickups and they're actually the oldest in terms of design of all the pickups that we've talked about today before there were paf humbuckers before there were the strat single coils of telesingle coils the p90 essentially reigned supreme as the end-all-be-all electric guitar pickup through the early 1940s through the 1950s give or take now like the pickups in a strat or a tele a p90 is a single coil pickup meaning it's just a single coil of wire run around a series of magnets but p90s don't sound like a strat or a tele or a les paul or a 335 it's really its own thing in fact if you think about a single coil like telecaster bridge pickup on one end of the spectrum and you think about a humbucker bridge pickup on the other end of the spectrum a p90 sits right in the middle it has the snap and the articulation and brightness of like a tele single coil because it is a single coil but it has a little bit more weight a little more girth from the mid-range like a humbucker does but not quite as much as a humbucker and as a result a guitar like this like my novo here this is the most versatile guitar i own hands down now if you listen to the bridge pickup you should understand what i'm talking about it's right between a single coil and a [Music] humbucker [Laughter] and if you roll off the volume a little bit it'll clean up even more same thing with the neck pickup [Music] should be able to tell it's got a unique voice and with the neck all the way up [Music] and then we can't forget the middle position [Music] [Laughter] [Music] this this guitar with these pickups is just wonderful now if you're a les paul player you can get a gold top les paul with p90s in it if you're more of a tele player you can get a tele with p90s in it either way i think ap90 guitar is something that is super important that a lot more players should start to adopt in their own setups so those are five guitars that i think are essential for every guitar player out there how does that compare though to the guitars you have or have on your list let me know in the comments section down below don't forget if you'd like you can get 20 off the tone course and all my other video courses via the link and discount code below you can also find links to my other products on my website as well as my podcast my second channel everything is linked down in the description box below if you haven't done so already be sure to subscribe and click that bell icon to be notified when i'm going live and posting new videos over here on the channel thank you guys so much for watching i hope you enjoyed today's video my name is rhett shaw and remember there is no plan b you

Channel: Rhett Shull

Views: 503,555

Rating: 4.8932066 out of 5

Keywords: 5 must have guitars, les paul vs stratocaster, best guitar for the money, beginner guitar, Rhett Shull, Gibson Les Paul, Fender Stratocaster, Fender Telecaster, Acoustic Guitar, p90 Pickup, Novo Serus J, best guitar for blues, intermediate guitar, best guitar for shred, top 10 guitars, top 10 guitar models, best guitar for rock, professional guitars, best guitar for hard rock, best electric guitars, fender vs gibson, best guitar for professionals

Id: 17EiosysPuQ

Length: 19min 28sec (1168 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 31 2021