{"id":3653,"date":"2025-06-13T02:00:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-13T02:00:17","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/?p=3653"},"modified":"2025-06-14T06:30:50","modified_gmt":"2025-06-14T06:30:50","slug":"recommended-guitars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicademy.com\/blog\/recommended-guitars\/","title":{"rendered":"My Favourite Guitars and a Recommendation for a Great New Buy Today from Fender"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the questions I’m most regularly asked is about my preferred guitars. And I can certainly spend way too much time looking the guitar shops as one (or even half a dozen) is never enough. I’ll happily confess to having GAS (Guitar Acquisition Syndrome).<\/p>\n

So I thought I’d run you through some of the collection that I’ve gathered over the years as well as recommend something you can buy new today that works as a great value beginner level purchase but is also a really nice electric guitar for a regular player.<\/p>\n

A Guitar For Every Occasion<\/h2>\n

I do buy and sell guitar gear pretty regularly but the guitars I’ve listed below are those I would rescue first if my house was burning down.<\/p>\n

\"Squire-telecaster\"<\/a>1981 JV Squire Telecaster.<\/strong>
\nThis has been my main guitar for years and the one I always go back to despite fleeting moments with other girlfriends. I bought this nearly 30 years ago for \u00a3170 but had to go up to Scotland to buy it. When I got it, it had been sprayed an awful blue colour so I got a guitar tech friend to buff it back to the original blonde\/yellow. Don\u2019t be fooled by the Squire name. Back in the early eighties Fender<\/a> launched Squire to compete with the Japanese Tokai\u2019s and Greco\u2019s which were much better than the new American Fenders of the day and were really great quality copies of the good vintage pre CBS Fenders that everyone wanted. JV\u2019s weren\u2019t that well known or valuable when I bought it but now they\u2019re nearly 30 years old they\u2019ve started to hit the vintage and collectable market. The bridge pickup is a Seymour Duncan Alnico Pro. It\u2019s not that powerful but creates some sweet tones. For some extra punch to push the tubes on my amp I use an Award Session Mixmatch as the first pedal on one of my boards and that seems to work very well. For driven and distorted sounds I tend to roll the tone back to around 8 which takes off the top just enough to darken it a bit.<\/p>\n

The middle pickup is a Seymour P90 which I can blend with other pickups or have on its own via the mini toggle switch between the volume and tone controls. I tried it as an experiment and stuck with it so far because it can add a slightly bigger, warmer tone to the arsenal. I must say I\u2019m not completely convinced so next I am gonna try a Dimarzio P90 sized Superdistortion humbucker that I have lying around. See if I can get some decent Gibson-ish tones out of the thing too. Has anybody tried this? Before any of the vintage buffs complain about my wrecking the guitar with a middle pickup \u2013 the hole was already badly routed for a standard sized single coil when I bought it so the damage was already done!<\/p>\n

For all you JV anoraks, I know the JV\u2019s didn\u2019t launch till 1982 and this looks like one from the second batch (hence the small Fender logo) but the neck date definitely says September 81 so who knows how that happened? Maybe it\u2019s an earlier unused Greco neck? Although maybe not as I\u2019m told they were different shaped to the JVs and this seems to be exactly the same as the other JVs I\u2019ve tried. Either way if you see a JV for sale, buy it. Great instruments and appreciating assets. What more could you want?<\/p>\n

2008 58 Gibson Chambered Les Paul.\"Gibson-Les-Paul-Chambered\"<\/a><\/strong>
\nThis guitar is I guess what\u2019s known as reassuringly expensive\u2026 I\u2019ve wanted a Les Paul for a really long time that I felt I got on with and I\u2019ve actually been through about 3 or 4 in the last 10 years but they\u2019ve always a) been too heavy b) didn\u2019t stay in tune as well the Telecaster or c) both. So I\u2019ve had a Standard, a couple of 70\u2019s Deluxes with the mini humbuckers, had a couple of SG\u2019s to get round the weight issue but again I found the tuning a bit delicate, especially with a capo, and never really got on with the extended neck thing.<\/p>\n

