Is there such a thing as a bad guitar?

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  • skinfreakskinfreak Frets: 200
    ICBM said:

    Although I have come across a custom shop Gibson flat-top with that issue... caused by the neck joint being misaligned. For the thick end of four grand. 

    WTF?! Some poor schumck that didn't know any different might have actually bought that. Or did they? ;-)
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  • equalsqlequalsql Frets: 6084
    ICBM said:
    equalsql said:
    Marlin Sidewinder.
    I rest my case m' lord.
    Objection. There was an excellent one in the shop a couple of months ago.

    I don't just mean 'excellent for a Marlin Sidewinder', either - it was a really good guitar. I admit it had needed some work 
    What, like a new neck and body and pups and bridge and tuners @ICBM ? ;)
    (pronounced: equal-sequel)   "I suffered for my art.. now it's your turn"
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71956
    skinfreak said:

    WTF?! Some poor schumck that didn't know any different might have actually bought that. Or did they? ;-)
    Yes. Somewhere in the US - then later sold it to someone I know over here. He didn't think it was worth the hassle of sending it back so I fixed it... sort of. As well as could be done without taking the neck off, anyway. Not my call to say otherwise!

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • ArchtopDaveArchtopDave Frets: 1367
    ICBM said:
    Some years ago, I tried out a cheap archtop guitar. I think the brand was called Adam Black. Didn't buy it because the top E string was running along the edge of the fretboard, and the bottom E string was a long way from the edge. The Bridge had been glued in the wrong place.
    If it was an archtop the bridge would probably be movable.

    Although I have come across a custom shop Gibson flat-top with that issue... caused by the neck joint being misaligned. For the thick end of four grand. 


    Nope - it was firmly glued in the wrong place, and had managed to pass quality control!
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  • professorbenprofessorben Frets: 5105
    Jack_ said:
    I think @professorben has an answer.
    https://imgur.com/gallery/k8QmX
    " Why does it smell of bum?" Mrs Professorben.
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  • olafgartenolafgarten Frets: 1648
    I think if you buy anything from a well established brand then it will be decent. The only exception that I have found is the really cheap Epiphone Express Les Paul, which had extremely bad frets, one of them was actually wonky, as in it curved towards the nut. 
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  • VibetronicVibetronic Frets: 1036
    yes, there are. When I was about 13 I sold my Ibanez Roadstar and got a BC Rich Warlock Bronze series instead. It was really pretty shit :)
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  • darthed1981darthed1981 Frets: 11670
    I think if you buy anything from a well established brand then it will be decent. The only exception that I have found is the really cheap Epiphone Express Les Paul, which had extremely bad frets, one of them was actually wonky, as in it curved towards the nut. 
    I have a rule when buying cheap, always buy the second cheapest.

    If someone is learning though the major brands provide stunning value starter options like the squier bullets and epiphone l.p. special.

    The latter I understand is Epiphones best selling guitar!
    We have to be so very careful, what we believe in...
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  • FelineGuitarsFelineGuitars Frets: 11495
    tFB Trader
    I have turned a few beaten up Epi LP Specials into rather respectable playing guitars - mainly for players who wanted to keep and use it from Nostalgia or sentimental reasons if it was a first guitar or bought by a family member or spouse

    Sometimes if a cheap guitar sounds fairly good acoustically it will have promise to soup up with fretwork , new tuners and other upgrades . It's not worth doing if resale is your aim or main concern, but to turn it into a great playing/sounding fun guitar it can be a good thing.

    Many guitars have a re-sale value. Some you'll never want to sell.
    Stockist of: Earvana & Graphtech nuts, Faber Tonepros & Gotoh hardware, Fatcat bridges. Highwood Saddles.

    Pickups from BKP, Oil City & Monty's pickups.

      Expert guitar repairs and upgrades - fretwork our speciality! www.felineguitars.com.  Facebook too!

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  • scrumhalfscrumhalf Frets: 11262
    What seems to be coming across is that most bodies and necks are okay, but the hardware can leave a lot to be desired.

    I made a mistake many years ago with a horrendous flying V copy which was taken back the next day as the only good thing about it was unplugging it and ending the torture.
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  • crunchmancrunchman Frets: 11413
    Dredging this up again.

    I picked up a second hand pink Encore 3/4 size Strat copy for my daughter a while back, but the nut was too low, and the neck angle was really bad so it was buzzing at the first fret and had a horribly high action further up the neck at the same time.

    Anyway, I put a shim under the nut today and I shimmed the neck as well - only to find I can't intonate it properly because the bridge is in the wrong place!

    There is definitely such a thing as a bad guitar.
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  • MoosterMooster Frets: 68
    If you're in the Brum area, check out the Eastman guitars in GuitarGuitar. Absolutely dreadful workmanship which was surprising given how much they are praised online
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  • guitars4youguitars4you Frets: 14030
    tFB Trader
    Mooster said:
    If you're in the Brum area, check out the Eastman guitars in GuitarGuitar. Absolutely dreadful workmanship which was surprising given how much they are praised online
    not seen the new violin faded finished 335 and LP style models yet but they have been getting good reviews - and jazz boxes I've seen in the past look pretty good - so a touch surprised to hear that
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  • dindudedindude Frets: 8534
    My recent purchase of a £160 Ibanez bass floored me with the quality per pound ratio. 

