Small budget good guitar suggestions.

BroKen_H

BroKen_H

Re-member
Looking at two different guitars. around $600-700

1st is the Steinberger Synapse. I loved the bass. If the guitar is anything like that I'd like one. Direct drive tuners move linear instead of rotating. EMG pickups, light weight, very expressive.

2nd is the Les Paul Futura. It seems like a straight up LP with P90 Sidewinder and BB3 at the bridge. It's actually above my price target, but I'd like feedback specifically about the Futura, cause at that price, it's hard to believe it stands up to the LP name.

Any other suggestions for an expressive, fun to play, great sounding guitar at the $600 mark? Watching Craigslist, and local sites. Never been one to order a guitar online (unplayed).
 
I buy used. You can always find Les Paul's and American strat for 600 bucks...500 sometimes.

There's no way in hell I would buy a brand new guitar of any kind.
 
You have a great point. A brand new guitar is only brand new till someone plays it, then it's used...:)
 
BUT, I've seen exactly one (1), singular LP that wasn't a studio or the Futura I'm looking at in the last two weeks that was under $2000. Wish I was in your neck of the woods...
 
BroKen_H said:
BUT, I've seen exactly one (1), singular LP that wasn't a studio or the Futura I'm looking at in the last two weeks that was under $2000. Wish I was in your neck of the woods...
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You're going to pay a price of aprox. half the brand new price for a used Les paul. So if you want a $600 LP it's probably going to be a studio or a headstock damaged standard that needs fretwork. I would go with a studio, they are great guitars, in the scope of your budget used, and easy to sell.

plus they hold their value. You can buy one for $500 or $600, play it for 5 years, and get your money back out of it easily.
other "off brand" guitars are harder to sell than Gibsons and American made fenders.
my 2 cents
 
BroKen_H said:
Any other suggestions for an expressive, fun to play, great sounding guitar at the $600 mark? Watching Craigslist, and local sites. Never been one to order a guitar online (unplayed).
Click to expand...

Not quite sure what kind of guitar you are after....but if it's something in the LP-style, hey, I can't say enough nice things about Hagstrom Swedes.
If you want to go to a typical retailer (online or brick) like MF or GC, etc.....you'll pay about $600-$800, but check out eBay, and you can find them from $400-$600.
I've bought a few Hag reissues off of eBay...ain't no big deal, and since I have a bunch, I'm not that worried about playing them first. IOW, I know what to expect, and I enjoy the slight surprise of small personality differences between them when they arrive.
I've not been burned by a single guitar purchase.
Plus, you can find online sellers that take returns, and eBay covers all sales now.
 
Greg_L said:
WTF is an "expressive" guitar? YOU make the guitar expressive, not the other way around.
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Maybe (again) I'm asking the wrong question. But there is a definite difference in the sound of a LP Standard and an Ibanez or LTD LP copy, even if you put original Gibson pickups in them. Expressive, meaning the notes are clear, with good tone. And yes, a lot of that has to do with the player, and I'm learning, but it also has to do with wood and craftsmanship. I'm specifically asking about the Futura LPs and hoping for straight answers as to what to expect. Will the tone it produces be better than a Studio when performance level remains constant? Or will a Studio give that great LP sound at 1/3 the price? If so, that may be my best bet.

AFA the Synapse. I played a Synapse bass for a while and it had great tone and not meaning "for a headless". If anyone can vouch for the Synapse guitar having great tone...
 
miroslav said:
Not quite sure what kind of guitar you are after....but if it's something in the LP-style, hey, I can't say enough nice things about Hagstrom Swedes.
If you want to go to a typical retailer (online or brick) like MF or GC, etc.....you'll pay about $600-$800, but check out eBay, and you can find them from $400-$600.
I've bought a few Hag reissues off of eBay...ain't no big deal, and since I have a bunch, I'm not that worried about playing them first. IOW, I know what to expect, and I enjoy the slight surprise of small personality differences between them when they arrive.
I've not been burned by a single guitar purchase.
Plus, you can find online sellers that take returns, and eBay covers all sales now.
Click to expand...

Thank you for the head's up. I'll look into the Hags. I'm not looking for an LP per se, therefore the Synapse thrown into the mix. Looking for a versatile guitar with a great tone. And preferably one you don't have to tune halfway through recording a song...
 
