How would you describe your ES 336 compared to an ES 339? (BTW..both must be strung with 10-44 TI's for this comparison...)
Thanks, Chito.

 

I always put it this way, the 336 sounds closer to a Les Paul while a 339 leans toward the 335. I'm thinking it could be that the 336 has its back and sides are carved from a solid piece of mahogany while the 339 has a thin laminate body much like the 335. The 339 resonates more though. And they're both strung with 11-47 TIs.

 

Any of my Ibanez AZ's (HH, HSS, HSH). The HH with the 10 different pickup positions can cover the most ground. But the other two are also really versatile.

While all that versatility is nice, I can do most of what I need with (at least) a neck and bridge pickup. If we're talking clean-only, then a neck pickup alone is fine.

 

This mongrel that started as a ca. 1990 American Standard Tele, then various mod iterations to achieve its final form. Basically, it follows the Brent Mason format. I consider it my Swiss Army knife gig guitar — covers anything and everything for me!

 

You are right, this is my old lady that I built couple years ago..........

 

It’s almost cheating with so many pickup combo options, but the PRS Semi-Hollow Special 22 is likely the most versatile I’ve played / owned. The semi-hollow aspect pushes the versatility even further.

 

My god, man. What a friggin beaut.

 

Variax.

 

I have a variax that I installed a Roland GK-3 pickup in or on into a Roland GR-55. This gives me the variax guitars, tunings, banjos, sitar etc. Then the GR-55 gives me 2 full 900 patch synths plus one Roland virtual guitars (like variax) and the natural guitar simultaneously.

"The Roland GR-55 can use up to four sound sources simultaneously: two internal PCM synth engines, the COSM guitar modelling, and the normal guitar input. You can layer two different synth voices from its 910-voice library, and you can also combine those synth voices with the COSM modelling section to layer a modelled guitar or amp sound"

 

…almost every Strat I’ve ever owned.

 

My strat does everything so much better than my LP or tele's

 

HSS or dual humbucker with split coils. DGT and a Knaggs Larry Mitchell Signature come to mind.

 

dual humbucker with split coils.

Fully agreed. Like the ‘24 Les Paul Supreme I currently have listed for sale

Joking aside, between the ability to split the pickups, bypass and phase it’s pretty cool what you can do with it. I’m pretty sure the new LP moderns have the same functions as well. Very well rounded guitars.

That said, I prefer just having a different guitar for whatever sound I’m chasing at that moment

 

Any guitar, for anything, really. Telecasters in country, or punk, or jazz, Stratocaster for Hendrix psychedelia or Lawrence Welk, Byrdland for jazz, country, or whatever it is that Nugent plays.

It doesn't really matter which guitar I pick up, I sound like me. I really like the short scale of the Byrdland, and I used that guitar to play everything from George Gershwin to Bruno Mars.

 

I’m with you on this. With very few exceptions I do what I do on any guitar. So long as it sounds good and is fun to play, I figure you should be able to find what you want to say with it.

 

For me... A Strat... It does it all!! No preference for what year it was made!!

 

I guess the question to ask is: What, for you, makes for versatility? In other words, how do YOU define it? I don't think there is a single correct answer to that question. Rather, I suspect some players will suggest a different instrument because of a different personal definition of versatility. For instance, someone may feel that more pickups or more controls makes a guitar versatile, while someone else may feel that versatility depends on how many different genres of music it can be effective/comfortable with, even if it only has 2 pickups and a single volume control.

I've never even seen one up close, let alone played one, but Adrian Belew's signature Parker Fly strikes me as the epitome of versatility. Equipped with a Sustainiac in the neck and DiMarzio at the bridge, Fishman piezo system, and hex output for synth purposes, there isn't much it can't do....if one is inclined to do those things.

https://www.guitarplayer.com/news/adrian-belew-on-convincing-ken-parker-to-make-a-signature-fly

 

Either my ES-335 or my Tele.

 

of mine…
my LP copy.
the neck pickup is a Seymour Duncan P-Rail wired for humbucker (series), P90 style or Hot Rail.
(They can be wired for parallel as well, but that required a different switching- and I didn’t feel like buying their pickup ring with the switches.)
the bridge is a JB-wired Series/parallel/split.
i use it for slide, and it can get in the neighbourhood of my other solidbodies.
it has 15 different settings, although I don’t use them all, they’re there.
Six get used often, and a couple of others aren’t far behind.

 

For me it's my Godin Exit 22, with EMG 60/S/S, from clean to crunch with just the 3-way switch, volume and tone knobs. That's the one that will cover everything (blues/pop/rock/'80s metal) whatever amp or pedals.

 

My #1: The Ibanez AT100 gets me anywhere I need to be. All positions includng in-between can get you Strat/Tele/LP as needed, clean or gain. The Wilkinson-Gotoh VSVG bridge is great, I have all 5 springs on so it's a tight pull but I can drop D or break a string with no problems (it also has locking tuners). An amazing neck shape too, a heck of a guitar!

 

Music Man Majesty. Humbucker or coil split (3 position with the tone knob being a push-push), piezo pickups you can blend or use on their own, a built in boost for lead (volume pot push-push), floating bridge that stays in tune and that doesn't require a locking nut.

 

My old Greco strat. Thing can do anything.

 

Heritage H535. Does everything.

 

The most versatile I've worked on was this customer's walnut bodied Gibson. He wanted a Jimmy Page 21-switch rig, which is exceedingly hard to install in a thinline body. It took me 3 tries of "ship in a bottle" to get everything in place.

 

One of the guitars with the most sound options I’ve owned is a PRS 513, 5 pickups, combinable in 13 different ways, but not overly complicated to do so. I know too many bells and whistles is a turn off for many players. I like the dual blade switches to select the modes. A standard 5 way to select the pickup combinations in an HSH configuration, and then a 3 way to select between full output humbucker, partial humbucker and full single coils. I guess the missing element is the ability to blend single and humbuckers together, which you get with the 509/special.

 

 

Definitely the Godin Montreal if we're talking about the number of tone options defining versatility. This is my second one, which unfortunately started having electronics issues I didn't want to deal with so I sold it back to Long & McQuade.

 

I find, depending in the settings, all three of my electrics are quite versatile. I have a Strat, Tele and an LP. The Strat has never really been associated with jazz, but given the right settings (and it does not need to be decked), it works as well as the Tele (cue Julian Lage) or the LP. I'm not a proefessional musician, and if I was, I'm not sure what guitar I'd primarily use regardless of what genre of music I was playing. However, I can't see why I'd change my approach, which is to play which ever one I feel like picking up.

 

My Rick Turner and also my PRS HBII

 

I had a Variax which would be the most versatile guitar I have owned in terms of capability, but in terms of actual functionality, this is the one I got the most from.

 

A bit of single coil, p90 and HB. A stable floating trem and a 5 selector switch and I'm pretty well covered for tones.