Is there really such a thing as a bad guitar?

Tonedef · 2011-02-08T06:38:28+00:00

Well? I own a cheap strat clone, and there's not really much to complain about apart from a few niggles that I've sorted or that still need work, such as a b...

Is there really such a thing as a bad guitar?

---mario---

Chad Adam Browne wrote:
...mario... wrote: If you don't mind a guitar made of basswood
Ooh...Let's not go there >☹

You get good basswood and you get cheap shit just like with all other woods, personally I would take basswood over mahogany, ash, alder etc anyday. There seems to be this weird snobbery about basswood in the guitar world, it's silly this is just another personal preference thing. Some people like it, some don't but it's not a shit wood by any standard. 8)

I don't know enough when it comes to wood and tone, I just know basswood is cheaper and easier to work with, hence the snobbery I've seen in the reviews of per say GIOs on other sites (haven't seen them dissed here though), but it doesn't really matter to me coz its got a solid finish (as far as I know its not exactly a beautiful wood) and playing like I do it wouldn't matter if a more expensive wood could make a difference to tone, and IMHO I don't really like the natural finish on alot of 'guitar woods'.

Except this one offcourse

http://

:'( its just beautiful

Edit: ~~Awe dang, how do I get this image thing right??~~ Fixed, thanx Norman

Tonedef

Isnt too-high action just a setup issue as opposed to the guitar being hopeless?

Tokai-SA

...mario... wrote: If you don't mind a guitar made of basswood.

Nothing wrong with basswood, it's a great guitar wood.

Some James Tyler guitars are made of basswood, so are some John Suhr models...Suhr refers to a basswood body and maple top as the holy grail of tone...both guys are boutique high end guitar builders.
The Joe Satriani and Steve Vai signature Ibanez's are also made of basswood.

---mario---

Tokai SA wrote:
...mario... wrote: If you don't mind a guitar made of basswood.
Nothing wrong with basswood, it's a great guitar wood.

Some James Tyler guitars are made of basswood, so are some John Suhr models...Suhr refers to basswood a body and maple top as the holy grail of tone...both guys are boutique high end guitar builders.
The Joe Satriani and Steve Vai signature Ibanez's are also made of basswood.

As I said, I don't have a problem with it at all, I only stated it like that incase someone reading my post have for some reason a dislike in the basswood factor ?

Bob-Dubery

Tonedef wrote: Isnt too-high action just a setup issue as opposed to the guitar being hopeless?

Hopefully. But recall my earlier tale of a horrible Cash Converters guitar. It had no adjustable truss rod. Now what are you going to do? It was an acoustic so you can maybe sand the saddle down a little or try cutting the saddle down - if you know that those things can be done. May help. May not. WHat's the QC like on those things anyway? Maybe it was poorly assembled and just had fundamentally bad geometry.

I'm sure that ANY guitar can be made playable. ECONOMICALLY playable is another matter completely. Ultimately if I had lots of time and money that CC guitar could have been made to play beautifully - but it would still sound crap and I'd have put very expensive lipstick on a cheap and nasty pig.

Norman86

...mario... wrote:
I don't know enough when it comes to wood and tone, I just know basswood is cheaper and easier to work with, hence the snobbery I've seen in the reviews of per say GIOs on other sites (haven't seen them dissed here though), but it doesn't really matter to me coz its got a solid finish (as far as I know its not exactly a beautiful wood) and playing like I do it wouldn't matter if a more expensive wood could make a difference to tone, and IMHO I don't really like the natural finish on alot of 'guitar woods'.

Except this one offcourse

:'( its just beautiful

Edit: Awe dang, how do I get this image thing right??

Like that ?

You had too many img tags!

EDIT:

Thats one hell of a interesting bass guitar! Wow! That should go into the guitar Pron thread ?
It's THAT nice!

---mario---

@ Norman: thanx! ?

Norman86

No probs ...mario... ?

Tonedef

...mario... wrote:

That's a pretty thing for sure! Seems like an exercise and a half to tune it properly?

