Best Guitar To Play Blues (2024 Update)

As attested to by all the reviews on the Capri Orange MX Player Tele, it is a great playing guitar in its original factory form. However, I chose this guitar as the platform for Sweetwater to custom mod. In collusion with friend and Sales Engineer Jeff Jent, we determined the component upgrades of choice for the project. The oem wiring harness was replaced with the Emerson 4way switch Tele wiring harness. The additional switch position allows for the pups to play in series. The oem pups were replaced with Fender Custom Shop Twisted Tele pups. All this modification under the hood was covered up by a Fender black pearloid moto pickguard. The oem string guide was replaced with the Fender American Standard string guide. The oem control plate and knobs were kept as was the oem bridge with box saddles. I prefer the 6 box saddles bridge to the 3 saddles bridge – just a personal choice. Upon receipt of the Tele, from my personal parts box I installed Fender all short post locking tuners and Fender locking strap buttons. Since the MX Player Tele doesn't come with either a case or gig bag, I had the guitar shipped in a new Fender Elite hard case. I provided Jeff with my preferred set-up specs by the numbers and he forwarded those to the guitar technician for the final modified product set-up. Guitar technician Brandon Harper did exemplary work in putting the mod guitar together and tech supervisor Marty Flaley verified the completed modifications "nailed" by Brandon. If you desire modifications on a new guitar, don't be hesitant to turn the Sweetwater guitar technicians loose on your vision project. The techs know their trade. But in full disclosure, modified guitars are non returnable so be sure of the modifications you desire. The standard Sweetwater warranty is in place though. All of these details can be gone over with your Sales Engineer to be certain, just in case I have misspoken the rules of engagement. Thanks to Brandon for his tech expertise and Marty for the oversight (prior to his promotion, Marty was my tech of choice for set-ups on new guitar purchases). Can't say enough about my excellent relationship with my Sales Engineer Jeff Jent. He knows his gear! If you don't have an assigned Sales Engineer, call Sweetwater and ask for Jeff. If you are ever on the Sweetwater campus, ask to personally meet your Sales Engineer and guitar tech. I've had that pleasure and glad to call them friends. OH, and what about the orange Tele? It feels, handles and plays great. It is on par with my Elite and Ultra Teles (except slightly less expensive) as a fine crafted guitar. If you have ever wanted to do a mod guitar, pick any platform and turn the guitar techs loose. My new Tele is a Sweetwater Custom Mod!

This is a really great deal. Unless you get lucky on Reverb or whatever you won't find a deal like this anywhere else. And let's face it–you need a Telecaster! It's as basic as a Stratocaster. Even more so. It's so versatile and has a bright (but not too bright) sound. It's HIGHLY customizable. The shape of the neck is very comfortable for both rhythm and lead play. I'd even go so far as to tell you to make this your kids' (or YOUR) first guitar. For one thing, it's a Fender. The build quality is rock solid. It's really designed to be a lifetime instrument. Cons–really just the shade of the neck itself. It's a little pale. But that's just me. Not only that, but later on you can purchase another Fender neck and just replace it. (It's easy.) Don't let this absolute steal for a real Fender Tele get away from you. You'll thank me.

When you want a Les Paul you’ll want a real Les Paul so that’s a Gibson and not a single cut guitar by any onther manufacturer that has its looks changed because it may not look like a Gibson Les Paul. Furthermore: the Gibson Les Paul since its inception in the ‘50’s has always been and will be THE benchmark. Period. This Gibson Les Paul Classic is a gorgeous, great guitar and very competetively priced too. For your tone you really do not need an AAA flame top; many of the best sounding ‘vintage’ Les Pauls are plaintops. And when you do not want one of the ‘burst’ versions that just do not quite meet the looks of the old ones, this Translucent Red is the way to go.. you’ll be buying a guitar that reminisces of George Harrison’s ‘Lucy’ and Dicky Betts’s ‘Redtop’ without having to fork out Custom Shop money. You’ll also get 4 push-pull pots that effectively give you all the inspiring tonal options (including the ‘Peter Green’ out of phase tone) you’d find in a Custom Shop Jimmy Page # 2 (read the spec sheets) but again without having to pay the Custom Shop Price. Between 1990 and 2008 there was also a ‘Les Paul Classic’ too but the ‘Classic’ version on sale these days has little to do with that previous ‘Classic 1960’. The Burstbucker pick ups are supposed to adhere to the specifications Seth Lover intended and that Gibson was applying to the 1961 P.A.F. / Patent Number Pickups. And indeed the Burstbuckers are clear, brilliant, a bit ‘bright’ and not ‘woolly’ or ‘fatty’. More a bit like the P90 ‘without hum’ it was designed to be but then a little more powerful, without the screaming harshness of some ceramic pickups Gibson used in the past. The Grover tuners – although I prefer the looks of the Kluson keystones – are also ‘60’s-modifications’ and I must say they have a wonderfull ‘solid’ mechanically feeling action. The crown inlays in the fretboard are a perfect fit (unlike some others where gaps were obvioulsy filled up with glue or something) and the fret bindings have been finished properly (in the past I’ve seen that done less scrupulously..). The Classic also sports the ‘modern’ larger strap holders so it is not imperative to fit straplock systems right away… Any drawbacks? Some people might scare back at the weight: it comes in at 4.25 kilo’s and the Slim Taper neck profile (also a ‘60’s’ characteristic) has to be your thing. Minor detail: upon arrival the fretboard was very dry but all it needed was some luscious application of Axe Wax and now the fretboard has the same nice even chocolate brown hue as my Gibson 2019 Firebird. When you are on the search for ‘a’ Les Paul, at least try the Les Paul Classic as well. I have sold two M.I.J. Tokai LoveRocks (a 2002 and a 2003) to fund the purchase of the Gibson Les Paul Classic; that was a gamble but I was right in doing so; the Les Paul Classic really pleases me a lot more. And a note I must add: mine came perfectly set up by one of the guitar techs of Music Store; thank you! Even the intonation was spot on !

