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Old 01-26-2019, 10:08 AM
Steve DeRosa Steve DeRosa is offline
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Location: Staten Island, NY - for now
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Quote:
Originally Posted by 1neeto View Post
That’s a bunch of BS. Sorry, I do respect your experience as a musician/teacher, but trashing his decision to be a bit frugal in his first guitar and amp is just cork sniffing at its finest. It’s not like he bought a Starcaster starter pack from Best Buy for $150.

Modern budget guitars are nothing like those extremely cheap GLTs (guitar looking things) from back in the day. A $200 Epiphone won’t have the greatest pickups or tuning keys, but they do have extremely playable necks. And with the help of a great modeling amp like a Fender Mustang, it can make his early guitar journey an enjoyable one. And the best thing about it is that if things don’t work out, he can sell that gear at minimal loss.
In order:
  • Ad hominem comments aside, I've seen the "if-I-had-only-bought-X/Y/Z-brand" down-the-line buyers' remorse far too many times to count; if you've been reading the OP's running comments carefully the guy knows little to nothing about guitars in general and electrics in particular - and my advice is nothing I wouldn't say/haven't said to my own students...
  • There's a big difference between inexpensive and cheap, as anyone who owns a Godin product (Seagull, Simon & Patrick, Norman, et al.) Yamaha, G&L Tribute, certain Ibanez models (among others) can attest - and having started in the early-60's I'll be the first to agree that the general quality level has increased exponentially; heck, I own/have owned a few low-price gems myself, and still keep my '82 Yamaha SSC-500 and '86 MIJ Fender Squier ($199 each brand-new) in the rotation. Cork-sniffing - hardly...
  • Everything you said about tuning gears and pickups (not to mention hardware and setup) is spot on; again, since the OP doesn't know the difference (yet), a little bit of direction can save some frustration down the line ("why won't my guitar stay in tune/how come I still get string buzz even though the action is high/why do some notes sound dead but not others" - among the other newbie questions I've seen here on the AGF as well as in the real world). A few bucks can go a long way - and you can either spend it now on a better-quality instrument, or later to have a tech correct/repair any flaws (if possible)...
  • As far as playable necks in the low-end market are concerned I've seen too many twists (the "kiln-dried low-priced wood/fast-production syndrome" - not exclusive to the entry-level market, BTW), such that you'd need to cherry-pick a good one out of a dozen or two; while you or I could spot this immediately, we can both agree that it takes years of experience to do so reliably - one reason I often advise beginners to not only take a knowledgeable friend along on a first-time shopping trip but avoid the absolute bottom-end stuff...
  • Our bass player is also a trained chef, and one of our running jokes when the band goes out to eat after a gig is that enough (name your preferred condiment here) can make anything taste good - from a musical standpoint that's pretty much what a modeling amp does, and that's precisely why I'd never recommend one to a raw beginner; the OP needs to develop some technical skills first - we both know that electric is a very different animal than acoustic - and if technical deficiencies are being masked by a load of layered effects, regardless of how "enjoyable" the experience this guy's going to lose out musically over the long haul. Just for the record I firmly believe amps of this type do have their place - I've seen local cover bands use them extensively, they're an integral part of several friends' home-recording setups, and a few years ago I worked with a studio guy/computer genius who used to do some amazing stuff with his obsolete Line 6 rack rig - but I also firmly believe that you need to crawl before you can run, and the OP has yet to make his first steps...
Peace out...
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