Cheap vs. Expensive Guitars: Four Common Misconceptions

I am 40 and have been playing for years and been through so many guitars and could not agree more, I have owned guitars that cost $1,000 and they never stayed in tune or there were constant problems with the electronics, or the action was all off, but I have had a few guitars that were my absoluote favorites, stayed in tune, playability was great, nice tone and sustain, flawless action, needless to say these few favorite axe's over the years were all $300 or less, at the moment I'm rocki'n a $200 Lugana and I love it, if I was blind I would swear I had a $1,000 axe!!!

You are a riot...yea I was suppose to be that HOT rock star back in the day.Now my friend an I will be the Rockin Grannies...lo. Have enjoyed your articles an picked up afew pointers.I had thought about buying this Martin (it had to many 0"s) so I opted for the free guitar from GT an I'm happy with it.I've been playing my classical with the nylon strings an wanted to get use to steel,big difference.So keep articles coming I enjoy them.

I'm happy to hear you like the articles, Linda. Thanks for commenting. I like the idea of the "Rockin' Grannies." :D

A very good article about being sensible in choosing one's guitars.

Cheap does definitely not mean it's rubbish. It really is the guitarist's capabilities first and then the guitar. Someone said,

Guitarist 99%
Guitar 1%

Just look on YouTube and listen to very good guitarists play those cheap Squires and Yamahas and you will see what it is about. An excellent guitarist can produce great music from a basic guitar.

Having said that, and having had some experience with other instruments, I will say, that if you are a beginner and the guitar is not set up to its best capabilities by a competent guitar technician, you might end up not enjoying playing the guitar and there go your dreams of becoming a guitarist who can bring joy to the world of listeners, and joy to your heart.

Therefore, get a guitar that has some reputation behind e.g. it comes from a manufacturer of quality guitars such as Fender, Gibson, Yamaha ( always a reliable musical instrument manufacturer) and many others that are well known for their instruments.

Another thing to remember is not to get sucked into the upgrade business. I'm sure I read an article about it on here but I can't seem to find it anymore. It was about the value or lack thereof, of upgrading a guitar that is crap in so many ways, that you might as well buy a more expensive one by the time you've spend big dollars on all the upgrades necessary. Unless you want to do it for fun.

But a beginner ( and I am one ) should not be encouraged down that path of upgrading their 'cheap' guitar. They should be encouraged to firstly learn to play the guitar on a reliable instrument that will only need to be tuned and nothing else. There is no time to waste with anything else when your primary objective is to learn to play the guitar like the devil. Once you have that capability, no doubt you will be wanting to tweak this and that. That's the next level.

I'll step down from pontification and return to my guitar buying search :D

Sound advice, Stringybark. Thanks for the comment, and good luck on your search. You'll know the right one when you hear it. ;)

Caught the comment from Jesusrocker regarding the trade of a guitar.
I know what it's like as I sold an Epiphone Les Paul studio to a work mate last year for his daughter. Although I hadn't played it all that often, I still wondered if I had made a mistake. (still have the photo of it)
I thought about when I couldn't really afford a guitar of any sort, and the fact that there was no one to help me.
Do I regret that move? The short answer is No. I like to think that I have helped someone to progress up the ladder to playing the guitar.
I was later asked by the same work colleague about an acoustic. As I then had two, a Fender & a Squire, I was able to let his daughter try both to find the one she liked.
I suppose the moral to this is, by your actions today will it help someone to progress tomorrow? I would like to think it will.

The post from Stringybark 05.01.13.
A good point raised, in that as a beginner the last thing you want is for some
sales person to sell you a guitar that is not fit for purpose, or the standard of the player.
It had been a great many years since I had last picked up a guitar, when I went into a music shop and asked about a guitar for a beginner.(thought I really needed to start from scratch). Was shown a Fender CD60, liked the sound/tone, bought it with a gig bag, (got the tuner for free) and it's the one I play most. The Epiphone DR500 takes a back seat. (have played this three times in the past year).
Love the Fender, am already on the third set of strings.

My first guitar was a Columbus copy Les Paul Special (Black Beauty). I bought it from a college mate. I couldn't afford an amp at the time, so I played it unplugged. I was new to the craft, struggling to make my left hand move into unfamiliar shapes, and rarely succeeding.

