Some of the old El Cheapo guitars were quite good and have become collector items today.The old lipstick tube Danos and old Harmonys had a unique sound that no other guitar can replicate.Skunk Baxter did some of his best lead breaks with Steely Dan on an old Teisco.I have a 66 Harmony Archtone that cost $50 new and it sounds beautiful,way different than any dreadnought acoustic.Now there were some old acoustics and electrics that were dogs but even some old Eko acoustics from Italy had a sound that was on par with Gibson and Martin.The Eko acoustic 12 strings were ubiquitous in the late 60s because of their projection,ease tp play,tone and relatively low price compared to Gibson,Fender and Martin.

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'65 Strat,65 Mustang,65 Jaguar,4 more Strats,3 vintage Vox guitars,5 Vox amps,'69 Bassman with a '68 2-15 Bassman cab,36 guitars total-15asst'd amps total,2 vintage '60s Hammond organs & a myriad of effects-with a few rare vintage ones.

I own 2 MIA fenders, 1 MIM fender, 1 Indonesian Squier, a chinese takamine and a chinese epiphone. That being said i have noticed that in my experience you get what you pay for. My americans play better than all my other guitars. im not saying my other guitars are bad but i do feel like i get better quality out of my MIA guitars.

I dont really care what my headstock says, but in my experience i get more out of what my headstock says.

Well as another geezer who has had nice guitars and cheap guitars,I agree,some cheap ones sound great and lemme tell ya.... all those "Vintage Strats" that everybody drools over and have "Fender" on that yellowed lacquered headstock,didn't all,and still don't all sound like the $30,000 people want for them!
Some sounded great and some were just,hhhhmmmm okay.

+1 from another geezer. No they all weren't all that great. I played quite a few dog Strats from the late 50's through 65. Some were great don't get me wrong, but many were just okay.

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Life...... It's sexually transmitted and always fatal

Fortunately there are lots of different guitars in different price ranges so that most if not all of us can purchase and enjoy at least one guitar. Some of us have been playing guitars for many years and have owned our share of guitars. I have owned inexpensive guitars as well as higher end guitars. I can tell the difference in build, sound, and playing quality from a low end guitar verses a high end guitar. The old adage, you get what you pay for is true to a point. However I am not sure purchasing a limited signature edition guitar is any better than a guitar without the signature in the same line. As far as vintage guitars are concerned, it's a lot like someone who collects vintage cars. Both are pretty cool. It's guitar history. I really don't get road worn new guitars though, I would rather buy a nice clean new looking guitar and add my own wear to it.

I don't own any big brand guitars other than a Takamine made in Korea. It's a fine guitar. I have owned many other foriegn guitars arent known too well by there brand but compared to the likes of Fender or Gibson they were just as good if not better than some. I think as long as the materials used are of good the rest of the quality factor is cosmetic which doesn't matter to me as long as it feels good and sounds great. A guitar is only as good as the player regardless of the name brand or how much it costs IMHO.

I agree with you that its all about how the guitar sounds and your preferences. Its just that guitar brands like fender and gibson usually make better quality instruments than silvertone and yamaha. Fender and gibson use higher quality parts than silvertone and yamaha. The reason people go for the big names is because they know they will be getting a quality instrument.

man I've had so many "cheap" guitars over the years, lots of asian copies from the 70's and 80's. Had a few Squiers that played real nice but did need an electronics upgrade.
all in all, if you're looking for an inexpensive guitar for yourself or your son/daughter I would go with either a Squier or an Epi LP jr. (which now comes with a humbucker, hopefully they'll switch back to the correct P90 someday).

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I think that there is some logic to this BRAND stuff. Anyone here know someone who bought a $3000.00 Fender custom shop and put Squier pick-ups in it? I don't. All these affordable brands exist for good reasons, one of them is that you don't have to steal one to own it. When your Squier guitar will need to be refretted, or your worn out MIM Strat vibrato bridge will need replacement, maybe you'll pass. I would. In fact, my own three years old
MIM Strat whammy bar digged its way into the vibrato, now it is a wobble bar. Don't get me wrong, I know exactly how it happened, it's all my fault and I wouldn't make the same mistake now. My learning years needed an inexpensive guitar for the bolts and nuts part of how to maintain and moddify a guitar, and am I glad I started playing guitar with an affordable one.
I also have to say that now, I tend to go toward more expensive stuff because there is a difference, at least to my ears. A guitar is not a tank, it can suffer issues from high/low temperature, humidity/dryness, handling, reckless utilisation. Some guitars will resist better than other over the years but they are just guitars, cheap ones and expensive ones. All there for good reasons. Find yourself a good looking guitar that fit your tonal preferences and also fit your bill and have fun.
Claude.

+1

*did you ever try the white plumbers tape on the threads of the whammy bar, it might tighten it up for you. I used it quite a few times mainly so the whammy bar wouldn't swing so freely.

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Hi beantown and a nice Sunday morning to you. Yup my guitar tech is doing it for me right now. I wasted the tremolo block because I had slight tuning issues and as a beguinner I thought that I could resolve that myself by putting 11's instead of 9's, and five springs instead of three on the back, plus screwing the tremolo screws in to have a fixed bridge instead of a floating bridge, all that combined with an extensive use of the whammy bar resulted in a worned out tremolo/whammy bar. Now that I've learned a few things, I brought it to my tech last week and I asked him to bring it back to its original adjutments except for the fact that I want it to stay in E flat.
As for the worn bar/tremolo, if the teflon tape doesn't do the job to my taste, I'll bring the guitar to the garage, drill the tremolo and install an Heli-coil in it. But for now I'll just try it with the tape for some time. See ya.
Claude.

Yea, this has always been a somewhat touchy subject. Probably the two most expensive guitars I have are my older Strat '57AVRI and Strat Plus Deluxe. I agree with Kersen13 on the workhorse aspect.

Check this scenario out. Yesterday we played an outdoor show here in Vegas from 6:30-10:30pm. It was about 110 degrees out, poolside with misters, people getting drunk and can walk right into you (I've always got my eye out on people who I think might trip or slip into me).

That being said, do you really want to bring a Strat Plus Deluxe to this show?? My Squiers serve me well, and I feel at ease with them. I set them up nicely, and they do the job. But I don't think anyone can really prepare a guitar for that kind of environment. You just hope it doesn't noodle out too much on you. This is also a good reason to have a Solid State amp on hand.

Still, currently, when I have a big show, one that really matters.. I turn to one of my Squiers. I honestly don't think it's fair to say that Squier can't or hasn't built some good guitars that are crafted well. You can nit-pick small details on my Stagemaster all you want. But in my opinion, it's actually crafted beautifully, Made In Korea, and they should be proud of the way it was crafted. It feels as good as anything I've laid my hands on. Yes, even my MIA Strats (better than my AVRI).



That's a picture of me playing the biggest Reggae festival here in Vegas. And once again, it was my Stagemaster I went to. Of course the pickups were swapped. It has a set of SD PATB-1n and PATB-3 in it. This is a beautiful guitar, and I play it proudly.

EDIT: By the way, if anyone would like to hear the Stagemaster in action, click on the Myspace link at the bottom of my sig, and listen to a song called "Recession".

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