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That man is insane, it really is the player, not the gear.
Originally Posted by Jabberwocky
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11-25-2014 01:06 PM
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When you show up with a fancy expensive archtop, everyone takes notice, and it doesn't matter if you don't play that well, people are too dazzled and intimidated by the guitar's looks and cost to notice. They just assume their ears are uneducated and you are playing advanced stuff because your guitar reeks of authority and authenticity.
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I'll own and play anything. Nothing beats a lower priced guitar which performs way past expectations. Next gig will be with an oddball partscaster tele. Wouldn't be worth much on resale, but it's one of the best sounding instruments I've played. My cheapest guitar now is an old MIK epiphone casino. It plays and feels so good, I put in lollar P-90s. Another very worthy gigging guitar ... I use it for open tunings and slide mostly.
MD
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Maybe ten or so years ago I stopped into a local mom & pop music shop that was blowing out inventory prior to closing the doors for good. There was a used Casino on the wall with a price tag of $200 on it and it looked pristine with no discernible wear. There was no serial number on the back of the headstock and I asked one of the employees about it and she said she had no idea where it was make or how old it was. It bothered me enough that I passed it by. I did remember that there was a serial number stamped inside the lower bout f-hole that started with "R". Stupid me didn't know then that it was made by Peerless. Originally Posted by mad dog
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Mongrel: Mine is Peerless made also. Wild looking, turquoise. Second Peerless made casino for me. The older one was good. This one way better. Pickups were not bad at all, but the Lollar P-90s take it to a whole other level. Originally Posted by mongrel
MD
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The one I passed up was a real nice sunburst that resembled finishes I've seen on ES 330's. Sometimes the factory Epiphone P-90's sound really good. Especially on the Korean-made Gold Tops.
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As someone who does 200-300 gigs annually, I find inexpensive guitars to be a lot less trouble than high-end, name-brand instruments. The Greg Bennet Samick line features extraordinary value; my Royale 3 plays as well and sounds and looks as good as any Gibson 335 I ever had or played, and at $450 brand-new, I had no hesitation carving and drilling into it to install an RMC synth-access pickup system, which only made the guitar that much more useful and fun.
Likewise with a $700 Phillips Nouveaux 16 archtop: the best jazzer I've ever owned, for my style and size. I've had my share of l5s, L7s, 175s, Guild and Ibanez archtops; all were good, none fit me as well as the Phillips. I've also modified a relatively cheap Spanish-made flamenco guitar ($1400) into a wonderful RMC-equipped 7-string nylon that rivals most costing $5K or more. Like others here, I do find that purely acoustical instruments need to be well-made by a good luthier; those are always at premium prices. For an amplified instrument, however, I think that it's easy to get just what you need for less than $1000.
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Okay, this thought maybe off on a tangent;
Used cheap musical instruments are environmentally friendly compared to buying new.
A lot of traffic on this part of the forum with people new to playing jazz styled music with a limited budget swithering over this and that guitar.
Better off looking at a well set up cheap used instrument until such time as when the coin is saved up to buy a significant, well made instrument.
I was in a pawn brokers shop yesterday looking at their selection of used strat copies (eight of, no fenders tho') and I found a Crafter super strat. It had neck and bridge h/buckers with a single coil in the middle, the wood grain of the maple neck was straight with a slight flame and the rosewood fingerboard was well fretted with the fret slots filled and lacquered. A set of flatwounds, string action fiddles and nut work plus blocking the trem will have you a nice starting point to thrash Autumn Leaves on. Price? £45/$70/€57.
No extra trees, metals, fossil fuels or water used. And when the individual has reached a level of competence then all that cash that has been saved can go towards an Eastman/Peerless/Fender/Gibson/Hand made piece of art!
At this point you could take the guitar to a pawn shop and get some cash back and the (re)cycle starts again
Or you give up, grow your hair, wear sneakers, sniff alot and install .09's remove the trem block and widdly widdly wangg waaannnnng to your hearts content.
Tangent over as I now have drunk all my coffee!
Er........
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My instruments are all fairly inexpensive as instruments go these days. (All in USD)
Epi Sheraton II 700 w/case
Ibanez AF-125 - 700 w/case (used) an incredible value. This guitar was (IMO) a steal at $1000 when new.
