Cheapish'....electric...?

[Tom60]

The Squier CV teles with pine body all sounded crazy good to me.. after all, it was the original recipe in 1950, right ?
The only downside I´ve heard about is that the frets are of poor quality and are worn out way too soon.. and maybe the pots as well .. They have to cut corners somewhere to keep the price so low.

[Bushleague]

Originally Posted by BoneDigger

In my opinion, it's hard to beat one of the newer Inspired by Gibson Les Paul Specials or Worn SGs with P90s. The Squire line is quite good too. Even the Affinity tele I bought recently was fine just as it came from the factory. Eventually you may need to upgrade tuners or electronics, but that would probably be a ways down the road.

Agree with this on both counts, the P-90 Epi's are great guitars for the money. Just bought an affinity Squire Tele Custom (two humbuckers) for my daughter and it plays and sounds surprisingly good. An bonus IMO, since the humbuckers are not the large wide range pickups that come on the higher end Squire and Fender Tele Customs, they can be easily swapped out with any regular sized humbucker if one wanted to.

[darylcrisp]

Squier Bullet tele, found on sale shipped and delivered in USA cost $126.
7 lbs, needed a little dressing of fret ends, anybody with a plain mill file and after watching a YouTube clip can do this in about 5 min. Finish off deburring the ends with 600 grit sandpaper (a light swirling motion up and down the board). Go up and down the frets lightly to shine them using the same 600 grit. Check tuners for tightness, set up your preferred neck relief with truss rod, and bridge saddles for height and intonation (easy to find on youtube if you've never done it), and you will have an easy player. Tape off around the pickups to avoid any metal filings getting on them.any tape is fine.
Nice C shape neck profile, 9.5" radius, satin finish. Everything worked fine on it. Pickups sounded quite good. No case. A year later it's still a very good player and no issues. The pickups are not as loud or nice as a $2000 tele, but you may be surprised at how good they sound overall.
Good luck.
Tomo Fujita bought one and did a review.
https://youtu.be/iEL1EGeHOco
https://youtu.be/ikwRQNt0qtc

https://youtu.be/Y5BNK9MO9Vc

[1stGuitar]

Just throwing my two cents into the mix here. I picked up a used “like new” Epiphone WildKat for $349 US out the door and it included a nice gig bag. Guitar really looks beautiful P 90 dog ear pickups sound really good. First time I picked it up and played it in the guitar store where I bought it I was shocked at how nice it was for the money. The neck on it is a tad chunky (for me), other than that it’s a pretty sweet guitar for the money. I also play it at night when people are sleeping not plugged in and as a semi hollow body, I can practice with it in that mode.

[letterk]

Out of all the lower end priced guitars, I find the PRS SE's to be most consistent with quality.