However, I then saw a cheap Satellite Strat copy in three-tone sunburst and lusted after it (I still love Strats). I hocked my Columbus (in retrospect a much better guitar) for this piece of junk with a nice paint job (it was probably a decal!).

I struggled and slowly (oh, so slowly!) improved. Gritting my teeth, I pounded out near-D and A and C and G7 chords in something almost like even tempo and real time. It was hard work, but I even did a little gig at my local pub with it, having bought a Fender Harvard practice amp. But I was falling out of love with guitars and thinking of jacking it in.

Then I saw another thing of beauty in my local guitar shop: an Aria Urchin in green sunburst with gold hardware. I went in the shop, but there was no way I could front the cash for this vision of rock loveliness. Howvever, the assistant steered me towards something I could afford: a Washburn Force II. It was by no means as glamorous as the Urchin - quite spartan, really - but had a good, low action, even, dressed frets, a straight neck and a well-profiled nut. I hocked the Satellite on the street market and bought it. I also got a loan and bought a brand new Marshall JCM800 4212 2x12 50W combo.

After struggling with the Strat, my fingers seemed to fly now, and I joined my first band as lead singer and rhythm guitarist, a post I held for four years. The shoddy Satellite had actually helped me! And the Marshall was wonderful.

The Washburn, faithful to the end, finally wore out. It wasn't worth getting a refret. But I moved on to a Squier Strat, followed by a Fender Japan Yngwie Malmsteen Strat. I couldn't afford the real deal, so I still bought cheap, but not garbage guitars.

I finally bought a real Aria Urchin (plain white, very uncomfortable to play, then (if my memory serves me:

Another Squier Strat
A Yamaha SG4000
A Mexican Strat with locking trem

Then, I thought, I would look at an Epiphone Les Paul (being a metal fan, I wanted higher-output HBs). However, the assistant did tempt me by putting into my hands a brand new 2002 Gibson Les Paul Standard (the first Standards since 1960 that even die-hard LP nerds began grudgingly to admit were OK). Satan in a suit did tempt me and I did buy. Marrying Paul to Marsha (my name for my JCM800) was a match made in heaven.

I have recently added a 2005 American Standard Strat, a 2006 American Telecaster and recently a Gibson Les Paul Studio with Min-E-Tune that is good for swapping tunings (straight to DADGAD to open slide tunings and back again, etc). I don't have any more cheapos.

I love my full price axes, but I might never have got there without the help of a piece of junk that, on the surface, wasn't worth what I paid for it.

When I turned 40, I had 25 years of playing under my belt, had been working a good paying job for a decade, and decided to have a custom made guitar (hollowbody archtop) built for me. It was a long very expensive process and when it was over I had an incredible one-of-a kind instrument. But I don't play it....It's too expensive and rare to take out to jams or gigs. I can't leave it out on a stand for fear of my animals messing with it. And now it is worth a fraction of what I paid for it. Lesson learned.

My "go to" instrument for taking out and gigging is a Squier Jazzmaster. Even though my custom guitar costs close to 20 times what I paid for the jazzmaster, I can take this thing out in a gig bag and really don't care if it gets scratched or knocked around. It stays in tune, is easy to play, and sounds good. It did have a wiring problem at one point, so it hasn't been all sunshine, but for the most part it has performed well. As the article stated, these over-seas guitars have come a long way as far as quality goes.

When I was younger I discovered that the alternator for a Chevrolet, Oldsmobile, Pontiac and Cadillac were all identical. The only difference was the part numbers and the prices.
When I was 15 I went to a music store with my Dad to buy a guitar. I had the choice of Gibson, Gretsch, Fender, VOX and a couple others I don't remember. I tried them all and decided on the VOX 241 Bulldog. I liked the way it felt in my hands better than the others. I thought I was going to get a Gibson or a Gretsch and financially it may have been a mistake. But now, almost 50 years later I still have my VOX and don't regret the choice. It was about the same price as the big names and more guitar than I needed at the time.
When I moved to Brazil I stopped by some music shops. I had a typical American attitude. I didn't recognize most of the brands and thought they were junk. The American brands I saw were the Mexican imports and very expensive, but also considered junk. If you travel or move to another country don't expect to find the brands you know. Each country has instrument manufacturers that have been in business a very long time and produce quality instruments. Now, a few years later I look for quality and low price. I've bought Memphis (Tagima) and Giannini Strats. They are identical and I think came out of the same factory (probably China). They both play well and sound great. I've also purchased a Cort bass PJ bass and it also plays and sounds good. I've paid under R$400 ($160us) for each of them new. Another advantage of buying a good used or new, inexpensive guitar is you're not afraid to try do work on them yourself. You get to learn how to do the repairs if they need it or just minor adjustments. It's really not difficult and there's plenty of good advice on the internet to help you. I should mention I am referring to solid body electric guitars. Hollow body and guitars such as Les Paul models with set necks can have problems that only an experienced luthier can take care of.

