Low budget, high value

HAL9000

So... it’s been said often enough that good sounds are more about the player than instrument. Fair enough, you don’t actually need a boutique guitar but you still want something that’s decent to play. So what are the low budget (say, sub £300ish) instruments that fit the bill?

I’ll kick of with...

Any CV or VM Squier - Quality instruments at a decent price.

Pacifica 112V or 212 - Alnico V pickups and very well put together.

Ibanez SA or Artcore series - In my limited experience I’ve never seen a bad Ibanez. Like Yamaha they always seem to be well made.

Breaking my own rules about price but the G&L Tribute Fallout punches well above its price point (about £370)

As much as I like Affinity Teles I can’t include them due to their overly soft fretwire - remember we’re after low budget and high value here.

dindude

I think Ibanez and Epiphone are king of the very low cost guitars these days. Squire pretty good too. Yamaha not as good as their reputation here.

LuttiS

Cort guitars.. most of the sub £300pack a punch. If you break your rules a but more, there is the Cort /Manson Telecasters.. which are Manson spec, Cort made. Hell of a guitar for £380ish.

In fact, thomann has them for sub £300 at the moment. So that one .Yeah

skippy76

Godin gets my vote. Have also had good experiences with the Pacifica.

skippy76

Just noticed the Godin range is more expensive than I remembered!

stimpsonslostson

Squier Jazzmaster Deluxe. 

It's basically the incredibly popular Mascis signature model (as used by Tame Impala, Smith Street Band & J himself) , but in red... I bought mine new for under £300 & it's GREAT! 

https://images.reverb.com/image/upload/s--4F05JCSr--/a_exif,c_limit,e_unsharp_mask:80,f_auto,fl_progressive,g_south,h_620,q_90,w_620/v1487966695/uwqhtuseoginrokmxzys.jpg

The Mascis is £150 more expensive. 

skullfunkerry

Squier Contemporary Active Strat. Not quite sub-£300, but they're £336 from Andertons at the moment and mine is fantastic. Literally can't find a thing wrong with it at the moment.

Also some of the Jackson JS32 range: the last one I had was a Dinky: £280 and the neck was absolutely lovely

Winny_Pooh

Revelation

uncledick

Early PRS SEs can be had for £150 now.  Really well made and properly capable of coping with a pickup/pot upgrade when you feel like it.

Dontgiveupyourdayjob

Are we taking used price of sub £300  or new?

I've come across a couple of surprisingly decent Vintage Icon guitars that i think were probably in the £300 range new .

Grumpyrocker

uncledick said:

Early PRS SEs can be had for £150 now.  Really well made and properly capable of coping with a pickup/pot upgrade when you feel like it.

I've got one I bought used in 2009. CU22, moons, fairly chunky neck. Changed the pickups for some Iron Gear. Fabulous guitar, as well made as any guitar I've played at any price. Very nice gig bag too.

Schnozz

LuttiS said:

Cort guitars.. most of the sub £300pack a punch. If you break your rules a but more, there is the Cort /Manson Telecasters.. which are Manson spec, Cort made. Hell of a guitar for £380ish.

In fact, thomann has them for sub £300 at the moment. So that one .Yeah

+1 for Cort (I gigged their basses for ages).

I remember the frets being sharp on cheaper Ibanez instruments, but not a huge issue.

Phil_aka_Pip

Tokai?

57Deluxe

Grumpyrocker said: and

uncledick said:

Early PRS SEs can be had for £150 now.  Really well made and properly capable of coping with a pickup/pot upgrade when you feel like it.

I've got one I bought used in 2009. CU22, moons, fairly chunky neck. Changed the pickups for some Iron Gear. Fabulous guitar, as well made as any guitar I've played at any price. Very nice gig bag too.

Best gig bags you will ever hope to find at any price.

John_A

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Tokai?

The Chinese ones are cheap and not very good at all, the Japanese ones are excellent, but hardly cheap 

timmysoft

The G&L Tribute Fallout i had was superb, i couldn't really fault the fit and finish on it. Certainly the best new guitar i've played in the sub £600 category.

 I always find the lower end Ibanez guitars have slightly poor treatment to the fret ends, its nothing thats too major and can be sorted in an hour, but you don't tend to see the same from Yamaha or The ESP LTD range.

 The quality and price of gear now compared to when i was growing up is insane. I can remember working the whole summer collecting seed for a seed trial company and saving all my wages over those 6 weeks to be able to afford a used Westone Thunder 2A and a Carlsbro Cobra 90 amp, they were both ultimately shit. Now the beginners can get superb stuff that sounds good for 300-400, less if they buy used

Phil_aka_Pip

John_A said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Tokai?

The Chinese ones are cheap and not very good at all, the Japanese ones are excellent, but hardly cheap 

I've got a chinese one. I think it is good - for the price. You can tell it's dad was a 335 and it is a good looking and generally well behaved instrument. "not very good at all" isn't the way I'd describe it.

YMMV

darthed1981

Phil_aka_Pip said:

John_A said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Tokai?

The Chinese ones are cheap and not very good at all, the Japanese ones are excellent, but hardly cheap 

I've got a chinese one. I think it is good - for the price. You can tell it's dad was a 335 and it is a good looking and generally well behaved instrument. "not very good at all" isn't the way I'd describe it.

YMMV

If the Tokai you are discussing is the one I briefly played in Hudds last year, that was a very fine guitar.

darthed1981

I think around this bracket you get some great guitars.

I'll put a shout in for the Indonesian Chapmans, the go for about £400 but the one I tried in Andertons was excellent across the board.

I've found the focus on people buying multiple multi-thousand pound guitars on here recently down-right creepy, so thanks OP for starting one on instruments for more sensible budgets!

TheMarlin

Gretsch Corvette (CVT). Standard set neck, two Megatron pickup, Bigsby model.  
Its an awesome guitar, much underrated. Fab pickups (spicy Filtertrons). Bigsby is the dreaded B50, but a cheap mod makes it a joy to use with stable tuning -  they can be had from a little as £300 used (sometimes less), and really kick ass. By some significant margin, my favourite Electromatic Gretsch. 

Phil_aka_Pip

darthed1981 said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

John_A said:

Phil_aka_Pip said:

Tokai?

The Chinese ones are cheap and not very good at all, the Japanese ones are excellent, but hardly cheap 

I've got a chinese one. I think it is good - for the price. You can tell it's dad was a 335 and it is a good looking and generally well behaved instrument. "not very good at all" isn't the way I'd describe it.

YMMV

If the Tokai you are discussing is the one I briefly played in Hudds last year, that was a very fine guitar.

Thank you Sir, yes, I was referring to that very instrument, bought from Mr @Gassage of this parish. I have noticed one thing that niggles me about it, which is the G string always sounds slightly sharp when fretted below fret 5. On higher frets it is less noticeable. I'm beginning to think the slot in the nut may be cut not so deep as the others. But otherwise I love playing that guitar.