A Guitar And Gear Support Forum

So I've long been enamored with the way a guitar sits on you. To me, this informs the whole of your ability to play as well as presentation.

Some like em low. Some like em high. For me it's the angle that matters.

There are two guitars I've found that hang entirely differently that your standard LP, Tele, Strat types: Explorers and SGs.

Now, it's been a decade or more since I've held a proper SG with correct button and neck placement. I'd love to see yours in this thread, I'd you can share.

But when I did get my hands on my 76 Ibanez Destroyer, it fundamentally changed the way I played practically overnight. You see, that strap button on the rear changes the angle.



Immediately it became easier to fall into Eddie's style of playing. It leaves your wrist in a different place. Not that you can't play Eddie on a standard Les Paul, this is just where it clicked for me.

So anyway that's when I learned (after being a Kramer collector), just how similar the 5150 was built to resemble this feel.



First, the neck carve is right GD there. 5150 is slightly asymmetrical (rumored to be an accident by builder Paul Unkert). But it's THAT neck. I've owned 70+ fiddles and they're the most similar.

And second, notice how the strap hooks to the rear of the upper horn, rather than the top as with a Strat. For me it creates a significantly different feel.

None of my factory Kramer's hung that way. But when I finally took my #1's strap button (err, fisheye hook) to the back...it changed everything. It hangs the same way my Destroyer does, and it removes quite a bit of pressure from my wrist allowing me to play more freely.

Does the way a guitar hangs matter to you?

Can you share photos of SGs, or Explorers, or your #1 and the way you like them to sit?

Curious if you may find some fun here.

In brief review, it makes the guitar hang a hair lower, and the guitar face points down rather than forward. You're obligated to play by feel, not by eye.

Completely understand what you're saying. The SG, 335, Explorer, and the Firebird all hang completely different than a Les Paul. Due to the strap button placement these guitars lean forwards several degrees in the frontal plane. It drastically changes the ergonomics.

I have a pet theory that at heart Eddie was fundamentally a Gibson guy and the popular image of EVH as the poster boy for the super-strat is misleading.
There's audio of Ed playing a fixed bridge guitar before Van Halen was signed and he is absolutely on fire. It's no doubt the Ibanez Destroyer, which is obviously based on a Gibson design.
Ed also chose to put a Gibson PAF in the original Frankenstein.
It's well known that many of the VH recordings which don't utilize a trem are the Destroyer.
When Ed finally designed his own guitar, the Wolfgang, what did it resemble? A Gibson Les Paul.
Ed liked and utilized the tone of a neck pickup more then the constraints of the Frankenstein guitar would allow, and utilized such instruments in the studio.

toomanycats wrote: ↑Thu Mar 03, 2022 5:53 am Completely understand what you're saying. The SG, 335, Explorer, and the Firebird all hang completely different than a Les Paul. Due to the strap button placement these guitars lean forwards several degrees in the frontal plane. It drastically changes the ergonomics.

I have a pet theory that at heart Eddie was fundamentally a Gibson guy and the popular image of EVH as the poster boy for the super-strat is misleading.
There's audio of Ed playing a fixed bridge guitar before Van Halen was signed and he is absolutely on fire. It's no doubt the Ibanez Destroyer, which is obviously based on a Gibson design.
Ed also chose to put a Gibson PAF in the original Frankenstein.
It's well known that many of the VH recordings which don't utilize a trem are the Destroyer.
When Ed finally designed his own guitar, the Wolfgang, what did it resemble? A Gibson Les Paul.
Ed liked and utilized the tone of a neck pickup more then the constraints of the Frankenstein guitar would allow, and utilized such instruments in the studio.

This jives with me. Presumably he wanted a less heavy guitar and a trem. The Destroyer body already had the upper fret access a Les Paul doesn't.

Interesting that he kept the 25.5 scale length on all his derivates Music Man, then later the Wolfgang. I do like the extra finger room but man I like the extra low end boom on the shorter scale too.