Peerless Monarch 16 - 1350 new
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How come Ibanez guitars are so cheap? Of all the body styles and series I've played(several basses included!), I've never played a "sub-par" Ibanez
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Great guitars the AF-120 (I have one too). Electrics are worse than shocking and the neck is thin but it plays like butter and sounds very convincing. Wouldnt change it for another budget model because there would be no point. I payed £150 for mine about about 4 years ago. Originally Posted by pingu
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Back when I worked at the music store, the boss told me that the Japanese like the same name on all products, across all price points, and even between completely unrelated products. (Yamaha motorcyles and Yamaha guitars.) Originally Posted by Marwin Moody
In the states, companies put a different name on toothpaste and shampoo, even though they're loosely related and made by exactly the same company. It's a western philosophy to protect the brand name of something like Fender by manufacturing Squires etc. By comparison, Yamaha makes pretty decent quality stuff at all price points, but when you make the cheap stuff (at least to us westerners), there's a tendency to think of it as being a "cheap brand". I don't know if Ibanez suffers from some of that.
Of course, in giving me this profound, complicated, cross-cultural commentary, there's always the possibility that the boss was blowing smoke at the youngster. Just my take...
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I agree with matt.guitarteacher on the "guilt by assiciation" theory. The name Ibanez is too often associated with the very poorly made low end guitars of the past. Gibson recognizes this perception and offers the Epiphone brand as their less expensive alternative. This keeps their Gibson brand insulated from value and quality erosion.
Another reason that Ibanez guitars are inexpensive (a far better choice of words than cheap) is that they've never quite achieved that iconic status of their American counter parts, despite artists like Joe Pass' endorsements. Heritage suffers from the same dilemma.
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Not all Ibanez guitars are cheap. I just saw the new George Benson LGB300 for sale at $4500. Originally Posted by Marwin Moody
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Speaking of cheap guitars, we got to meet Greg Bennett one day at the store years ago. It must have been about 2000 or so, and he was pitching his glider capo. Anyway, he also talked up the "new" Samicks he was doing, and I can remember us saying, "They're made in China?!?". (Back then the Korean stuff was lower quality than what you see from China now, and chinese stuff??...) Originally Posted by ronjazz
Anyway, he told us how the quality was way better than it used to be etc., and he was right. It's really amazing to think of how much of a dramatic increase in quality there has been in the low end stuff since then. There weren't any entry-level archtops or even solid-top dreadnaughts back then. The glue, neck, intonation, everything on even a dreadnaught....was just horrible under about $400 if I remember correctly...
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I used to have a Washburn HB15-
it was similar to an ES125T , but had a floating mini humbucker. That was actually a really good guitar. I regret selling it. I think fitting a P90 to it would have made an ok sounding guitar a great sounding guitar. It was about $500AUD brand new. It had a pretty decent acoustic sound too for a smallish laminated guitar, I would say almost on par with my Godin 5th Avenue that I have now.
One of my fav guitars I currently play is my Godin 5th Avenue. It's a non cutaway acoustic, which has a floating Vintage Vibe Charlie Christian pickup fitted to it. It nails that pre 50's jazz tone (Oscar Moore, early Tal and the like). The 16'' body is really comfortable to play standing and sitting and it is fairly feedback resistant too. It has a decent acoustic sound, not loud enough to gig with but good to practice with. It's a much better acoustic sound than an ES175 for example.
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Yes, several...
2 partscaster tele's which have superb, boutique p/u sets in them...quality electronics and thin finishes, and decent but inexpensive necks...total cost for each was under $300...one alder body and one ash body, and each are great for their own sound...swapping out the current necks for "baseball bat" necks which sound better, feel better for my large hands, and will take heavy gauge strings without complaining...Ed Bickert and Mike Stern---watch out.
a Washburn Lyon tele which features the finest particle and plywood construction...undoubtedly the glue in this particular vintage instrument (2005 or thereabouts) is esp. noteworthy, but you know what, the Bill Lawrence p'u's in it make this into a glassy, fine-sounding instrument...I'm almost scared to upgrade the body and cheapo neck and tuners...who knows, it might sound worse?! The best $79 bucks I ever spent on a guitar...well $180 after the Bill Lawrence upgrade.
