project_c Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 I've been teaching myself guitar on the side, mainly playing jazz / funk, just chords, nothing fancy, just accompaniment for my bass playing. I've been happily learning on a knackered old Columbus strat, which has a nice sounding humbucker at the bridge, and 2 other pickups which sound diabolical. It's not a great guitar, but I bought it for £20 in the 90's, and it's served me well up until now. However, unfortunately and unexpectedly tonight it exploded. I heard a wood-cracking sound, and the bridge was suddenly leaning out of the bass at a jaunty angle. I'll get it repaired, but I'm now thinking I may look into buying something new. The problem is, I know very little about guitars, but I do know that a strat is probably the least suitable guitar for jazz. So here are some questions: - Would a cheaper archtop (something like an Ibanez Artcore) be suited to playing genres other than traditional jazz? The one I'm looking at has 2 pickups. - Would a Les Paul copy around £300 be suitable for funk / jazz? Or is it mainly used for rock / blues? - What would you recommend for around £300? thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul_5 Posted February 18, 2014 Share Posted February 18, 2014 I'd favour a Gibson/copy Les Paul or SG for jazzy stuff (and pretty much anything else too) as they've got lovely, fat sounds courtesy of the rwin humbuckers, also their scale length is slightly shorter than Fender/copy instruments, which makes getting around that little bit easier. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
project_c Posted February 18, 2014 Author Share Posted February 18, 2014 Thanks for the advice - I'm looking at a Tokai Les Paul copy in a couple of days, do you know much about those? Seller wants around £300, it's a sunburst Love Rock, looks pretty nice. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kiwi Posted February 19, 2014 Share Posted February 19, 2014 Tokai make some decent stuff. As do Ibanez. If you're after something for jazz then an Artcore is where I'd start. Aria have similar offerings but I've only ever played an Artcore and they're good guitars - capable of low action. Yamaha also make some good archtops - the AE100 is worth looking at. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
project_c Posted February 19, 2014 Author Share Posted February 19, 2014 Funny you should say that! In the meantime I went and tried a bunch of different guitars today, and ended up buying an Ibanez AS73 for a pretty good price. It's set up well and it sounds good. I think it will be spot on for what I need it to do. [attachment=155692:ibanez.JPG] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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