Recommend me a good cheap electro for under £300

jeztone2

My new band is putting together a social media set. This is so we can do acoustic versions of our songs & gradually drip them out over the website via YouTube. I was thinking of one of these newish Sigma a Electro Acoustics. But are their any other brands worth considering? As money is tight, I don't want to spend too much cash.

Gassage

THIS

NOW.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Yamaha-APX700-Natural-Electro-Acoustic-Guitar-/331584432769?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_3&hash=item4d33f8ea81

ICBM

I really wouldn't.

Those are a bit polarising to say the least (personally I think they sound utterly awful even plugged in), and if you do like them you should be able to pick one up for a fair bit less than that.

On a practical level I would be careful about buying *any* older Yamaha electro-acoustic - I've had to work on quite a few with unrepairably dead preamps, and now Yamaha have run out of the boards for some of the older models the only alternative is to find a different preamp which will cover the hole left by the original - not always easy, depending on exactly where on the curve of the side it is - and there's one version with a separate hole elsewhere, which you'll have to fill or cover.

Actually the same applies to many older electros from many makes, not just Yamaha. One of the very few where you can always replace the preamp with minimal hassle are Takamines with the large slot-in square one - Takamine have made a point of sticking to this mounting, exactly for that reason.

The Sigmas are actually OK, but as always my advice would be: get a decent acoustic and a pickup, either a soundhole one or an internal pickup and an external preamp. Electro-acoustics are a nightmare if anything ever goes wrong.

usedtobe

^^

p90fool

As above just buy an acoustic you like and stick a pickup in it.
I've been battling against feedback and crackly distortion problems for my last four acoustic gigs, and I finally traced it to an intermittently dodgy preamp in my Faith Venus on Sunday.

I've now gone back to an undersaddle piezo wired directly to a Switchcraft jack into a DI box and I suddenly have a totally usable, balanced sound again.

It's not a drop-dead gorgeous acoustic tone which will set the world on fire, but I'm now making it sound good with my hands and pick rather than fighting a baffling (onstage, anyway) array of four knobs, six sliders and three switches.

No more bloody batteries either...

ICBM

It looks like that new TC gadget might be just the ticket for this too. (Even if I don't like it being a mini-pedal and so not taking a battery .)

mgaw

2nd hand Faith Acoustic and k&k mini pickup........or soundhole i have an excellent Orchid pre amp kicking around gathering dust which does the job brilliantly.

chrisj1602

I use an Epiphone EJ200CE, very happy with it.

seany65

Juts ordered a Gear4Music SC-100LH left hand electro-acoustic, just to see how I'd manage fretting with my stronger, more dexterous right hand and strumming with my weaker, less dexterous left hand.  That and the fact that my left hand index finger has become a tiny bit painful when fretting chords.

Just wondering if it'll sound crap or poo. If so will it be me and my non-expert playing or what?