Another example I've always found interested is Willie Nelson's acoustic, which has a huge rectangular hole below the sound hole. That thing looks like it has been to hell and back.

I also recall Kurt Cobain, when discussing his preferred equipment, stating that "junk is always better."

I definitely agree that you don't have to buy the most expensive guitar to sound good. When I went to pick out my first guitar I went to one of the big music stores and brought a friend who had been playing for a while. I really didn't know if guitar was going to be for me or not so I went in with a tiny budget of $100. In my mind I said I would go as high as $300 but really wanted to stay at my original $100.
The clerk had a $300 Takamine solid top acoustic on the counter that had just been set up. I told him my budget and that I'd go a little higher if I found a good fit. He proceeded to pull several $100 models off the shelf and played the same riff on each of them so I could hear the differences. Out of curiousity I asked about the $300 guitar on the counter. He played the same riff as on the cheaper guitars and almost immediately I liked the sound better.
After noticing the poorer action on the cheaper guitars (how hard you have to press the strings to hit the frets) this one felt much easier on my fingers. These two factors were the biggest influence on me and I ended up spending my max amount of $300.
Since then 5 years later I'll go in and noodle on guitars that are 2x the $300 I spent and there's barely a difference. I've since dropped money on several other guitars but this one has been my go-to ever since.
Good article! Thank you

I currently own 4 electric guitars and one acoustic, and I'm not the kind of person to save large sums of money at a time. I've tried but it always fails.

When I first picked up a guitar, it was a shoddy Strat knock-off. Nothing about it was actually any good, so I quickly got disappointed and went to buy my own guitar, since this one was only borrowed. I went to a guitar store, and checked out their selection of guitars. Lots of cool models to choose from, and I had no clue what I wanted, so I did like so many other young, new guitarists: Picked the one that looked coolest. It was a Cherry Red Chateau Power Strat. I got a good demo for free, and thought "This is the one I want". So I told them that I wanted that guitar and amp, and the assistant went out to the storage to find one that was still in its box. As nice as they were, they did a complete set-up on it for free, before handing it over the counter. I bought the guitar and a small amp and got some picks, a cable, a bag and a strap for free. Believe it or not, I still have and use those picks... How they haven't vanished into thin air yet, I don't know.

Anyway, recently, after having upgraded my gear a bit from the cheap gear I bought back then, I tried plugging the Chateau into my amp, and it sounded amazing through my better Fender Mustang II amp. I then tried plugging one of my other guitars into the tiny beginner amp, and cranked it, and it somehow sounded great. Not awe-inspiring, but not bad either. The most awesome thing is actually that I tend to automatically adjust my playing to the guitar I'm playing on.

When I play my ES-345, for example, I tend to have a more bluesy approach than most other guitars I play. When I play my SG, it's full-on Double Stops and Inversion riffing, with lots of Pentatonic scales and Major Scales being thrown around. On my Les Paul, however, it's pretty much "anything goes". Strummed Chords, Died or Triad riffs, Arpeggios and soloing, it's all there, and it even differs from the neck to the bridge pickup on that one else, since the neck pickup sounds less aggressive and more mellow than the Bridge Pickup (maybe there's a bad connection somewhere... The pickups were bought as a set to replace the stock pickups). And when I use my Power Strat, I tend to have a lot of soloing and border-line shredding going on, except my fingers can't keep up with what I want to play. I also tend to use its vibrato bar a lot, since that's the only guitar I have that features one. And they all sound great, even when compared to a Gibson, Fender, Gretsch or Ibanez.

