Hard tail guitar for down tuning

[Alicia Willis]

Okay y’all, I play a fender (with a trem bridge) so obviously my baby doesn’t hold lower tuning well.
I’m currently trying to play some drop D riffage on my husbands Gibson but I’m finding I just don’t...

A. Like the way it feels in my hands
B. Can’t get the sound out of it I can with my fender.

sound issue could just be because I know what my pickups do and how to adjust. I have aHSS strat

looking for advice.
Kind of toying with the idea of a PRS because they sound good but I’m wondering , if I don’t like the way the Gibson feels will I like it ?

it’s funny to me, people always say you pay for quality. The Gibson I’m playing costs double what my fender did and I prefer my fender. Does $$$ really equate to better ? Or is that personal preference as well ?

I got off topic

want something that can handle a simple drop D and also go to C standard, with the feel of a strat.

 

[Christian Schulze]

Okay y’all, I play a fender (with a trem bridge) so obviously my baby doesn’t hold lower tuning well.
I’m currently trying to play some drop D riffage on my husbands Gibson but I’m finding I just don’t...

A. Like the way it feels in my hands
B. Can’t get the sound out of it I can with my fender.

sound issue could just be because I know what my pickups do and how to adjust. I have aHSS strat

looking for advice.
Kind of toying with the idea of a PRS because they sound good but I’m wondering , if I don’t like the way the Gibson feels will I like it ?

it’s funny to me, people always say you pay for quality. The Gibson I’m playing costs double what my fender did and I prefer my fender. Does $$$ really equate to better ? Or is that personal preference as well ?

I got off topic

want something that can handle a simple drop D and also go to C standard, with the feel of a strat.

Well...I am no expert, and for sure Ed is gonna give you a fine answer. But something that has stratt tones and feel I guess but can support lower tunings...maybe an Ibanez?
I have an Epiphone Les Paul with a coil split which can give me single coily sounds and I play my baby I D standart all the time, sometimes even C#.

And when it comes to $$$ I truly believe branding is a bing thing...no way in hell am I gonna buy a 2000$ Gibson. But its a lot of personal taste too...cause I would totally spend 2000$ on an Ibanez.

 

[Donovan Etue]

I mean you could probably just block off the bridge with some coins. I did that with my Schecter E-1 that has a floyd rose that pissed me off because I couldn't change tuning's on a whim haha. Took a total of I think $1.58 US to block it off and I can move freely between E-Standard, Drop D, E Flat, and D Standard tuning. I much prefer that to the floyd. Plus you'll get to keep the feel of the neck on your current guitar and be able to change tuning's on a whim without having to deal with a temperamental bridge who fights you the whole way. You won't be able to use the tremolo but you'll have solid tuning stability and the ability to easily swap tuning's without spending an hour adjusting different parts. Plus you'll keep the neck that you're used to and like as well as the pickups which you know the sound they should have and how to adjust them to get the sound you're looking for. Ibanez has their AZ series which is pretty much their take of a strat. None of the new models have a hard tail bridge but you can pretty easily block off the bridge with some coins and some electrical tape or some painters tape. They also come with an HSS setup so it may feel closer to home. I don't know how the necks feel but they're listed as the AZ C type which I'm guessing will be a little rounder and more fender like. That's the best that I can come up with at the moment so I hope it helps! Good luck guitar hunting!

 

[Bellah83]

Can you describe the feel of the fender you prefer? Is it the weight, the neck width, scale length or fret size? Figure out what you like about the feel of the fender compared to the Gibson and use that as your search parameters. Sound wise, you could try a fixed bridge guitar that has coil splitters for the pickups. You'll have humbuckers that can split to get that single coil pickup sound.

Personally I got tired of switching between tunings hence the reason I own 7 guitars currently. I mess around with E standard to B standard and almost everything in between. But I do have an Epiphone Les Paul Custom that I've switched between standard and drop for years with no problems.

 

[Hiroshi Nakauye]

If you feel comfortable with it and you might need a minor set up. you can crank the springs down on your bridge. But the ibanez RG431 is a good inexpensive hard tail guitar.

 

[MatthewBoon]

Assuming it's the green fender in your profile? If you have the bridged raised slightly so you can pull up on the whammy as well as down, then the positioning is a balance beteen the tension of the strings, and the springs behind the bridge. As you tune lower, the strings will have a lower tension so the springs will pull the bridge back against the body. If that's not happening, you can tighten the strings right down as @Hiroshi Nakauye said. Once it's tightened right down it will be pretty much like playing a hard tail. Perhaps a bit of a hassle having to do a partial set up each time you change tuning, but spares the expense of a new guitar!

If you really want a new guitar (don't we all?), I've found that higher end squires play really nicely, with the benefit of being affiliated with fender. I've got a hardtail Jim Root tele and as far as tuning stability goes, it's a rock.

 

[Calvin Phillips]

I'm having a similar issue. Mine is about the tone at Ryan's place. The grunsge pedal releases to much feedback it shakes his drum set. I absolutely love it but when I strum chords or chug it gets too cloudy. So I'm trying to create a rhythm tone to mix in when I'm not playing lead. This always was an issue for me as my rhythm and lead tone are completely different in how they are made for recordings. I've had to find a happy medium. I'll post an example Later.