Worst guitar you've owned

Grangousier

Some kind of Woolworths guitar that I ended up dismantling (I think the pickups are still in a box somewhere). Absolutely terrible, not so much a musical instrument as something you give a young person to dissuade them from playing the guitar. In my case that didn't work, though, obviously.

Strangely I have both a Watkins Rapier 44 and a Shergold Masquerader and I like them both, though the Rapier suffers from that super thin, flat body and needs the wiring to be looked at. 

sticker

Don’t think I’ve ever had a “bad” guitar they’ve all been exactly what was required of them at the time ...(and I’ve probably had close to 60 over the years).

ICBM

sticker said:

(and I’ve probably had close to 60 over the years).

Amateur...

sticker

ICBM said:

sticker said:

(and I’ve probably had close to 60 over the years).

Amateur...

I’ve still got most of them ! 

Logie

I don't know how to highlight, refer to previous comments etc. but in reply to thegummy, ICBM is pretty much spot on. Fret dressing/ levelling, truss rod adjustment etc. There was no fretwear as it had barely been played by the previous owner. I've had a lot of Gibsons over the years and I know they're variable in quality but it's the only one I've ever had that couldn't do the job of being a guitar. Fine once it was sorted but by then I just wanted shot of it. I'm pretty handy at setting up a guitar but that one was beyond me

Flanging_Fred

Despite being the owner of an Audition Woolies guitar, the worst I had was a Washburn X200pro. Decent spec on paper but it had all finesse of playing a fence post and sounded like a partially garrotted guinea pig. At least the Audition has some character to it.

thegummy

Logie said:

I don't know how to highlight, refer to previous comments etc. but in reply to thegummy, ICBM is pretty much spot on. Fret dressing/ levelling, truss rod adjustment etc. There was no fretwear as it had barely been played by the previous owner. I've had a lot of Gibsons over the years and I know they're variable in quality but it's the only one I've ever had that couldn't do the job of being a guitar. Fine once it was sorted but by then I just wanted shot of it. I'm pretty handy at setting up a guitar but that one was beyond me

Cool, I would have assumed that but I thought they generally charge more for a fret dress.

boogieman

Where to start? Most of my early guitars were piles of crap because that’s all I could get or afford. Top Twenty, Columbus LP, Eko semi (which to be fair looked quite cool and had interesting sounding pickups... shame about the wobbly neck joint). My first proper Strat was also a dog, a 78 from Fender’s hardly-golden period. Most of what I’ve owned since has been infinitely better. 

Logie

thegummy We're talking at least 10 years ago. He was very reasonable even then though. He came recommended by a friend and was a bit of a boffin on the side. He had a sideline manufacturing his own designs of tremsetters and other ancillary sort of stuff like that. This was the offending article:-

https://i.imgur.com/oTBOOy3.jpg

Rob1742

sofasteve said:

Satellite strat copy in black. Got it  from hands music in Kingston 1988 for I think 85 pounds. It had no redeming features whatsoever. Swapped for a CSL Les Paul copy which was a great improvement.

I actually hunted down my 1983 black Satellite Les Paul copy and got it back last year. My first guitar, we had good times. 

koneguitarist

Never really had a bad one. 

Shite amps, but not guitars. 

bbill335

bbill335 said:

the dearmond m65 i started with. weighed a tonne, sounded bad, couldn't keep tune, snapped strings. i sold it to a mate for £50 and another mate scratched a phallus onto the back.

i should add that i was extremely lucky that my dad had a couple of halfway decent guitars knocking around, or else i'd have been stuck with the bloody dearmond, which was far less fun to play.

fretfinder

Gassage said:

Sassafras said:

Gassage said:

For the price- a Martin EC signature. Stiff, lifeless, dull.

I found the same.
Maybe you have to play them hard for 30 years or so for the wood to loosen up a bit.

Sass, It had a fishman over the hole whoch I removed- I thought that was stiffening it but it made only a tiny bit of difference.

Maybe you were both unlucky, or I was lucky - I’ve got one that I’ve had for over 10 years, it was already well-played when I bought it and it’s a beaut, anything but dull and lifeless.

scrumhalf

A horrendous Flying V copy that I got from Maurice Placquet. I don't know what possessed me to get it, but it went back the next day as, on close examination, it had been manufactured, assembled and tested by people who were either asleep or blindfolded.

To their eternal credit they took it back without complaint and I walked out of the shop with my wonderful Westbury Standard.

guitarcookie1

An Encore Strat from the mid-nineties that I bought from Argos to get back into playing. Action like a cheese wire and traded-in for a Squier Tele (this one had a ply-body but actually played and sounded good).

steveh

Walden classical guitar after reading a 5* sound, 5* build qiality and 5* value in some godforsaken UK guitar magazine.

= Firewood.

earwighoney

My first ever instrument, a Rockwood bass. It had a neck that was warped like a banana and sounded like kicking a wet cardboard wet.
I can't believe I played it at gigs for a few years. Ah those were the days!

skullfunkerry

I had one of those Encore LP junior-looking things that there was a thread about the other day; that was pretty terrible but I actually quite liked it.

Most disappointing guitar I've ever owned was a Les Paul Voodoo that I bought off eBay in about 2011

Fez

Watkins rapier here as well. The action was about half an inch so I used it for slide for a bit then donated the electrics to a mate who had one that the pickups went open circuit on.

crunchman

Kay Les Paul copy that I bought new in 1984.  Neck went banana shaped within a few months.