GAS Connundrums & Conniptions

[lll]

New guitar, or Kemper?

Kemper is tempting but...

What I really need is a shred stick or similar; something to house my 80's Seymour Duncan JBJ-stickered JB pickup... theoretically. I also want a neck humbucker.

The incredibly bullshit problem with getting a new guitar as a lefty is, there's pretty much jack and shit available shred-stick wise.

...at least a quality one. In an actual color besides fucking black (why is everything black nowadays? bring back the 70s-80s colors, fucking tasteless morons).

Yes, I could build one (Warmoth comes to mind) but with COVID and supply delays it would take fucking forever, and I ain't got time to wait.

Chubtone looks great, but the wait time is 7-8 fucking months. I went that route once in the 80s with a Les Paul Custom lefty, and it sucked balls waiting... never again.

There's a few I could buy from a box store and modify, but something would be missing.

There's just a serious lack of shredder guitars, new, readily purchasable, that don't have some boring black or white color.

Shredder as in Charvel, Jackson, Kramer, ESP style with a Floyd Rose and a flashy color.

The closest is the ESP LTD "1987" line, there's a candy apple red M1 Custom for about $1K (bout as low as I'll go quality wise), but I need a neck pickup too.

Charvel offers a SoCal style with Floyd and dual humbuckers, but it's fucking white or black.

Kramer (Gibson) does the Nightswan, but for lefties, it's fucking black (sparkle black).

Currently looking at Fender's American Professional II in either Dark Night or Mystic Surf Green. The route underneath is HSH, so get a replacement pickguard for 2 humbuckers, and good there. But no Floyd (I can deal with the 2 point Fender trem as I have one on another - Callaham replacement parts)... still... no Floyd.

Guitar manufacturers can go take an aluminum Kramer neck and shove it right up their cornhole.

[RockyStar]

Sounds like you need a Kemper.

Don't settle on a guitar. Get exactly what you want.

[sytharnia NZ]

All you have to ask yourself is "how many guitar tones do I need"? ... if you want a shit ton of tone options then get a Kemper ... but if you generally use one gain tone then fuck just get another guitar hahaha

[lll]

I love the Kemper concept, but I really need a shredder.

The good news is, after hours of internet searching, ESP LTD is coming out with a cool looking guitar (to me) very soon:

ESP LTD Mirage Deluxe '87 Left-Handed Electric Guitar in Snow White

https://www.andertons.co.uk/guitar-dept ... eft-handed

Yes, it's white, but the gold hardware makes it cool & classy versus the usual boring "white guitar with all black hardware".

The current color offerings for the same model are Pearl Pink & Rainbow Crackle; I don't identify with either.

So yep the white one ticks all the boxes: cool look, shreddy, 22 frets (don't care for 24 really), easy access heel, neck pickup, floyd