So, what's so bad about a cheap guitar

[ed2000]

I've rediscovered a cheap guitar that's been hiding a while.
It's an early 90's Korean Squier Strat, with the black script, plywood body, bar magnet pups and a great feeling neck. If I didn't know of it's economical bits and pieces, I must say it plays and feels pretty nice. Does anyone else here enjoy these cheap beauties where it's more about the playing than the name?

[Edutainment]

In that last couple days I've kinda been favouring my Squier Affinity Strat over my Fender Tele. I don't think there's anything wrong with a cheap guitar. I've been eyeing those SX's and Xaviere's lately.

[Stratocaster]

I guess it all comes down to personal preference. Some people's ear are sensitive to stuff like guitar sustain, and how thick/thin your sound is. Wood and pickups have much to do with this. If you like it, then that's all that really matters.

Tone is in the ear of the beholder :smile:

[Ripper]

I guess it all comes down to personal preference. Some people's ear are sensitive to stuff like guitar sustain, and how thick/thin your sound is. Wood and pickups have much to do with this. If you like it, then that's all that really matters.

Tone is in the ear of the beholder :smile:

+1 on that. If it feels good, plays good and sounds good to you then it doesn't matter what it is.

[wnpgguy]

I have also noticed price does not define a good guitar for me (not always). When shopping for one I pick up and play random guitars, decide if I like it, then look at the brand/price. Sometimes I love an expensive one, some times I don't. But price can have alot of bias on how good you think it plays.

[smorgdonkey]

When shopping for one I pick up and play random guitars, decide if I like it, then look at the brand/price.
I am much like that too although I pretty much always know the brand prior to picking it up. I just don't know the price until after I form some impression of it. If I am not impressed, most of the time I don't check the price!

[elindso]

'So, what's so bad about a cheap guitar "

Nothing if it plays well and feels good. Sound, well you can change that if you want.

My take on the cheap stuff is that you have to go through a bunch to find a nice one.

Higher end stuff is more consistant.

[GTmaker]

I dont remember where I read this but it goes something like this.

" RESOLVE YOUR HARDWARE EARLY SO THAT YOU GET GET ON WITH LEARNING/PLAYING".

I happen to believe in this method. Get a good guitar, get a good amp and then spend the rest of the time learning how to play with both.

There is allways room for more guitars, amps, effects etc. BUT its allways good to remember that its what you do with them that realy counts. That takes practice, practice and then a bit more practice.
Waisting time on anything else seems fruitless to me.
Let me put it another way....
When you see an amazing player and his fretboard is worn down to the bone, do you think this guy/gal realy spent a lot of time switching/searching for guitars?

Bottom line, whatever gets you playing more is all good.

[biggreen]

Depending on your defenition of cheap. these boutique Andersone/Sure guys around here consider a $1000 strat to be a cheap guitar, to me anything under $500 qualifies.
By that defintion cheap guitars usually have crap pick ups and electronics, shody necks that can't be adjusted for decent action, and ho hum wood that has less than stellar tone. I find no name, or lesser name cheap guitars to be better quality overall than big 2 who seem to try less and rely more on brand recognition.

[cdub66]

"So, what's so bad about a cheap guitar"

IMHO, absolutely nothing. I have a couple strats, 2007 MIM standard and a AV62RI-the MIM just feels better (to me) to the point that I'm about ready to move the 62RI and give something else a try. :eek:

Strange but true.

[Diablo]

Agreed. nothing. Its like whats wrong with a cheap car. If it goes from point A- point B, then fine.
But sometimes you want something a little more luxurious or flashy, if you can afford/cost-justify it. :)

[Mogwaii]

My Squier and Danelectro were both priced under $400 but they are my most played guitars!

[jane]

Nothing... as long as it plays well. I've tried some cheap guitars that felt like a plank of wood with strings... but I've owned one that was pretty good.

[Budda]

what's wrong with them?

well depending on which one you pull off the wall:
the neck is slightly warped/can't be set up properly
terrible fretwork
shoddy electronics
bad fit and finish

most of that can be fixed. it depends on if you want to spend the Extra money to have all of that done.

i had my squier strat set up at xmas finally, and it plays miles better! but i still want new pickups for it, and the frets still need some sort of work. great work horse though.

it all depends on how bad said cheap guitar is, really. $200 to me is cheap. $400 is starting to get up there, $1500 is getting expensive, $2K and up and i'll be looking at custom guitars please and thank you.