---mario---

Norman86 wrote:
...mario... wrote:
I don't know enough when it comes to wood and tone, I just know basswood is cheaper and easier to work with, hence the snobbery I've seen in the reviews of per say GIOs on other sites (haven't seen them dissed here though), but it doesn't really matter to me coz its got a solid finish (as far as I know its not exactly a beautiful wood) and playing like I do it wouldn't matter if a more expensive wood could make a difference to tone, and IMHO I don't really like the natural finish on alot of 'guitar woods'.

Except this one offcourse

:'( its just beautiful

Edit: Awe dang, how do I get this image thing right??

Like that ?

You had too many img tags!

EDIT:

Thats one hell of a interesting bass guitar! Wow! That should go into the guitar Pron thread ?
It's THAT nice!

It's a B.C. Rich Bitch bass, 8string (same principle as 12string guits)
I'm scared of starting to post in the Pron topic coz I have so many pictures ?

---mario---

does anyone know what wood that is? 'coz I REALLY like it

Tonedef

TBH it looks like stained & lacquered pine to me. ???

aubs1

Tonedef wrote: TBH it looks like stained & lacquered pine to me. ???

I'm beginning to understand quite a bit now .......... ?

singemonkey

Aren't the reasons people don't like basswood essentially:

It's not as pretty (as ash and alder - emphasis on ash)
It's a bit soft and dings easily
It's cheap and plentiful (therefore it must be rubbish ?)

Yeah. I don't think it's a bad sounding wood is it? Just less fancy and prestigious.

Sean

Aubs1 wrote:
Tonedef wrote: TBH it looks like stained & lacquered pine to me. ???
I'm beginning to understand quite a bit now .......... ?

? ?

Tonedef

Aubs1 wrote: I'm beginning to understand quite a bit now .......... ?

Hey, what do I know? It could be made from compressed wood faerie pubes and i'd be none the wiser. It does however look a lot like stained and lacquered pine, which I built shelves from not too long ago. But of course its not pine. OR IS IT...? ?

singemonkey

Tonedef wrote:
Aubs1 wrote: I'm beginning to understand quite a bit now .......... ?
Hey, what do I know? It could be made from compressed wood faerie pubes and i'd be none the wiser. It does however look a lot like stained and lacquered pine, which I built shelves from not too long ago. But of course its not pine. OR IS IT...? ?

Walnut?

Tonedef

Who knows? Let those with understanding elucidate.

---mario---

singemonkey wrote: Aren't the reasons people don't like basswood essentially:

It's not as pretty (as ash and alder - emphasis on ash)
It's a bit soft and dings easily
It's cheap and plentiful (therefore it must be rubbish ?)

Yeah. I don't think it's a bad sounding wood is it? Just less fancy and prestigious.

haha, but yeah thats about what I hear all over the show about it, but from my knowledge on wood:
Because it's a soft wood it means that it has less compact fibres wich would probably result in a less resonant quality and I guess it will have a "thicker" sound then, or am I missing something again?

Malkav

...mario... wrote:
singemonkey wrote: Aren't the reasons people don't like basswood essentially:

It's not as pretty (as ash and alder - emphasis on ash)
It's a bit soft and dings easily
It's cheap and plentiful (therefore it must be rubbish ?)

Yeah. I don't think it's a bad sounding wood is it? Just less fancy and prestigious.
haha, but yeah thats about what I hear all over the show about it, but from my knowledge on wood:
Because it's a soft wood it means that it has less compact fibres wich would probably result in a less resonant quality and I guess it will have a "thicker" sound then, or am I missing something again?

I wouldn't say that there's less resonance, quite often it is coated with a solid finish which may be too thick and impede resonance though. It's more that it has a very even response across the entire frequency range, where as a wood like alder would seem more pronounced in the highs for example. Basswood is very even sounding which makes it nice for versatility and to me it's always meant EQing it is easier ?

It is soft and does ding easily, this is true which is why they tend to be finished in solid colours. The wood is pretty boring but I've seen one or two guitars with a tung oiled basswood body that didn't look too bad - not eye poppingly wow but not bad...