shocked at prices and low quality of electric guitars

Keira-WitherKay · 2009-05-08T18:43:31+00:00

hello all, i was in my local music warehouse shopping for an affordable electric guitar for a student, damn i was shocked at how bad the quality and feel of...

shocked at prices and low quality of electric guitars

inflames

I feel your pain, I can't think of a decent guitar under R2000.
I wen't shopping for a friend in December, he wanted to start playing acoustic guitar.
We ended up paying R2500 for a nice yamaha.

I started playing on a guitar made from chipboard(Bought it for R500) it was a sunny guitar

Manny, I had one just like that! The best sound I ever got out of it was when I droped it on its pups (by accident)

Keira-WitherKay

Gearhead wrote: It's funny that this comment should be coming from the one person who keeps telling me that there are absolutely good guitars to be bought for very little. I guess then that there's a minimum level below which there are so few good instruments it's negligible?

you know gearhead... i was so shocked cos i have seen some sub R2000 guitars in pawn shops that are great but yes they are ussually old 80's/90's instruments....so i must say my opinion was flawed... but yesterday i was looking at new guitars.... and electric.... cos i do believe there are some nice entry level acoustics.... i recently got a Yamaha nylon C45 for a student for R1000 brand new including a setup ...and i play on the guitar occasionally when she comes for her lessons and it sounds great.... for a student guitar ....
but the electrics are dreadfully below standard for what they charging....

for me i would reccommend anyone with limited budget buy the older pawn shop specials washburns/westones/ibanez seems entry level guitars back in my day were way better instruments than whats on offer today .... scary .... i would have thought ith the technolgical advances and mass production guitars should be like cellphones where a R500 phone works perfectly as well as a R3000 one for basic calls and txtx msg but just lacks the advanced features.... but no technology for entry level guitars has gone backwards....

i pity any new beginners who want a guitar but don't have the budget .... damn someone should fill the hole in the market and design a simple no frills guitar that they can make at low cost but still with a usable feel and sound ....

peace and light
Keira

Gearhead

So there you go, Top Gears Top Tip: if you want a cheap electric, buy second hand.

Ray

Issue 313 of Guitarist has a good column on p. 29 re the price of guitars. But the main thrust of the article concerns the rising prices. Seems like people in the UK are also feeling the pinch. Maybe we'll see more reviews of Cort, Yamaha, and others rather than the Gibsons and custom Fenders in the future? Anyway, they seem to suggest the same as folks above do. Check out secondhand. Makes me think of the car market. Earlier this year I wanted to get a little runaround 'cause I want to pay less for fuel (yissis, nearly said GAS!). Then the oke says the prices are going up next month. This just after I've read and heard that the manaufacturers are crying about falling sales volumes. So I ask the oke what the hell they think they are doing and he just looks at me funny.

So I digressed some here, sorry. I think though, that these entry level guitars are just fine to put together some of the music that's selling well nowadays anyway.

WantzChas

Manfred Klose wrote: I've seen some guys buying a R8000+ guitar for their first one, and after 4 years they still cant play guitar, and end up selling it. :'(

Not all is bad, then people who can play guitar, but can't afford a decent guitar new, get it at a fraction of the orginal price.

aubs1

Manfred Klose wrote: I started playing on a guitar made from chipboard(Bought it for R500) it was a sunny guitar, and the only thing i could afford at the time, but because i started playing on a crappy guitar i compared it to better guitars in the shop and started tuneing/training my ear to what was sounding good to me at the time.

But the point i'm trying to make is that by the time i got a better guitar, i could already play guitar, so i enjoyed it more.

I've seen some guys buying a R8000+ guitar for their first one, and after 4 years they still cant play guitar, and end up selling it. :'(

Yes, but they are few, and far between!!
And the guys who spend R8k+, there are millions of them, that's where you buy your 2nd hand guitar, find them!!!

cain

Hi Keira

I've been researching guitars for a long time, and read allot of articles. Ibanez and Squier do make awesum budget guitars. The problem is that not ALL of the models are good, especially ibanez. I paged through some guitar mags at a news store on saturday and they had an ibanez in there for about 120 pounds which is about R1700 rand without discount at a music store and according to them that guitar is a killer. I do think that buying a budget guitar depends on whats "on" the guitar as well as where you buy it. For example, on a R1700 guitar i would not have any sort of tremelo on. The fact that the tuners, bridge etc are part of the "cheepness" of the guitar, would indicate that a trem would be something that hinders the guitar to some sort. As for where you buy it, some music shops give free setups with high end guitars but not with budget guitars, and other like Matts music ( my fave shop ) sets up every guitar, even the cheep classical guitars before selling them. This ensures that the guitar has been checked for flaws and is in the best condition when the player gets it.

