What's the best quality cheapy you've bought and why?

Dominic

Indonesian Squier John 5 mark 2 ............superbly good guitar and incredibly flexible
I swapped the pickups for Gretsch filtertrons and turned it into a Cabronita 
It plays and sounds just as good as the Fender custom shop one for a mere £2600 more

lasermonkey

1974 Fender Precision which I bought in 1984 for £135. My first ever bass. I went into the local shop (WAM Music in St Neots) expecting to buy a Yamaha or Westone and was surprised at the price of the Precision. I guess it "spoke to me", for want of a better phrase. Probably the first time that had happened to me. It has that lovely piano string tone.

  1973 Rickenbacker 4001 bought for £299 in 1990. The Mrs and I walked into the Drum and Guitar Centre, Cambridge, mainly to visit a friend who was working there. When we spotted the Ric, I tried it, paid and left as quickly as possible, case the price was a mistake. It had a bit of a dodgy refin on the back to cover some buckle rash, but it's by far the best bass I've ever played. It's a bit of a pride and joy, to be honest. 

Indie ID400SM acoustic. I was actually looking for an Indie 12 string at the time and found one being sold by an online guitar store for £125, which was about half price. Whilst browsing through their stock, I noticed the ID400 for £149. Although the Indie Guitar Co. had sold up to the Canadians some time ago, I kinda remembered that the ID400 was one of Indie's most expensive guitars,muso I checked via the Wayback Machine. Sure enough, the ID400 was a limited run of 20, hand built, solid wood, top of the range acoustic with a price of £875. I bought both the 12 string and the ID400, the only time I've bought more than one guitar. The '400 is a stunning instrument. Such a a rich, vibrant tone and the soft V neck is ridiculously playable.

dbphoto

My favourite acoustic that I bought while travelling around S.E. Asia for a year in my late 20’s

It cost around $150 new if I remember right from a small music shop in Thailand and it’s branded ‘Future’ (written in Fender script!)

There is just something great about it and despite being tempted many times by expensive acoustics I have never found anything that feels or sounds better.

Phil_aka_Pip

Another one: this cost £220 (knocked down, because the front pickup was badly seated and the output jack's threads were stripped). The fixes cost me time plus a spare socket from Maplin.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb376/musophilr/EastCoastJazzBox_zpsfnwkwv4x.jpg

midlifecrisis

recently picked up in perfect condition a used epiphone 339, paid £170, its become my main gigging guitar, my gibson studio takes a back seat the two humbuckers which can be coil tapped give it such a wide range of tones.
https://i.imgur.com/cVY6krl.jpg

Schnozz

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Another one: this cost £220 (knocked down, because the front pickup was badly seated and the output jack's threads were stripped). The fixes cost me time plus a spare socket from Maplin.

http://i1202.photobucket.com/albums/bb376/musophilr/EastCoastJazzBox_zpsfnwkwv4x.jpg

Really like the facing on that.

hassleham

I had an amazing trip to Denmark Street when I was about 14 and my dad bought me an LTD MH50. I wasn’t expecting to get a guitar that day but I tried it in the shop and instantly gelled with it. It was only £175 which was a great price!

I played it as my main guitar for years throughout high school and college, and eventually upgraded it with locking tuners and bulldog pickups. Its still one of the nicest playing guitars I’ve played and it’s never needed any work doing whatsoever

impmann

My fab old Jap Squier Strat - when I was 21 it cost £199... that was 26 years ago.

Admittedly it now sports a set of Mojo pickups, and higher quality pots and switch, plus a Kev Hurley trem block - but it held its own against a bunch of Custom Shop strats when I tried *everything* at Coda Music. To me, it felt just as good and sounded wonderful.

flying_pie

My best cheapy is a Michael Kelly 1955 custom collection. I won it in an online competition by Merchant City Music. Guitar cost nowt but it cost me £100 for a Hiscox case to go with it as it's too long for standard Tele ones and £30 to change the bridge pickup to an Iron Gear Rolling Mill overwound. It's now my main guitar.

https://flic.kr/p/23Dt2tC

Schnozz

hassleham said:

I had an amazing trip to Denmark Street when I was about 14 and my dad bought me an LTD MH50. I wasn’t expecting to get a guitar that day but I tried it in the shop and instantly gelled with it. It was only £175 which was a great price!

I played it as my main guitar for years throughout high school and college, and eventually upgraded it with locking tuners and bulldog pickups. Its still one of the nicest playing guitars I’ve played and it’s never needed any work doing whatsoever

That's the Ltd that my friend had - He loved it and played it loads. It was a blue hard tail with thru neck.

Moltisanti

i have an LTD ST213 that i bought second hand for £120, i stuck a DiMarzio Super Distortion in it and it's a great guitar. It plays lovely and sounds awesome.

I've also had an LTD EC1000 that was a lovely guitar - i'd buy LTDs all day

Daved756

I got a lovely twin reverb from a charity shop for £15 ten years ago.

hassleham

Here's a pic of the LTD after I upgraded the old hardware to black. I should add that after getting this I fell in love with the ESP Horizon and searched for an older one for years! Pics of the Horizon, which I don't think i'll ever sell, and also an old LTD H2 which I picked up at some point cos i loved the watermelon-like finish. I actually ended up selling the H2 because it didn't play quite as well as the MH50.

rossi

I suppose I should include this one .I assume an Avon or Columbus .I got it for a fiver up the tip and spent about 20 quid on it not including strings .I enclose a before and after photo.The sweetner was a Morley boost and wah pedal thrown which I sold after fitting a new bulb .

Clashman

I find it very difficult to compare my historic opinion of a guitar that I bought that at the time I had
nothing to compare it with ,than with one I could quickly do a comparison with nowadays.My  first
guitar was a Landola that cost £45 but my best Freind who had bought himself one of the first
Ovations that had just come out wanted to buy it off me because he loved the tone.I had no
recollection of how the tone sounded and did think once or twice about selling it to him.I had no
intension of buying an Ovation guitar after trying his but can't say I found the sound of it displeasing.
The only guitar I ever remember as a child was one a bloke in the early 1970's (he gave me a 45 
by a band called the pipkins  with "Mama Told me not to come" on lol.my Dad  banned me  from listening to pop music till
I was 14 ) played to me, it may have been an Epiphone but it was a beautifully soundIng acoustic and hearing him play Leaving on a Jet Plane and telling us he was moving to Australia the memory of the Guitar ringing in my ears is
probably my benchmark without realising it.My latest Freshman is a different sound I may have to
listen to a few Takamines before I find my ideal guitar but I find it difficult to get rid of any guitar if
I can get a nice honey chime out of it.