The Official Guitar Thread

Springbok

Springbok

Karen
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Any reason in particular for acoustic? I’d point someone towards a squire and a cheap modeling amp as a few hundred dollar acoustic, generally speaking is pretty shoddy. That said I’m a big fan of Eastman acoustics and would check reverb for cheapest used Eastman if I was set on acoustic.
 
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joz123

joz123

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Springbok said:
Any reason in particular for acoustic? I’d point someone towards a squire and a cheap modeling amp as a few hundred dollar acoustic, generally speaking is pretty shoddy. That said I’m a big fan of Eastman acoustics and would check reverb for cheapest used Eastman if I was set on acoustic.
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Mainly for portability.
 
pharmakos

pharmakos

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joz123 said:
Any recommendations on a good starter guitar for adult? Maybe looking to spend 100-200 on a beginner acoustic.
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I loved my Little Martin, it's $50-$200 more expensive than your range tho depending on which model and used or new. I've tried a bunch of smaller acoustics tho and IMO it's by far the best of the inexpensive smaller acoustics.
 
joz123

joz123

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Don't mind spending a little more on it, since its a starter I don't need a high end or anything. I do have long arms and fingers so I'm guessing I need a full size guitar.
 
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pharmakos

pharmakos

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joz123 said:
Don't mind spending a little more on it, since its a starter I don't need a high end or anything. I do have long arms and fingers so I'm guessing I need a full size guitar.
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I'm 6'1" and have relatively big hands. And I still prefer 3/4 scale acoustics.

1/2 scale is too small for me tho.
 
joz123

joz123

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Springbok said:
Any reason in particular for acoustic? I’d point someone towards a squire and a cheap modeling amp as a few hundred dollar acoustic, generally speaking is pretty shoddy. That said I’m a big fan of Eastman acoustics and would check reverb for cheapest used Eastman if I was set on acoustic.
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For electric would this be decent starter? or stick with squier or other brands?

 
pharmakos

pharmakos

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joz123 said:
For electric would this be decent starter? or stick with squier or other brands?

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It's got pretty good reviews online. If you end up sticking with guitar, you might want to upgrade the nut and the tuners someday. Keep in mind it's relatively pretty heavy compared to most electrics, if you have back/neck/shoulder issues you might want to go with something that weighs less.

I personally hate playing guitars with hardtail bridges like that, preferring the "Tune O Matic" style that Gibson pioneered back in the day... Especially for palm muting. But that's largely a personal preference thing probably, I know people that are the exact opposite.
 
mkopec

mkopec

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New project of mine…. Solo bass kit. Just got the neck stained and the body sanded, primed and sanded again. Going to paint tomorrow and clear the next day after. I’ll post more pictures as I progress.
IMG_0187.jpegIMG_0188.jpeg
Have to say im pretty impressed with the kit for the price. Body and neck are pretty nice and spot on. Im sure its made by CnC. They did a nice job sanding it all too. Looked like I could paint right out of the box, but I made sure to go through it all with 400 grit first. Sure, electronics are prob shit but I have a bridge upgrade coming, the fender hi mass bridge, gonna try the pick ups they sent and if they are shit, ill replace them too. I mean its a bass so how bad could it be? But for like $160 and $50 worth of paint? Oh and the bridge cost $50.
 
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Palum

Palum

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joz123 said:
For electric would this be decent starter? or stick with squier or other brands?

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If you know someone who plays, I would recommend biting the bullet and finding a decent one at a store that they can test for you (or ideally set up) even if it costs you another $30-50. Alternatively if you have a very reputable store that will help you and does professional setups. Sweetwater worst case.

When I first started playing I got the $79 kids special as you do and struggled terribly with it and quit playing for a long time. Terrible uneven frets, strings that hurt to fret properly, endless buzzing, never seemed to "get it" and kids music teachers are often baby sitters so "just keep trying you'll get it" never seemed to work out.

Years later I picked up guitar again by buying a new one as an adult. I found that cheap piece of junk after really getting a handle on guitar set up and construction and found it had a warped neck and cracked truss rod the factory had overtightened to try and get it straight. This made it actually impossible to fret certain notes and some slap dash grinding of some frets hadn't helped.

The moral of the story is that quality does matter. Doesn't mean you need to drop 5K on your first guitar, but it does mean some of those $99-$299 guitars are bad enough to be worth less than nothing, even if others are fine. It sucks to see people fighting garbage.

There are some great playing Squier or Yamaha or whatever guitars, but maybe only half of them and fewer still right out of the box.
 
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mkopec

mkopec

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My kid still swears by his Chibson I bought him years back. Hes got other guitars now, like 5 of them, but its still his favorite to play and he plays it every day. I did a set up for him to lower his action, did some fret leveling by using a truss rod with sand paper glued on it. You set the truss rod to the bow of the guitar under string tension, its the best way to level frets. (See Sam Deeks youtube channel) Then you take the strings off and crown and re-polish them. Anyway yeah a properly set up guitar can play like butter. And its not hard to do yourself. For a guitar shop to properly do this would cost hundreds of dollars. It takes a few tools to do and some know how, which is all available on youtube. And you can turn a $200 piece of shit into a very good playable guitar. Most of these things are made in China or some other far east country and they are all prety much done by CNC with pretty good woods, Quality of cheaper guitars these days are miles above what they were just a decade ago. All they really need is some TLC when they get to you to properly set them up. Which is rarely done at the factory churning these things out. Youre talking about spending thousands for a guitar with proper set up out of the box. Or at least closer to the $1K range. Since its such a time consuming thing setting these things up properly at the factory.

The problem also is with noobs that want to play but dont even know how to test any of this shit, like fret buzz, or dead notes etc when they pick one up at some store. It takes a bit of experience in playing to see some of these problems on a guitar.
 
