How crappy is the crappiest guitar you've played at a gig?

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TenaciousBe
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How crappy is the crappiest guitar you've played at a gig?

Post by TenaciousBe »

So here's my dilemma. We're playing a show on Saturday night (and by "we" I mean "my drummer and I and nobody else"). It's only a short opening set. Right now, we've got 4 songs picked out for sure, with a couple of maybes in the middle. The songs are in a couple of different tunings - First two in an Open C tuning (not sure of the official name, but CGCGCC) and last two in Open D5 (DADADD) - same thing just downtuned a full step for a couple of songs.

Now the one(s) we kind of want to add in the middle would require a third, standard tuned, guitar, but I really only have 2 decent electrics (an Epi SG for the C tuning and PRS Tremonti SE for the D). I do have a third electric, but it's a complete pile o'shit. It was something I bought off a friend of mine in the parking lot of the local gas station, he offered it to me for 10 bucks and I figured "what the hell." The only distinctive marking is the word "Delta" on the headstock. The pickguard is half missing, the knobs are kinda loose, it has one humbucker and room for two single-coil pickups but only one installed. Basically it looks like garbage, but when I plug it in, it works. The sound is...unique, but do-able. Has a vaguely warm tone when using it clean, which I would do for this middle song or two.
Or do I just forget the clean electric and go acoustic? It's meant to be an electric show, we're typically just a two man acoustic band but trying something different this time, and I don't want to lean on the acoustic as a "crutch" so to speak. But at the same time, I almost feel ashamed to take this other guitar out in public.

Anyway... what say you? Form over function, or listen to that nagging "this doesn't look cool" voice?
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Crumbso
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Re: How crappy is the crappiest guitar you've played at a gi

Post by Crumbso »

Whatever sounds best is what you should go for. Isn't there some sort of punk-rock chic to having a totally fucked up guitar anyway?
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TenaciousBe
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Re: How crappy is the crappiest guitar you've played at a gi

Post by TenaciousBe »

That's kinda what I'm thinking now. Had a moment of last minute second-guessing myself this morning when I posted this. lol. Ah well, it's all good!
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CodyLikesDT
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Re: How crappy is the crappiest guitar you've played at a gi

Post by CodyLikesDT »

I have an Ibanez S470 which I love. Last year, I swapped out the stock pickups for a Dimarzio Liquifire and a Crunch Lab. The liquifire sounds incredible, but the crunch lab is totally pulling my output somehow, instead of pushing it. It's supposed to be a high output pickup, but it's not sounding good at all. The last gig I played, I used three guitars - my Laguna for the drop d songs, my Ibanez RG for the open C tuned songs, and my S470 for the Standard tuned songs. The drop d songs and the open C song sounded great, but then when I switched to the standard tuning guitar, it was all fucked up. It sounded so thin and weak. Most of the people in the audience couldn't tell, but I was super embarrassed because it really fucked up the songs. :/
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alterchris
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Re: How crappy is the crappiest guitar you've played at a gi

Post by alterchris »

$90 Chinese made Squier Strat :lol
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