What are tomorrow's quirk-casters...???

benwalker · Post by **benwalker** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 2:54 pm

We all know the story about how jags, jazzmasters, mustangs, gibson sonexes, marauder and so on were never considered cool at the time, so ended up going cheap in pawn shops - later to be bought by the likes of SY/Dinosaur/Nirvana etc.. but what are the 'uncool' guitars of today?? Go to any pawn shop and they're filled with chinese no-name Strat rip-offs and dodgy acoustics - which struck me with an odd thought.

Guitar manufacturers haven't designed and mass produced anything interesting since the squier vista series or Roland G-707 (...yes i am a retro geek and that guitar is teh sex...).

It's now reissue, rehash, vintage modified and so on, simply because it's a tried and tested design and will sell. I think the last new guitar I saw that genuinely made me go "wow that's different" was the yamaha RGX-A2, which will never be uncool since it has LEDs on it.

With anything older than 20 years increasing in value because of dealers "old therefore it's good" mentality (...riiiiight....), Supersonics going for the same price they were 12 years ago because that guy from ATDI had one... even Harmony, Kay and so on have all but disappeared only to be found on eBay with grossly inflated price-tags.

So where is it? Where are the marauders of tomorrow/today? WHEEEEEEEERE!!!!

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 2:56 pm

They're under my bed, and I'm not telling you what they are.

benwalker · Post by **benwalker** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 3:05 pm

that's why the market is filled with Shine and other knock-offs then.... anything good under there?

Bacchus · Post by **Bacchus** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 3:12 pm

Erm, yeah. A squier .... bulletmasterstang, .... eighties, made in.... Japan.

Very rare.

benwalker · Post by **benwalker** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 3:17 pm

same series as the katanamaster and super-fifty-one?

Sparky · Post by **Sparky** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 7:39 pm

The future quirky-casters will be the Jagmaster IIs and Cyclones for their uniqueness and moddability.

Jagmasters have those quirky conversion necks that make them unique and the Cyclones have the slightly-off mustang/strat look with the Gibson scale. Please don't let it be the Squeir '51s though.

Will · Post by **Will** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 7:44 pm

It will be the Squier 51s, though - they already sell for more on eBay then they did new.

TheBurbz · Post by **TheBurbz** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 7:51 pm

I agree that Fender aren't producing many exciting new guitars these days. When you look at what came out in the old days, it seems like every 5 or 10 years something new came out. Now they just rely on the Strat and Tele too much, don't they have any more ideas?

light rail coyote · Post by **light rail coyote** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 7:53 pm

this thing

robert(original) · Post by **robert(original)** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:11 pm

i played a blue one of those.
the trem is complete crap,
but the bridge is amazing. the p-90s were kinda weak( i thought)
but by far the coolest jaguar rip off that i have seen.

westtexasred · Post by **westtexasred** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:39 pm

These get my vote

Jagermeister · Post by **Jagermeister** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 8:50 pm

I played one of those Yamaha Ipodish looking things... (unplugged) it had this crazy dark sound. Looked cool, I don't think I could live with that however... VERY light though.

For some reason normal (not internet) players won't try something that doesn't look like a Strat bridge, Floyd, or TOM, or that doesn't have pickups patterned on Gibson Humbuckers or Fender SCs... It's cheaper and percieved as more appealing, as 90% of guitarists only want to sound like Page/Hendrix/Dime anyway.

In the day at least alternatives were produced, and every brand had its own unique pickups/bridge arrangement etc. I don't think anything really weird could be made right now, unless emo guitarists unionized and struck a deal with the mob to collectively play some wacky thing.

Anyway, it's just like with cars: In the 50s/early 60s Pontiac, Buick, Chevy, Cadillac all had different engines, interior componentry etc... Somewhere along the way everything just became homogenous and boring.

Actually, let's compare it more to the market for violins, which are so standard that while the word "guitar" can conjure any number of shapes, everyone knows what a fucking violin looks like. Make a violin with a roller bridge, diff body shape, hell even a different color and it's suddenly something blasphemous that some people won't even call a Violin, and very little tonal difference is appreciated. Acoustic guitars are similar in that regard, if not quite as bad. Maybe in 100 years there will only be "guitars", and they'll probably look a whole lot like some retarded PRS, and anything differing from that will be regarded as prototype.

Will · Post by **Will** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:03 pm

The yamaha AEX is a great guitar that sounds crazy good. Plays nice, too (reminds me of the first generation Parker Flys, before they sold out and started doing solid mahogany/maple neck BS). I would have bought one, but its way to high-tech for my current collection.

robert(original) · Post by **robert(original)** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:07 pm

i bet the daisy rock stuff will get pricey as time goes on.
i mean come on.
pastel colors, wierd designs, cheap construction, they are the new silvertone/univox

Ninja Mike 808 · Post by **Ninja Mike 808** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:10 pm

Maybe Jackson will make a comeback!

robert(original) · Post by **robert(original)** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:26 pm

if jackson makes a comeback i will kill you in your sleep.
no joke, i hate working on those monstrositys of hell and plywood.
sometimes its actual wood tho.

Ninja Mike 808 · Post by **Ninja Mike 808** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 9:38 pm

robert(original) wrote:if jackson makes a comeback i will kill you in your sleep.
no joke, i hate working on those monstrositys of hell and plywood.
sometimes its actual wood tho.

I am borrowing my bro's soloist, so, I'm dope... Automatically. I hate Floyd Rose, but the set neck and easy action makes this shit sleeeeeeeek.

Truthfully, tho, pawnshops can go to hell. Only thing cheap on eBay is looking at it.

astro · Post by **astro** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:41 pm

I suspect that the future quirky-casters will be the pointy heavy metal guitars of the 80's.

There are a lot of parallels between the 80's pointy-casters and the jags/JM's/mustangs. They were very popular for a few years for a specific genre of music, but quickly became typecast and nobody wanted them, thus dropping their monetary value to the point where they could be had very cheap. And like the quirky Fenders that we love so much, a lot of the pointy-casters and super-strats are well built and quite playable, with a unique sound, and can be had for a fraction of what they cost new back in the day.

The jags, JM's, and 'stangs were out of fashion in the 70's and 80's because everybody associated them with surf music and the like. They didn't become popular again until a new generation came about that did not associate these instruments with surf, and could thus separate the guitars from the genre of music with which they had been typecast. Right now, one of the reasons that we hate those pointy day-glo monstrosities is because we associate them with shitty big haired cheese metal bands and their various vomit inducing power ballads. But probably in 20 years, the guitarists of the future who are looking to play unique looking instruments will start to buy them for cheap, and my guess is that they'll be playing something other than metal with them.

astro · Post by **astro** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:44 pm

At least I HOPE they'll be playing something other than metal...

Ninja Mike 808 · Post by **Ninja Mike 808** » Wed Apr 23, 2008 10:45 pm

And, anything from Ovation.