Unpopular opinions on gear

[Wiltonauer]

I never said seven strings were BAD. I love mine. And don't use it to it's fullest extent.

Sometimes people react when they think someone else is pushing baritones over sevens as if they had some personal stake in what guitar some stranger on the Internet plays. I don’t think your comment was like that at all, but everyone has seen the guy whose knee-jerk reaction to any mention of seven strings is invariably, “Just get a barrytoan!” Almost as if they don’t realize that a standard-tuned seven has a regular six-string guitar built right in and doesn’t require transposing stuff constantly. I personally like baritones but don’t think it should be a matter of choosing one over the other. Why not have one of each?

 

[budda]

I think it really depends on how hard you play and how you set things. It's all possible really, but each has their tradeoffs imo.



I love gobs of low end, but I think many people's definition of lot's of low end nowadays means perceivable or feelable in any way on a guitar = too much.

I broke 46 low E’s forcing a move to 10-52 sets around 2004-2005 and now almost 20 years later I have a different les paul in the same tuning with 10-46 and know how to pick harder

 

[Shask]

1. Unpopular opinion;
The only thing potentially better about reverse inline headstocks is how they look, they're functionally inferior to normal inline headstocks. If you disagree, that's fine, I'll just agree with you because I don't have the energy to argue. Disagreeing also means you never played or wrote a riff where it gets in the way and stabs the back of your hand. Other guitars like LP's and many others do this too. Upper horns also can have this issue of hand stabbing. It's not a big deal until you slide right into a nerve and actually say the word ouch for the first like a kid, since you were a kid.

2. Unpopular opinion;
Bolt on necks are better than set neck and neck through. Most people don't realize that many bolt necks have better upper access to frets than a lot of neck thru and set necks.. They can also be shimmed easy and setup better than a tempermental neck thru and It's more adjustable. Plus if your neck breaks you can replace or repair it easier potentially.

3. Unpopular opinion;
Most modern distorion tones suck. People are afraid of gain and bass apparenly. They just hack off all the low and highs. "You're all worthless and weak. " Dee Snider.

4. Unpopular opinion;
Almost nobody plays with dynamics anymore and if they do it almost never translates to amp tone or breakup. An entire generation now has been kept in the dark. I blame lack of passing it on by the older generations, digital and solid state amps, lack of good setups etc.

5. Thick strings, high action, high tension springs, low profile frets, and extreme triangle action height (low at first fret, high at 24th) are best. Just becuase you can't play it and play like a weakling doesn't mean it's not better or just personal preference. If you play with no energy the amp will not recreate it. Try actually hitting the strings like you means it someday. Chug it hard and chug it well. Everyone's setup nowadays leaves them with easy playing guitars, but with weak pick attacks, and chugs always choke out leaving no energy. Combined wtih thin weak tone it's a recipe for lame.

6. Unpopular opinion;
Lowering EMG's is better than putting them as high as possible like they recommend. If you want them tighter and more dynamic in practical terms, lower them.

7. Unpopular opinion;
Never end a list on the number 6.

Reverse headstocks without a locking nut feel slinkier on the top strings. Super bendy feeling compared to normal headatocks.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

I said something similar earlier in the thread I think, but tbh I think I should make it more absolute:

Most, if not, all mass-produced guitars should use richlite fretboards. You can pretty much have any color you want with richlite, and it's even gotten to the point where you can add some unique figuring to it seeing how some Aristides guitars come out.

EDIT: Hell a friend just showed me something called Blackwood Tek. Which is supposed to be a plantation-grown softwood chemically treated to change it's color and make it harder.

 

[BornToLooze]

I never said seven strings were BAD. I love mine. And don't use it to it's fullest extent.

Funnily enough...most of the 7 string songs that I really like, I've figured out how to play them on a 6 just missing whatever song is least important. You know, transpose that shit or whatever...but give me a 7....

 

[KnightBrolaire]

EMGs in general are hot dogshit compared to passive and more modern active options.
People try to diss Fishman moderns as overly middy but forget that an 81/85 set is nothing but squawky/"vocal" mids.
The fishmans at least clean up really well and can coil split/tap.

SD Retributions are some of the best actives on the market for pure brutality and chugging.

Guitar low mids (e.g. around 250-500hz ) are the least important of the mid frequencies.


Kahlers are terrible bridges, but still way better than a jazzmaster trem or bigsby.


5150s and their ilk are massively overrated amps.

 

[4Eyes]

I can't comment on old 81s as I haven't had a chance to play them for a long time, but even EMG is not recommending to put pickups as close to the strings as possible for their newer models, anymore. They rather say - user your ears. I have 57/66TW set which are set to similar height as high output passives (BKPs). They're all similar in output. EMGs have about 1db higher output , but they are more compressed, BKPs on the other hand peak more with palm mutes and pick harmonics.

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

The mindset was that EMG coils are extremely weak, so since they're using weak coils + a hot preamp, pickup height adjustments seem to be more sensitive. So they probably thought you needed to get the pickups very close to get the full effect.

I personally preferred the sound of them cranked next to the strings but it's a taste thing.

 

[TedEH]

I always thought early EMGs would be recommended to get as high as possible because that was an era of excess and anything less than pushing everything to some limit wasn't ExTrEmE enough.

 

[Emperoff]

EMG 57/66 have a ridiculous amount of output (higher than any other pickup I've ever tried) when close to the strings. I had to back up the neck pickup quite a bit in order to not overpower everything.

 

[BenjaminW]

I can't stand this cut that Paoletti guitars have in their pick guards. It literally drives me insane.

 

[StevenC]

I can't stand this cut that Paoletti guitars have in their pick guards. It literally drives me insane.
View attachment 124207

Firmly disagree

 

[HeHasTheJazzHands]

I can't stand this cut that Paoletti guitars have in their pick guards. It literally drives me insane.
View attachment 124207

Firmly disagree

Same, I've seen much worse.

And as much as I love Reb...

Also to be fair this is the unpopular opinion thread.

 

[technomancer]

To summarize: if you're doing a strat-shaped body with a pickguard put a strat-shaped pickguard on it or it looks horrible

 

[StevenC]

Same, I've seen much worse.

And as much as I love Reb...

Also to be fair this is the unpopular opinion thread.

Any examples?

 

[dr_game0ver]

I can't stand this cut that Paoletti guitars have in their pick guards. It literally drives me insane.

That's your only problem with the guitar? Not the Bi colour, the tri tone bridge, the 12 gauge knobs, not the all the bridge PU screws are lined up...

 

[Emperoff]

Same, I've seen much worse.

And as much as I love Reb...

Also to be fair this is the unpopular opinion thread.

It drives me nuts that Andy Timmons never fixed the broken tip of his pickguard, and his new sig has a pickguard cut in the lower horn area to resemble the original broken one. I mean, come on WHERE'S YOUR GODDAMN OCD, ANDY?

 

[BenjaminW]

That's your only problem with the guitar? Not the Bi colour, the tri tone bridge, the 12 gauge knobs, not the all the bridge PU screws are lined up...

It was just the first picture I found online.

Same, I've seen much worse.

James Tyler has some amazing finishes but I just can't get over the pickguard shape and it ruins my day whenever I start GASing for one. I'm just so used to normal Strat style pickguards that anything else just looks wrong to me.

I get the whole pickguard doesn't need to cover a good portion of the body but still like wtf.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Eh, pickguards are replaceable, no big deal.

Now, Strats without the traditional jack housing and placement, that's some bullshit.

 

[BenjaminW]

Now, Strats without the traditional jack housing and placement, that's some bullshit.

Oooh, debateable.