• From: Nottingham, UK
  • Registered: 2006-08-08
  • Posts: 690

Topic: What Makes A Cheap Guitar

So I'm always insisting it's worth looking around guitar shops for bargains, but what exactly do you get with a top flight guitar? In rough order or importance...

- Pickups, it's not about windings or anything technically obvious but good pickups are musical in a way bad ones ain't. Buying an expensive guitar doesn't guarrantee them though...

- Electrics, switches that don't pop when changed, tone pots that don't crackle. It's all down to the quality of material, cleanliness of manufacture and seal against dirt.

- Tuners, some cheap guitars have decent modern tuners, some expensive guitars have 'vintage correct' old fashioned tuners that lose tuning in one song :-(

- Neck, cheap guitar necks often have sharp fret finishing, less curved edges.

-Neck/body joint, cheaper guitars often fit less well together and are more reliant on bolts/glue holding the joint good.

- Paint, cheap guitar paint jobs are often as smooth but the paint is often more tacky less tactile. More expensive guitars have more of a satin feel even when strictly speaking gloss.

- Back panels, cheap guitars often have black plastic covers and a large amount of routing. Better designs keep the cavity space down and match the cover to the guitar, with good fit and recessed edges.

- Scratchguard, cheap guitars often have a single ply scratchplate that is less than entirely flat (a faint bit of wave). Triple ply looks cool if the middle section is a contrast colour.

- Body contouring, cheap guitars may be more blocky and less contoured. No real reason for this as computer controlled routers can make any shape, probably far east factories with old hand-me-down machine tools.

- Binding, purfling - no real need for this but it looks nice.

- Fret dots, actually cheap pearloid ones can be better than low grade abalone which can do dark.

'The sound of the city seems to disappear'
  • From: A black hole in deep space
  • Registered: 2007-10-28
  • Posts: 7,865

Re: What Makes A Cheap Guitar

what makes a cheap guitar? companies looking to make a profit by cutting the cost of quality i would add not what but who and the list is growing

"Growing old is not for sissies"

Russell_Harding's Website

  • From: Tennessee USA
  • Registered: 2008-01-12
  • Posts: 99

Re: What Makes A Cheap Guitar

Cytania has assembled a comprehensive list of "what makes a cheap guitar", and Russell_Harding has identified "who makes a cheap guitar" -I am adding now the third related question "Who buys a cheap guitar?".

There are certainly folks who are buying a guitar for the first tiime. And then there is someone like me who knows better, but hesitates to buy expensive guitars. There are moments when I throw out everything I have learned about quality and cheaply made guitars....and buy that $200 thing that looks like a guitar but plays like crap. Among my 14 guitars are 3 that I built myself, 3 others that were over $1000, and 8 that I bought just because they were cheap. After the first visual encounter (mostly on the net), my love affair with a cheap guitar usually ends when the UPS truck has left my neighborhood: Another $200 bucks down the drain. Ouch.

Let's hope that forums and discussions like this help others avoid the mistakes I've made by buying cheap guitars.

Play on!

  • From: BELGIUM
  • Registered: 2007-01-27
  • Posts: 3,403

Re: What Makes A Cheap Guitar

Tennessee Strat, I posted a topic about woods, in fact the most used wood to build a guitar.
- What is the most important factor in the "expensive sector"? Most of these guitars, I mean different brands, they all use finally the same wood: Rosewood, Spruce, Mahogany and some of them have an equal sound. Is it the "bracing"?
- Is there an impact on the TONE/SOUND using different wood for the neck or fretboard?
- Do you use "electronic devices" to analyse the sound spectrum?
My dream was making an own guitar, since I had to stop, but I'm afraid that it would be physical impossible to make a guitar, which brings me to the question that if I would love to have a "handmade" guitar, that you can build one? Using rosewood (which: East Indian, Honduras) and different spruce kinds, like Sitka or German spruce?
Thanks a lot

[color=blue]- GITAARDOCPHIL SAIS: TO CONQUER DEAD, YOU HAVE TO DIE[/color]   AND [color=blue] we are born to die[/color]
- MY GUITAR PLAYS EVERY STYLE = BLUES, ROCK, METAL, so I NEED TO LEARN HOW TO PLAY IT.
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gitaardocphil's Website

  • Registered: 2007-10-08
  • Posts: 9

Re: What Makes A Cheap Guitar

A question I have is simply this:

How much (or how little) would I have to spend to get a decent sounding solid body electric?

