Whats your best cheapo?

Offset

^^ Out of YOUR collection?!?!?!  Good lord!

SlopeSoarer

Nightswan said:

Ibanez RGIR37BFE. £190 on ebay. This is the guitar I play the most out of all the one's I have.

Lovely photos!

UnclePsychosis

That looks ace, @Nightswan ;

I always wonder about cheaper Ibanez guitars but find the model names so inpenetrable that I wouldn't be able to work out what I was buying... 

robgilmo

I started with a Marlin Sidewinder with the locking bits in CAR, 88/89 it was, total cheap crappy guitar but I played the bejesus out of it, loved that old thing.

guitargeek62

If acoustics are including then it’s my trusty Yamaha F310 - my very first guitar, bought new for a measly £100 incl. a Stagg gigbag and yamaha learn-to-play book back in 2003. My first ‘riff’ from the book was Get Back, followed by Alright Now.

However, this is the Electrics sub-forum so I’m going with my similarly-trusty Chibson Trini Lopez. This pic is from the day it arrived, back in 2013. Since then, every scrap of hardware barring the pickup rings has been swapped out, and I’ve very likely put more hours into this guitar than any other I’ve owned. It was a happy accident / lucky exercise in curiosity that got me a ‘good’ one - £220 shipped, plus countless in hardware since! 

Crazyblue1779

grayn said:

Vintage V100AFD Paradise.  A really really good LP style guitar.  Not changed a thing.  Well, strings.

I passed on a Vintage V100 to my son and I still play it on occasions. They’re phenomenal guitars for the money. 

Henrytwang

CountryDave said:

Had a Squier Simon Neil strat for a while. Sold it to put funds towards something higher up the pecking order. Regret that move.
 Regularly start drafting a WTB thread for another, but then remind myself I’m on a downsize at the moment.

I’ve got one it’s a great sounding guitar to play. I bought mine used and the seller had fitted cts pots, a USA pickup selector switch, a paper in oil tone capacitor and a cold rolled steel trem block. I don’t know what all the mods have done to the sound but it’s definitely a keeper.

CountryDave

Henrytwang said:

CountryDave said:

Had a Squier Simon Neil strat for a while. Sold it to put funds towards something higher up the pecking order. Regret that move.
 Regularly start drafting a WTB thread for another, but then remind myself I’m on a downsize at the moment.

I’ve got one it’s a great sounding guitar to play. I bought mine used and the seller had fitted cts pots, a USA pickup selector switch, a paper in oil tone capacitor and a cold rolled steel trem block. I don’t know what all the mods have done to the sound but it’s definitely a keeper.

I did the same to mine.
If another was to find it’s way into my orbit, despite the downsize, I’m sure I’d give it a good home.

Nightswan

UnclePsychosis said:

That looks ace, @Nightswan ;

I always wonder about cheaper Ibanez guitars but find the model names so inpenetrable that I wouldn't be able to work out what I was buying... 

Cheers. The confusing model names happen on the high end one's as well. A mate of mine has a J Custom that's model name is R3122B13J2-20A 

paulnb57

East Coast L1 Set neck LP shaped object £199 delivered

Watched a YouTube film recently where Andy “The Guitar Geek” interviewed Lee Anderton who disliked the quality of budget guitars so much (sub £100ish) that he teamed up with a couple of other independent shops and had a run of instruments made in China….he said it was amazing what a difference and extra 10 dollars can make to an instrument in the budget end of production. 
In the film Andy tried the LP copy and mentioned the word “light”

Ive always yearned for an LP but price and weight just dont work for me. Anyroadup a couple of days after watching the film, an East Coast L1 Goldtop arrived at Chez Paul

I honestly can not fault it…nut action, action, intonation fret end and fret levelling all spot on, decent enough paint finish, decent enough hardware, it feels a bit generic, bit it is an utter bargain. Even the pickups sound good enough to not make me want to change them….

The cream plastic have had a rub over with Scotch Brite and Ive removed the Poker Chip

Oh the weight? 8lbs 4oz, suits me sir….

Ive got a Les Trem and a Roller bridge kicking about, so they will be applied if they fit….What a great guitar, straight out of the box, even the strings seem decent…..

JayGee

Good value at the price they originally sold for. Absolutely outrageous for the £149 I paid for it on eBay…!

SlopeSoarer

Of my acoustic guitars this is the cheapest and the one that I now pick up the most, it looks great (I don't like bling), sounds good to me, is well put together and feels just right in the hands. It's a Harley Benton CLP15ME SolidWood and at £259 delivered, I think it is amazing value for money.

I think I got lucky with the very even grain top, as a mate ordered one a few months ago and his isn't quite as nice looking but plays and sounds equally well.

Matt_McG

All of my guitars are quite cheap:

* G&L Tribute ASAT Special in swamp ash: Korean made, this is totally stock apart from new CTS pots and a better jack. Heavy but absolutely rock solid in every way. Sounds huge and almost hifi at both the bottom and top ranges. I think the big MFD pickups and saddle lock bridge are both under appreciated.

* PRS SE singlecut with P90s also Korean made. Lovely wide-fat neck, feather light. Pickups replaced with nice Oil City P90s. Not as bombproof as the G&L and maybe needs a new nut but great.

