The Newest Member of the Family
It kinda looks like this...
Today, I bought a new guitar. Those of you that know me (which should be pretty much all of you) know that this purchase has been a long time coming. My first (and for all intents and purposes former) electric guitar, my Squier Stratocaster, had far outlived its usefulness. In fact, jackson_m_pongo recently told me that it was one of the hardest guitars to play that he'd ever encountered.
My new guitar is a Schecter Gryphon. It has a rosewood fretboard, 24 frets, a three way pickup toggle switch, a maple neck, blah blah blah. The best feature of the guitar has to do with the pick-ups. It's fitted with two Duncan designed humbucker pick-ups and has a knob (the knob with the tag on it in the picture) that can switch off one of the pick-ups. This actually makes the guitar pretty special, because it goes from sounding like a guitar with humbucker pick-ups to sounding like a guitar with single-coil pick-ups. In other words, it gives the guitar the flexibility to sound like a stratocaster (a crisp, bright, jazzy sound) or a gibson (a full, rich tone). I can understand why someone with multiple guitars might not be excited about the switch, but since I'm presently planning on getting by with a single instrument, the multiple settings is a big bonus.
The specifications aside, I think that the guitar in general sounds great. I tried a Standard Fender Telecaster first, and although it was a fine guitar, it hardly blew me away. After accidentally grabbing a left-handed guitar, I found a Standard Fender Stratocaster, but it brought back far too many bad memories of the Squier, and I put it down after only noodling with it a bit. I tried a different Schecter, but the neck wider than I was used to, and I just didn't feel like I could play it effectively. When I picked up the Gryphon, however, the sound was so much richer than the other guitars, and it also had a neck that was very similar to the Squier (albeit of a much higher quality) and it instantly felt familiar. It sounded fantastic with the Fender Deluxe Amp, and it sounded just as good with my Fender Princeton 112 Plus at home (especially after I tuned it down a 1/2 step). It also handles chords gracefully--who knew that you could actually play distorted open chords on an electric guitar and it would actually sound like something? Certainly not my Squier and I! I've been searching for various online reviews of the Gryphon, and the virtual experts seem to agree that the guitar is a lot of bang for the buck.
The only thing that I don't like about my guitar is the color/style. I'm a fan of the solid colors of the stratocaster and the telecaster that speak through their simplicity. My guitar, unlike the guitar in the picture, is actually a dark orange. It has this cheesy wood finish look; it's sort of like someone took the wall of an office building and turned it into a guitar (the girl whom I copped the picture from had a similar complaint: she thought that the finish made it too "Skid Row"). Plus, if I wanted to play something that looked like a piece of wood, I'd whip out my acoustic. I was also disappointed that the guitar didn't have a pic guard, because I wanted to buy an ABBA sticker (if such wonders can be purchased) and stick it on. I still think that that would be really funny.
Today, I bought a new guitar. Those of you that know me (which should be pretty much all of you) know that this purchase has been a long time coming. My first (and for all intents and purposes former) electric guitar, my Squier Stratocaster, had far outlived its usefulness. In fact, jackson_m_pongo recently told me that it was one of the hardest guitars to play that he'd ever encountered.
My new guitar is a Schecter Gryphon. It has a rosewood fretboard, 24 frets, a three way pickup toggle switch, a maple neck, blah blah blah. The best feature of the guitar has to do with the pick-ups. It's fitted with two Duncan designed humbucker pick-ups and has a knob (the knob with the tag on it in the picture) that can switch off one of the pick-ups. This actually makes the guitar pretty special, because it goes from sounding like a guitar with humbucker pick-ups to sounding like a guitar with single-coil pick-ups. In other words, it gives the guitar the flexibility to sound like a stratocaster (a crisp, bright, jazzy sound) or a gibson (a full, rich tone). I can understand why someone with multiple guitars might not be excited about the switch, but since I'm presently planning on getting by with a single instrument, the multiple settings is a big bonus.
The specifications aside, I think that the guitar in general sounds great. I tried a Standard Fender Telecaster first, and although it was a fine guitar, it hardly blew me away. After accidentally grabbing a left-handed guitar, I found a Standard Fender Stratocaster, but it brought back far too many bad memories of the Squier, and I put it down after only noodling with it a bit. I tried a different Schecter, but the neck wider than I was used to, and I just didn't feel like I could play it effectively. When I picked up the Gryphon, however, the sound was so much richer than the other guitars, and it also had a neck that was very similar to the Squier (albeit of a much higher quality) and it instantly felt familiar. It sounded fantastic with the Fender Deluxe Amp, and it sounded just as good with my Fender Princeton 112 Plus at home (especially after I tuned it down a 1/2 step). It also handles chords gracefully--who knew that you could actually play distorted open chords on an electric guitar and it would actually sound like something? Certainly not my Squier and I! I've been searching for various online reviews of the Gryphon, and the virtual experts seem to agree that the guitar is a lot of bang for the buck.
The only thing that I don't like about my guitar is the color/style. I'm a fan of the solid colors of the stratocaster and the telecaster that speak through their simplicity. My guitar, unlike the guitar in the picture, is actually a dark orange. It has this cheesy wood finish look; it's sort of like someone took the wall of an office building and turned it into a guitar (the girl whom I copped the picture from had a similar complaint: she thought that the finish made it too "Skid Row"). Plus, if I wanted to play something that looked like a piece of wood, I'd whip out my acoustic. I was also disappointed that the guitar didn't have a pic guard, because I wanted to buy an ABBA sticker (if such wonders can be purchased) and stick it on. I still think that that would be really funny.