Just my thoughts ...

Dirk

I also think there are some good Squiers for relatively cheap. Its good for a beginner, and a little later, just change the pick ups with Seymore duncan (or other good pick ups). My first electric was a Squire, got it for R1700.

Otherwise, you can also get some bargains every now and then on Gumtree

cain

Blues, the squier bullet is actually an amazing little guitar. It has a GOOD neck and feel, especially for its price!

Take it :

Standard squier bullet = 1800
3 New pickups @ 900 = 2700
New nut = 150
new saddles = 200

That makes the total price after upgrades R5000. That guitar WILL sound killer and the best thing is, its not 5k once off, its 5k spent over time

Spyke

I'll vouch for the Squier name.

You're not going to pick up the first one you see and it's the one you buy. You will need to try a few to find a winner. I had my heart set on a white one when I was shopping but of the 7/8 that were available there was only one white one and the one of the black ones felt best. I bought the black one.

The electronics are entry level at best but that can be tailored to the student's specific needs / flavour.

FatBoy

I have a decent Squier, well impressed with it, got it for R2700. I'd avoid the Bullet series but rather look at the Standard series.

Spyke

Fritz Brand wrote: I have a decent Squier, well impressed with it, got it for R2700. I'd avoid the Bullet series but rather look at the Standard series.

DaFiz

I could never afford real American guitars and I readily accepted the quality standards of the Japanese guitars when I started shopping for guitars in the seventies. They sniggered when we saw guitars coming out of Korea.
Today the "famous name" Japanese guitars are being built in China out of "fake-look-alike-plastic-wood) or so it would seem, while some of the Korean guitars aint half bad.
The problem is... unlike during the last century when measurements were precise and guitar building was a craft,
today they are churned out by machines and they look very pretty, what's missing is the soul, and it takes an experienced guitarist to recognise that. The learner is easily overwhelmed by the selection in the shop and misses the main ingredient. ☹

dee

Fritz Brand wrote: I have a decent Squier, well impressed with it, got it for R2700. I'd avoid the Bullet series but rather look at the Standard series.

The newish Squier Classic Vibe series are very nice value as well. They have been getting good reviews all over.

Bob-Dubery

DaFiz wrote: The problem is... unlike during the last century when measurements were precise and guitar building was a craft,
today they are churned out by machines and they look very pretty, what's missing is the soul, and it takes an experienced guitarist to recognise that. The learner is easily overwhelmed by the selection in the shop and misses the main ingredient. ☹

If anything the machine age will have introduced greater precision. And that doesn't preclude "soul". Look at Larrivee for example - they have made heavy use of CNC technology but still make great guitars. I note though that they still do some operations by hand - notably the fitting of the neck.

Back in whenever one considers the good old days to have been there were not exact measurements. You will find, for example, a lot of variance on neck dimensions on profiles on old Martins. The necks were made by hand, and the guys making them were given a set of maximum and mininum dimensions to work to. My guitar teacher has an early 70's Martin with a V profile neck, and the V isn't even central - which he likes, but it doesn't speak of making everything to fine tolerances.

I think the thing about precision in the "good old" days is overdone.

FatBoy

I think that you can't be 100% precise with something like wood. Steel maybe, as it's always exactly the same, but there are too many variables in wood that could affect the outcome of CNC operations. Sure on something like a chair or a table, the slight differences won't be noticeable, but on a guitar, half a millimeter could be make or break in some instances.

So back in the good old days, they may not have been so precise, but the instruments were made by human hands, for human hands, maybe that counts for something.

DaFiz

Bob Dubery wrote: I think the thing about precision in the "good old" days is overdone.

You may have a valid point there Bob. I myself struggle to play along with midi files because they're too precise and I'm just too loose, and tuning to a digital tuner has it's own complications as well, I often find myself 'fiddling' afterwards until I'm happy. ?

aja

DaFiz wrote:The learner is easily overwhelmed by the selection in the shop and misses the main ingredient. ☹

Like cheese? ???

You can't have a sandwich without cheese... ?

? I know what you mean

Manfred-Klose

You can't have a sandwich without cheese...

you cant have a sandwich without butter/margerine between the cheese and bread, otherwise it wont go down smoothly.

So is suppose margarine resembles the pickups, while cheese resembles the playability.
Strange comparison, i know ???

aubs1

Manfred Klose wrote:
you cant have a sandwich without butter/margerine between the cheese and bread, otherwise it wont go down smoothly.

So is suppose margarine resembles the pickups, while cheese resembles the playability.
Strange comparison, i know ???

? ? ?