Advice on Buying a Cheap Jazz Guitar

[Vladan]

AF75 $290? Wow. Here where I am it is EUR400, which is roughly USD600, while average salaries are probably roughly to the other side of proportion, meaning it cost double in money and quadruple in value. Gotta love all mighty USA and their nuclear arsenal.

[GNAPPI]

^^True, I installed a EMG Zakk Wylde 81/85 in my L5 WesMo, if this doesn't work out, might try a Dirty Fingers.

I'm not criticizing your selection, but it's curious that you bought an L5 and considered the EMG and Dirty fingers before a pup more associated with the L5 "sound".

[mr quick]

AF75 $290? Wow. Here where I am it is EUR400, which is roughly USD600, while average salaries are probably roughly to the other side of proportion, meaning it cost double in money and quadruple in value. Gotta love all mighty USA and their nuclear arsenal.

That is, 2900 Norwegian Kroner, which is worth to a Norwegian what $290 is to an American, if you understand what I mean. If I convert the Norwegian money, the 'literal' monetary translation would be $426. Asking price was 3500 I think, but we haggled. 3500 Norwegians = $515 , but 'worth' to us what $350 is to Americans

I love this guitar, it's made a real impression on me. Definitely sticking with Ibanez, if I run into a lot of money, I'll look at a GB10 or a Joe Pass

[gtrplrfla]

Today's cheap guitars are far better than their earlier counterparts due to CNC tolerances producing uniform parts that when assembled, have greater consistency. I only play at home , on the porch or at the beach (Saint Petersburg, FL) and a cheap laminate is ideal. My wife found a Jasmine, by Takamine for $137 that has a wonderful fingerboard, neck, compensated 2nd string and stays in tune ! I've not had to adjust the neck in over 8 years ! The upper register access is very good and I play mainly chord/melody standards and some Joe Pass numbers I've learned from transcriptions. I use a Taylor GA 614 (maple) indoors and rarely touch the beautiful Korean D'Angelico Excel DP1 I own.
I haven't an amp as I've no intention of playing commercially - Joe Pass material and chord melody standards wouldn't fly here where, "Margaritaville" and a background to loud conversation is the accepted norm !

[Gilpy]

I've been recording a new CD that has a lot of funk rhythm guitar. My $85 Squier mini-Strat is on every song. What a fun little guitar, sounds as good as any Strat I've owned. Short scale. Unscrew the neck and it fits in a carry-on suitcase.

My Teisco EP-8 (kind of like a small bodied ES 330) gets a lot of use too.

[pingu]

my main guitar (and only electric guitar now)
an 80s Ibanez AF120 .... lam spruce top it
cost £220 five odd years ago
its south korean and after a bit of setting up and filling down a couple of sharp fret ends etc its great , lovely in fact.

I've had compliments on the sound
from musos I respect so it'll probably
do

but The greatest argument for cheap/good
instruments is Jake on this very forum
and his Ibanez artcore 75 .... WOW !

[Greentone]

One of my favorite guitars is my 1962 Harmony H162 flattop. It has solid spruce top, solid mahogany sides and back. The neck looks to be a single piece of solid nondescript hardwood. Whatever it is, it hasn't changed shape at all in over 50 years. However, the general neck angle has shallowed up over the years, yielding a guitar with a very straight neck but a high action. There is no belly in the top--just a high action due to the change in the neck angle over time.

Same thing happens to Guilds, Martins, Gibsons, etc.

I enjoy the tone and booming volume of this high action Harmony too much to part with it and have the neck reset, although I may do it myself, at some point. I just play it with the high action, meanwhile. It is my campfire guitar, my guitar for evenings by the pond, etc. It is as familiar and faithful as an old hunting dog, at this point.

Without a neck reset, the guitar is worth only about $200. It comes from the peak era of acoustic guitar production in the USA. It is a nice instrument.

[Spook410]

I do like my Alvarez Yairi. And my Tokai strat. Even my Washburn J600. But when you want a lush acoustic tone, nothing beats a hand carved solid wood guitar.

[feet]

depends. i thought i didn't, but sometimes people see "epiphone" and laugh. used to it.

these days, i just own things worth owning. that's really what it comes down to. i'm much happier buying fewer, better guitars than having a bunch of cheapos cluttering the place up. or just one cheapo, in the case of the first 5-8 years of playing.

of course, most of my "good" stuff was picked up for under a grand used, so... matter of perspective, i guess. i figured out what i liked, found a few "loopholes" (used, mij epiphone/gretsch, etc) and was both very selective and very patient. then i modded the hell out of them. after several years of this, i have several guitars that i feel are nice, and that's enough for me. nobody cares what i'm playing when i sound as bad as i do.

i admit that from time to time, i do get a vague hankering to assemble some type of fender mutt for being out and about.

[mr quick]

I also have the aforementioned model, Artcore 75. Spectacular stuff for a near-giveaway price

@spook: How is the J600? I've been wondering about it for a while now.. Do you have any demos?