[Mogwaii]

what's wrong with them?

well depending on which one you pull off the wall:
the neck is slightly warped/can't be set up properly
terrible fretwork
shoddy electronics
bad fit and finish

most of that can be fixed. it depends on if you want to spend the Extra money to have all of that done.

i had my squier strat set up at xmas finally, and it plays miles better! but i still want new pickups for it, and the frets still need some sort of work. great work horse though.

it all depends on how bad said cheap guitar is, really. $200 to me is cheap. $400 is starting to get up there, $1500 is getting expensive, $2K and up and i'll be looking at custom guitars please and thank you.

I don't think I'd ever get a custom guitar. I'm still surprised I got a Gibson with that price tag. I've never thought it wasn't worth it though.

[devnulljp]

Depends on your definition of cheap (and guitar for that matter). Cheap guitars now are usually a lot better than the cheapies available even in the 70s. I had a kay plank that vaguely looked like an SG from a catalogue, and eventually upgraded to a Hondo plank. Both those were awful, felt terrible, sounded worse, and were essentially impossible to play. That's what we were all learning on though. Your modern cheapie MIM/MIK Squier or Epi is a thousand times better than those.
You should see the crap that's availabe in Thailand too, where the definition of expensive is a bit different...but I've seen really dedicated players getting decent sounds out of those things.

I just bought a 90s Danelectro RI for $150 too, and it's great in its own way...wish I'd known about Danos back then, I'm sure I could have picked one up for less than the crappy Les Paul copies...

[Eric Pykala]

Guitars are like people; every single one is different. It is this difference that keeps us searching, to whatever degree. I've been doing this for a living for forty-odd years, and have probably worked on, played, or at least critically handled a million guitars. I've owned hundreds ranging from funky junk to really expensive handbuilts, and yeah, if you have the budget (or MAKE the budget) for the good stuff it really does make you play outside your envelope. That said, each guitar must be judged on its individual merits. I demand certain standards like it must play in tune and stay in tune, have reliable and versatile electronics and hardware, and most importantly make you want to play it. I can't begin to think of how many times I've told people to ignore the brand, ignore the price. You have two ears and two hands; use them (this is particularily true of acoustic guitars). Don't buy instruments you haven't seen or played. If something sounds too good to be true, it probably is. If you're reasonably good at working on guitars, there are great "fixer-upper" bargains to be had, as long as you know what it will really cost. Building things from parts gets expensive quickly, particularily if you like good pickups. Get the guitar professionally setup! This is the cheapest way to get dramatic gains in playability, performance and enjoyment. Budget this into the cost of whatever instrument your'e looking at. A $100 acoustic is really a $160 investment, but it's those extra dollars that take it from being a guitar, to being YOUR GUITAR, and pushing you in a whole new positive direction in your playing. If a guitar is really easy to play and sounds inspiring, it gets played a lot. When you play a lot you get good.
At one point my only guitar was a carefully-chosen PRS Santana SE, a beautifully built Korean guitar that sells for about $500-600 . With a few mods and a setup it was my only, so it had to do everything and it did it well for a number of years. Fortunes changed again and I own a few really excellent guitars, including a Paul Reed Smith Hollowbody II Artist Package Piezo (what a handle...) that costs ten times as much. Both instruments do exactly what I need them to do, are pro-caliber in every respect. On the other end of the spectrum, I had a Danelectro/Silvertone with the tube amp built into the case that aside from being instant Chicago was so crude in its build it was incredible. Best $100 I ever spent.
The most important part of being a smart shopper is to be smart.-Eric

[PaulS]

Nice post Eric, that pretty well sums it up... :food-smiley-004:

[devnulljp]

... I had a Danelectro/Silvertone with the tube amp built into the case that aside from being instant Chicago was so crude in its build it was incredible. Best $100 I ever spent...I tried to buy one of those from Buzz here on the board but he changed his mind about selling after posting the ad :D
Don't blame him, I want one of those guitars. Love that hardboard!

[dodgechargerfan]

On a lark, I picked up one of theose Gibson/Baldwin Educational series guitars while walking through a liquidation centre.
It felt right. Action was smooth.
So, I bought it with the idea that if I decided to tinker with it, I didn't care about the guitar so much as any of the others that I have.
It would give me achance to dig in to changing/tweaking the electronics, upgrading some pieces, etc...

