Talk me into / out of buying a new guitar

I bought my first electric guitar a year ago (Fender Jag) and am starting to get the itch to buy another. I tend to mostly play bluesy rock, but spent a lot of my youth listening to & playing metal (I played bass / drums). Would another, higher-gain guitar make sense to keep in non-standard tuning for when I want to shred? Would I just end up neglecting one of them?

I keep my Jag in a case out of reach of my kids, but it would be nice to have an electric I'm a bit less precious about that I can wall-hang for easier access. I have very limited time to play, thanks to the aforementioned kids, so the easier I can make it to play, the more time I actually get to spend playing, rather than setting up / tuning / putting everything away again.

Having said all that, what would be a good option? A higher-output humbucker-style pickup I guess? Gibson seems like overkill for what I need... maybe a PRS? Or maybe I should spend less time fantasising about guitars and buying pedals and just make more time to play the one I have.

I'm not a PRS fan, heel f death.... kinda voerly styled for my taste? more of an old hamer guy in that design school.

But if you can afford a new guitar, buy a new guitar!

and guitars aren't high or low gain, gain is an amplification factor... your guitar is a voltage SOURCE not multiplier, so the pickups might be high output (although in electronic terms only active pickups put out anything much voer 1 volt, and a volt is chump change electrically, that's why your amps eneds all those preamps tages to get signal to the power amp, dude).... when you tlak about 'high gain' guitars, just say what ya really mean, a guitar geared towards dirty sounds ;-)

Yeah, I meant high-output, sorry.

didn't mean to bust your balls... to me, electronically there aren't many passive pickup designs I would class as truly high output, especially when you look at the increased inductance and concomitant loss of treble and bass fidelity inherent in alrger coils of wire on the bobbins... its like robbing peter to pay paul. You get an output bump but not in every frequency range. And actives are generally very LOW output with a huge gain boost from their wonky preamp circuits... all descendents of the whacky Alembic Strotoblaster kit from the 60s/70s.

Haha ok!

So, if you had to have two guitars; one classic single-coil pickup for your standard-tuned dad-blues noodling and one with more modern (high-output / humbucker / whatever) pickups, is there a guitar you would recommend looking into? One you always come back to over others for this style of play?

I don't think I'll ever have enough time to justify more than a couple or maybe 3 guitars, so I'd like to get something that will cover me while still being different enough to my Jag that I will still have a reason to play both. Bands I like for this sort of thing (Mastodon, QOTSA, Deftones, etc) often feature Gibsons somewhere in their lineups, but presumably this is mainly due to them having sponsorship / basically unlimited budget for their equipment.

I became an SG standard fanatic a little before my sonw as born. If you cna find a good one and you're willing to change pickups if the 490s aren't to your liking its a MIGHTY guitar for ALL genres and gets REALLY heavy. Stock it'll do stoner rock, you might need a bridge pickup mod for metal... SGs are also light, although you might have to try a number of them to find one that plays for you, sounds right unplugged (a good one will sing acoustically) but that doesn't have the ehadstock dive when you release the neck standing up. The current SG special isn't bad if you get a gloss finish model. Older ones tend to be better whereas I think the SG standard of the last 10 years has really hit a peak in quality...

I have a lot of otehr guitars too... I really like the Yamaha Rev Star and should spend soem time with mine again soon.

if I culd only ahve one single coil guitar it'd be a Tele of soem kind... I love teles evne though i grew up a strat guy. I ahve TONS of teles. Always do. They just pile up and whenever I sell a few more turn up? They're breeding. I have some strats too though.

my favorite higher output humbucker is the seymour duncan 59/custom hybrid... its mismatched coils, half PAF clone, half custom model (Van Halenish) sharing an A5 magnet. Its medium-high output and has very complex mids and an openness lacking in soemthig like a super distortion. Can rock HARD. easily overloads non-master marshalls and vox front ends when compared to traditional output humbuckers without that congested, voerwound humbucker sound.... or less of it. Generally in humbuckers I like old gibson stock humbuckers. PAFs, Patent#s? Great if you cna afford them orfidn a clone that soudns like you want... but I have a lot of T-Top hubuckers in my guitars. THey are tough and eman sounding. Lowest output bucker gibson ever made... although PAFs were supposed to be pretty low output. They ahve a short alnico5 bar versus the long abrs in earlier gibson pickups and current ones. So a lot of little changes give them a mean rockin' sound that cleans up well and ahs a lot of sparkle and bite for a bucker. A lot of peopel don't like them ebcause the coils are well amtched and they don't have the PAF 'vowel overtones'. but for rhythm work they just kill... think mid-period zeppelin. When pagey's bridge pickup died on his #1 LP he sent it abck to gibson and they isntalled a T-Top. He eventually ahd duncan rewind it (whole lotta humbucker) but I like that tight and bright t-top sound. I'm not even a Zep fan LOL

Nice, my gut has been telling me an SG is probably the right guitar for the job. I'll get to a guitar shop and try one out to see how it feels.

Well...I play a Jaguar and I play metal/high gain rock on that. But then I don't exactly subscribe to normalcy at all when it comes to gear either.

