Cheap guitars that play awesome?

easlern

easlern

Boredom artist
Hi all, I'm on a modding trip since I was forced to learn by a couple broken guitars heh. And I'm wondering now that I know a bit about the innards, if I could save myself a ton of money buying a cheapie guitar that plays well but has budget parts I can replace to turn it into a great sounding guitar.

Are there any budget makes/models you guys know of that would be great if they just had better electronics? Maybe even swapping out bridge, tuners, that sort of stuff.
 
The squier vintage modifieds play very good and have nice pickups. Some of them have poor wiring though. Cold joints, bad grounding, lack of shielding. All very easy fixes.
 
Yamaha Pacifica - this is routed for a humbucker in the bridge normally too.
 
easlern said:
Hi all, I'm on a modding trip since I was forced to learn by a couple broken guitars heh. And I'm wondering now that I know a bit about the innards, if I could save myself a ton of money buying a cheapie guitar that plays well but has budget parts I can replace to turn it into a great sounding guitar.

Are there any budget makes/models you guys know of that would be great if they just had better electronics? Maybe even swapping out bridge, tuners, that sort of stuff.
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how hard was it to learn that, and what resource or book did you use?
i really want to learn more about that.
 
I just go off youtube and diagrams. I've done hobby projects with electronics so that helps a lot, but I think you can get away without much experience. If you ever built a kit radio you'll find this stuff easy I think.
 
How "cheap" are you looking to be?

One of the best values, IMO, and something you can easily "upgrade" by adding better pups, pots, etc....are the Hagstrom guitars.
I should know...I've got a pile of them.
I don't think I paid more than $500 for any one of the Hagstrom reissue guitars...and many of them were in the $300-$400 range.
The wood and the builds are quite good....worst thing being that you might need to smooth out the fret ends on some of them...but I've seen more expensive guitars with sharp fret ends.

The basic hardware is pretty good (tuners, bridge, tail)...so no real need to change that out. The stock pups on the Swedes and Vikings are quite good sounding...not real hot wound, but not limp either, and sweet tones...though that's a taste thing.
The part that is weakest are the switches and pots...but, if they are functioning, I wouldn't swap them until they needed it...or if you are compelled to go for all upscale pots and switches just to do it.
 
That doesn't seem so cheap Miro. You can probably pick up a pacifica for about 70 quid on ebay
 
:D

Well...considering that some of the more "upscale" brands/models are selling for $2k-3k +....$300-$400 is IMO, cheap.

Heck...what are you guys after...a $120 knock-off from China...? :p

The thread said "Cheap guitars that play awesome"...good luck for 70 quid. ;)
 
Chili said:
Guitar Fetish.
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Yes!

I have three* Xaviers and they are all surprisingly good for the price. Very playable. The same really decent sounding GFS pickups that you might buy to upgrade the crappy ones in some other cheap guitar. All of mine came as "blems" from their clearance section so were even cheaper, but I couldn't tell you for sure what was wrong with them. The SG has an actual set neck! I had to change out the wimpy little strings they shipped with, so needed some basic set up, but I basically just can't recommend them enough. I think they're the best value out there.



* Actually, I have a fourth - an ES335-style semi-hollow thing - that I got for almost nothing from their "Luthier's Special" section because the neck joint was loose. I literally ripped the neck off by hand without doing much damage, and reattaching it is somewhere in the middle of my unreasonably long to-do list.
 
I guess the most important part that I can think of is the neck, if it's good materials, smooth, a width you like with good frets, glued to the body maybe, I think you're good right? Cause you can change out just about everything else.
 
Where might I find guitar fetish brand? Would a guitar center have them maybe? That's kind of all we got out here.
 
And after you get your new Xavierre guitar, peel off the stupid decal. :D Xavierre is s stupid name for a guitar.
 
That sounds great, I would really like to be able to try before I buy though, make sure it feels right for me.
 
Chili said:
And after you get your new Xavierre guitar, peel off the stupid decal. :D Xavierre is s stupid name for a guitar.
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Lol! I'm kinda proud of the fact that none of the guitars I play out regularly cost quite $200. I think the one might be close if I include the replacement pickups, but those came from the same site and were super cheap, so unless we also put some value on my time in modding... I don't think the GK3A installed on the SG counts. :)
 
easlern said:
That sounds great, I would really like to be able to try before I buy though, make sure it feels right for me.
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Yeah, it's a bit of a gamble. But for under $200 and all the love this site gives to GFS, it's not much of a gamble. I bought a blemished tele from them on clearance. I took to a local shop to dress the frets and adjust the neck. It plays so nice. A really great guitar.
 
easlern said:
You gig with those ashcat? That seems like a pretty solid endorsement.
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Apparently you've never heard my live sets. ;)

But yes, I'd much rather carry one of these to a gig than my '93 Rickenbacker, or even the '98 LP Studio.

The offset/tele hybrid thing (they don't actually stock anymore) and the thinline copy* that I have were great right out of the box (after string change/setup) with no issues at all with the frets. The SG needs a little fine-tuning way up the neck. It frets out around 15-17, but only when I play it, so it could just be my technique, but I also sometimes have the E string get stuck under one of those frets, so it might just need a little hammering.


* I don't actually play the thinline out because it's fucking orange! It was super cheap, though, and one of these days I'll get around to refinishing it.


Edit - Suppose I should mention that I record with these guys all the time, too. :)
 
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