Can you make an inexpensive guitar sound expensive..?

HI folks,

I'm a beginner, and I bought a fairly cheap guitar. An Epiphone SG special. Now, I noticed the better models and how they differ. I've been drooling over a Gibson LP or SG Standard... and I was wondering what makes an expensive guitar expensive ?

Can you take a mid range guitar like a Epiphone G-400 and put on some Gibson pickups, and viola you have an almost identical sounding Gibson guitar that costs less ? Some of these guitars look almost identical except for the electronics/gear inside of it ? Both guitars are made of the same wood. I just don't understand the potential difference in quality and tone.

Thanks!
Ken :D

The G-400's are good guitars. The better guitars are usually hand assembled by highly trained people and use a higher grade of wood. So technically the fit, finish and setup of the guitar should be better. They also usually have better electronics. My son has a G-400 goth sg and it has nice action and the pickups sound pretty good. You can upgrade the electronics if you want. I'm sure some the folks on this site can give you suggestions. Also search the forum I'm sure this has been covered before.

Keep on strummin.

i bought an epiphone les paul in january, and when shopping i tried several gibson lespauls along with others , i couldnt tell much difference , and i have heard from others that they felt the epi's sounded better than the gibson, i wont say that , but i will say dont see $2000 difference

The materials used in building the guitar do count for something. The skill and care that went into making a guitar out of those materials count for more.

If your guitar was made by people who cared, on a good day, then it's a good guitar.

Better electronics can bring out the best of a good guitar. They can't help a bad one.

A good guitar will make itself known to you. Close your eyes, open your ears, pay close attention to what your hands and your ears are telling you. If the guitar in your hands speaks to you, then it is worth the effort and expense to help it be the best it can be.

Price, and the name on the headstock mean [u]nothing[/u]! One of the best-sounding guitars I've ever played was a sad-looking pawn-shop derelict, missing the truss rod cover and the plate over the control cavity. But even before I plugged it into an amp, I knew it had something special to offer. I bought it for CDN$250. And I doubt that I will ever sell it.

If you're not sure, then you need to spend some time playing as many guitars as you can get your hands on. The differences soon become noticeable.

Basically... throwing a lot of money into an inexpensive guitar just exposes all the flaws that make it an inexpensive gutiar. Putting high end pickups in a guitar with a particle board body will just sound like the best sound particle board around... it won't hold a candle to an ash, alder, mahogany... etc. bodied guitar.

Basically it's not worth dumping money into.

Granted... it can be worth putting some money into an inexpensive guitar. Putting decent pickups in one and updating the electronics... maybe a few cosmetic touches like a pickguard or something and viola... you've got a decent axe without spending a TON of money. I would rather save for a nicer guitar than pour money into a lesser value guitar... it just makes more sense in the long run

I would have to agree with the save the cash and upgrade philosophy.

Get some nice pickups. This will make a huge difference in sound. If you upgrade to a better guitar, you can still use the nice pickups on the new guitar.

It can be done, but not with just any guitar.

A friend of mine had an old Squire strat that he and his brother (a luthier in the makes) upgraded it with some new pickups, electronics, and all hardware, and it is one of the sweetest guitars I've ever played! However, just because it worked for him, doesn't mean that it will work for anybody.

The guitar you want to upgrade can be a cheap guitar, but it still has to be a "good" guitar.

Using new strings, setting up the intonation etc can really help.
If you're using it in a studio setting there's all kindsa things you can do.

On the PhaseIV Cd I did, all I used was a cheap $20 Diatone.
The way to make it sound better is to use a good mic, EQ it so that the bottom end is cut out a bit. Use a decent amp.
The other way is to avoid playing notes that are out of tune.

For instance, I retuned the guitar so that it played certain notes perfectly. But if I attempted to play anything else it went way out of tune.

On older recordings, all I used was a $20 diatone.
Even on recent recordings, I just use a Yamaha Eterna I got off eBay for $100.

For instance, on this recording, I used the diatone:

http://s9374450.onlinehome.us/mp3/GoodNight.F.mp3

It majorly sucked for keeping in tune but after a bunch of studio trickery it melded in ok.
Mostly I doubletracked it and panned the two tracks to the extreme left and right... then used compression to smooth out the sound.
Then I ran it through Amplitube to get an AC-30 amp simultator.