Stop buying budget guitars!
Stop buying budget guitars, more appropriately stop buying budget guitars if…
Counting the cost of modding budget guitars.
Stop buying budget guitars
1. If you don’t know how to do the work (or are not willing to learn)
2. If you don’t enjoy doing the work
3. If you don’t have the time to do the work – count the cost of your time
4. If you don’t have the funds to by “needed” parts*
*You may or may not need or desire to change anything or everything, but I wanted to give you the ballpark costs. The following list reflects my player preferences.
Budget Telecaster – upgrade cost model (as needed)
Budget guitar – $100
Locking Tuners – $35
Ferrules – $8
String trees (guides) – $14
Bone or GraphTech Nut – $15 Compensated Brass Saddles – $15
Pots – $10
Capacitor – $6
Switch – $11
Pickups – $40
Pure tone jack – $10
Wires – $8
Total $270
Assumptions:
1. Good bones (guitar body & neck)
2. Basic tools to do the work
3. Parts are “needed”
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Shout out to @2bikemikesguitartopics145 and @j-man9457 for their recommendations and encouragement as I walk out my journey with budget guitars.
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Playlists and journeys:
Should you buy a budget guitar? Is it worth it?
Harley Benton Stories
Westcreek Racer Stories
FireFly FFTL Relic Telecaster
Fojill FTL-60 Telecaster
Fojill FTL-20 Telecaster
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Just an old cat talking about guitars & life. If you like this kind of content, please consider subscribing. If you like a video, please let me know by liking videos that are helpful, informative, fun, and shareable.
This channel explores my journey with budget guitars through a mix of various kinds of videos. You’ll find boring unboxing videos, out of the box tone samples, discussions of fit and finish, features, specifications, hardware, electronics, initial thoughts, reactions, guitar work, and lots of stories.
Along the way, I’ll offer my take on questions like, “Should I buy a budget guitar? “Is upgrading a budget guitar worth it?” What is the cost difference between upgrading budget guitars with the price of brand name guitars? Do all budget guitars need upgrade? and more.
Wherever you are on your guitar journey, I hope it’s a good ride for you.
Rock on with your bad selves.
I’ll catch you down the road.
#Stop #buying #budget #guitars
Originally posted by UCBr6kaWeOvldTHvntB3tnMg at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sw3DNHPNJOM
Intonation really does matter. She'll learn to play more in tune if the intonation is right. She may become a professional musician one day. You never know. I think ear training should happen sooner rather than later.
I bought a unicorn. 2023 am pro 2 telecaster.
I have since messed with the neck relief, action, intonation, and string changes.
That's it.
The nut action is perfect from the factory. The frets are perfectly dressed with rolled fingerboard edges from the factory. The neck angle is perfect with no shims/no micro tilt.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with this guitar. Not a thing.
First ever unicorn guitar for me.
The way I see it, you can get the guitar factory to pay a tech wage for 20 mins of his time and charge you over a grand for it at retail, or you can pay a tech 100 quid for 2-3 or more hours of his time and get a better result more specific to what you want. It's only the handwork on the setup that separates expensive guitars and it's not even guaranteed.
When I could play, I loved glarry guitar finishes. I would change the electronics out and have gorgeous guitars
I don't wanna be a downer , but when ever I see a 100 dollar USD guitar or one of those 89 dollar USD special or some insane retail price I question the morality of the companies that are pumping those off brands out at such a cheap price…. I question what are the workers getting paid how much are they getting paid, do they have good working conditions do they have workers rights or is this like back during the triangle shirt waste factory conditions I question all of this.. are the workers happy or are they working 14 hours per day just so I can buy a cheapo guitar because I am too lazy to work harder & invest more money into my guitar so to insure things are on the up & up..
i don't think those 3rd world factory workers are happy.
just my opinion.. As an American we can afford to spend more to insure conditions of workers are met .
again just my opinion..
What is sad is that so many young players today have zero mechanical skills. They pay people 35.00 weekly to put new strings on a guitar and 50 or more to intonate it.
