Chas, last night I was thinking what would work in the situation you just described...a player comes by and, on the spur of the moment, you want to record something....me, for instance.

If you want something in an emergency that would be OK in a variety of cases, I'd choose an Epiphone DOT. They're semi-hollow, shaped like a 335 or Lucille, the guitar BB plays.

This would cover blues, fusion jazz, pop...a wide variety of stuff. It's not the best quality, but is an import version of the most popular working man's all purpose guitar. Gibson imports it, and quality for price is great.


They're $399, plus bag or case ($80-100.00). I'd go to a Guitar center with a "picker" and let him make sure it is OK.

If your grandson continues, this would be a fine entry level guitar for him...or for you to beat around on.

Last time I was down, I did not have an instrument, but would have been fine with a DOT to mess around with.

I have a CASINO, which is the same instrument, but hollow. It's the Beatles guitar.

For your purpose this would work fine. Some traditional studios provide the bass, amp and drums pre-miked, because that defines the sound from the studio. Everything else is chosen because of player preference or type of material.

This would work! You'd probably also want a small 5 watt tube guitar amp, too. I just bought a little Kustom for a couple of hundred that I've used on the last 4 guitar studio jobs.

Good luck!


Russ