[oldane]

I have a 1961 Gretsch New Yorker which I use for those occations where I don't want to bring one of my good guitars. Despite the usual with Gretsches from that age it's still in one piece, bindings intact etc., and is a nice player. It's loud and "in your face" with round wound strings though the sound is not the most refined. My friends playing blues use to love it for its rustic sound. The fact that it is still in good condition has made me wonder if the production was outsourced to other makers like Kay or Harmony. The glues and plastic materials Gretsch used back then have usually crumbled, making major repairs necessary. But not with this one. At one point I made an extra pickguard for it with a Benedetto S6 PU, but at the moment, I have it set up purely acoustic. I have owned it for more than 20 years, and despite the seemingly obvious, I have really bonded with it. It will be one of the guitars which will follow me to the grave.

[jazzbow]

Cheapo geetars are the ones that have no QC at the factory and maybe a smidge of fettle at the retail store.

This means there is a lot of scope for improving playability, namely the frets and nuts need a damn good thrashing with tools.

I had a spate of catalogue Strats coming my way a while back. They were plyboard bodied ugleyz that were rescued from bins.

I got hold of their inconsistencies and managed to subdue the inherited indifference built into them and turned them into rough diamonds and gave them to friends kiddies so that they had good playing guitars to learn on.

My son took one to University, I get told that he gets jibed with his strat-a-like until the tone snobs actually play it. Man, that old P.O.S has earned me more £ than it's worth 'cause he comes back with other students guitars of mid value that need fixing because they have not been wrangled into playability!

All that said, a big shout out for Yamaha guitars. I have never seen a bad playing one and they can be cheap to buy as they get left at the back of the store.

I had a Yamaha AEX 502 semi with P90's. I really connected with that guitar. It got the Jazzbow ultimate accolade, it was known as 'Revelation'!
Well, my son snatched that as well. That guitar gets the 'Yamaha? I thought they made motorcycles?' But within 10 seconds of playing it everyone gets it.

The reason I gave it away was because of the Squier Mascis Jazzmaster (P90's again). My encroaching ulnar nerve damage makes shorter scaled guitars a bit of a bind.


Anyways, the second guitar to be called 'Revelation'! It feels good to play and wow.


Fast forward to 2013 and the Telecaster itch comes back and it needed to be scratched. Ebay turned up a Squier CV 60's Tele for small coin and off I went nailing my perfect all rounder.
Poke around here on the Tele threads and you'll find it.
Is it a 'Revelation!?' Yes, but I've run out of the labels.... :-/

[mongrel]

A month or so ago I bought a very lightly used Fender Squire Vintage Modified Jaguar HH in sunburst at a local used gear store. I had gone there to look at inexpensive used amps but saw on their website that they had this instrument. After picking it up and playing it unplugged for about a minute, I walked out with it for $169.00. I was intrigued by the short (24") scale and the possibilities of pickup swaps with its dual humbuckers.

This cheapo is all I've been playing since I got it. I haven't even swapped pickups yet. I have a set of Duncan Phat Cats with nickel covers that should sound and look great in it. I play flatwounds exclusively in all my guitars and this cheapo came with D'A XL 110's. It must be the short scale but I kind of like them.

This guitar is made in Indonesia and I can't find a flaw anywhere. The fret ends are smooth and the rosewood neck feels better than that on some Gibsons I played recently that cost thousands. Its funny but every Indonesian made guitar I ever played in stores, mostly Epiphones, felt and sounded like crap.

[D.G.]

Cheap guitars have their charm and I own a lot of 'em, but I don't make the mistake of thinking they're as good as more expensive, better built, higher quality models.

My current fav is a Mexi Tele that I dropped a pair of Lollar's into. Slab ash body, transparent butterscotch finish with 3-barrel brass bridge. It sounds great, and because I don't obsess anymore about how a neck feels, it's perfectly playable. But I do know that it could really benefit from have the frets leveled. Eventually I'll have it done and hopefully it won't ruin the guitar...

My other main gigging guitar is a JWC gypsy that is about middle of the road price wise. It's about 90% the tone and volume of a Dupont, but I know it ain't a Dupont and every time I play with someone who owns a Dupont I really hear it. I know a couple of guys who have early Gitane DG-500's that are as loud as a good Dupont (something you really want in a gypsy jam session) but I wouldn't trade the volume for the tone of a Dupont any day.

[Stevebol]

Here's my cheapo;




Actually it's my only guitar. I'm looking for a classical.

[pamosmusic]

Absolutely... I used an Epiphone Joe Pass ($500 as a floor model) and a SuperChamp XD for like 5 years... Still use the SuperChamp. I have gigs in tiny rooms where I use a battery powered micro cube. That's probably sacrilege but I don't particularly care...

[mongrel]

Here's my cheapo;




Actually it's my only guitar. I'm looking for a classical.

Wow. That's a real beauty. However, there must be enough of us who dig those that they are becoming not so cheap anymore. There's a guy in France who has a website dedicated to old Harmony guitars and the other brands Harmony made instruments for. He has detailed lists of serial numbers with dates of manufacture as well as photos and descriptions of the 50+ he owns.

[John A.]