The upper priced Epiphones seem like they may be good. Don't know. I'm 66 and started playing in the late 60's early 70's and was in the clubs buy 1978 as a young adult not quite 21 yet. I have never owned a Gibson. Luck y for me when I did go Gibson shopping in 79 I found a new player on the block in the back street music store. Not happy about what Gibson had to offer for the money so I tried a hand made Hamer Sunburst and loved it. Played Hamer USA all my life for the humbucker sounds. Fenders for single coils. I'm not opposed to owning a Gibson but if I can buy something as good or better for 3 or 400 less that's what i'm going to do. No brand loyalty aside of Hamer USA and you can't buy those new anymore and they are not cheap used. I have my best one left that I b ought in 1980. A Hamer standard which is equal to a Gibson Explorer. I kept that one. Number 0400 made of that body style and it's worth at least ten times what I paid for it new today. I like some of the budget guitars. think about buying them but I can work on them
I found a nice Squier Sonic p bass with a nice dark board and smooth fret ends at a local shop for $180, but it took me trying 5+ to find the right one. Some of those basses had razor wire for fret ends so it was on to the next one lol. If you can try them out in person there are gems at every price point IMO.
I'm a Martin guy, but I'm also a Sigma guy. I have never met a Sigma you couldn't gig with right away. Spend 200.00 on a good Knk mini. Plug and play. You don't hear sophisticated open harmonics at some noisy outdoor venue anyway. Sigma uses real bone. The necks are perfect, and they are tough as nails. You don't have to fuss over them.
Budget guitars allowed me to get my hands on those I always wanted years ago. They are so close as to make little difference.
It's FUN!
I've had vintage Gibsons and Fenders (before they were "vintage") and have PRS guitars now, but no one complains about my tone when I show up with my Squier Sonic telecaster or Epiphone LP Jr.; in fact, quite rhe opposite. Neither of those required much work to be players.
I was born and raised in Washington DC, and I own, at least 3 dozen guitars ???? mostly Fender Stratacaster, Gibson, and PRS. I lived in Oxon Hill Maryland for my first 38 years and out here in Beautiful Beaumont California for the past 35 years.❤ go Dodgers. ❤ !!!
You're so right.
Budget guitars these days are a dream compared to the 80's.
Some mods and properly set up, you could use it for stage work no probs.
With the price of pickups and parts these days there is no point modifying a Squier. Which will cost €500, then pickups are €150 and new hardware another €150 so that’s €800 which can buy a used Fender USA guitar or brand new Fender player. Both are superior to a Squier and will play and sound better.
7 minutes and 6 seconds to get to the point. Also, could have done without the click bait.
C L I C K B A I T!!
Like the video
hate the title????
I can see the argument for both sides. On the one hand, budget guitars can be a great bargain and perform as well as it better than their more expensive name brand counterparts with a few mods. However, sometimes mods can become just as pricey as buying a name brand model with hardware and electronics that wouldn’t need to be swapped. You always have to consider the amount you will be investing vs the cost of a ready to rock more expensive guitar. For someone like me, budget guitars are perfect as I know how to set up and do most of the work I would need to do on guitars for the most part.
Only 3 guitars over €800. All the others are in the €150-250 area and with a polish, setup and in some cases pickups. Love fiddling with cheap guitars
bruh its all i can afford. and my epiphone lp special in tv yellow rocks.
Views 17k followers 413… something is wrong here! Come on guys subscribe !
Most of my high end guitars stay out of sight and rarely played but I have acquired more than a few inexpensive guitars that never see a case get played weekly that are my pride and joy
They make WAYYYYY to many crap budget guitar.
The new budget epiphone korina v I bought a few weeks ago only needed a whole turn down of the bridge tumb screw to lower the action a little. The rest worth every euro cent
So true, so much is comin from you. We get caught up in looking at the brand, I've done it too. If the keys or pickups suck then replace them. I've had great luck with some budgets- a 100 epi jr that kicks,,a squire from Korea that has played for many people. The most I've paid is 800 for a near new amer strat. But yea I can work on them so it saves time and money.
Budget guitars are great for beginners. Let's face it, many would-be guitar players quit when they find out they actually have to work to get good at it—-in that case, it's better to be out $200 instead of $2,000. And for those that stick with it, they can always upgrade their guitar later
For the neck you might want to consider polymerized tung oil. Highline Guitars has a great tutorial on using Polymerized tung oil.
Thanks for your time!
I started buying budget guitars a couple of years ago. I have about 20 of them now, and I finally just bought a 60th Anniversary Fender Strat…Got a great deal.
I have been learning how to do set ups using all of these, I have one frankenstrat that I got with a mismatched "Mitchell" neck…for $10 (yes, ten), I swapped it with a mighty mite neck…it's one of the BEST playing guitars i have all in under $200 …I LOVE IT
I like buying fakes from China and modding, setting up, never claim for them to be the real deal but no one's called me out over 20 odd years of doing this