Overall: The first guitar I bought myself was a PRS SE Custom 24, it was an amazing guitar especially for a beginner. As I played more I found that I didn't like the finished neck, the fret work wasn't as good as it could be and the pickups weren't the tone I wanted.So I started looking around. A friend of mine showed me his PRS CE and after playing it I was sold. His was the matte black, but when I went on zZounds I saw several colorways that I liked. A few of them had pictures of the actual guitar, so I picked one that had beautiful figuring.The neck, fretwork, and setup are all amazing. This guitar played perfect right out of the box. The pickups sound amazing and the ability to split the coils for complete tonal diversity.My signal chainPRS CE24JHS Muffuletta Ibanez TS808 Fender Blues-Deluxe Reissue As to the case vs gig-bag issue. I prefer a gig-bag, but I wish it had come with the same one that the Silver Sky comes with instead of one that seems almost the same as the SE gig-bag.

I purchased this guitar for my teenage son who has just started to play, so I wanted a budget guitar. The sound is really great and I'm very impressed with both the quality and aesthetics of the guitar. Delivery was efficient and within the estimated date of delivery, which having read other reviews I was expecting it to be later. The item was very well packaged and I was sent the tracking details for DHL and then for Parcelforce once the guitar had made it to the UK. I can recommend using this company based on my experience and this guitar.

Received my Olympic white lead iii a few days ago, tuned and tweaked a bit and fired it up. I play direct into a Bose L1 model ii with boss me 70 and speaker emulation. I do this because at our church we play direct in so that’s my set up. This guitar sounded very nice but a tad thin so I changed out the strings to fender 10’s and wow! This little beast came to life! Very nice almost vintage tone and beautiful resonance with the alder body. Not really a coil split fan but has a nice Tele/Strat quack to it. At this price point you can not go wrong. GET ONE, GET ONE NOW!

The only thing I'm not entirely happy with is the action. It's just a little too high. Other than that, I love it. It's a very nice looking acoustic for the money. It stays in tune extremely well and I was shocked at how full the sound was even with such a thin body. Sounds even better plugged in. The thinner body is super comfortable to handle and hold. It makes the transition from electric to acoustic very easy. The built in tuner is one of my favorite features. It works great and seems to be as accurate as any other tuner I've ever used. Overall, I would recommend this acoustic to anyone on a budget looking for a great sounding and feeling acoustic who doesn't mind the action a little on the higher side. (Side Note – I might be too critical on the action since I'm used to my electrics set up for such low action.)

Overall: I'm no stranger to the scratch and dent game. I think half the fun is trying to figure out where the scratch and or dent is. When this model V came out I already knew that it would be a great guitar. Never played a Dean I didn't like. This model is a steal even at full price. Mahogony body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard, Floyd and hot pickups. Actually, very hot pickups. My guitar has a bright sizzle to it in the bridge pickup and the neck pickup sounds great. Pretty balanced out put. The bridge is a Floyd Rose Lic. Stays in tune well. The fretboard is high quality. No fretsprout to speak of. Intonation is good, stays in tune and no high frets to speak of. The profile is the C shape. Similar to a 50s Lp just a tad thinner. The flat black finish is awesome the blem is only a slight discoloration on a portion of the binding. What that tells me is that the regular price model will be no doubt flawless. If you want that grind, metal, searing flamethrower sound the bolt on is the way to go. Bolt on necks are usually a little brighter. Sustains very well. I'm very very happy with it. It is exactly what it is advertised as. Buy one. You'll love it. Getting the ML X Floyd next. No doubt due to my own preference I will be swapping out the bridge pickup only. All my main guitars have Seymour Duncan TB and SH 6 bridge pickups. Great guitar for nodding to tour own preferences. You'd be doing killer as is too. I'm in no hurry to swap pickups. Great buy.

