cheap guitars are better?

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Univox High-Fliers! The ones with humbuckers are neat, but the ones with soapbar single-coils kick ass! The soapbar in the neck has the tone of a bass guitar, yet it's also jangly. :D
 
I was looking for a 'disposable' guitar to take to a festival, a guitar I wouldn't mind leaving behind. I found an old Barnes and Mullin 'Country king' on ebay for £20 ($35).

Well it survived the festival and now it stays in open D and it's my main slide guitar, I use it regularly for live and for recording. It holds it's tuning better than my Seagull :rolleyes:.

The Seagull has an incredible sound though.
 
Most definitely...
I've got a great Rickenbacker 650D, but I still find myself reaching for the $150 Danelectro U-2 reissue about half the time. Just a unique, fun sound.

On the acoustic front, however... I'll stick to my Taylor 812c.
 
I bought this Yamaha 25 years ago for $180. Added a preamp & piezo undersaddle pickup 10 years ago for $250. It stills plays and sounds great.

rpe
 

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I will tell you i have a $200 Falcon (Fender knock-off) with single coils and it OWNS my stupid Ibanez RG470 ($800)

Fact is i completely HATE my new Ibanez. I dunno why I bought it. I thought i needed that smoother sound, buit it just sounds dead in the mix, like most metal does.

I SO prefer the rockier tone of my Falcon!!! ANY DAY!

I use it in conjunction with a Marshall Studio 15 and it is the BEST TONE I EVER HEARD ON ANY RECORDING EVER, period.

It was after I got that amp i realized just how f*cking awesome my old guitar really was :) I love it to death. I will never EVER buy another expensive guitar.

And my Falcon is GREAT on clean too (through antoher amp entirely though. An amp I hate for everything else; Laney HCR25)

Completely brilliant. People tell me all the time how amazing my guitartone is and wanna know how i make em.

My Fender has so much more higher freqs that the more expensive guitars does not have. Its like shaven off. And all the guys in all the music stores i visit always tell me how much BETTER the humbucker sound is. I hate it i hate it i hate it and I hate their whiney thin, dead, dull, boring metal music =)
 
I have a Kramer Striker ST200. Excellent guitar once I stabilized it... Plays great, sounds great and stays in tune
 
StarSyn said:
I will tell you i have a $200 Falcon (Fender knock-off) with single coils and it OWNS my stupid Ibanez RG470 ($800)

Fact is i completely HATE my new Ibanez. I dunno why I bought it. I thought i needed that smoother sound, buit it just sounds dead in the mix, like most metal does.

I SO prefer the rockier tone of my Falcon!!! ANY DAY!

I use it in conjunction with a Marshall Studio 15 and it is the BEST TONE I EVER HEARD ON ANY RECORDING EVER, period.

It was after I got that amp i realized just how f*cking awesome my old guitar really was :) I love it to death. I will never EVER buy another expensive guitar.

And my Falcon is GREAT on clean too (through antoher amp entirely though. An amp I hate for everything else; Laney HCR25)

Completely brilliant. People tell me all the time how amazing my guitartone is and wanna know how i make em.

My Fender has so much more higher freqs that the more expensive guitars does not have. Its like shaven off. And all the guys in all the music stores i visit always tell me how much BETTER the humbucker sound is. I hate it i hate it i hate it and I hate their whiney thin, dead, dull, boring metal music =)
guitars with floyd roses dont have the same warmth, if you dont like your rg send it to me, I'm currently out of rgs.
 
i own a very cheap no brand les paul rip off. new pups and tuners ... couldn't do without it.
 
two of my favorite guitars of all time are (was) a mexi strat with a bill lawrence humbucker in the bridge position and my beat up o' yamaha acoustic. i traded a guitar that i paid less than $200 for to get the yamaha and the mexi strat i paid $200 for at a pawn shop (it was still new with the plastic on the pick guard). sadly though, the evil pawn shop giveth the mexi, and it taketh away the mexi. i still have the yamaha, here's a quick/dirty clip of it:

http://www.soundclick.com/bands/pagemusic.cfm?bandID=303881 (ol' yamaha)


it sounds much better when some of the new has been worn off of the strings.
 