    However, I was in a shop yesterday having a good nose around and whilst you could say for pretty much 95% of the stock there is no bad guitar there, I would stick my neck out and say that whilst we live in a golden age of Amps and Pedals, I don't think we do currently with guitars. 

    The very low end does impress compared to yesteryear, but the middle range is full of different shapes with very similar parts made in the same factories. The high end has some good stuff for sure but it's all a bit self consciously cool / relic'd / vintage accurate, or shiny shiny PRS/Suhr.

    Dunno, maybe it's just me, but I struggled to get inspired by a very well stocked shop, and this has been the norm for a few years now.
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  • HarrySevenHarrySeven Frets: 8017
    Sassafras said:
    ...there's no need for the nasty, cheesegrater planks of the 50's/ 60's to exist anymore., 

    Try telling that to @HarrySeven ;
    It's true.. ;)


    HarrySeven - Intangible Asset Appraiser & Wrecker of Civilisation. Searching for weird guitars - so you don't have to.
    Forum feedback thread.    |     G&B interview #1 & #2   |  https://www.instagram.com/_harry_seven_/ 

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  • steersteer Frets: 1159
    There seems to be a mindset with some people, that the cheap shitty guitar they have bought is absolutely amazing, and blows away Gibsons and Fenders that were 10 times the price. Then they proceed to tell that you that all they have done is replaced the pickups, rewired the electronics, replaced cheap and nasty pots and switches, put in a new nut, replaced the tuners, had the frets levelled, paid their "luthier" to setup the action and intonation etc etc. 

    Triggers broom springs to mind. Its a great broom, all I had to do was replace the handle and buy a new head. 
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  • UnclePsychosisUnclePsychosis Frets: 12880
    steer said:
    There seems to be a mindset with some people, that the cheap shitty guitar they have bought is absolutely amazing, and blows away Gibsons and Fenders that were 10 times the price. Then they proceed to tell that you that all they have done is replaced the pickups, rewired the electronics, replaced cheap and nasty pots and switches, put in a new nut, replaced the tuners, had the frets levelled, paid their "luthier" to setup the action and intonation etc etc. 

    Triggers broom springs to mind. Its a great broom, all I had to do was replace the handle and buy a new head. 


    Well... yes and no.

    Guitars are just wood and metal, and not very complicated wood and metal at that. The difference between el cheapo factory made guitar and el mid-to-fairly-expensive factory made guitar is that the mid-to-expensive one has better parts on it and probably had someone lavish a bit more attention to the finished product.

    So if you take an El Cheapo, add better parts, and do some work on it there's no reason why it can't be as good as a mid-to-fairly-expensive guitar which had the parts and work done to it in the factory. The only difference is that in the first case you do it yourself and in the second case you're paying the man at the factory to do it.

    Now I'd never be so daft as to think that you're going to compete with the proper proper good stuff doing this but I'm also not sure that someone who knows what they're doing can't do a DIY job as good as the guys getting paid minimum wage in the factory either.

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  • steersteer Frets: 1159
    Yeah, what I was getting at in a nutshell is that there is such a thing as a bad guitar, but many of these bad instruments can be made into something good by upgrading parts and setting up etc. Whether a bad guitar is worth the time and investment is only really something that the owner can decide.
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  • ICBMICBM Frets: 71956

    Guitars are just wood and metal, and not very complicated wood and metal at that. The difference between el cheapo factory made guitar and el mid-to-fairly-expensive factory made guitar is that the mid-to-expensive one has better parts on it and probably had someone lavish a bit more attention to the finished product.

    So if you take an El Cheapo, add better parts, and do some work on it there's no reason why it can't be as good as a mid-to-fairly-expensive guitar which had the parts and work done to it in the factory. The only difference is that in the first case you do it yourself and in the second case you're paying the man at the factory to do it.

    The Yamaha Pacifica series is a good illustration of that. The body and neck blanks are very similar right up the range - possibly identical in tooling, although they tend to use nicer body wood on the better models - but the hardware and finishing is mostly what separates the cheap from the expensive.

    So - apart from the rather dull finish - if you take a Pacifica 112 and upgrade the pickups, electrics, pickguard and bridge you end up with something not far away from a 612 in terms of playability and sound, but for less money if you do the work yourself.

    "Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski

    "Just because I don't care, doesn't mean I don't understand." - Homer Simpson

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  • gubblegubble Frets: 1737

    The Hondo Les Paul copy that was my first guitar.

    Cheap wood, bolt on neck, rubbish horrible pickups and electrics.

    Played awfully - and now it's worth money apparently because it's old !

    There are terrible guitars out there for sure - but brand new modern stuff on the whole is pretty decent at all price points.

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