But if you're looking for something a little more "generic" or a "beater" as we sometimes call them, nothing beats a good ole "Fat strat" or HSS Strat. They're a dime a dozen, not that expensive, most of them have a nice high output humbucker in the back (ie. 9K-16K Ohms, usually Ceramic, and often are 3 or 4 conductor and therefore splittable - also doable with 2 conductor if you are handy with soldering and adding wires ot hair thin wire). They can also be had with a Floyd Rose locking vibrato of some kind, or with the standard strat vibrato and can be anywhere from $75 on up depending on weather you buy new, used, and where on the price totem-pole it is.

Some good cheapies to buy - both HSS Strats and some HH and HSH guitars as well

• Squier Bullet HSS - My wife owns this one, sounds amazing and plays rather well and stays in tune really well, I strung it up with .008's to make it easier on her fingers
• Squier Affinity "Fat Strat" - played a lot of these, can be hit and miss but some are great, vintage strat tremolo stays in tune well
• Ibanez RX Series - played a lot of these, can hardly go wrong with Ibanez, HH, HSH, and SSH with various trem units
• Ibanez RG2EX1 - I bought one of these for $25 and fixed it up, AMAZING playability, hardtail HH "Guitar Center spot model"
• Memphis 302HB - The early Matsamoku models are underrated and sound amazing, it's also the same guitar as one of the Hondo models so you may be habel to find these as a Hondo Hsomethingsomething as well. The later Samick built Korean ones can have neck issues though, but the pickups in the Samick built ones are bloody amazing. HSS vintage trem, coil split.
• Ibanez Roadstar II - I've played these in 3 single coil, HSS, and HH formats. As always, great Ibanez model, comes in hardtail and in tremolo, though I'd avoid that strange tremolo unit they used in the 80's where the strings attach to the bridge plate, wrap around the saddles, and are locked in place with screws as those are bloody TEDIOUS to change strings on.
• Aria Pro II ____Cat (Cat Series) - I've played one or two of these, great guitars, has a coil split, usually comes with a Kahler 2300 locking trem system that stays in tune really well and is very smooth. Japanese made and underrated.
• Squier Jagmaster - These can be hit and miss, the early 2000 models (up to 2005 or so) are 25.5" scale, the newer ones are 24" scale. with a conversion neck. These are HH with a standard strat trem, the pickups are on the Cobainy-side of things but do metal really well. Beware though, the early "Vista Series" ones are amazing guitars but go at a premium now because they are not as common, those use the same neck as your Jaguar does basically.
• 80's Kramer Focus/Striker/Aerostar/KX 1xxx/2xxx/3xxx - These are all based on the Kramer Beretta, Pacer, and Pacer Deluxe, they usually have licensed floyds, though some Strikers may have an ORIGINAL Floyd Rose with no locking tuners. Focus were made in Japan by ESP, Striker were made by Samick, Aerostar and KX by whoever made Harmony. Be careful though as some of these are ridden hard and put away wet which can give them some tuning/stability/wlectrical issues if they were not properly taken care of.
• YAmaha Pacifica 112 series - Anything made by Yamaha is pretty solid, I owned a Pacifica 112V a few years ago, great guitar, only reason I got rid of it is I have too many HSS Strats already.

If ytou really like the Jaguar there are also a lot of Jaguar/Jazzmaster variants with humbuckers including....

• Squier VM Jaguar (early version) - This is the older hardtail version with dual humbuckers and concentric pots that was released in 2008 and discontinued in 2012, they never sold too well but are great guitars for the money.

• Fender Modern Player Jaguar P-90 - this has a pair of P-90's with plenty of oomph for high gain tones. Again, it's a hardtail though.

• Fender Blacktop Jaguar HH - Simialr to the Squier VM Jaguar, made in Mexico, a bit more expensive, but they play great.

• Fender Jazzmaster Blacktop - Another one that did not sell well, combines a Jazzmaster pickup, simplified switching, and a Jazzmaster vibrato unit with a newer version of the bridge to make it more stable. These are great for hard rock. Bridge pickup is pretty good

• GFS JZ Series - A bit smaller than a Jag/Jazz but they make them in all sorts of configurations including dual P-90's, Jazzmaster pickups, SSS, and HH configurations with and without various vibratos that GFS sells as separate parts in a rainbow of colors. I've heard a lot of good things about those, and a few not-so-good things on par with what to expect from a $200-400 guitar.

• SX Jag Copies - They make a few variants of the Jazzmaster with 3 single coils and possibly in HSS configuations as well. Have heard good and bad, can't think they are that bad as they are popular guitar brand to buy to hot-rod. They also make a model called the "Liquid" if you want something very Jazz/Jag like yet weird.

The SX can be found on Rondo Music, and there they have some good stuff too in Strat/Tele/Les Paul/SG format with humbuckers and so on for not too bad. They only get expensive once you get into multi-scale, fanned fret, 7+ string guitars.

Holy shit that's a comprehensive reply - thank you! I do love my jag, so maybe a cheaper, humbucker one to hang on the wall would be the right approach. I looked at the blacktop when I was researching my guitar last year and they sounded like a good option.

I'll stick with what I've got for now and keep a lookout for a secondhand guitar along those lines I think!

wow, 2 short scales... bold! what about a mustang or a duo sonic or something? I love the msutang, stock or modified, but I can't get out of first position ebcause the itty bitty neck ahs such cramped frets so I won't buy one... been tempted though!

The Fender Strat HH Blacktop looks ace and seem to be around the right pricepoint... any thoughts on those?

when the blacktops came out I tried a bunch of them, the strat included and didn't like any... I really wanted to like the jazzmasyer, but I didn't. Dogs