I need serious guitar advice

[Jeff White]

you simply are not going to get teh same kind of feel from a bolt on guitar that you do from a setneck. If I were in your shoes i'd keep looking for a decent SG or Les Paul jr DC. I saw a LP jr DC at a music store a few months ago for about $700. It was either one of Gibsons relic series (or whatever they call it) or it was from teh 60's. Checked finish. yellow as hell inlays, very nice neck. It's long gone now though.

This is the guitar equivalent of Mac vs PC.

Yes, it is. Play both and like it.

[calaverasgrandes]

This is the guitar equivalent of Mac vs PC.

I guess to some people that feel they must have one and only one guitar for all sounds. Me I recognize that there is a certain sound that an ebony fretboard on a mahogany neck, set in to a maple/mahogany body gets. There is also a different but equally valid sound you get from a maple fretboard/neck bolted onto an ash or alder or maple body. Thats why sticking a humbucker on a strat or a single coil on an SG dont really make a lot of sense to me.
But hey if it records well than go for it. I even hang on to a few instruments that tune terribly but record great. You just have to tune them for each song!

[RefD]

I guess to some people that feel they must have one and only one guitar for all sounds. Me I recognize that there is a certain sound that an ebony fretboard on a mahogany neck, set in to a maple/mahogany body gets. There is also a different but equally valid sound you get from a maple fretboard/neck bolted onto an ash or alder or maple body.

100% agreed.

Thats why sticking a humbucker on a strat or a single coil on an SG dont really make a lot of sense to me.

it TOTALLY makes sense if you play out a fair amount and don't want to be changing guitars every other song.

...or if you happen to like the sound of a Strat with humbuckers.

[calaverasgrandes]

Oh yeah, not to say you cant, just meanin, you aint gonna get a les paul out of a Strat just by changing the pickup.

[RefD]

Oh yeah, not to say you cant, just meanin, you aint gonna get a les paul out of a Strat just by changing the pickup.

strewth!

[0xeneye]

Two cents: I have never been able to tune any Mexican Made Fender guitar. Also, the G&L are very well designed, and if you have a problem with a four bolt neck design, well then, you are disagreeing with Leo Fender.

[calaverasgrandes]

see above;
I have plenty of four bolt, 5 bolt and even one 3 bolt necked guitars. They dont sound like setnecks. But then the setnecks dont sound like the bolt ons.
If you want to talk about Leo. Back in the 50's when he designed these he was making affordable non nonsense guitars for working class guys (and girls). There is an apocryphal story that he wouldnt allow necks to be made with flamed or birdeyed wood, didn't want the guitars to look "fancy". The Gibsons of the same era had no pretensions of affordability (except for maybe the LP jr). Ebony fretboards, "gold" tops and set neck was the "old world" way of putting a guitar together. Costly, very skill intensive. Bolting the neck on with a few big screws was actually a cost cutter! Likewise for the straight peghead and the electronics mounted to the pickguard. I think the genius of Leos stuff lies not in the basic design (there are some historical precedents)but in the little tweaks he made. But then I also like his G&L and Musicman stuff better than the Fender stuff for the most part. Much better bridges!