Cheap Guitars

merciful-evans

There is great satisfaction finding a cheap guitar that punches above its weight. Ok, sometimes you need to help them along with some upgrades.

My cheapies are a Hagstrom Deuce, a Squier Esprit and a PRS SE C24.

The Deuce is Chinese and (to make gig worthy) needed rewiring with Switchcraft pots, switch etc. Fret leveling also.

The Esprit and SE C24 are both Korean. They didnt really need anything doing but I did mod the Esprit with new bridge and pickups.

Here is the Squier pre-mods:

[img]https://i.imgur.com/3jTM3pi.jpg[/img]

TTBZ

Grumpyrocker said:

TTBZ said:

I think most guitars these days are playable and usable as they come. As I said in the other thread I like to get something reasonably cheap which has decent construction and hardware so I don't end up eventually replacing everything. Normally I'll do a pickup swap and that's it.

My old Epiphone with Bare Knuckles and a decent setup sounded and played every bit as good as my mates Gibson (if not better as the pickups were decent), cost less than half of what the Gibson did, including the upgrades. To me that's much better value for money, especially as I don't really rate Gibson pickups and would have replaced them on the more expensive guitar anyway. I'm all for the underdog guitar!

I foolishly sold my Epiphone LP (guitar in my avatar). It had a gorgeous plain top and sounded fantastic with the Iron Gear pickups I put in it. There certainly wasn't a £1400 gulf between it and my Gibson LP.

Like an idiot I sold mine too   not even sure why as I loved that guitar - think it was probably when I bought my SG and didn't think I needed a "lowly" Epiphone any more.

Ted

In my limited experience as far as acoustics are concerned there is a big difference between cheap(under 200) and expensive(over 1000). When I first started playing i got a cheap fender acoustic made in Indonesia and it now feels and sounds nasty and fragile compared with my much more expensive USA made guitar. 

I think if you are serious about spending a lot of time and effort learning/playing a guitar(particularly an acoustic) you owe it to yourself to spend the money  on something that feels right.

But obviously £8k or whatever  for a Martin d-45 is probably stretching unless you've got serious dosh.

ionian

I think it's horse for courses. The hobby is playing the guitar - and while guitar collecting or tone hunting are both very noble pursuits, I'm glad the hobby of making music is relatively available to people with all different sized wallets.

Are more expensive guitars better? Well, generally yes, whilst obeying the laws of diminishing returns. But can you get respectable entry level guitars these days? Most definitely, and I think that applies pretty evenly across the different genres of guitar. 

SteveRobinson

stickyfiddle said:

But - playing Devil's advocate - how much are you screwing the guys working in the factory that builds a guitar that cheap?

That's certainly a dilemma.

Is a shitty job better than no job? The responsibility lies with the manufacturer to pay decent rates and provide a safe working environment.

HAL9000

I know I've banged on about it before, but my old Squier Affinity Tele punched well above its price point. Stupidly I sold it as in my head it wasn't a 'real' Tele (essentially due to the lack of a skunk stripe or through-body stringing). I don’t like to admit it but it actually had more of that ‘Tele’ spank than my current rather generic sounding US Std Telecaster.

Legionreturns

One of my favourite affordable guitars is an Adam Black. 

Ebony board, really good sounding Asbo pickups, originally came with locking tuners but they're gone now as one broke during a restring last year, and a very neat fit and finish. Eminently playable but if were to sell it, I'd be lucky to get £150 for it. It outplays many guitars at two or three times that money just because people don't know the name.






I'm also a big fan of the Vintage stuff. The Wilkinson hardware and pickups are far better than their price points, and I'm on my third Vintage and contemplating more.

JDE

Adam Black’s are ace. One of my friends has had one as a backup for ages - I actually think it outplays his number one. 

