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Post subject: NGD - cheapest guitar ive ever owned !!
Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 11:32 am
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2012 7:29 am
Posts: 937
just wasting time today on gumtree, came across this strato-fake 5 minutes from home owned by a girl who couldn't be bothered to learn. came with a little cheap crappy amp fit only for the bin.

the guitar - didn't need it, wasn't looking for one, don't know what im going to do with it, finished building one 2 weeks ago, but I couldn't pass it up :lol: :lol:

gave it a clean, sounds about as you would expect a cheap guitar to sound, but its not offensive. built pretty well, tuners are a bit vague. paint is so thin I can see the joins between the 3 pieces of wood that make the body. slightly crackly pots to be expected.

biggest surprise is the neck, the guitar hasn't been played much, it has nice vintage frets on a board that to my feel/eye is not vintage radius. its also pretty chunky and fills my quite large hands really well. fret ends are smooth. to be honest the neck might find its way over to my recently built strat, we will see.

couple of dings on the body, no trem bar, needs new strings. had to adjust the pickup height and tighten the tuners down to the headstock. the scratchplate is greener than it looks in the photos.

first thought was a new colour, maybe some mex std pickups. that's about it, theres no money in the pot for this unexpected arrival.

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for 35 quid I reckon its not too shabby.................


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Post subject: Re: NGD - cheapest guitar ive ever owned !!
Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 12:03 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Sun Feb 03, 2013 6:30 am
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Definitely can't argue with that deal! Esp if it has a neck you really like.

I had a similar experience with a cheapie Affinity Strat I picked up on a whim for a knockabout guitar. $60 and it was mine. The important bits are all good- body, neck, fit n finish and pickups. Tuners work, and after a minute or two with a file on the nut, the tuning issues were sorted. I've been knocking around the idea of adding a pearloid scratchplate ( the guitar is a pretty dark metallic blue), and upgrading the electronics.

btw, What's up with the tele headstock on a Strat? That's just wrong! lol. I like the color, and I like the look with two humbuggies and a lester style pot layout. Almost looks like the love child of a 4 way union between a strat, a tele, a lester and an Ibby RG.


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Post subject: Re: NGD - cheapest guitar ive ever owned !!
Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 12:15 pm
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Aspiring Musician
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Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2012 7:29 am
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That's the build I mentioned. There's a thread about it in here somewhere from a couple weeks ago. I love it all except the neck is thin and narrow, not good for my sausage fingers. Obviously I'm a fan of the headstock, I put it there!

I think a better way to upgrade the pups in the new one is to buy some really nice ones for my mex std strat, and put the mex ones in the new one. Win win.


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Post subject: Re: NGD - cheapest guitar ive ever owned !!
Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 1:10 pm
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Joined: Wed Mar 31, 2010 12:48 am
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Location: Tombstone Territory
moochy13 wrote:
for 35 quid I reckon its not too shabby.................


Nice score!

Use it as an inexpensive "test mule" for trying out new pickup and wiring configurations.

8)

Arjay

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"Here's why reliability is job one: A great sounding amp that breaks down goes from being a favorite piece of gear to a useless piece of crap in less time than it takes to read this sentence." -- BRUCE ZINKY


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Post subject: Re: NGD - cheapest guitar ive ever owned !!
Posted: Sat Mar 08, 2014 7:21 pm
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Joined: Wed Jul 29, 2009 10:03 am
Posts: 9449
Location: NL Canada
Several years ago when my youngest daughter was working at the shortlived Gibson factory here, making Songwriter series guitars,they used to occasionally get factory 2nds from other companies.One year close to my birthday they had a somewhat Strat shaped guitar with a 3 on a side headstock and a very flimsy vibrato system.She and her sister gave it to me for Ftaher's Day and I was taken aback by how great this little no-name cheap guitar sounded,it was just brilliant.Anyway I set to doing a complete setup on it and once I got the intonation,neck relief,action and vibrato arm properly set up,the little guitar sounded and played like a guitar worth a lot more.Every now and then you'll come across an anomaly in the cheap guitar category that just sounds like nothing else in that series.

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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.


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Post subject: Re: NGD - cheapest guitar ive ever owned !!
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 12:53 pm
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Tue Mar 13, 2012 7:29 am
Posts: 937
so today I decided it was time I actually learnt how to set up a guitar to avoid paying people to do it in the future.

other than my mex std strat which I had set up way back when, and a JA90 tele that was pre-owned, my guitars setups are all as they left the shop the day I brought them. to me they sounded alright, and I wasn't about to start fiddling with my expensive new guitars.

so my new bargain guitar is the perfect training tool, 20 minutes later ive done the action and intonation. the action was almost perfect, the intonation was way out as I expected after playing it yesterday. sounds nice now though. so I done my other teles and strats.

my recent build was well out, as expected as it hadn't been set up since being built. the rest though were just right or only slightly out on a string or 2. I realise now the restrictions of the vintage 3 barrel tele bridge :?

so ever if the guitar was crap, at least i learnt something useful !


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Post subject: Re: NGD - cheapest guitar ive ever owned !!
Posted: Sun Mar 09, 2014 1:21 pm
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Aspiring Musician
Aspiring Musician

Joined: Sat Jan 01, 2011 12:15 pm
Posts: 603
Cheap guitars are fun, aren't they! I've become pretty proficient setting up and working on guitars the same way your learning. Also, I have to play on a hard floor, and have dropped a guitar off the stand while practicing before. I would have s___ if it was one of my nice ones, so I believe everyone should own at least one bottom feeder.


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