And neither of my guitars have cost me more than 400$! Except my Martin Acoustic... It would've cost me a lot more, if I didn't get it at a hefty discount.

If you got the es-345 for under 400 that's incredible, the 335 is on my wish
List but here in Carolina its out of my price range ,however the Epiphone's
Are in my range,this Les Paul I've had for 20 yrs keeps getting heavier,
Anybody have an opinion on the Epiphone hollow bodies ?

Well, the store where I bought the ES-345 had had it in stock for so long that they just needed to get rid of it to make room for new models. So they sold a whole lot of gear at heavily reduced prices. And that's how I got my ES-345 at a discount. It doesn't even have any flaws or visible scratches (except the pickguard is missing, but I'm not really sure what purpose that serves anyway).

I wrestle with the cheap versus the expensive. I have some decent guitars so I have nothing to complain about. I've had a number of pretty nice guitars over the years.

To the point of this thread (as old as it is...), nowadays you can get a very playable guitar for a decent price. When I started playing (which seems like it was before Edison invented the lightbulb...), you only had the choice of either bad/cheap or good/expensive. There was not real in between.

Now? Much different. You can get a huge amount of very playable guitar for a very reasonable price.

To the point of my wrestling; I will always tend towards the more expensive 'real deal'...whatever that means. I think it is because I am more investment minded in addition to wanting a playable instrument.

...and to totally contradict myself, when I bought a bass a few years ago, I got an Ibanez new and on sales for $300 new and got a Fender T-Bucket acoustic too. I love playing them sooooo......I guess I'm a lier too....

:D

Wrestling is the best word I have come across to describe it . I don't like learners starting out on guitars that have bad setups . Learning the instrument is hard enough without making it a downright painful . With experience you can check out a reasonably made guitar and make something out of it without breaking the bank . My main axe is a Maton MS2000 DLX SD , beautiful piece of work , but at $4000 it would want to be . On the other hand , I have an Ibanez SA360 QM worth about $500 . Tried it out at the store , action was good , well put together and cosmetically gorgeous , single coils were good but the HB howled with even small amounts of gain . Got advice from Steve White , changed to a SD Pearly Gates , $150 and instant cure . My Epi ES 345 was a bit of a handful to keep in tune , so I was sitting around talking to a few buddies and one suggested trying a roller bridge to ease up on the Bigsby . Put on a Schaller , and again success . I am not saying you can make a silk purse out of a sow's ear , but you have to start with something that is basically sound to start with . Otherwise you spend $ on garbage . Also remember it will probably only ever be valuable to you , it is never going to hold or increase in value like the classic Gibsons, Fenders , etc.

Cheap vs. expensive. Good vs. bad. Tone vs. ...not so much.

I think this is a good read; http://reverb.com/blog/daves-corner-the-cost-of-tone?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=rn011715&_aid=newsletter

so glad to be a member at guitartricks the resources are beyond my experience and im really just a campfire dreamer at this point and I mainly use my acoustic as a tool or scale for my voice, but im getting addicted now and ready to buy a fender and curious if it would be easier to buy something that hasn't been through so much change (american, Mexico and japan) I'm not willing to pay 1,000.00 (just yet) for something I'm no good at playing but at the same time want something decent to progress .. any advice would be appreciated and thanks for sharing all you professional knowledge with a newbie :)

Originally Posted by: john of MTI think a beginner (perhaps any level player) can be well served exactly by following the herd, i.e., buying a make/model that has a reputation for good sound and good quality. "Buy the most you can afford" is an old strategy that works for those starting out and one that often leads to makes and models that are either expensive or have a reputation for good sound for the bucks or both. And it's not a bad method for a newbie (or parents of a newbie) to follow.

I'm not sure I agree, at least not completely. I started two years ago with a $50 Chinese guitar that I picked up and couldn't put down. That guitar spoke to me. After two years and trying plenty of "better" guitars in stores (and buying a few), my Chinese guitar is still my favorite. It just feels good in my hands, likes my fingers, and I like the way it sounds.

Even for beginners, if it feels good and sounds good in your own hands, I don't think price matters all that much. Obviously, that only goes to a point. With ten years under my belt I might feel quite differently.