Best Guitar For Indie Rock
Are you looking to find the best guitar for Indie for your money, but aren’t exactly sure what you’re looking for? Our pros explain what you should be looking for and how much you can expect to pay.
By reading through this page, you’ll know everything you need to know about Indie Rock Guitars and have a pretty good idea of which guitar is the best for you. So continue reading to find out what the guitar retailers wouldn’t tell you about buying guitars.
Best Indie Rock Guitars Buyer’s Guide
Ask the top Indie guitarists which guitar do they favour and you’ll probably get 5 different answers, but all with 1 thing in common, they will all be Fender. Think about Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens of the stone age). Or Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo ( Sonic Youth).
Fender and Squier
So it is evident to see that Fenders are a popular brand with Indie guitarists but with that said, so are the Gibson/Epiphone Les Paul. The Gibson/Epiphone SG, The Gretsch Electromatic Jet, The Danelectro 59, That gives us 2 Gibson choices, and 5 Fenders. They are, The Fender/Squire Telecaster, The Fender/Squire Jaguar, the Fender/Squire Stratocaster, the Fender/Squire Jazzmaster, and the Fender/Squire Mustang.
The Squier by Fender Bullet Telecaster
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Squier by Fender Jaguar
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Squier by Fender Stratocaster
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Squier by Fender Jazzmaster
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Squier by Fender Bullet Mustang
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Gibson and Epiphone
Gibson are one of the most popular guitar manufacturers in the world and as we recently stated, the Gibson SG and the Gibson Les Paul are incredibly popular with Indie guitarists.
Epiphone SG
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The Gibson Les Paul
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Semi-Hollow Guitars
Indie guitarists are always trying to sound like they’re from the 60s. Indie rhythm guitarists tend to prefer semi-hollow guitars to achieve that jazzier, smoother sound found more in 60s music, but with a modern twist. Guitars like:
The Fender Telecaster Thinline
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The Epiphone Casino
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The Epiphone ES-335
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The Gretsch Electromatic Series
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Danelectro
Danelectro guitars have always been a bit of an oddity really in the music world at least. They don’t seem to fit into any major genre and yet, they feature in almost every one. Indie guitarists like them for that raw, unaffected sound and lipstick pickup.
The Danelectro 59
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Distortion
A considerable amount of the sound created by an Indie guitarist is based on distortion, take your time reading through articles and listening online to get that sound you prefer. When you do, the guitar will follow.
Pickups For Indie Guitars
To achieve a warm bright sound single coil pickups are the best choice. However they can create a constant buzz or feedback at high volumes. To combat this feedback, try humbucker pickups which are basically 2 single coil pickups connected together this stops the hum, hence humbucker.
What Is Indie?
Indie started around the mid 80s as an alternative type of music to the then “popular” music of the day. Many of the top recording companies wouldn’t take on these different sounding bands, So they signed with smaller, independent labels, hence “Indie” was formed.
So after the explosion of punk rock, the next alternative sound to come along was Indie, Indie and punk are somewhat indistinguishable at times but completely different at others. The name is derived from the independent record labels who were signing these new up and coming bands.