My guitars range from cheap (a Samick archtop, an S. Yairi Classical) to moderate (a non-valuable old-ish Gibson flattop, an Am Std Strat, and a D'Angelico EX-DC). The all work for me. The Strat, Gibson, and D'A I think are by any objective standard "professional" quality instruments. At various price points there are guitars that sound different, but not necessarily better (depending on one's preferences), and I don't think any is better made or functioning. The Samick is on the cusp -- it's definitely functional as a gigging instrument, but I think there are objectively better instruments around (I shouldn't say that since it's for sale here, but honesty is the best policy). My classical is astudent-grade instrument, but there are lots of better ones.


John.

[Engine Swap]

Here's a Silvertone I picked up for super-cheap. It needed some nut and bridge work, but now plays really well all over the neck.



And here's the guitar I learned to play on. My mom got it for $2 at a garage sale. It's been played to bits. The neck is currently off, awaiting my woodworking skills to improve so I can attempt a reset. I believe it's a Harmony.

[Stevebol]

Wow. That's a real beauty. However, there must be enough of us who dig those that they are becoming not so cheap anymore. There's a guy in France who has a website dedicated to old Harmony guitars and the other brands Harmony made instruments for. He has detailed lists of serial numbers with dates of manufacture as well as photos and descriptions of the 50+ he owns.

When I got it it only had the tailpiece. A big 2" chunk was broken off the headstock. I've done extensive work on two of these old Harmonys- a 41' and this 62'. The last of the old-growth wood was around 1960 or so but the Harmonys before that have design flaws in the neck. After that you might get a truss-rod but crappy wood. If you put the work in to fix the neck on the old ones they sound great. One reason they sound good is they're thin and light but there's a trade-off. I don't want to risk putting strings heavier than 12's on it.
I replaced the steel bar in the neck with ebony and added carbon fiber stips along side it. The neck doesn't budge. Reset the neck and fixed the headstock. That was easy. Took the back off which was a pain but I scraped all the old glue off of everything and added new glue. Thin shims on the sides. Replaced the frets and refinished it. I just painted the headstock black and blended it into the neck. Made the bridge top. Cut the hole for a pickup and had someone install it. I don't mess with wiring.
It was a learning experience. The one thing that's a real pain to do is put a back(or top) back on. I spent a long time trying to decide how to cut the hole for the pickup and then thought WTF, it's just thin wood. It took 5 minutes to cut the hole with a hobby saw. The area of the hole should be reinforced a little- just along the braces but that can be done without taking the back off. The hole for the pickup should provide enough space to get in there.
I don't know what Harmony used to attach the cloth they use under-neath the top but it's remarkable. It hard as a rock and doesn't deteriorate.
The 41' I had had the sweetest sound imaginable but it had issues. I didn't get the neck angle right and it had a baseball bat neck that I didn't reinforce. I put a Kent Armstrong floating micro-Humbucker on it and it howled with feedback.
I got rid of that one. This 62' has a couple hairline crack in the back as a result of taking the back off. That shouldn't be a big deal and I'll fix then eventually. I think I took the finish off before removing the back which was not a good move.
It probably sounds like a huge PITA to do all this but most of it is easy. As far as keeping it collectable, forget it. It's just a Harmony. I say break it down completely.
I don't know how this guitar measures up acoustically compared to a Gibson or Eastman, etc.. It sounds considerably better and louder than a Godin, Loar, or something like that.
I just don't know. I don't try many guitars.

[Spook410]

@spook: How is the J600? I've been wondering about it for a while now.. Do you have any demos?

The Washburn J600 is a good guitar which is saying a lot. The frets, neck profile, hardware (except for the pots which are terribly cheap and need to be replaced), finish, case, and production values are all worthwhile. It sounds about the same as every other humbucker equipped laminate archtop I've played. Mine is an early Korean model (just after production was moved from Japan) which may or may not have some bearing on the quality. I haven't spent any time with later models so I don't know if there is any difference but if they are as good as the earlier ones, I think these are a great choice until you're ready to spring for something a whole lot more expensive.

[m_a]

I only had one guitar for years, an Eastman AR604 CE archtop, one of the "Jim Fisch" study models that were made at the time. Very happy with it, reasonable guitar although it does not qualify as "cheap".

Last August I decided to "electrify up" so as to be able to play later, as even the acoustic would become too loud after 9 pm. After much dillydallying I settled on an Ibanez AM93. I think it's fantastic, and it hasn't even had a professional setup yet. I wish Ibanez would make one with more understated cosmetics but that's a detail. The next step was the amp and I settled on a Yamaha THR 10C (after much dillydallying) and it suits my needs just fine. That's my only gear at this point and I don't feel I need anything else.

[zigzag]

I bought a used Epi Dot, put Fralin P-92s in it, and had some fret work done. Total cost: $600 (pups were almost $300). Plays as good as my 335 and sounds better.

[Jabberwocky]

I don't know about cheap but I know it is good: Ibanez AF105NT with the twin pups. It is my knockabout. Takes a licking and keeps on ticking. And a Fender Mustang 3 V2.

Look at what Jake Reichbart does with his duct-taped Ibby.

[drbhrb]

I get a weird kind of pleasure gigging on cheap stuff. Show up with a $200 lunchbox amp and a $400 tele and get some bad looks.... until I start playing.