Budget Brands Played in Bands

LuttiS

Read an interview with Matt Heafy from Trivium a while ago about his signature Epiphone.. 

Something along the lines of Gibson CS quality but within a budget that fans can afford. So he went to Epiphone and said make the best possible guitar that will sell at X budget. Another criteria was something along the lines that if he damages/looses guitar on tour he can just walk into a music shop and buy his signature guitar which is like for like to what he is playing. It's apparently a pretty good guitar.. 

scrumhalf

HAL9000 said:

Sure I've seen John Mayall with a Squier Strat at some point.

Given Mayall's habit of sawing off the "excess" bits of guitar bodies I'm sure he wouldn't do that to a full-fat Fender these daysw.

proggy

I remember seeing the Duran Duran  the telly back in the 80s quite often, and the bassist always had an Aria bass. Not sure how much they're worth but I've always thought of them as budget instruments.

dogload

proggy said:

I remember seeing the Duran Duran  the telly back in the 80s quite often, and the bassist always had an Aria bass. Not sure how much they're worth but I've always thought of them as budget instruments.

As far as i remember, back then Aria were pretty top notch.

EricTheWeary

dogload said:

proggy said:

I remember seeing the Duran Duran  the telly back in the 80s quite often, and the bassist always had an Aria bass. Not sure how much they're worth but I've always thought of them as budget instruments.

As far as i remember, back then Aria were pretty top notch.

Yeh, expensive basses then and John Taylor had top of the line. Aria SB1000, IIRC, the reissue is about £2k. The more expensive Arias were higher quality guitars then, their Les Paul style ones ( PE series?) used to be seen in lots of hands ( Huey Lewis and the News I seem to remember). 
Gary Kemp of Spandau Ballet used a Westone Rainbow a bit ( most expensive guitar by a budget brand).
Fender's Lead Series had a few notable users including Clapton and The Edge. Not a budget brand maybe but the most budget range Fender produced at the time ( 1979 to 1982 according to Wikipedia). 

Cols

I’m pretty sure Noel Gallagher used an Epiphone Les Paul for all of Definitely Maybe.

Panama_Jack666

The best Jack Pearson video is this one.

Jack Pearson on a Squier.

JD Simo on a Burst.

benmurray85

Cols said:

I’m pretty sure Noel Gallagher used an Epiphone Les Paul for all of Definitely Maybe.

Don’t think that’s 100% true. He was certainly borrowing higher end stuff from Johnny Marr around that period. Slide Away was written during the recording sessions on a JM Les Paul. 

jonnyburgo

The only people who care are other players. I wish i could go back to the days of listening with my ears.

Funkfingers

Alan Murphy used Squier Stratocasters - albeit modified with noise-cancelling pickups for stage work.

Panama_Jack666

Jared James Nichols is an excellent Epiphone player too. 

HHwarner

Iv seen Graham Oliver play his signature Vintage
https://www.gear4music.com/us/en/Guitar-and-Bass/OFFLINE-Vintage-Graham-Oliver-Signature-Model-Electric-Guitar-White/PLE

thermionic

Mark Bedford of Madness has been seen using a Squier Classic Vibe Jazz Bass. In fact, this is what persuaded me (as an occasional bass player) that I didn't need to get anything more expensive than that.

KKJale

Offhand, can't think of a Squier Strat being played in more elevated company than this... RIP George.



(Far as I know there was a huge social media hoo-hah after Chuck Prophet's Tele was stolen in SF, and he actually got it back.)

Jalapeno

mark123 said:

midge ure uses a vintage(brand)lemon drop also i think the quireboys play vintage lemon drops and 335 alikes

I saw Midge play the Vintage Lemon Drop through a Vox Valvetronix 40 for his whole set.

Mark1960

Slightly off topic as it was a local band, but a couple of years ago, I was in a pub and heard a band with a really good guitarist, so I went over to get a closer look, and he had a squire Strat, a couple of digitec pedals, and a very old Peavy amp (Studio Pro I think). He sounded amazing!

EricTheWeary

benmurray85 said:

Cols said:

I’m pretty sure Noel Gallagher used an Epiphone Les Paul for all of Definitely Maybe.

Don’t think that’s 100% true. He was certainly borrowing higher end stuff from Johnny Marr around that period. Slide Away was written during the recording sessions on a JM Les Paul. 

There's definitely ( maybe?) a version of the story of the recording that says their Epiphones were horrible to record with and it's all on borrowed gear. However, they thought their Epi's  were cool and so appear in all the photos.

SlopeSoarer

Some good videos: ) and comments!

I suppose unsurprisingly Squier and Epiphones being pretty common. Vintage getting a bit of a showing but not many other brands.

Dominic

Yeah.......and Willie Nelson uses a beat up old nylon string with holes in it !

hotpickups

mark123 said:

midge ure uses a vintage(brand)lemon drop also i think the quireboys play vintage lemon drops and 335 alikes

I hope that wasn't reason why his sound was so god damn awful at a gig he did in Bath earlier this year. Probably the worse guitar tone I've ever heard from a professional guitarist