A great lead guitarist is a person who can listen to what the rhythm section is doing and lightly decorate it with his/her music. The right guitar is the most crucial element to help you blend with the flow and even make it more awesome. You might be confused about which guitar should you use, either it’s Stratocaster as Jimmy Hendrix, Eddie and Clapton used, or it’s Gibson less Paul as played by Jimmy Page ???
Here we are going to help you find your right guitar So that you can set fire on the stage.
Best Guitars for Lead Guitarist
1. Gretsch G5222 Electromatic Double Jet
Gretsch guitars are among the few classics which are still played with the same enthusiasm with which they were played decades ago and they still have the potential to let the audience can’t stop shaking their legs. It has a pair of Blacktop Broad’Tron pickups to give you traditional Gretsch growl and grit and at the same time, delivers a pristine clean tone.
This Gretsch Double Jet gives you the full warm sound of a chambered mahogany body with a maple top which doesn’t make it the lightest tonewood But it certainly gives you its deep tone for which it is famous. It also gives you full control over your performance by allowing your access to 2 volume control, 1 master volume control, 1 master tone control, and a 3way toggle pickup switch which makes this guitar a unique choice. This Guitar has its glory as it has been played by famous Beatles George Harrison and John Lennon, the Rolling Stokes’ Brain Jones and Pete Townshend, and many more. So what are you waiting for, who knows the next Big name in this list might be yours?
2. Gibson ES-335 Lead Guitar
The head of Gibson company described ES-335 as his “second greatest achievement”. It bridged the gap between hollow-bodied and solid-bodied electrics, it was the world’s first archtop semi-hollow bodied electric Guitar. Gibson offers a Grover Milk Bottle Rotomatic tuner for better tuning accuracy, 22-Rosewood Fretboard with Trapeze Inlays for wonderful sound quality, and the Burstbucker 1 & 2 pickups for brighter and better sound.
Its rolled neck binding gives you additional comfort while playing and its low fret height helps you inaccurate intonation. As this guitar is Lightweight, versatile, and pretty to look at, this guitar has the honor to be played by the hands of legend B.B.King, Eric Clapton, and many more. So if you are a big man/woman who could hold a Big Guitar in hand, you should certainly go for Gibson ES-335 to rock the stage.
3. Fender Telecaster
This, my friend, is the world’s first commercially successful solid-body Electric Guitar. Having its origin in the 1950s, this has many variants and is still used by most professional guitarists all around the globe. It is a simple guitar that has the ability to produce many genres from Country, rock, pop, folk, soul, blues and jazz, and whatnot.
Its solid construction helps you to play it loudly as a lead instrument with long sustainability. This is a solid body guitar with a flat asymmetric single-cutaway alder body with a maple neck and a small headstock with six-tuning pegs along a single side. This guitar is unique for its ability to produce both typical telecaster twang and blast jazz using the given pickups – neck or bridge. Its Solid-body helps the guitar to produce a clean and sustaining amplified version of the strings’ sound. It has been played by numerous famous legends like Jimmy Page, James Burton, Keith Richards, Muddy Waters, and many more.
4. Fender Stratocaster
When you think about the greatest guitarist of all time, the names of Eric Clapton, Eddie Van Halen, Jimmy Hendrix came to your mind. Ever think which guitar they loved to play ??? It’s Fender Stratocaster. Yeah, you read it right, Fender Stratocaster is the one which they love to play mostly. And fender has its reasons to be loved by such legends. This Guitar, when introduced, has some innovative features that made it a legend’s favorite.
The Stratocaster has a solid body, with an extended upper horn, and its neck is made up of maple and its headstock has six tuning pegs mounted on a single side and has at least twenty-one frets. When we talk about controls, it gives us easy control with its three single-coil pickups, a pickup selector switch, one volume control, and two-tone controls. Its bridge has six adjustable saddles whose height and intonations can be adjusted personally as you wish which gives you more freedom to play it truly your way.
Some other things which compel you to play a strat are its simplicity, its easiness to make modifications as per your requirements, its five-position switch to give you a greater range of options, its varieties, its lightweight which is more required for you to perform longer on stage without tiring your shoulders, its longer scale length also provides you brighter, snappier sound. So it might be the perfect guitar for you to lead.
5. Gibson Les Paul
The king of guitars (in my opinion) is Gibson Les Paul. I’m sayings so because, for most professionals, Les Paul is the synonyms of Electric Guitar. It has been widely used by all kinds of musicians whether for Rock or Jazz or Country or any other. The reason behind its variety is the flip of a three-way switch to take you from the rounded bell-like times to crunchy rock-solid sounds. Its wide availability contributes to its wide use nowadays. But you just don’t gain a wide range without being truly amazing and reliable in all sorts of genres all the years since its inception.
Its mahogany bodies and neck are behind its legendary sound. Its tops are maple-carved with a slight arch which helps in a better look and better hold. Its humbuckers bring a thick warm tone which is now a hallmark of Les Pauls. Another positive aspect of having a Les Paul as a lead guitarist is its scale length, though not as long as starts, yet they do offer you a long 24 75inch scale length which results in warmer tones certainly giving the audience a different feel and different sound. These guitars have rock-solid contact between the guitar neck and the body resulting in longer sustainability.
Les paul offers you a bunch of variations with many modals and also with a custom modal in case you have your ideas. The final thing for which you should go for Les Paul is its Sound, Les Paul’s clean tone which you got after adjusting its neck pickup is still tough to beat.
Things to consider before buying a lead guitar
There are many types of lead guitars available in the market and each of them made from different woods, have different type of pickup combinations, and looks different from each other. Even two identical guitars from the same price range and the same manufacturer can sound different and give you another type of playing experience.
Before purchasing any lead guitar you have to consider the three things first: Sound, Look, and Price. The price plays an important role here. A flagship guitar may offer you all the things that you require but it also costs a bunch of money which can make a hole in your wallet. You can even buy a second-hand car for the same price as a Gibson Les Paul guitar.
There are plenty of famous styles of guitar available in the market:
- Stratocaster style
- Les Paul style
- Jazz style
- Telecaster style
- SG style
- Metal style
You can buy entry-level, mid-range, or top-level models in it. So remember those three things that I mentioned above so that you can pick up the best one for yourself.
Conclusion
Well As nothing is perfect in this universe, everything has its flaws, the same is true about the guitars mentioned above. Now, in the end, I’d like to tell you some of the comparatives about all the Best Guitars for Lead Guitarist mentioned above by various musicians all around the globe.
On the other hand, where Les Paul produces a warm sound, Streets give a bright sound, telecaster has its unique twang. Their scale lengths vary as well as their weights, some are light and others are a bit heavy and according to that, their sound also varies. You need to choose your guitar according to where you are going to perform and what your audience wants to listen to. Remember “No guitar plays itself, it’s the player whose right uses and timely tones which win the laurels”.