Then I tried this used but new-ish custom shop 58 Chambered Les Paul that\u2019s now a couple of years old. These had a lot of the mahogany taken out to save weight, at the same time some of that hollowing added a little \u2018air\u2019 to the tone and with these particular models, Gibson had the tuning set up on a Plek computer system which hugely helps with the tuning and intonation along with a big baseball bat neck which I like. So basically I\u2019ve got a great sounding light weight Les Paul that stays IN tune. I guess you get what you pay for but having just bought it I found out Gibson have incorporated some chambering, along with the plek setup and Tonepros vintage style locking tuners into their new Standard model at a much cheaper price\u2026Great.<\/p>\n

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\"Gretsch-Malcolm-Young-6131-guitar\"<\/a>1996 Gretsch Malcolm Young II<\/strong>
\nI bought this as a bit of an experiment when I was in the US and the pound was extremely strong against the dollar and if I didn\u2019t like it I could always sell it back in the UK and make a small profit. That was before the recession and everybody stopped buying guitars. I got it as a lot the worship band guys were converting over to Gretsch Duo Jets as you get a big humbucker tone but its not as thick and brutal as a Les Paul. It\u2019s seen as a bit of a niche guitar for AC\/DC fans but because the Malcolm is designed as a rhythm guitar I reckon it\u2019s a bit of a sleeper instrument for worship band guys. Its semi- hollow too which keeps the weight down and adds to the jangle and The Badass bridge helps keep it in tune. That said it\u2019s still not as stable as my Tele which never goes out despite what you subject it to. Downsides? I don\u2019t think it\u2019s as pretty as the single cut Duo, it\u2019s got weird tone controls and I\u2019m not entirely sold on the Postman Pat Red colour scheme, but I think its an interesting guitar at a bargain price so I’m happy to keep it until the values go back up.<\/p>\n

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\"McPherson-Acoustic-Guitar\"<\/a>2007 Mcpherson<\/strong>
\nThe Mcpherson is just a beautiful modern sounding acoustic. When I interviewed Stu G from Delirious back in 2005 for\u00a0our original Intermediate Guitar DVDs he had one and it was the most gorgeous thing I ever heard and so well constructed. So I thought one day I\u2019d love to own one.
\nMcpherson don\u2019t have any UK dealers so I had to choose what I wanted \u2018blind\u2019. I wouldn\u2019t normally recommend this but they were so helpful and talked me through the different choice of body depths and woods and how they would affect the sound. Eventually I chose a Redwood top and Rosewood back and sides as a good compromise for finger style and using a pick. It sounds amazing and I\u2019m particularly impressed with the Buzz Feiten tuning system. It really helps you get spot on intonation all the way up the neck. Great for combining open and fretted notes up high or using a capo without it pulling sharp.
\nWhen I moved house the removers managed to store the Mcpherson in it’s case in front of a radiator which warped it a little. I ended up sending it back to the States for repair which left me with no Mcpherson for our Intermediate Acoustic Guitar course when we filmed it. I really wanted to use the Mcpherson so our lovely friend Graham Kendrick (he of Shine Jesus Shine fame) lent me his.<\/p>\n

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\"Lakewood-guitar\"<\/a>1990 Lakewood<\/strong>
\nThis is the first serious acoustic I bought used around 1994. I really wanted a Lowden and this shop in Oxford was doing them for about \u00a3800 on interest free credit. The Lakewood happened to be there for \u00a3400 and gave me 90% Lowden tone for half the money so being a cheapskate I bought it. Ironically those early 90\u2019s Lowden\u2019s are now worth quite a bit so either way I would have been quids in. Being a cedar top with a mahogany body it\u2019s quite warm and a little more suited to finger picking. The pickup is an original Mike Vanden Nemesis which has now become the Fishman rare earth. These are actually a single coil and give a sound all of their own but I find the combo of it and the woods work very well together. Since I\u2019ve got the Mcpherson I’ve relegated\u00a0the Lakewood\u00a0to high strung duties <\/a>(using a set of the drone strings you would find on a 12 string) but as it\u2019s 20 years old now I\u2019m quite attached to it and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ll ever sell it.<\/p>\n

