Your dirt cheap guitar stories.

YellowLedBetterMan

I'm sure anyone with Facebook will see the same s***e I do - seemingly endless amounts of far-eastern made guitars invariably going with a practice amp for pennies from someone who's obviously given up trying.

Just this evening I've had a little browse - bullet strat with red stripe Peavey Rage for £50, countless Aria, Peavey and Yamahas, even the odd bolt on Les Paul. It's all the sort of tat that I'd turn my nose up at, but a certain other member of the forum who may also be called Harry would collect like it's going out of fashion.

Anywho. I was showing a guitar friend of mine some of the crap and we noticed a particular guitar, a Crafter Cruiser Stratalike thing in red, and he remarked "I learnt on one of those, I'd have another in a heartbeat". Which got me thinking.

Surely amongst all of the tat, there are some decent really cheap guitars out there. I know a lot of it may be more a case of one good guitar out of 50 of the same model, but that's what I wanted to ask.

What stories have you all got of REALLY cheap throwaway pennies guitars that have actually turned out to be somewhat decent?

rossi

I got a nice burst  Squier Affinity  for 30 quid .After a fret level  it was a really good player and even better after some new pickups .I often get Squier SE's  for a similar  sum and either part them out or keep them .They usually go as a sacrifice when comments about too many guitars crop up .I also got a Vintage Zip for about the same that's a fun guitar. The cheapest I got apart from a tip find  of an Avon "Les Paul" was a Squier SE in black with a pearl  pickguard  which cost 20 .I regret selling that one ,it actually still had six strings on it .The last SE I got is a a burst with 22 frets .I intend to stick twin P90's  in it and rawk my socks off .Maybe I should change my moniker to SErescue.

pintspiller

I got a Westfield p-bass at the skips. Mind you I only used the body and tuners.

stimpsonslostson

Harley Benton TE52 that cost me £60 ,& although heavily modified has become my main guitar. 

Creed_Clicks

I have a hardtail bullet strat HSS, which plays really well. Neck is very nice on it. I'm getting it modded so it's just a humbucker only guitar, so new pickguard and Iron Gear tesla shark in the bridge. I wouldn't put much more into it, maybe a change of pots and that's it. A lovely guitar for buttons.

bodhi

Back in the day when an electric guitar was just an electric guitar, I accidentally bought a 1973/74 Gibson SG Special for the equivalent of £42 at the then exchange rate (early 90's).  It was pretty decent once I had it fixed up a bit, just its neck was as thin as a pencil.

martin8708

I answered an old fashioned classified add in our local rag a few years ago , somebody was selling off their deceased fathers music gear , all stashed in a static caravan in the back garden .
Under a pile of cables and shopping bags of leads lay a Squier Strat , the guy wanted £50 for the guitar . I bought a few old no-name speaker cabs and leads and he included the Strat for £100 in total 
That JV Strat is the best Strat I have ever owned , sold off my Custom shops as I just stopped playing them , best £50 I have ever spent .

freakboy1610

I got a MIK Epiphone SG at a car boot sale for £10. After a good clean and new strings it plays really well. I put a Chibson bigsby on it and got some better pickups from the FB classifieds and it's great.

Sassafras

Someone gave me one of those Crafter Cruiser stratalikes.
The neck was surprisingly good. I put it on a 2 piece ash body and it turned into a really good guitar.

KrisGee

Hohner strat copy I owned 20 years ago or so. My mate who was into Vai and Satch sold it to me dirt cheap claiming it's unplayable, he used the money towards funding a JEM.
I had that hohner setup to perfection, to the point where it played better and with a lower action than mate's JEM  

Kittyfrisk

" It's all the sort of tat that I'd turn my nose up at, but a certain other member of the forum who may also be called Harry would collect like it's going out of fashion."

Crank up the searchlight that projects the broken guitar shape into the sky... calling  @HarrySeven

SteveRobinson

I once bought two Gibson non-reverse Firebirds for £50 the pair.

Kittyfrisk

SteveRobinson said:

I once bought two Gibson non-reverse Firebirds for £50 the pair.

I know, you wouldn't let it lie   
Jealous, moi?  

steer

I bought a Taiwanese Squire Strat and an Epi Les Paul from a chaity shop for a grand total of £24. Both needed work.

Tidied up the Epi and sold it.

Tidied up the Strat and absolutley love it. The profit from the Epi more than paid for the parts needed for the strat.

MagicPigDetective

My first guitar was an Encore Strat. I learnt to play on it between age 15 to 18 in the mid 90’s. The thing is, I had no idea about guitars or set ups at the time, so have no idea if now if it was any good. Were they all a croc of shit or what? 

Kittyfrisk

Although free shouldn't really count as cheap, I once found a mildly battered Overwater bass in a skip.
Took it for a drive over to see Chris May in Carlisle & he identified it as an ILEA model.
Very early, apparently built to a cost to fulfil a contract with the Inner London Education Authority.
As a non bass player, I swapped it for a couple of setups /fettlings on a few of my existing guitars with my luthier.
Je regrette, rien.

DrJazzTap

I bought a yamaha fg450sa for £40, that was a lovely sounding dreadnought. Stupidly sold it to thin the herd out.

soma1975

I think the thing with cheap guitars is not that you can't get a good one. It's that the likelihood of them making 3 good ones in a row are next to nil. QC is the first thing out of the window in budget instruments.  

skullfunkerry

I bought a skipload of Firebird X's for 47p. One previous owner; he'd only run them over with a digger once. I think I paid over the odds...

jonnyburgo

Got my son a Hss Affinity Strat for £50, its really quite good, loads better than a same price guitar would have been 30yrs ago

HarrySeven

I suppose it depends what you mean by dirt cheap...if you mean interminable tales of buying vast quantities of dire Burswood and Elevation black Strat copies for a fiver, then you’ll sadly be out of luck. Even H7 has standards.

If you mean purchasing cheap vintage stuff like ‘60’s Marshall JTM45s, ‘60’s Selmer Zodiac Twin Fifty combos and Treble ‘n’ Bass heads, ‘60’s/‘70’s Park and Carlsbro heads and combos, ‘80’s USA Strats, ‘60’s Hofner Verithins, Galaxies and Senators, ‘60’s Harmony H81 Rebels and H53 Rockets, ‘70’s Gibson LPs and SGs, piles of ‘70’s MIJ stuff, blahblahblah - and loads of other old obscure guitars and electronica, then yes...