Worst guitar you've owned

dogload

meltedbuzzbox said:

worst - definitely a Rickenbacker. I forget what model it was but it was a hateful bag of shite. 

Was that the black 610 you bought off me?

If so I apologise!

Gulliver

Chinese-made Chapman Guitars ML-1


Wood combination isn't to my taste (as it turned out, had a Gibson that was mahogany and ebony and had similar issues) neither was the stupid mismatched hardware (chrome bridge with black knobs and tuners...)

bridge humbucker sounded terrible - coupled with the stupidest pickup selection from the factory (who puts a 3-way toggle on a HSS guitar?!?)

stupid fucking branding 

dogload

thermionic said:

My first one, a Satellite like this:

https://i.imgur.com/Xz703wy.jpg

Short scale but high action, missing tremolo spring (probably a good thing come to think of it), and slide switches that were off in the down position so it would often go quiet mid-song. My friend stepped on my cable which snapped off the end of the pickguard (I somehow repaired it with some success). Cost me £25, sold it for £20 to a student who was somewhat disappointed it wasn’t a real “Strat copy” as I’d described it, but liked it anyway. Almost everything that followed has been an improvement.

Same here. Absolutely no redeeming features. My first electric as well and as you say, everything else is an improvement.

I kept mine in various pieces, the body eventually going on the fire, one cold winter. So I suppose it did have one redeeming feature!

Sassafras

Jalapeno said:

My first electric was virtually unplayable, a Jedson

I've got a very similar Teisco I use solely for slide. Pickups are surprisingly powerful and raunchy.

Redlester

Early 2000s Korean made Epi Sg. Heavy as lead. Naff pickups. Fat neck. Looked like am old sideboard. Bought when I knew naff all about buying guitars. 

I guess some of us have to go through experiences of the indifferent stuff so that we save ourselves more pain later on.  

SquireJapan

Nasty Squier P Bass I’d done some swaps for and cost me £50 back in the late 90s. 

It was nasty. I didn’t know any better, I thought for a long fine that that’s what a bass is - high action that can never be lowered. Twisted neck (I found out much later). It genuinely shaped my impression of what playing the bass was for YEARS. 

I parted it out and sold it last year (with very harsh descriptions and disclaimers for days) and about broke even. 

I put that £50 or so towards a Yamaha bass, and never looked back (or improved). 

Dominic

Surprisingly a superb 1978 Hamer Sunburst
Beautiful manufacture ,look,wood and hardware
Superb neck and overall quality
I just hated the sound of the Di Marzio pickups and especially the middle out of phase position
...........I changed the pickups and although it played superbly I just didn't like the very bright sound

rze99

Two:

some kind of cheap Kay catalogue thing when I was 11. Horrible. But it made me resilient and determined to get a better one 

a Satellite Les Paul Cutom copy. Cheap and nasty with crap pickups but it was a lot better than the first one and it made me want to get a real lp Custom which I did when I was 19. 

bgmartinsbridge

Here's another...

1966 Fender Coronado with a wobbly tiny neck and felt like it was made out of paper. 

artiebear

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.

The EC 00028 is a weird one. I had one which was horrible, dead and sounded like it was stuffed full of wet socks, then after that  I found another one that I have had for nearly 20 years. The latter is as good an example of a 00028 it is possible to find, a lovely guitar in every way.

Back to the main thread question; 

Electric , a first generation, first year of production Gibson Jimmy Page signature LP. It looked lovely but was as poor a Les Paul of the many I have owned) in every way. Thankfully, a collector loved it and paid what he considered an appropriate price for it.

Acoustic , A Taylor 812C back in the day when they were less common in the UK (late 80;s/early 90's) A guitar that did none of the things I wanted in a good acoustic.

scrumhalf

thermionic said:

My first one, a Satellite like this:

https://i.imgur.com/Xz703wy.jpg

Short scale but high action, missing tremolo spring (probably a good thing come to think of it), and slide switches that were off in the down position so it would often go quiet mid-song. My friend stepped on my cable which snapped off the end of the pickguard (I somehow repaired it with some success). Cost me £25, sold it for £20 to a student who was somewhat disappointed it wasn’t a real “Strat copy” as I’d described it, but liked it anyway. Almost everything that followed has been an improvement.

I also had one of these as my first electric and whilst it wasn't "put-some-new-pickups-in-and-it-sounds-lile-a-vintage-Fender" it was miles better than my acoustic, which required Schwarzenegger strength to play a barre chord. I'll admit, though, that the frets were made from a metal that only just qualified as a solid.

thefez

My first instrument, a Jim Deacon all black strat about 20 years ago.

£50 inc. the amp from a friend in the village. Looked nice but the bridge was lifted about as high as it could go, action was incredibly high and the high E seemed to break all the time, though that could be me. Ended up trading it back to him for a Washburn BT-2 I think. 

crunchman

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.

I believe that was my old one.  With hindsight, the Fishman didn't help it.

I had another guitar that I put a Fishman in, that seemed to lose what made it sound good.  It was only later I twigged that the FIshman was adding weight to the top and stopping it vibrating freely.  

The Stonebridge (Furch) OM I have now is a better sounding guitar.  My other Martin is good though.

thegummy

Gulliver said:

Chinese-made Chapman Guitars ML-1


Wood combination isn't to my taste (as it turned out, had a Gibson that was mahogany and ebony and had similar issues) neither was the stupid mismatched hardware (chrome bridge with black knobs and tuners...)

bridge humbucker sounded terrible - coupled with the stupidest pickup selection from the factory (who puts a 3-way toggle on a HSS guitar?!?)

stupid fucking branding 

You didn't know it was going to have all that before you bought it?

meltedbuzzbox

dogload said:

meltedbuzzbox said:

worst - definitely a Rickenbacker. I forget what model it was but it was a hateful bag of shite. 

Was that the black 610 you bought off me?

If so I apologise!

Thats the one!

To be fair, the guy I sold it to was over the moon with it

Schnozz

A Vintage Graham Oliver Signature V

mucksavage

Hmmm...I'll exclude non-brand stuff i had as a beginner...a cheap BC Rich Warlock sticks out in my memory. But bigger disappointments were my forays into some hyped 'bargains' from the 80s...a Japanese Fender Squire and a Tokai Goldstar Strat. Both pure muck. 

LordOxygen

Gretsch 5422 - dreadful guitar. Went out of tune every 2 minutes and it rattled and vibrated terribly. 

Schnozz

Gassage said:

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

Just like the artist then

Philly_Q

The worst was the first, an "Arbiter" Les Paul copy, one of those generic, bolt-on neck, Japanese LP copies marketed under many brand names in the late '70s and early '80s.  Looked pretty good, but all the component parts were shite.

Apart from that I don't know if I've had any genuinely bad guitars, but there were lots I took an instant dislike to - Bacchus Explorer, Greco SG, Fender '50s Classic Player, a couple of Tokais, even a PRS or two.  None of them were kept for very long.