Overall: The fit and finish on this Mexican-made guitar is terrible! The cheaper Indonesian-made version I have is much much better. Fender should be ashamed of themselves for turning out product like this. The frets are not finished on either edge. They'll cut you if you're not careful. The binding on the lower bout is much wider than on the upper bout. The toggle switch is noisy, doesn't engage well, and is cheap feeling. The intonation setup on arrival was not only severely off on the lower strings, but required moving to the alternate saddle screw location on the Floyd bridge. I have other Mexican-made instruments as well. They are all substandard, but this one is the worst. Cannot recommend any Mexican-made Fender instruments.

In short: for the price this beast is a solid 9/10, overall and realistically it's 6/10. If you are like me and want to get into 7s – this is the one to go with from all the others entry 7s 😉 Neck: I was adjusting it for 3 days, it's almost flat now and I can get really OK action with it, not low like Ibanez but it's just fine. The only problem is 7th string has to be much higher than the others because it's branching on lower frets. Frets are just OK and there is nothing wrong in terms of craftsmanship. I like this neck, it's somewhat fast and I have no problems getting higher up the neck, 26.5 also helps with that and now I'm damn sure 26.5 is something I always needed in my life, period. I rate this neck with 8/10. 9 would go for playability and action, 6 would go to the wood, craftsmanship, ugly fretboard that looks like it didn't get enough laquer or smth, looks VERY dry and unfinished. Tuners: meeeh, they are OK and holds tuning somewhat, I don't really need to adjust it very often which is great. But getting it tuned is like being in a sad and depresive circle of hell, especially with the 7th string. I rate tuners with 4/10 This would be my second phase upgrade. If they didn't hold the tune like they are (kinda OK), rate would be 2/10. Bridge/intonation: not great not terrible, if I decide to replace it, this would go in second phase with tuners too. I had no problems with intonation. In fact, I managed to get it perfectly intonated, you can really hit those high octaves on any string (15th or 17th) and it don't go out of sound, even on 6th and 7th string. I have to see if I could snap some tune-o-matic but I'm afraid I could lose resonation which is already low as f*. I'm ok with the bridge for now, 7/10. Pickups: they don't really "pick up" the 7th 😀 it is kinda muddy but for this price, they really surprised me. They can really pick up hammers and pull-offs nicely (this goes with the neck/frets also). Kinda high output if you ask me, much more than EMG HZH4 for example on my Schecter. These would be my first upgrade, probably Nazgul and Sentinent. I'd rate them 6/10, but for the price 9.5/10, as I said they kinda impressed me, expectations were much lower. Knobs and electronics: metal knobs are very good, and the switch is average, and so is jack, and I don't really have any complaints here. Wood (sound): low-quality wood, it really sucks with resonation and sustain, but again, this is 200-250 price range and it's not like you're gonna buy this guitar to play some Skynyrd or Knopfler 😀 As I got it out of the box I was not very pleased, I mean it's crafted well and looked nice, nothing like that, but as soon I started to play it (unplugged) I got this feeling like I have a wood plank in my lap. Of course, it is expected in this price range. As soon as I plugged it in and started playing I actually started to not care about that too much. So, for this price I am VERY satisfied, it really got me into 7s and I can finally play some older Periphery, Keith Merrow, Whitechapel, even some Vai and Satriani. You can shred very nicely and easy on this guitar, but you need some nerves to make a decent setup first few days since stock setup was disgusting. Strings? I replaced them immediately because the factory strings were a disaster… I put NYXL 10-59, but the bottom string is still not thick enough for drop A, its muddy but maybe it's just the pickups or personal opinion dunno, next time I'm gonna put Elixirs nano 10-56 but will replace that .56 with .062 or something like that. After only 3 days I decided to write an honest review, I cannot dislike this guitar because it really is a beast for this price. It's that good that I plan to invest another 300 dolars just for pickups and tuner. Also, this is my first Jackson ever, and I must express my respect to get something like this for the price of few good weekends outside. In summary: 6/10, for the price 9/10. Go ahead!