Know what? I haven't changed a thing yet and I play it the most now.
It could use a good setting up - as do all of my guitars right now, but for hacking around in the basement, it's been great.

As for the sound. Well, it's a lot different than anything else I have. To me that's a plus. I haven't really given any thought as to whether or not it's a good sound. I can do different things with it. So, that's worth the price of admission right there... $149 and a little pride (but not as much as at first.) ;)

[greco]

On a lark, I picked up one of theose Gibson/Baldwin Educational series guitars while walking through a liquidation centre.
It felt right. Action was smooth.
So, I bought it with the idea that if I decided to tinker with it, I didn't care about the guitar so much as any of the others that I have.
It would give me achance to dig in to changing/tweaking the electronics, upgrading some pieces, etc...

Know what? I haven't changed a thing yet and I play it the most now.
It could use a good setting up - as do all of my guitars right now, but for hacking around in the basement, it's been great.

As for the sound. Well, it's a lot different than anything else I have. To me that's a plus. I haven't really given any thought as to whether or not it's a good sound. I can do different things with it. So, that's worth the price of admission right there... $149 and a little pride (but not as much as at first.) ;)

I'm about to get one of those from a member of this forum.

Which model did you get?

I'm planning on putting in some SD Pearly Gates pickups that I have at home and also trying my hand a learning more setup techniques/concepts. Possibly making a new nut.

I'm really curious as to the overall sound I will get.

Cheers

Dave

[dwagar]

A couple of years ago I picked up a Yamaha AE500 big box on clearance at Mothers Music, $299 (1/2 price) and you sent in a form and Yamaha shipped you a free hardshell case.

http://bmcmusik.dk/images/ae500.jpg

Made in Indonesia, I had to dress the fret ends (I see that as pretty normal as it's so dry here) and one capacitor was shorted out - Mothers would have fixed it but it was easier for me to do it myself than drive back over there the next day.

Everything about the guitar is just fine. It needed strings and a bit of a set up of course. Very comfortable for me as it's basically a Les Paul setup in a big box, it even has a volute on the back of the headstock like the Norlin era LPs.

A deal I couldn't pass up, but, having said that, I rarely ever play it. I let the other guitar player in the band use it for a couple of tunes.

Offshore manufacturing is to the point that you can find lots of good, inexpensive guitars today.

But there is a reason other guitars are more expensive. Probably doesn't matter to 75% of the players out there, and that is fine. But it does to me.

[Evilmusician]

Nothing wrong with a cheap guitar ,here's mine Yamaha Pacifica 112 ,replaced pickups Dimarzio Air Norton ,stock yamaha ,Dimarzio Fast Track 2 ,and a coil tap on Humbucker great little guitar with nice sound ,and pretty versatile!
http://i12.photobucket.com/albums/a206/Ataru80/guitar.jpg:rockon:

[rhh7]

Very nice guitar, love natural finish Pacifica's.

[Maxer]

Same here. I sold my early 90s natural Pacifica last year... now I'm sorry I did it. What a neck. Sort of a working man's guitar, looks-wise, but wow what a performer.

I admire the Pacifica line, especially the upper-tier models, but I'm really impressed with the AES series.

[laristotle]

Got two recent cheappies.
Mansfield acoustic, $20, reset the neck.
Ugly as heck, but plays nice.
And a Fender F-35, $120 WHSC. http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w37/laristotle/emots/rk.gif
Browsing craigs list on my b-day
and found it in town.

[bluezombie]

I always say this, and i know alot of people will disagree with me, but my 400$ washburn is the best guitar i've ever played :/

I've had it for four years, and during the time i've always considered changing guitars for a more expensive and reputed one. However, none seemed to give me the same 'Welcome home' feeling that my washburn gives me. I changed most of the low-quality parts for better ones, and i drilled in a killswitch.

The guitar not only feels right for me, but I have alot of sentimental value for it. It's really taken quite a beating from me, since I go everywhere with it and it has alot of scars from accidents.

Once i forgot it at a grocery store, and the next day I returned, without even realising i left it there, and a cashier came up to me and said 'Hey, you're the guy who left a guitar here yesterday, right?' I answered 'Uhh, i don't think i'm the guy'. And he said 'Well it's a sparkly orange guitar, I brought it back to my place last night'. I slapped myself on the forehead and gave the guy a very generous tip for being kind enough to give it back.

Sometimes all a guitar needs for sick tone and feel is a little love :)