...and when I pull out one of these ultra-high end babies, they get plugged into the $75 Roland Orange Cube...30 years old and still going strong....someone told me, Vic Juris used to gig with one of these...and honestly for home playing/practice amp purposes...it is just fine.
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One of my axes is a Hamer jz5 which i replaced the neck pickup to a classic 57 Its a cheep guitar and I love it. I didnt plan to buy it but I saw it in the store and decided to play it. it sounded great so I bought it. sometimes you can get lucky with a cheep guitar
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To be honest I think a lot of the cost is the name. I love vintage guitars and would love a nice Gibson hollow but I can't justify the cost , I honestly don't think they are worth that much. I bought a cheap yamaha sa50 a hand made 40 year old hollow and it sounds and plays wonderful i have had someone who owns a Gibson 335 compare it and it plays and sounds a lot better. A lot of the value isn't in construction its a brand driven thing. Which is good because you can get some of those fantastic japanese 60/70's guitars cheap and so well built by master craftsmen, I mean they were such a threat back then they were sued by the companies they were copying, it was nothing to do with copyright violations it was the fact they were a better guitar and taking sales. That said today's cheap guitars a very well built and for little money you can get a guitar that would have cost a lot more than say 30 years ago. It would be interesting to do a blind test of a pile of guitars and get people putting them from cheapest to most expensive order. I think there would be some surprises.
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I play guitars that I find comfortable and which suit my sonic need du jour. Unfortunately, I have not had much luck with cheaper guitars even though I don't really have a bias against most of them. My first good electric guitar was an early 80s Ibanez, but more recent models I've tried haven't pleased me. I have really enjoyed Eastman, though. Not all of them are cheap, but compared to a $6,000 L-5 they certainly are.
My weakness is for acoustic guitars of all stripes - archtop, flattop, nylon. The good ones aren't cheap. It's really that simple.
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Yeah, I agree . The newer ibanezs and I mean the cheaper ones are good but I have found you need to search to find one that sounds and feels great , if they concentrated on making a great sounding body instead of all the bling I think they would be on a winner. I have af125 and it looks fantastic the feel is not too bad but I have had to replace pickups to get a better sound and acousticly it is pretty dead but in saying that some of the older japanese stuff sounds fantastic and because they aren't Gibson ect I think they are under valued , I bought a lovely 1977 hand made s. Yarai for under 1000 and it is wonderful and so well built , no machining at all, all made by one craftsman and made with prime tone woods. You just can't get that from new guitars today at that price. At the time these copy guitars were giving the major makers a real run for there money.
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I think you're right, some upper models sound and play very good, others are just OK. Originally Posted by tedium
But, I also have an AF125 that is quite a bit better than average. I especially like the super 58's in it, and I guess most owners of the 100 series agree as there are few if any S58's on the used market, OTOH, the ACH pups are replaced quite frequently. I have an AS96 with them and I can hear why :-)
As far as the bling goes, it's mostly gone on the new models. The wood TP, knobs, inlaid bridge base, supplied two bridges are gone, even the abalone has been reduced in the FB but it remains to be seen or should I say heard if the new value engineered models sound or play any better.
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The only flattop I own is a '77 Ibanez Concord that I bought new for $180. I try the Martins and Taylors, just can't see enough difference to take out a second mortgage.....As for electrics, I can't leave well enough alone, always tinkering, so I like to get projects and rebuild them the way I like them. I've rebuilt a couple of Mexi Strats with upgraded accessories and they are impeccable players--you don't feel like you need an armed guard at gigs. Remember, the American and Mexican Fender factories are only 50 miles apart!
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You beat my price by £70 ... nice one Originally Posted by ArchtopHeaven
I've recently had to change the Switch and the Jack socket (to Switchcraft items)
because they were unrelyable
Would I get a better sound by changing the PU ?
have you changed the PU in yours (ignoring the bridge PU I don't use it much)
I think its a 'super 50' in there , it's well warm enough with TI 13 flats
but I could do with I bit more zing in the high end
(not achievable with eq)
I was thinking about a CC type PU maybe a Vintage Vibe ?
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Instead of replacing the pup, try replacing the volume tone pots with higher values. I've replaced 360k pots with 500k's and it gives just a bit more zing in the high end Originally Posted by pingu
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Speaker choice for old jazz?
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