Some great songs, but I'm a 1984 guy. You just can't beat Panama and Jump, and I say this as someone who's always hated, hated, David Lee Roth.

Difficult to say mang. String gauge and radius (fretboard and bridge) play a role. I just adjust it until it sounds right without sacrificing playability too much. I also do the same with pickup and polepiece heights to get the most dynamic tone.

My advice is get a string action gauge and make notes on what you're hearing and feeling as you play.Check out factory and famous player setupsto get in the ballpark. For example...

I just busted out the ol' Stewmac string action gauge for you and on my axe with a 16" radius with matching bridge radius and heavy strings it's5/64(.080" / 2mm) on bass and treble sides at the 17th fret. Same as the EJ setup.

More nerd talk...

Spoiler!

I'm not sure 1mm is practical unless all you did was shred with a very light touch. The Ibanez factory setup on that page is 1.2mm bass side and 0.8mm treble. I remember watching a Jack Gardiner video where you could see the strings practically laying on the frets and he makes it work. Conversely I've seen Rick Graham doing that hammers from nowhere thing at warp speed on a Strat with an action that looked pretty high. Malmsteen plays with a high action.

I've noticed a lot of modern players don't really bend strings much and like more of a plinky tone. It makes me laugh when they say they like a "plexi" tone when they're using a metric fkton of gain and everything sounds compressed as chit. Anyway that's where a super low action makes perfect sense. Why work harder than you need to? The same goes for light vs. heavy strings. But if you like those boomer bends, more SRV than Tim Henson, then a really low action and lighter strings is probably going to compromise what you're going for. Horses for courses. There is no right or wrong here.

I tried around 1mm and sustain higher up the neck wasn't the same so that was short lived. I also found gun barrel straight with no relief didn't work for me either.

Cliffs: do what sounds and feels right.

1.5mm sounds like a good middle ground and adjust up or down from there.My interests are pretty diverse and at the end of the day I picked up a guitar because of Malcolm Young and James Hetfield. Banging on those power chords still floats my boat and I like everything ringing out. A little buzz on the E and A strings when I dig in is fine, it actually sounds good to me, but not on the D string. I draw the line at that string pinging away and the G would be a total deal breaker. So a little relief works for me. And let's face it, unless you're always playing in a climate controlled room that neck is going to move and I don't want it to backbow with a little humidity and be unplayable without an adjustment.

One of the benefits of roasted + quartersawn + baseball bat is it doesn't move much so I haven't touched the truss rod in years.

I can play whats up on guitar lol

Some say its easy. I say it might be.

You'd need impeccable fretwork. Ideally the frets would be perfectly seated and glued in and stainless would be my preference once they're leveled since they won't wear out.

With a really low action it'll only take one high spot to drive you nuts. And as mentioned earlier you'll need to be constantly adjusting the truss rod outside of a climate controlled room because perfectly straight in those conditions will backbow with humidity and be unplayable. Smaller and compound radius necks are fine but ideally I think you'd want something like a 16" or 20" radius so that no matter where you are on the neck the nut and bridge are perfectly aligned with it. Holdsworth insisted on a 20" radius and Shawn Lane's Vigier was flat like a classical guitar.

Been playing guitar since 2006 and every year I come back to this, because, in my opinion, this is one of the best guitar playing out there.


Never mind all the Polyphia stuff, if I ever reach this level, I'll consider myself a true guitarist.

"Stop torturing yourself, man. You'll never afford it. Live in the now!"

Aim higher mang.

Spoiler!

$500K and sold immediately.

A Les Paul into a Marshall is the greatest sound I've heard but they always felt weird to me. SGs are more comfortable.

Then there's that headstock. Doesn't take much to break it and it's difficult to keep the G string in tune. You always need dat NUT SAUCE and a tuner close by.

I know you've expressed a dislike for signature models, but what are your thoughts on this?



I'm glad Ibanez isn't doing 24 frets on everything. In the minority here but I'm not a fan of 24 frets. I prefer the neck pickup in the right place.

a couple new Andy Timmons videos




This podcast is live now but you can watch the whole thing here

(he's using a Suhr amp that looks a little different than the one posted above (sl68 I think), never seen him use this before)



edit: definitely like the lonestar amp better in this clip, the suhr sounds dry to my ears

You're right, it's an SL68 — essentially a 1968 100W Marshall with EL34s.

The Lone Star was designed for 6L6 tubes but Timmons uses EL34s in it. I agree his best tones are with that amp but I'm sure if he wanted to he could dial in the Suhr to sound similar.

He likes to use two amps for his stereo delay. He runs the effects send out of one amp into the Halo (previously the Strymon Timeline) and the left side of his delay goes into the effects return powering a cabinet on the left while the right side goes into the effects return of a second amp powering a cabinet on the right. It's a simple way to get a big sound on stage. He then mics them up for these videos.

I paid $6700 for that Lynch guitar, but I'm never spending even half that for another guitar ever again. I'm very pleased with it though.

My SG is a 2014 Limited 24 in Ebony. It has next to no neck dive, weighted perfectly with a very nice C profile neck.

I understand from a features standpoint it's pretty basic for what it is, but yea it essentially is a turbo-signature guitar lol.

The major factor is that yes I'm a Lynch fan, and it's a one of a kind piece not an assembly guitar so no two of his custom line is the same, the pickup is boutique and I only wanted one, he wanted to put a single coil in, but I didn't like that for the aesthetic.

The playability and fretwork is good though, but George said he'd buy it back if I ever wanted to part with it. I don't see that happening, but if I ever do sell I can definitely make my money back.

EDIT: FWIW I also met him in person, and he played it on stage for me.

Anyone here use a multi effects pedal instead of an amp? I hear the line 6 helix is good but I'm not trying to spend $1200 so I'm looking at the line 6 pod go