Guitars popular with teenagers

All things guitar, Les Pauls, Strats, Teles, Tokai, Ibanez etc. etc. etc.

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Guitars popular with teenagers

Post by werdna »

My niece was in the Smokefree Rockquest so I checked out what the guitarists are playing.

Most of the schools were from high decile areas where parents have enough money to pay for good equipment. Maybe not a new LP, but a solid 2k guitar. So I was curious to see what younger guitar players find tasteful and see if it is the same stuff that most of us like.

The most common guitar was the strat. There were seven. All had white pickguards. The most common iteration was S/S/S, in modern not vintage colours. Only one player had H/S/S, in a two tone sunburst.

There was one metal band, and they were rocking a Jackson soloist and a red Ibanez that was shaped like a spider.

There were only two Les Pauls. One was a darkburst Epiphone, the other a matt black LTD.

Cool other guitars were led by a Mosrite, played by a garage trio who were really good and had a good singer.

There was some kind of new Ibanez with double cutaway and a beautiful book matched top, shaped like those heavy 70s Yamahas that get a lot of support here.

The rest had acoustics with piezo pickups.

There were no telecasters, SGs, Firebirds, Flying Vs, semi hollow bodies of any kind, Mustangs, Jaguars, Japanese super strats, Fanos, Deusenbergs, PRSs. I'd guess there was not a single second hand guitar there.

The kids buy new. They favour strats and sometimes random exotic modern Jap stuff. They shun Gibsons, teles, PRSs and all the other stuff that most people here like. (OK, ok, a few of you like the same stuff as the kids, so hang onto your panties.) None of the guitars they played had a heritage vibe except the Mosrite.
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Re: Guitars popular with teenagers

Post by Slowy »

It takes time and experience to appreciate the finer points of vintage design and old stuff.

At least, that's what I tell myself.
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Re: Guitars popular with teenagers

Post by Single coil »

I shunned new stuff when I was that age.
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Re: Guitars popular with teenagers

Post by willow13 »

the most disturbing part is that there was only one metal band
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Re: Guitars popular with teenagers

Post by godgrinder »

willow13 wrote:the most disturbing part is that there was only one metal band
10-15 years ago it would've been all horrible metalcore/melodic death bands playing Japanese superstrats haha.
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Re: Guitars popular with teenagers

Post by willow13 »

godgrinder wrote: 10-15 years ago it would've been all horrible metalcore/melodic death bands playing Japanese superstrats haha.
yep .. they were better times for sure :rofl:
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Re: Guitars popular with teenagers

Post by imarco »

During my teenage years, we had strat (squire) and ibanez probably because that's more affordable for my parents.

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Re: Guitars popular with teenagers

Post by Molly »

I see this first hand every day. Still a reassuring number of students carrying guitar cases around school. The hardcore have Chapman, Gibson and Fender. Also PRS SE and occasional Ibanez. Amps I'm less sure of. At least one Mesa Triple-Rec.

They often give me the impression they believe they already know it all. Perhaps because some boring old fart is showing an interest.

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Re: Guitars popular with teenagers

Post by Jake »

I was tuning guitars for a Rockquest heat this year (so nostalgic). Potentially because it wasn't such a high decile area, there were a lot of really bad guitars. A lot of them were of the beaten up, school-owned variety, but heaps were bottom shelf Mannix and similar brands. Everyone has to start somewhere though! There were a few Mexican Fenders and a couple of fairly high end Ibanez.

The highlight of the day was a Tele that had it's pickguard removed so all the routing etc. was exposed. The band it belonged to was named after a pornstar....

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Re: Guitars popular with teenagers

Post by Optical »

25 years ago I actually played at a heat at the powerstation which was cool ...proudly rocking my squire

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Re: Guitars popular with teenagers

Post by null_pointer »

The rockquest even existed when I was at school...it’s had some legs alright. It’s not like Blue Light Discos are still the goer...

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Re: Guitars popular with teenagers

Post by Molly »

I recall doing a Battle of the Bands thing years ago. Din't come to ewt (or owt - for Bg).

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Re: Guitars popular with teenagers

Post by Reg18 »

When I did rock quest some 20 years ago it was pretty much the same, Strat copies everywhere the odd LP or something different.
One of the reasons I got put off Strats was the sheer amount of people playing them at the time, (amongst other reasons)
It seems the starter elec packs are mostly still Strat copies?
I honestly would have thought kids these days might be into more modern guitars, seems the classics still have some life left.

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Re: Guitars popular with teenagers

Post by willow13 »

null_pointer wrote:The rockquest even existed when I was at school...it’s had some legs alright. It’s not like Blue Light Discos are still the goer...
same. I remember at one blue light disco they had a band playing that had at the time a really great guitarist who look like ritchie blackmore (or probably closer to a young Yngwie)..I remember finding some info on him (and the band) online a year or so ago, but can't find it now (I would have posted the flier if I found it)
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Re: Guitars popular with teenagers

Post by willow13 »

I think if I turned up to watch a rockquest and saw every guitar player playing a $4k+ guitar and a $5k amp I would realise that the true spirit of rock has indeed died
Last edited by willow13 on Sun Jun 10, 2018 1:19 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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