I have only owned acoustics, and have only recently become interested in looking at an electric.

6 Reply by Tennessee Strat (edited by Tennessee Strat 2008-02-13 02:40:49)

  • From: Tennessee USA
  • Registered: 2008-01-12
  • Posts: 99

Re: What Makes A Cheap Guitar

Hi gitaardocphil and KMajors!
I'll respond to KMajors first, since it seems a relatively easy question to answer, and this is really just my opinion (I own 14 -16 guitars, at least that's how many I can see in this room). Decent-sounding and durable electrics for under $300 are rare. I'd look for example at www.guitarfetish.com and their Xaviere brand, or www.rondomusic.net with their Agile or SX brand. These guitars are made in Asia, but the importing companies usually control the quality before they ship out a lemon.

Personally, I also like some of Musiciansfriend's Rogue brand. With all thre companies, you'd be better off buying something around $200 -or more if you can afford it. My rule of thumb is: anything under $150 retail is not worth bothering with. Both Gibson and Fender have low-price lines (Epiphone and Squier). I own one of each, because they were cheap, but I cannot recommend them. A little higher in price are Fender "Standard" instruments, usually made in Mexico. For $400 you get a very decent sounding, quality electric guitar. Take your pick: Standard Stratocaster, or Telecasters made in Mexico are pretty decent and will last. Epiphones that cost from $399 are also ok -not great.

When you buy an electric, prepare yourself for the cost of an amp, tuner, cables, gig bag, etc. that you will want later...

Gitaardocphil: Even among "famous" tone-woods, there are distinct differences in quality: Take spruce for example. The quality is measured by the density of the wood and to a certain degree by its "figure". Slower growth of a tree results in tight grain. There is even a Standard: AAAA is the best, with AAA and AA to follow. Some suppliers also invent their own grading, such as "Master Grade".  The difference in quality also shows in the price of the raw materials. Many commercial guitar companies resort to laminating a thin good looking vernier (German: Furnier) onto a layer of less expensive wood. In general, solid tops and even solid backs/sides are preferrable. I am not exactly a master luthier, but more of a "guitar builder". It's easy to ruin some nice expensive wood with just a moment of distraction, or bad planning. That's why I'm slow... I just want to learn how it's done, so I can then actually play the instrument and be proud of it.

Necks for acoustics and electrics can be made of Mahagony. It's easy to shape (and to ruin), good looking, and a nice tone wood. Fender uses maple for electric necks, because maple is much stronger than most other woods. It's not as easy to shape by hand, but of course Fender uses machines for those tasks that a luthier would use handtools for. There seems to be a difference in tone, using maple, ebony, or rosewood for the fretboard: rosewood is neutral sounding, maple can be harsh, ebony is best (again my own opinion). 

Do I measure tone? I use an oscilloscope to observe waveforms generated by electrical pickups. These vibrations are initially influenced by the tone woods. You can observe "sustain" and "attack" and "volume", and also harmonic content and overtones of the instrument, but I cannot safely say that I know exactly what I'm seeing -probably would need much more experience with many different guitars. The pickups, or microphonic devices also shape the sound -not an exact science for me at this point.

What I can hear is this: If an instrument sounds pleasing without an amplifier, it usually sounds great when amplified. Bracing does influence the tonal characteristics. I've experienced that myself a few months ago. I played a black Martin Johnny Cash Commemorative Acoustic, and after just the first chord, I was hooked! This guitar retails for $3500 -good for me, because I can't buy one that expensive. When I played the first chord, the sound coming from the sound hole all of a sudden filled the air around me. I felt the guitar reaching out to me, saying "Buy Me Now, You M@#$%^&cker!" I was so shocked that I hung it right back on the wall -creepy!

What was this guitar's secret? Innovative "Forward Bracing". A technique invented by Taylor: the center brace is moved forward by an inch, creating different angles for the side braces. The guitar resonates now a lot better (louder) and sounds full and rich. It's funny how Taylor had copied the Martin bracing scheme for years, then invented something new, and now even Martin is using this relatively simple modification to make their instruments sound better...

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Play on!