Cheap guitars or how to suck a playing without really trying.
 

I have never looked down my nose at anybody else's guitars. We all buy what we want and what we can afford. I have played $150 guitars and still been able to hammer out a tune.

There have however been occasions that I just could not. One such experience just happened yesterday. A fellow was at a gathering that I was at and had a guitar there. Somebody mentioned that I did work with guitars and the fellow offered to let me play it. It was cool looking hippie vintage so I figured I would give it a go.

I sucked. No, really. I could not play ANY figerstyle on it and it made about as much sound as an electric that was not plugged in. The high E string was a thin sounding as it was not even attached to a guitar. It almost felt like a piece of old aluminum. The room was a little but not crazy noisy but I could barely hear the notes that I was playing. I do not play softly and have a fairly heavy touch when playing finger style.

After I made a fool of myself, this fellow picked it up and strummed away. No volume but he made music with it. Not great but better than my feeble attempt.

If this were the very first time such an experience had happened to me, I would probably not have posted but this has happened on three separate occasions in the last few years (I have only been playing several years).

So what gives with this? Am I so absolutely spoiled with the finer guitars that I cannot play a mediocre instrument? Are there really lousy guitars out there that people love a take with them everywhere? What gives here?

Frank Sanns

I can't speak about guitars on this subject but I learned clarinet on an old, cheap Bundy. Other people couldn't play it but I could because I was used to it.
Maybe this guy was just used to its quirks.

In my first ten years of playing I was very sensitive to set up. Now I am much less so. I still notice minor differences and things, but I can often compensate for them.

One of the toughest things to get used to can be string spacing. Even now, if I get a string spacing that's significantly wider or narrower than I expect on the bridge hand side, it can make it tough to get going.

I can relate. Was at a dude ranch for meeting. Don't know the brand of this beat-up ranch guitar, but it had a low action and no buzz, but I could not get a tune out it. Play a simple run and almost no sound. Like I was muffling three strings at once. A colleague, and professional jazz player, had no problem.

Quite embarrassing. Haven't met a guitar like that before or since.

I think there are guitars out there that sound better when other people play them.
I have a guitar that I just can't bond with, took it to a shop for a trade-in valuation, manager played it and it sounded great. Go figure.

Guitars are mysterious beasts...

Are there genuinely crappy guitars out there? Sure, though I think there are fewer out there these days than in the previous 3-4 decades. During the past 10-15 years we have been fortunate enough to live in a time when it is possible to get a decent acoustic guitar for $199.99 and sometimes less.

On the other hand, sometimes you have to spend a lot of time with a particular guitar to really know how to get the best tone/sound out of it (that it can make, at any rate).

I haven't paid anymore than 300 hundred for a used guitar that wasn't good in my book. Example, Epi Plus Top Pro, Ibanez As 73 and a G&L ASAT Classic Tribute...

My bad, thought I was in a different forum.

"Spoiled" might be a way to put it.

Ever thought you might be too uptight? To many preconceived notions of how things are "supposed" to sound? Maybe become to precious in your approach? Maybe too serious - need to be a bit more playful and fun? Maybe you are afraid to make some noise and some "rude" sounds? Maybe need to play to the guitars strengths AND weaknesses? Maybe focus more on the tune than the tone?

Hopefully it isn't you've become a snob. Steel string guitars are folk instruments (although you sometimes wonder around here). But people are funny. There are $1500 cigar box guitars out there. It sort of defeats the idea. I can understand that some people may want to transform "folk" music into "high art" and think of guitars in the way classical musicians think of violins. But wishing don't make it so.

If you really feel that way - if someone hands you a "cheap" guitar. Say I don't play "cheap guitar", I play "expensive guitar". Cause that is kinda what you are implying.

Just a couple of thoughts. One is that being out in front of the sound hole is a different experience that being behind it. You might have come across better than you thought. And two is that folk who are used to better instruments sometimes forget what really digging in is like. We not used to having to work that hard to get sound. How often do you break strings? If you snap one now and then you're really going for it.

Even I am spoiled with the quality of even the cheaper Taylor models. As soon as I play somebody else's guitar which has been cheaper than my stuff in the past, I go "what even is this?". I can't work with it's imperfections because mine are as perfect as they can be. OK, my Mini could do with slightly lower action but it's only been in my possession for mere weeks.

Having said that, my girlfriends Big Baby Taylor is an absolute joy to play. Her brother is looking to get a nice Takamine and I reckon playing that thing will be a joy to play as well.

Having said that, yes, I can pull tunes from similarly priced or multiple times more expensive instruments. Am I spoiled? Looks like it! :lol:

ETA: Speaking of working hard - I enjoy working hard to get my tone. My guitars aren't too bad, still when I work for it, they keep on giving.

Sounds to me like you should take a couple weeks off of playing , then quit all together.

I very seldom feel comfortable when I play someone else's guitar for the first time.

Each guitar has an individual feel to it and (for me) it takes time to adjust.

It's not so much a matter of the guitar being "good or bad", but more a matter of me just not being accustomed to it.

Now that much said, I have played some guitars that I was able to become comfortable with much quicker than others. Some I couldn't adjust to no matter what.


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