barbarian
I recieved a Santa Fe Electric, Stratocaster style guitar from my parents a few years ago. I've been playing it for about a year now (Rock, Metal, Blues) and I feel as if I'd be playing guitar for a long time
Although I love the thing, the electronics are not too great, the tuners keep the strings in tune for more than a half an hour of playing and the tremolo
always detunes the high e and b strings. Not to mention loads of fret buzz. I've had it set up to counteract these problems but no luck
I'm thinking of either buying a Les Paul style guitar or just upgrading the tremolo, tuners and electronics. Either way I'm keeping the Santa Fe as a novelty guitar.
Is it worth it to upgrade to a new guitar or keep my current.
RickyWicky
It's good to have more than one guitar. It opens you up for experimentation, and especially if you go for a LP style guitar, which would have a different scale length and the benefit of humbucker pickups in the bridge and neck, so you can toy with different string gauges and styles.
If budget is the problem, then I'd say... get the second guitar and slowly uograde the Santa Fe. The fret buzz could be a result of a multitude of different things. The action might be too low, the neck might be curving so you might have to look at adjusting the truss rod, some of the frets might be protruding a bit, etc etc. These are things that can be relatively cheaply fixed. Preferably by a professional, of course. You don't want to be responsible for tensing the truss rod too much and causing permanent damage to the neck.
Heck, the Santa Fe could even become a project guitar while the second guitar becomes your new main instrument and not just a backup. I'm currently doing that with an old Ritmüller body I have from a guitar I got about 10 years ago. I'm going to put a Floyd-Rose style locking tremolo into so that I can finally avoid the strings de-tuning when I wham the holy whammy out of the guitar! Also changing the neck to have 22 frets, not just 21. That alone makes such a huge difference to style, it's amazing.
TL;DR:
Get the second guitar, keep the Santa Fe and experiment with swapping out the different components to make it a greater sum as a result of better parts than when you first got it.
IceCreamMan
My opinion, and stress its an opinion is to get an upgraded guitar...don't upgrade, play upgrades is my motto.
but of course it boils down to budget. Each has their own constraints otherwise we would all have custom shop guitars.
V8
I'm not hating on a Santa Fe - but I really doubt it's worth the $ to get to a playable level. For the $ you'd spend on it (which will not add the comparable value to it), a Yamaha Pacifica (or LP equivalent : Epiphone, Tanglewood, Cort, etc) would be a better use of the $.
If you are prepared to do the work yourself and can find some reasonably priced 2nd hand parts, then the Santa Fe could become a project guitar that you are not overly concerned about making mistakes on.
peterleroux
One thing to bear in mind is that American parts almost certainly won't fit the Santa Fe, and even parts sold as 'import/asian' parts won't necessarily fit without a bit of hacking and modding.
singemonkey
Some low-end, beginner brands are so plagued with problems that they're not really worth trying to fix or upgrade. The problems might be fixable. Or they might not. Then you've spent a fair bit on a guitar with little resale value without success.
You should definitely be playing a decent guitar. Many manufacturers make high quality guitars–upgradeable to pro level with new pickups and electronics–that won't break the bank. Look at Yamaha, Cort, PRS SE, ESP Ltd., etc..
For example, if you go on to the Facebook group, S.A. Music Store, and search for "Tremonti" you'll find a beautiful PRS SE single-cut (Les Paul like) for a ridiculous R4,000. That is the kind of guitar that can grow with you with some minor upgrades even if you became a pro guitar player.
I'd advise you to make it a priority to get a properly playable guitar like that. Because a bad guitar can seriously inhibit your ability to learn the instrument. If there's not much resale value on the Santa Fe, keep it for sentimental value, and maybe do some DIY upgrades in the future.
barbarian
Thanks for all of the help. I'll start shopping around and hopefully get something great.
I really appreciate this. ?
RickyWicky
Please share pics when you've bought the new guitar!
Shibbibilybob
Totally the post of a guy who really wants to buy a new guitar, has decided to buy a new guitar, and wants dudes on the internet to agree with his decision to buy a new guitar! Hahahaha
I agree that decent gear is a must. Not that there aren't decent santa fe guitars,but stablility is a non-negotiable. Upgrading the bridge and tuners alone could set you back close to the price of a decent used Cort or similar.
I'm with Singe on this one.
Good job dude, a new guitar is the way to go!
nick_D01
barbarian wrote:
Thanks for all of the help. I'll start shopping around and hopefully get something great.
I really appreciate this. ?
hi. not to hijack your post, but do take a minute just to say hi and introduce yourself in the sub board thats been setup ?
Jayhell
Every one needs THAT guitar that you can take apart, upgrade, fiddle with. I bought a Squier in a pawn shop years ago for this reason, so that I stop messing around on my decent guitars. I know all the decent guitars are up to scratch and always gig ready. The Squier on the other hand was always is some state of limbo between upgrades and things I messed up. Now a long way down the road this guitar is probably one of my best guitars. If I add up the cash I spent on upgrades it would be nuts to think I spent that amount of money on a Squier, but as I said it happened over a long time and I learned a lot, from soldering to how the electronics work, how different pick ups sound in the guitar, how to mess up a nut, carve a new one, mess that up, why you pay professionals to do certain stuff etc.
Fun upgrades I have done:
Reverse headstock neck (this led to getting a new nut multiple times and finally making my own side inlays last week)
Cool inlay stickers on the neck (looks bad ass and is cheap to do)
Made it road worn (although the previous owner attempted this and did a very bad job, I made it look cool)
Proper custom pick-ups (this took it to new levels)
Custom wiring (free flow on the bridge pickup!)
Different pickup selector
different knobs and pick guard.
Strap locks. (really practical relatively cheap upgrade)
The only things that are still stock is the body, the tremolo system and the tuners. lol
Upgrading is fun
There are still a lot of things I would like to upgrade on this guitar and it will happen in time like a custom scratch plate, locking tuners, maybe even the tremolo system in time. I think the golden rune on of whammy bars on cheap guitars is: 'Don't use them." lol
But yea, go buy that new guitar. It won't be the last one you buy.
