I am looking at the low-cost Agile Les Paul knock-offs sold by Rondo Music. The sound I am after will be Paul Butterfied sometimes, Clarence Gatemouth Brown sometimes, and Link Wray/Dick Dale sometimes, in that order. I will be going through an Evans JES 150 amp, which was designed to amplify more than enhance, though there are reverb, depth, expand, and scruff controls.

Which pickup should I be looking for? The Agile LPs have (in ascending order by price) Ceramic, Alnico 2, P90s, or Type V Alnico Wilkinson.

These guitars can be seen at http://www.rondomusic.net/electricguitar-ss4.html. If someone has a link that explains the difference between pickup types, please pass it along.

(I was lusting after a Danelectro, but heard one played by the guy in Michelle Wilson's backup band. He smoked at lead on a Fender, but picked up the Danelectro only once in the set, to play rhythm. It was pretty "trebbly." I was going to visit Subway guitars to check their versions of Danos out. Considering the sound I want to make, should I be looking at Danos, too?)

With thanks.

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=2384&item=7305962960&rd=1

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=33036&item=7307860774&rd=1

There's lots of choices. To me electric blues means Muddy. For Muddy it was a Telecaster. I checked ebay and there are some good deals on tele pickups. They are a bit noisy though. I also have to add Johnny Winter to the Electric Blues genre. Now, Johnny, he used many axes. Here's a link to some of Johnny's axes http://www.yee.ch/~jwinter/winter_guitars.html Looks to me like he used quite a few Gibson PAF humbuckers in his day.

Frankenstrat, indeed, the Paul Butterfield sound I like is Mike Bloomfield. From what I've read, early on he used the Les Paul, then grew to like his Telecaster. (I have East West and the Al Kooper/Mike Bloomfield Lost Concert Tapes, so it is the LP I'm hearing.) But, you know, my mission is not to sound like Mike Bloomfield, but to figure out which low-cost Agile LP knock-off to get. At least one difference in the line is the type of pickup—the line ranges from about $250 to $500 or so. I guess I wasn't clear enough—I don't think I want to put new pickups in a new instrument—I want to try to figure out whether it is worth it to spend twice as much to get Type V Alnico Wilkinson (whatever they are) instead of Ceramic (whatever that is). If I get one of these guitars, I may look at new pickups down the line, but I will have a lot of playing to do before it becomes a real need.

I would prefer a new instrument, but I really had a lot of fun this afternoon, Deacon and Crossrdblue, looking at Danos on the Web. Subway in Berkeley CA makes new Dano knock-offs, if you can imagine such a thing ($500). Unless I learn differently when I get to the store, I think the Dano sound may be too "thin" for what I want to do, though I'm amazed at what Link Wray squeezed out of his. But I'll try both the new and the old Danos when I get to Subway… (Two of the Dano sellers on Ebay said they tuned them open and used them for slide. For me, that's a warning sign that the action may be way high and the intonation may be way off. Not terminal problems, but sometimes a setup doesn't fix these things. To me, a $300 vintage Dano with un-fixable intonation problems is a very expensive instrument.)

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Originally posted by mostlyfingers:
The samples on the site all sounded a little "industrial" to me, sinc they don't have the deadned strings and missed notes that I add to my music, but I'll hold off judgement 'til I hold one in my hands and plug it in in the store. Plus, the store is nearby.

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Jeff Miller has some very good Variax demos on his website (plus he's a killer player), check them out here; http://www.guitaristjeffmiller.com/audio.htm

I have a much better idea now of what to look for and listen to when I go to the store.

I imagine most of you have had this dilemma. I have three guitars already, and that's plenty. (Yeah, I know...only a start.) But I'm watching the Clapton/Crossroads DVD I got for Christmas, and I see the likes of Buddy Guy, close-up, moving the high E string half way across the fretboard, and then some. I need that, and with an Agile I can pretend to be a shredder for a couple of hundred. But if I like to buy new (which I do), and I begin to try to make the most out of my spending instead of wasting my money on a crap guitar, all of a sudden the couple of hundred becomes $800. At that point, it's easy to talk myself out of getting a fourth guitar. What people do, and what I have done, is to hold off buying until enough resources show up.

So I'll begin lurking around guitar shops again, after nearly two years of abstinence… I'll plan on a lot of time with the Variax. It'll be a quicker trip to play with the Danos. The Agile? I still want to try one out, so I have to figure a way to get to Union NJ. Meantime, I can check out the real thing, and the Epiphone, too.

On a practical note, if you go guitar shopping it would be wise play the guitar through the same style of amp you will actually be using or you might find the guitar sound quite different when you get it home.