Both guitars cost me around 300-350 quid.

I had cash to burn about 5 years ago for a new guitar and I didn’t buy anything as I couldn’t find much under 2.5K that was genuinely better (for me). 

Voxman

Amazed this one hasn't come up yet - Harley Benton TE52NA. £139 when I bought it in Oct 2020, £145 today from Thomann. Stonkingly good guitar. I replaced the tuners with Wilkinson deluxe tuners and swapped the chrome saddles for Wilkinson brass compensated saddles, lowered the action, fixed the rear ferrules in place with plumbers ptfe tape, polished the frets, new strings, and job done. It's my everyday go to guitar that sounds more like a Tele than many Tele's I've played. Ash body, maple neck, very comfortable neck, plays great, & the Roswell pickups are surprisingly good. Only thing is the weight which is a bit on the heavy side. 

BillDL

I wonder if there's a lot of psychology involved with the perception of how a guitar feels and sounds depending on how expensive it was.  You often see reviews of budget guitars that sum their experiences up as "pleasantly surprised" or "good guitar at any price, but excellent for the price", and I've written my own reviews of some budget guitars along those lines when I realised how excellent some are for the very modest cost.  I think most of us will be realistic enough to acknowledge that guitars have to be built within a budget and overlook some small areas that we would not be inclined to overlook if the guitar cost more, but there are definitely some that belie the budget price, for example the Harley Benton TE52 shown above.

One of my best cheapos is a "Junior" copy by Artist Guitars, model number AP54J that I bought back in July last year:

I got this guitar as "B-Stock" for £89, but the RRP was still only £149.  The flaws were a tiny patch of lighter coloured material in the dark composite fretboard, and a tooling scrape on the top of the headstock (on the woody bit not the faceplate).  I scraped the distracting light fleck out of the fretboard with a razor and infilled it with supeglue infused with black felt-tip dye, and have just left the sanding or file mark on the end of the headstock because it doesn't bother me.

3-piece "African mahogany" (Sapele?) body and bolt-on neck with scarfe joint.  The neck is a bit darker than the sliver of it you can see in the image, but it's still light in shade for Sapele, so it's maybe Khaya or one of the other substitutes.  The stock photo is exactly representative of the guitar in real life.  22 medium jumbo frets in a 12" radius man-made board that looks very much like ebony and feels really nice.  Wilkinson wraparound bridge and surprisingly good quality unbranded sealed tuners.  I'm sure the dogear P90 is from the same winding machine as a Wilkinson, and it has a really nice chime that feels like it is a fairly high output for a P90.  The fretwork was about the best I've seen on a really budget guitar and didn't need much more than a bit of dressing the ends and a polish.

The Wilkinson WOGT3 combination bridge costs almost £30 and is good solid quality.  The good quality generic tuners and unbranded pickup would probably cost around £40, the d'Addario strings would be around £7, and the pots and output socket about another £7.  That's £84 of bits, leaving £5 of guitar, and the unmentioned strap buttons would probably cost that anyway !!

I can get some really twangy to gutsy country style, Malcolm Young sounding open chord "thrang", and some good flat out rock and blues.  Hardly any hum at all and the pickup cuts right through.

BillDL

My other "best cheapo" is an Artist Guitars AT91V2.  An ash-bodied "hot" Tele with sculpted body cutaways that sounds exactly like a Telecaster and feels great.  RRP: £189. Bought as B-Stock for £120 due to a scrape on the back of the body.  It was only a powdery scrape in the lacquer that drop-filled with superglue and buffed to almost invisibility).

https://www.artistguitars.co.uk/collections/2022-new-guitar-range/products/artist-at91v2-natural-electric-guitar-w-twangler-17782

I made a NGD thread about it HERE. Artist Twangler Pickups (AlNiCo V Rod 16k (Bridge), 12K (Neck).  The only things I've replaced on it are the tuners and the string trees.

RaymondLin

PRS SE One.

Picked it up for £250.
Cost £30 in fuel to pick it up
£10 for new guard
£18.80 for new PRS knobs
£13.50 for CTS pots x 2
£114 P90 Pickup from Monty
£186 loom and work to install from Monty's
£15 to drop it off and then collect it. x2.


£637.30. (More than I remember now I check receipts!)

stufisher

Following @Voxman's comments I completely agree.

I acquired my TE52NA for £75 on tFB and all I've done to it is thoroughly clean all of the hardware, fit black TUSQ nut/string trees and have it set up properly for me, so total spend of c.£140

My guitar tech loves Telecasters and unprompted he said, "I can't believe how much guitar you've got there ... it's as good as my £2.5k road-worn US custom-build."

If my Westie wasn't as versatile then my TE52NA would be my best cheapo guitar for sure. It's a keeper!

Petepassion

Vintage SG with '50's wiring, pots, Gibson tuners and Classic '57 pickups came to about £350 and My Affinity Strat with loaded '57/'62 scratchplate about £250 in total...and plays and sounds pretty good

guitarjack66

Petepassion said:

Vintage SG with '50's wiring, pots, Gibson tuners and Classic '57 pickups came to about £350 and My Affinity Strat with loaded '57/'62 scratchplate about £250 in total...and plays and sounds pretty good

And you have a 'Squire!'