BroKen_H said:
Maybe (again) I'm asking the wrong question. But there is a definite difference in the sound of a LP Standard and an Ibanez or LTD LP copy, even if you put original Gibson pickups in them. Expressive, meaning the notes are clear, with good tone. And yes, a lot of that has to do with the player, and I'm learning, but it also has to do with wood and craftsmanship. I'm specifically asking about the Futura LPs and hoping for straight answers as to what to expect. Will the tone it produces be better than a Studio when performance level remains constant? Or will a Studio give that great LP sound at 1/3 the price? If so, that may be my best bet.

AFA the Synapse. I played a Synapse bass for a while and it had great tone and not meaning "for a headless". If anyone can vouch for the Synapse guitar having great tone...
Click to expand...

If you're looking for Les Paul sound on a budget, a Studio a Futura are probably pretty similar. The Studio will probably sound more "classic Les Paul" as it has the Standard's 490/498 pickups and a mahogany neck - standard fare on Les Paul Standards. The Futura has a maple neck and P-90/BB3 pickups. The maple neck on the Futura might make it sound and feel more "snappy".

Neither one will be particularly easy to play for a beginner. Les Pauls aren't known for their ergonomic feel. They're big and heavy and that heel really gets in the way of higher fret access. They're classics though and experienced players make em sing, but they can be a bitch.

If you want a really easy to play guitar full of Gibson mojo, get an SG.
 
BroKen_H said:
Any other suggestions for an expressive, fun to play, great sounding guitar at the $600 mark? Watching Craigslist, and local sites. Never been one to order a guitar online (unplayed).
Click to expand...
Greg_L said:
If you want a really easy to play guitar full of Gibson mojo, get an SG.
Click to expand...
I got my son an SG standard used for maybe $500 - it had some "mods", meaning I had to put on new tuning heads and a bridge pickup, and, as with just about any guitar, get it well set up - but all in not much over your budget, and we both love it now.

Worth considering - I cut my teeth (fingertips? shoulder-joint definitely) on a sweet Les Paul Custom, but now I just play SGs and clones for the most part and I love it and so does my back.
 
BroKen_H said:
Thank you for the head's up. I'll look into the Hags. I'm not looking for an LP per se, therefore the Synapse thrown into the mix. Looking for a versatile guitar with a great tone. And preferably one you don't have to tune halfway through recording a song...
Click to expand...

Well, you have a lot of guitar brands/models to pick from, so I'm sure you'll find something that fits.

Just to give the Hags one more prop.....you might also check out the Hagstrom Deuce guitars. It's basically the Swede body with a double cut....so you get the high fret access, but they also come in three flavors....the solid body Deuce, the Deuce-F which has a single f-hole, so you get a bit of the semi-hollow tone, and there is the Deuce-F Tremar, which is the whammy bar version.
Anyway...I have all three versions, and I really love these guitars as much as I do my regular Swedes.

The added versatility bonus, and why I wanted to mention them is that they have push/pull on both of the Tone knobs that turn the neck and/or bridge pups into single coil flavors, so you get four distinct tone options just using the two push/pull knobs...plus with the middle position pup selector, you got even more.....so maybe it would be along the lines of what you want AFA versatile tone....?

AFA tuning stability....all of my Hags are good at holding tune once you settle in the strings.
They use the synthetic Tusq nuts and typical Tun-o-matic bridges, except for the Tremar which has a roller bridge.

Anyway....just giving you some more food for thought. ;)
 
Danelectro are great guitars for the money I think, I prefer them to epiphone and squier, also easy to mod if you need to.
 
I agree with jimistone....around here US Strats and Gibson LP's of some models are common at $500-$600 CList. These guitars are mass produced for the most part, usually by automation, and are well built and in excess supply. So you get a good guitar for cheap.

MIM Strats are $200, great guitar, some like them better than the US...definitely the price. Guitar Center Outlet was selling MIM brand new at $200, great for my son whose playing live a lot (which means open to thieves and damaged gear). CL they are $150-$250. Again an ocean of them, built mainly by robot machines so consistent assembly lines, and cheap.

I wonder what the numbers are today, in the 50's it was like 3000 guitars a year for Fender Strat's, now they can probably do 300,000 Strats a month.
 
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