Hi from the UK

[andym72]

Hi Everyone,

After having been into Synths since I was a teenager, this year I decided I was going to start learning a new skill, and bought my first Electric Guitar.

I was drawn to the Reverend Charger, and then to the Charger variants with Filter'trons or "chimey" hum-cancelling pickups, the Flatroc and the Crosscut. Maybe it is the synthesist mentality, but when a newer tech comes along, everyone tends to head for it and the old tech gets left behind. Humbickers are hardly new (1955!), but I'm kind of getting used to how more "conservative" (with a small c) Guitarists are. The popularity of single coils still confuses me though, especially when the engineers coming up the the electronics of guitars have been making hum free pickups that aren't "muddy" and have plenty of twang and chime for years.

And no, I didn't buy a Charger as my first guitar. I scratched my Filter'tron itch directly and got am ex demo/b stock Gretsch that was going for an amazing deal.

But I have now got the bug for Guitars, and my next will be an offset! Even if I have to go scouring eBay for pre-owned to find the one for me. I just think the ergonomics of them are so much better. But whatever I get, it will have a compact body, as light as possible (I prefer to play standing up), probably hard-tail, and most definitely not single coils (although those Ibanez Roadcores with the dummy coils look good).

So no, I won't be getting either a Jazzmaster or a Jaguar, they are just too big and heavy for my tastes. I get why the Jazzmaster is the way it is - it was designed to be played sitting down, the body size is so there is space for the unique vibrato, and the overly chunky right lower bout is so there is enough weight below the waist so that the whole thing balances when resting on your lap. None of which are important to me.

Please don't hold it against me. Theres so many interesting options out there other than JMs and Jags!

I do like Fender/Squier offsets... I just like the really rare ones The Marauder bodyshape is a thing of beauty (not sure about the hardware on the Modern Player versions that finally came out though, and a Bilt Relevator is too rich for my budget!), Toronado would be next (lots of inspiration for the Reverends in that one), then a Meteora (the poor mans Baum Wingman...) and lastly the Cyclone (I like everything about the Mustang apart from how thin it is, I prefer some chunk!)

Andy.

[Maggieo]

Muuuussssssstaaaaannnnnggggg

[andym72]

I have either read, or seen on YouTube, an anecdote from Fender staff that “If it wasn’t made by Leo, it doesn’t sell”.

This tallies with a sentiment I see a lot here, whenever Fender or Squier bring out a Jazzmaster bodied guitar with some different pups, different tailpiece or different switches, that “Leo got the Jazzmaster right first time” and so such guitars are unnecessary.

And that is a real shame, because whenever any company comes up with an innovative new design of guitar, it doesn’t sell enough to be economical, and so it disappears after a few years. The mainstream is funnelled down the T/S/LP/SG pathway, and it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy. The Alternate Reality/Parallel Universe/Paranormal ranges are Limited Editions from the outset precisely because after the tiny percentage of Guitar buyers looking for something different have piled in, sales are expected to drop off massively.

I’m sure this is why so many Offset guitars that are not JM or Mustang inspired are made by boutique companies with boutique prices - because there’s not enough sales interest for economies of scale.

Leo being right first time is also clearly not true. You only have to see what Leo Fender came up with over the years to see he never thought that. We was an engineer, a tinkerer. We wouldn’t have the Jaguar or the Mustang if he thought that. The MFD pups and the Dual Fulcrum Vibrato weren’t just about avoiding designs he no longer owned, they were about improvement, making a better guitar than he had made before.

And yet hardly anyone new to guitars has any idea who G&L are.

[GreenKnee]

Yes we're more traditional on this forum when it comes to the older designs, but by no means do we think they were perfect. Look at the number of Mastery, Staytrem, Tuffset, Halon etc. bridges and vibratos that a lot/most of us here retrofit to our instruments.

Most of us here also have quite diverse tastes and so whilst having one traditional offset for that 'original' sound there is also a lot of aftermarket pickups, routing, modifications to fit each person's individual wants and tastes.

MusicMan make quite a lot of modern offset style guitars, as well as most other manufacturers these days. We just don't talk about them a whole lot here because our tastes are more traditional than that.

The older of us here are of a generation that played offsets when they were classed as junk but loved them anyway. We've found ways of making them work for us. We've played them for that long that the idiosyncrasies of the instruments are what make them special to us.

It's all different strokes for different folks. But yes, the market dictates what does and doesn't sell and the manufacturers respond to that because that's business.

[MrSparkle]

Muuuussssssstaaaaannnnnggggg

OP is like a perfect candidate for the Bullet Mustang modlife.