The BEST guitars you probably overlooked! | Friday Fretworks

hey guys I'm Chris buck and very War welcome to Friday fretworks and this week single pickup guitars limiting or [Music] [Music] [Music] liberating [Music] come a [Music] [Music] a now I might have mentioned it once or twice but over the last few months I've been back and forth Switzerland with my band Cardinal black recording a second record to dates for that upcoming record somewhere on screen now if you want to check those out but we've been back and forth the truly most incredible Studio It's called Power Play and it's located just outside of Zurich in Switzerland some truly holy gray level of an obtainium gear dotted around that place but for all of the truly incredible gear one guitar that I found myself particularly gravitating towards for all of those sessions was a somewhat humble 57 Gibson Les Paul Jr TV yellow that obviously used to beong to Keith Richard now without really thinking about it it kind of became one of my go-to guitars for the record for both Rhythm and Lead work needless to say it plays well it sounds fantastic but having spent the last few weeks unsuccessfully today trolling through Reverb and eBay looking for a less portunity that the Peaks my end interest kind of starting to wonder whether there may in actual fact be something slightly deeper at play I've always avoided buying a single pickup guitar for fear of it being limiting or not particularly versatile but having just used one for the bulk of a record I'm starting to wonder whether they may in actual fact be some of the best most versatile guitars out [Music] there [Music] [Music] that was cool so needless to say I've never actually owned a single pickup guitar played plenty of amazing ones especially on this YouTube channel but even now with such a strong hankering for a Les Paul Jr some part of me is still slightly reticent the thought of spending a decent amount of money on a guitar with just one pickup when I could probably get a guitar with two pickups or three pickups or slightly more appointments for in all reality probably slightly less money it's a bit of a paradox but having spent a good number of weeks and months now digging into that 57 Junior it has been a total education in terms of not NE necessarily the versatility of a single pickup guitar per se but the way in which it makes you play and adapt and really utilize the volume and tone controls now I'm very much guilty of not really practicing what I preach when I spous the benefits or the merits of a tone control take one look at my rev star you'll see that I work the volume control pretty much constantly the missing paint is very much Testament to that but in all reality I don't use the tone control anywhere near as much as I should in actual fact when I spec that guitar actually had it with two volume controls initially such as my knowledge that with the best will in the world I probably wasn't going to use the tone control I love the sound of the bridge pickup I love the neck I love the both combined I I love the way that it cleans up with Clarity but still gets satly darker there are so many beautiful sounds within that guitar that in all honesty I've never really found myself particularly needing the tone control but if you're playing a single pickup guitar it is a totally different ball game the tone control is as important if not actually more so I would say than its volume control at least if you want to get the best out of it and to that end there is actually quite a lot to be said for a guitar that limits you in some capacity or makes you re-evaluate what you need to do to get the best out of it now I've spoken about it in the past but one guitar that I really regret not buying when I had the chance was a 1960 Gibson Melody Maker was for sale here in the UK at ATB guitars in I think early 2022 now as with most vintage guitars I've no doubt it stock has risen somewhat since that video but but for a guitar which so many dismissed because of its single pickup it was a truly mesmeric absolutely brilliant guitar and as I said really regret not taking the plunge when I had the [Music] [Applause] chance [Music] [Music] [Music] a n [Music] [Laughter] now needless to say Gibson don't have a monopoly on single pickup guitars as we know it was of course Fender in the solid body realm at the very least which led the charge with the Esquire introduced in early 1950 of course guitar that we come to know and love it's two pickup younger brother The Telecast only two years later in 1952 but as much as Leo may have sensed that the future of electric guitar didn't lie solely with Arch tops it needs to be acknowledged that the first Spanish style electric guitar was introduced by Gibson in 1936 in the shape of the es150 previous Flagship models like the Gibson L5 would fall by the wayside as the es-150 and it's Charlie Christian pickup so named after an early adopter would sore in popularity of course then the P90 was introduced replacing that earlier bar magnet Charlie chistian pickup in 1946 as you can see here on this ES300 for sale an 8 guitars from 1948 in the years that followed as Gibson and fander continually vied for dominance in the world of solid body electric guitars two or even three pickups in the strats case would become the standard fenders single Coy Gibson's P90 Charlie Christian pickup their staple pickup and their hucking pickup while single pickup guitars were very much relegated to the perception of being student model or entrylevel instruments of course Gibson's Les Paul Jr their SG Jr and their Melody Maker with f is Squire and music master and consequently in just over a decade single pickup guitars went from being the height of luxury to Bare Bones necessity instruments or a stepping stone to a better guitar an epithet that in all reality I still think single pickup guitar struggle with [Music] today [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] oh [Music] now aside from any potential psychological benefits of limiting yourself with a single pickup guitar turns out there may actually be a more tangible scientific advantage to playing a guitar with only one pickup the theory being that the magnetic pull of a second pickup will reduce your guitar sustain as explained by Fender's pickup Guru Tim Shaw getting rid of that drag changes the envelope of the string because we're not slowing the string down by having it interact with magnets at two points so yes not having that other pickup does matter now whatever the reality single pickup guitars lespol juniors in particular actually have been a main stay of rock and roll since their introduction in 1954 with anyone from Leslie West to Gary Moore to Keith Richard to John lenon to Johnny Thunders to Billy Joe Armstrong I've put them to Incredible use over the years and of course it's not just Gibson and Fender that have dabbled with single pickups a quick look around ATB earlier yielded suos or harmonies or epon or Magneton with single pickups and it's clearly not a thing of the past in 2024 Fender Gibson Squire Collings Eastman Reverend the epone evh to name but a few are all making fantastic single pickup guitars now I'm going to play you out now on a somewhat modified Yamaha refar 502 from a few years ago but as ever thank you very much for watching please subscribe H the Bell icon if you haven't already and I shall see you next week for another episode of fry FR Works cheers guys take care I'll see you [Music] soon [Music] [Music] aah [Music] oh [Music] a

Channel: Chris Buck

Views: 46,837

Keywords: Les Paul, Les Paul Junior, Gibson Les Paul, Single Pickup Guitar, Fender Esquire, Musicmaster, Fender Musicmaster, Gibson Melody Maker, p90

Id: wi46GdwyYQg

Length: 13min 9sec (789 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 29 2024