I have an old Ovation ultra hard body electric that I paid about 250 bucks for in 1987, I swapped out the stock pups and but in some EMG's(81) and it rocks. I hardly ever touch my Gibson LP.
 
My main guitars I play are my Carvin DC400 custom and my $75 Rogue strat. There's something about the way that Rogue plays...great feel. Doesn't stay in tune worth a shit so I'm getting the Sperzel locking tuners for it if they ever come off backorder. It's crazy, I'll have almost as much in the machine heads as the whole guitar... :)

How kooky........
 
Well Reggie Wooten (Victor Wooten's brother, Bela Fleck...maybe you know who I'm talking about..) plays on a cheapo guitar every time he steps on stage...
 
Sterling30 said:
I would agree that a guitar is often as good as the person playing it but I don't know how many Martin D-28 copies I've had, some very good, others not but the real Martin HD-28 I just got completely outclasses them all by a huge margin.., sometimes you just gotta step up to the plate and pay the price.

www.soundclick.com/sterling30

Couldn't agree more with this. In the musical instrument world you really do get what you pay for. My first guitar was a yamaha eg 112. It cost like, 300 euro with an amp. Did i sound like Dave Gilmour? Fuck no. Did it get me into music? Yes, and in a way i still can't believe. But every once in a while you gotta go all out and buy that American fender or that Custom LP. I got my Highway One Tele when I was 17, 830 euro and the most sensible use of money until I bought my D 15 3 weeks back for 1050 euro. That old Yamaha didn't last two years, I'm sure my Fender and Martin will still be here in 20.
 
My main acoustic is a fender a/e and my electrics are a yamaha tele copy and a karera beater that I got at a pawn shop. I've replaced the pickups in both electrics and, with a proper setup, they really sound like I want them to. Someday, I suppose I'll save up for a couple Martins and Les Pauls, but these puppies have not stopped me from making decent music. Hooray for budget stuff. :cool:
 
ryanformato said:
I have many guitar, a $2500 custom, $1200 Ibanez (Vai model) and you can clearly HEAR the difference in sound on the expensive ones over the lower end ibanez. The other main difference is how the neck feels, how good the intonation will be and the quality of the wood. All of this has a huge impact on the sound and feel of the guitar. Good stuff is expensive. Decent stuff is actually pretty inexpensive.

Ryan
www.ryanformato.com

Totally agree with this. Yesterday I went to the guitar center and played a bunch of Ibanez/Jacksons/ESPs. I was looking for a good metal guitar. I intended to buy an Ibanez s470 ($500) but when I played it, I really wasn't that impressed. Same with the medium priced jacksons. They all had problems, fret buzzes, bad sustain, bad tone, etc.

Then I played a Satriani js1200 and fell in love. That thing had tone and sustain I never thought possible. The guy lowered the price a little and it was a done deal. I got sparkly black on black but here is the guitar:
 

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Cheap guitars are the best. I can have more of them. And chicks dig a guy with a lot of guitars. At last count, 27.
 
mikemorgan said:
Cheap guitars are the best. I can have more of them. And chicks dig a guy with a lot of guitars. At last count, 27.

27 guitars? :eek:

Personally, I'd trade 27 guitars for one really nice one that would keep me happy for awhile.

Mine was $300 and I consider it a good guitar.

I've also tried a lot of other good ones in the $400-$800 price range that were nice.

But there is still a big difference in sound when comparing one of those to a really nice (and usually really expensive) guitar.

As far as acoustics go anyway.

When buying an electric, I usually just go for something that's comfortable/easy to play, with no fret buzz, etc.

You can just change the pickups, and anything else later.
 
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