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pharmakos

pharmakos

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joz123 said:
For electric would this be decent starter? or stick with squier or other brands?

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And yeah, Palum is right, don't order from Amazon. Get it from Sweetwater or Reverb... Lots of guitar shops with listings on Reverb will give the guitar a free full setup before they ship it. Amazon guitars might not be too playable right out of the box.
 
mkopec

mkopec

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pharmakos said:
And yeah, Palum is right, don't order from Amazon. Get it from Sweetwater or Reverb... Lots of guitar shops with listings on Reverb will give the guitar a free full setup before they ship it. Amazon guitars might not be too playable right out of the box.
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What do you mean by set up though? Just adjusting the string height (actiion)? Or actually going through and leveling the frets, re-crowning them and then re-polishing, which takes like 3-4 hours at least. I doubt anyone is doing this for a $200 or $300 online sale. Same with any $50 "setup" at some big box guitar shop. And fret level is the real problem with cheap guitars, not action. Shit you can set your action by some grub screws on any guitar in like 10 min, unless nut string height is fucked up.

A typical fret level will cost about $150+. And setting the action on a guitar to be lower will only exacerbate the problems with the frets. This is why typically they come out of the factory with such shitty action to begin with.
 
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Palum

Palum

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mkopec said:
What do you mean by set up though? Just adjusting the string height (actiion)? Or actually going through and leveling the frets, re-crowning them and then re-polishing, which takes like 3-4 hours at least. I doubt anyone is doing this for a $200 or $300 online sale. Same with any $50 "setup" at some big box guitar shop. And fret level is the real problem with cheap guitars, not action. Shit you can set your action by some grub screws on any guitar in like 10 min, unless nut string height is fucked up.

A typical fret level will cost about $150+. And setting the action on a guitar to be lower will only exacerbate the problems with the frets. This is why typically they come out of the factory with such shitty action to begin with.
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A good basic setup doesn't include a fret job at most places I've seen. Basically just the things you need to make it playable, bridge/saddles/truss/nut. True, with some cheap guitars that might mean raising the action because it's not worth the fret work. Most good shops will do this with every new guitar or offer it and ideally RMA the trash that's unfixable.

So in my mind it's worth paying say $199 for a well set up (even used) entry level guitar at a quality shop, vs $149 Amazon special for a new player that hasn't developed the skills to set up a cheap guitar.

In the old days BC $250 could get you the upper end Epiphone or decent Fender Player series and many of those are great guitars with a bit of help filtering the duds.
 
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ToeMissile

ToeMissile

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I had an Epiphone LP Standard for a few years that I had picked up used. I paid about half of what they were going for new at the time. It was a great guitar to learn on and just mess around with.
 
pharmakos

pharmakos

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mkopec said:
What do you mean by set up though? Just adjusting the string height (actiion)? Or actually going through and leveling the frets, re-crowning them and then re-polishing, which takes like 3-4 hours at least. I doubt anyone is doing this for a $200 or $300 online sale. Same with any $50 "setup" at some big box guitar shop. And fret level is the real problem with cheap guitars, not action. Shit you can set your action by some grub screws on any guitar in like 10 min, unless nut string height is fucked up.

A typical fret level will cost about $150+. And setting the action on a guitar to be lower will only exacerbate the problems with the frets. This is why typically they come out of the factory with such shitty action to begin with.
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Yeah didn't mean fret work. I meant action, intonation, truss rod adjustments, stuff like that. Yeah, I wouldn't trust a big box guitar shop for a setup, I always use local stores, or buying online use privately owned stores. Last guitar I bought was used and already had the frets levelled, wasn't thinking about that.
 
pharmakos

pharmakos

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This is the shop I ordered my last guitar from

Superior Music / Radio Shack | Reverb

Shop Superior Music / Radio Shack on Reverb
reverb.com reverb.com

Owner was really good to me. Guitar came in perfect condition and perfectly setup for my C# Standard tuning. Only issue was the guitar was missing one of the grommets that go in the "string thru" holes. I emailed him to mention it, 10 minutes later got a reply -- "got down on my hands and knees in my luthier area and sure enough, found the grommet on the floor. So sorry! I'll mail it to you right now." Which to me sealed my 5* review, even tho he made a mistake initially.
 
mkopec

mkopec

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3 coats of auto lacquer paint. Clear is next but it’s already looking good. Hanging in basement but I painted in the garage. The light is shit down there and I used flash but ill post some more pictures with clear coat outside.
 
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joz123

joz123

Potato del Grande
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Palum said:
If you know someone who plays, I would recommend biting the bullet and finding a decent one at a store that they can test for you (or ideally set up) even if it costs you another $30-50. Alternatively if you have a very reputable store that will help you and does professional setups. Sweetwater worst case.

When I first started playing I got the $79 kids special as you do and struggled terribly with it and quit playing for a long time. Terrible uneven frets, strings that hurt to fret properly, endless buzzing, never seemed to "get it" and kids music teachers are often baby sitters so "just keep trying you'll get it" never seemed to work out.

Years later I picked up guitar again by buying a new one as an adult. I found that cheap piece of junk after really getting a handle on guitar set up and construction and found it had a warped neck and cracked truss rod the factory had overtightened to try and get it straight. This made it actually impossible to fret certain notes and some slap dash grinding of some frets hadn't helped.

The moral of the story is that quality does matter. Doesn't mean you need to drop 5K on your first guitar, but it does mean some of those $99-$299 guitars are bad enough to be worth less than nothing, even if others are fine. It sucks to see people fighting garbage.

There are some great playing Squier or Yamaha or whatever guitars, but maybe only half of them and fewer still right out of the box.
Click to expand...
Out here there's only Sam Ash or guitar centers, otherwise its appointment only BS stores.
 
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