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\"Acousticaster-Guitar\"<\/a>Godin Classical Acousticaster
\n<\/strong>If you are not familiar with the Godin\u2019s they are quite light, hollow and electric sized but have a series of tuned metal rods inside the body that are supposed to help with the sound and sustain. I wanted an electro classical for ages and I found this one used in a shop somewhere. It probably dates from some point in the 90s and was quite a bit cheaper because someone had gouged a big whole in the top just below the neck, trying to get access to the truss rod. Why they just didn\u2019t take the neck off I have no idea. Either way it doesn\u2019t affect the tone which is pretty spot on.<\/p>\n

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\"Precision-Bass\"<\/a>Mongrel Precision Bass
\n<\/strong>I got this bass for the princely sum of \u00a3130 a few years ago. It\u2019s really a bit of a bitza instrument mostly made up of ESP neck and body with Yamaha hardware and MEC active pickups. But it sounds great. The tuners are faded gold so they\u2019ve got a mismatched oldskool junkyard kind of look and are reversed\u00a0 so you have to turn them the opposite way to what you expect. No idea why, maybe from a left hand bass?<\/p>\n

The mahogany body is bizarrely pretty light and the neck is walnut I believe, which I have never seen on a P bass before but sounds great and balances well. Pickup wise the MECs are fine but I may well put a passive P-J set in at some point for a few more tones.<\/p>\n

It was actually put together for a local music shop back in the 80\u2019s by a luthier friend of mine who has looked after my guitars for years. When the shop went bust another buddy picked it up for \u00a3125 if I remember\u2026 So he had it for about 10 years and then passed it on to me for a whole \u00a35 profit. Not bad both ways I reckon. I really like it. Probably because it\u2019s a bit of a bargain and if you know me you\u2019ll realise I\u2019m a bit of a cheap date.<\/p>\n

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What guitar to buy new now? Fender Squier Sonic Stratocaster HSS<\/h2>\n

Marie’s son was learning to play (electric) guitar so of course I was roped in to help select a suitable guitar. Marie wanted to buy new so that was a fun few hours in a guitar shop. I felt that the Fender Squire was a good choice and Marie really liked the sunburst colour so we went with the Limited Edition Sonic Stratocaster HSS<\/a>. It’s got that iconic Fender style and a great tone.<\/p>\n

At \u00a3180 it’s a great price with quality not often seen at this level. It has a lightweight body so not too heavy for a youngster and comfortable for long sessions. The thin body depth (40mm) means that it is easy to handle. It features a bolt-on maple neck with a satin \u201cC\u201d profile and 9.5\u2033 radius with 21 narrow-tall frets \u2014 smooth, accessible, and ideal for faster playing. It has Squier’s ceramic humbucking bridge pickup that adds fullness and drive while the neck\/middle ceramic single-coils deliver classic Strat chime. The 5-way switch combines pickups for versatile sounds \u2014 crisp cleans, chunky rhythm, or overdriven solos. Note: bridge humbucker is powerful but can sound slightly thin or sludgy under gain. There’s also a 6-saddle tremolo bridge for expressive vibrato from gentle shimmers to something stronger. The fingerboard is made of maple which contrasts with the chrome-plated hardware. The sealed die-cast tuners and reliable chrome hardware hold tuning well, though occasionally you might need some minor setup tweaks. There’s a synthetic bone nut, black pickguard and knobs which add visual flair and functional reliability. The limited-edition colour means black plastics which are more striking against the sunburst finish.<\/p>\n

For beginners, it’s a solid introduction to electric guitar: enjoyable, easy to play, and inspiring to pick up regularly.<\/p>\n

Pros and Cons<\/strong><\/p>\n

On the plus side:<\/p>\n