John 5 - The Broadcaster Is The Best Guitar Ever Produced???
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OP
I've played them...not memorable, but I can respect his opinion.
OP
No doubt. He is my favorite living guitarist!
gball
Ambassador of Boogie
Yeah, I have a lot of respect for the guy too and love what he does musically. His passion for all things Broad/No/Tele-caster is admirable and I love to see and hear him talk about them (and Richie Kotzen is another monster Tele player that will wax poetic about them), but they are not for me. I don't like the way they feel, don't like the way the sound, hell, don't really like the way they look. I've owned a few, and the best one yet was the G&L ASAT that I recently sold, but in the end I always get rid of them because I just can't get along with them.
OP
My sentiments exactly. I try and avoid the urge to throw up when I hear a single coil..
gball
Ambassador of Boogie
In all fairness I used to like single-coils OK. But as I get older they bother me more and more.
OP
I kinda feel the same....
OP
Certain single coil musical passages are like nails on a chalkboard to me...
BlackSG91
Ambassador of Anarchy
I just saw that the other day about the Telecaster which John 5 grew up on. He was basically influenced by the Telecaster throughout his life and watched shows like "Hee Haw" with Buck Owens special custom Tele. I can relate to his Tele love since I have a Fender 1952 AVRI Telecaster that I bought brand new in 2006 during Fender's 60th anniversary. It's one of my favourite guitars and I just love the aesthetics of it.
;>)/
;>)/
OP
I grew up hanging out at Buck's studio and he was a frequent visitor with us and the Telecaster/tone never appealed to me...
ivan H
Ambassador of Tubes & Grooves
John 5 is a monster picker, right up there amongst my favorite players. I can understand him liking the broadcaster, its a different animal to a Tele. The broadcasters bridge pickup is a 10k ohm, 43AWG, A3 magnet job that has more output than the later Tele bridge pickups. While it can still twang clean, it has a thicker tone & overdriven it has a great, snarly midrange tone & pushes the front end of the amp harder than a Tele. (I have a repro broadcaster pickup in the bridge of my Tele). The broadcaster also features the "blender" circuit rather than a tone control. I also have this on my Tele & find it to be a very worthwhile feature (though mine has a Gibson humbucker in the neck position, a la Keef). While I don't think the Broadcaster is the greatest ever guitar, I'd pick one over a Tele. Cheers
OP
To that end, a 1959 Les Paul would do everything I enjoy doing, although they would need copper shielding today to be EFI/RFI resistant...
gball
Ambassador of Boogie
I took you more for a 1957 Les Paul type - the SUPER HUGE neck
OP
gball
Ambassador of Boogie
Well, aren't you the lucky boy? '57's have the biggest neck ever and humbuckers:
OP
Well, aren't you the lucky boy? '57's have the biggest neck ever and humbuckers:
Mom's 1958 had a huge neck!
Why you think the went to smaller necks???
OP
Why so much hype over the '59?
gball
Ambassador of Boogie
Your guess is as good as anyone's. By and large the original goldtops I have played have been nicer than the bursts, at least IMO. I also think the goldies look cooler.
I think the hype is squarely centered around two things: 1. scarcity and, 2. a couple of well-known cats played '59's and the legend was born. The rest is hyperbolic hearsay for the most part (again, my opinion). The other thing that bothers me is everyone claims to have a '59, not a '58, not a '60, always a damn '59. I'll bet anything half of the ones people claim are '59's are actually from a different year, but everyone needs to have a stupid '59 for bragging rights, it's just so silly.