Well, I'll try to keep this brief
, wish me luck
.
1. OK, so he paid $200 for it. It cost the retailer half of that: $100. The retailer had to buy it from the manufacturer, which charges right around a 100% markup, which means the guitar cost $50 to make, maybe even less than that.
2. So if the guitar cost $50 to make, everything on the guitar can't be very nice/expensive, which means, the wood is junk, the electronics are cheap, and the whole guitar was quickly bolted together on an assembly line. To quote Larry the Cable Guy, he's hanging chandeliers in a haunted house.
I am very big on modding guitars, but you need to have GOOD WOOD and GOOD CONSTRUCTION to begin with. If the wood and construction are not of good quality, the guitar will never be good no matter how it is modded. Jay Turser, Axl, and Agile all make guitars that are excellently constructed and use very good wood (once you get past $250 or so) for a very nice price. Carvin also sells bodies and bolt-on necks already fretted, routed, and with a fitted/filed nut for not very much money. If he isn't interested in modding a moderately priced guitar ($300 to $500: initial cost of the guitar), he's just gonna have to accept the fact that good never equals cheap and start saving for a RR1 Rhoads.
the heavier the wood, the more sustain.
I think it has more to do with the type of wood than the thickness. What about poplar? No wood is more resonant that poplar, and it's lighter than just about every other wood.