TheMarlin

You can pick up a Gretsch Corvette for about £250ish used. They’re excellent guitar with fab Megatron pickups (Hot Filtertrons). I much prefer there to an SG. 
it has a crap Bigsby B50, but a cheap mod (Bricks Bigs Fix Tuning Stabiliser) transforms it into an excellent Bigsby.  I love ‘em!

darthed1981

The cheapest guitar I've ever owned was a Squier Bullet Strat, bought from PMT last year on a total whim because it played great.

Now sold it to my cousin who is learning (impressively quickly) how to play using it.

The best £100 new guitar i'll ever play I'm certain, very light, very easy action, and like all Squiers actually has nice sounding pickups as well.

It's very difficult to buy a bad guitar these days.

57Deluxe

my cheapest new guitar was only £30 delivered from Germany (MIC) in '07 and is probably the most alluring all-round tone, neh, best, I have out of any of my other 9 top branded instruments. After I set it up and settled it in it is maybe my favourite go-to guitar now. I have changed nothing on it other than strings.

Having said that, all of the cheaper offerings I have had brought in front of me from students all sound and suffer from the same affliction - that of toneless/souless PUPs, and a rather annoying woody/twangy/buzzy/neck-scratchy character. These can be no brands, cheaper Squires, Harley Benton etc.

Of course put them through a decent amp and carefully selected pedal or two that they liven up, but out the box - pants.

rossi

underdog said:

I've got one of those Mustangs too, really good guitar and brilliant value for money.

Same here .excellent guitar .Needed a fret polish thats all .

I bought a hard to find Keiper 109 Les Paul sized hollowbody jazzer and its really good ,in fact I have played jazz and blues live loads of times .I think they were really cheap new.I paid 60 off Gumtree .Of course I may have just got a good one that escaped where ever it was made by luck .My friend who make lutes so qualifies a luthier  ,not a guitar tech, is amazed by its burst  finish which is perfect  as is the binding .

skullfunkerry

I've mentioned my Squier several times on here. They're £336 from Andertons now, and mine is just as good as my Charvel, which was over twice that. In fact, it stays in tune better than the Charvel - although that could be due to me putting 11s on the Charvel and tuning it to drop C...

merciful-evans

opps... forgot about the all plastic Switch wild 4

I got this one from John Robson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nt861CMoc5M

Flanging_Fred

The singer in our band went into a guitar shop the other day for strings and came out with an Epiphone les paul special VM for  £109. The finish is (deliberately?) pretty rough but I really enjoyed playing it. It was just really... fun. It sounded pretty decent too. 

ESBlonde

Often good value guitars come up as used, if you are lucky someone else has taken the depreciation hit and also spent some money upgrading hardware, only to sell a a huge loss because it's not a (insert snobbery of choice).

Whilst online gives access to a broader market, it doesn't easily give you the playing experience of walking into shop that deals in used gear. These days thats probably limited to Gash converters for a selection of awful guitars and the odd gem.

Don't buy with your eyes, buy with your ears and your heart.

jonnyburgo

Picked up a new Silvertone 1423 reissue the other day for £250 new and it is excellent, frets are are perfect, tuners may be a bit meh but it sounds ace. Bought my son a S/H Squier affinity HSS Strat for Xmas and it is a belter of a guitar, trem is useless so it has been blocked but it plays and sounds really good for £50.

Creed_Clicks

Just picked up a used Epiphone Casino in cherry red. It’s great. Feels great. Sounds good but most importantly feels fantastic.
I had thought about doing some upgrades but not so sure now. 
Was only €320.

Jez6345789

I own cheap and expensive but I like my cheapies have an old affinity Strat that is simply great I keep saying I will upgrade the pickups but plug it in to record and it sound like a strat and it plays like a dream.

These days most thing can be setup to play well sometimes they need a little work but then my time on my hobbies is free labour. 

SpiritOfTheAge

Oh one more for Adam Black, I have the semi hollow version of the one above and I love the ebony board, it plays great and I swapped out the pickups for a Dimarzio PAF pro and a  Tone Zone