I have owned a Marlin Sidewinder (strat copy) for many years. I bought it second hand (maybe third, fourth or fifth hand!) at a bric-a-brac market for about £40. It is a sort of (naturally) aged cream, with a maple neck (with that cool fish at number 12). It is also genuinely road worn, with chips and wear-patches all over it. I play in a rock band and gig it regularly. It sounds great through my Fender amp. All of the pickups etc. are original (to my knowledge). It plays like butter, has a great variety of tones, sounds marvellous through my pedal board and looks so cool! It is great even in comparison with my main axe, my tele (also cream with a maple neck).
Maybe the plywood is a little heavy, and the pots crackle in the studio, but that's just character! Why do people seem to dislike these guitars?
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The fish inlay is cool though
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Because they are smarmy and think they are swordfish.. (everyone knows swordfish are cooler)
:P
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So your guitar is called fish crab! Maybe that's why folk are a bit sniffy about them!
Fact is though that folk are often a bit snobby about these starter guitars, until someone decides they are retro cool and then everyone wants one. Got a lot of us started though (mine was a Sunn Mustang) and if you have one that plays great then that's a win.
I'm gonna guess that a good player on a Marlin Sidewinder would sound better than a shit player on an R8!
I've noticed that the prices are going up, I saw one for £120 on ebay so you're probably right. Mine was my first electric, too.
That's why you can pick them up for £40.
But more seriously... My own opinion is that we live in a different world today... Cheap crap guitars back then were generally that... But more than that, if I wanted a Strat and couldn't afford a Fender id go straight for a Squire... It at least looks more the part.
Of course that's nothing to do with if they were actually any good.. Maybe if there was an internet back then more people would have stood up for them and more would have tried them..??? They certainly suit the modding market.
Alternatively you may have just got lucky and found a good one. And at the end of the day a good player should be able to make any guitar sound good so I don't actually think its the guitar Im not particularly happy with my playing at the moment, I don't even think it would make a difference if I played an £8000 guitar or an £80 one, I would still sound shit
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I gave you a wisdom for inserting the phrase 'plays like butter' and 'axe' in the same post.
Brave move.
Fair dinkum. Forty quid is about what they are worth. i.e Roughly the same price as a functional replacement bridge or vibrato.
I was sympathetic/positive right up until you used this phrase. Now, I am skeptical. IMHO, there are only two things in the world that should "play like butter". One of them is butter. The other is Maria Schneider.
Actually, a Sidewinder is a snake! Know wha' I mean, 'Arry?
Fol-de-rol.
Yes, the bodies are ply. Apart from the usually above average weight, so what? Contrary to popular belief it doesn't make them sound bad.
The necks are usually quite nice. The fish inlay is a bit ugly, but some people love it...
The pickups and controls are perfectly OK for a cheap-ish far-east guitar. The machineheads are fine.
The bridge is the real weak point - the block is made of a very poor alloy which can crumble and collapse, and on the locking version is impossible to replace without fairly major work since it is a completely unique size. The locking nut on the ones that have it is a piece of crap and better removed anyway.
We've had a few through the shop in the last few years, when properly set up and with minor issues sorted they were good guitars - and sold for well over £100 each. One of them in particular was really nice.
But we also had one where the bridge literally spontaneously self-destructed while it was hanging on the shop wall! If I remember rightly it got fitted with a standard cheap Strat bridge, which was a bit ugly because the original pivot post holes were visible, but it did the job.
About as good as a Chinese Squier but with a bit more character, if you remember them originally - and to be fair, most people who would want one probably had one back in the 80s. If you're going to buy one, be aware of the bridge issue and check that the block has not started to collapse - or if it has, factor the cost of replacing it into the price. I probably wouldn't pay more than £50 for one in unknown condition since you can easily find them for that, but £100+ for one that's been fixed properly seems OK to me.
"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
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
I don't think people hate them really, it's just more amusing to say "Marlin Sidewinder" than "cheap Strat copy".
And everyone of a certain age knows exactly what you're on about.