What's The Best Truly DIRT CHEAP Guitar You've Had?

[stratokatsu]

The Xaviere arrived this afternoon and while there are a few things I need to take care of, all in all I'm pleasantly surprised how well it plays and how good it sounds.

The action is pretty high, but after the neck settles in for a few days, I'll decide what the combination of relief versus sanding down the saddle will be.

I changed the strings for some Elixir Polywebs and it has a nice boomy sound to it. It's not Martin boom, but definitely a bass orientation. The tuners seem to hold, but I don't like them because they are gold and also have the ugliest golf marbleized plastic buttons on them. Unfortunately, no other buttons I had fit properly. I mean, these things are so ugly it actually matters to me.

Considering the shape of the headstock, the shape of the bridge and the shape of the pickguard, they were obviously modeled after a Taylor. Even the wood inlaid rosette is identical to the 500 series Taylor.

The back and sides are laminated bubinga, but the color and grain are virtually identical to the laminated sapele in my Taylor 110. When I run my hand over the back and sides, I feel the odd flake of rough spot, as if there's a grain of sand here or there. The satin neck finish though, is very smooth.

The cedar top is dark and there is a warm tonal difference I hear. Of course, klutz that I am, I've already dinged the top. I was having a hard time getting a bridge pin out and the plastic wrench slipped and dented the top.

I spent about an hour changing strings, replacing the pins with some ebony I had laying around and using some jeweler's rouge on the frets to polish them. I filed a couple fret ends, but in general, things were pretty good.

Other than working on the high action in a few days, the main thing I want to do is ream out the bridge pin holes a little bit. They are drilled a bit sloppy and if I ream them out, I can use some basswood pins I have that are too big for anything I have otherwise.

I'll toss up some pictures later.

[stratokatsu]

Here's some snaps...

Tortoise shell binding looks nice. Interior is clean.



Have you ever seen such ugly tuner buttons?



Sound hole rosette just like the old 500 series Taylor, inlaid mahogany.



The top...

[PowerTube]

Originally Posted by jeepnstein

I'll go play a better guitar and come away nonplussed with the difference between it and the Seagull.

Exactly. My cheap Kona guitars have saved me from more than one guitar buying mistake because of taking them to the store for a comparison.

[stratokatsu]

A few more things about the Xaviere... Yes, that light colored blotch on the fretboard, (in the pic of the headstock), really is wood grain. The whole fretboard has a variance in color. It doesn't actually look bad, but then I'm a wood freak.

The sides and back are supposedly laminated bubinga, but this morning I compared it to my Taylor 110 and there is very little difference between the look of the laminated sapele on the 110 and the laminated sapele on the Xaviere. If anything, the bubinga appears a bit more brown while the sapele appears a bit more red. The wood grain and striping look like the two backs could have been cut from the same piece of wood. I have no idea whether this isn't really bubinga, but most of what I have seen of bubinga had a swirly grain pattern. Of course, that said, those bubinga guitars were much more expensive and maybe this is just the cheap version available to make cheap guitars out of.

Here's the Xaviere and the Taylor 110 backs. Can you tell which is which?


Here's the fronts. The similarity in the bridge shape is something that makes me wonder if Taylor would object to it someday. Is the shape something that makes a brand so identifiable that it has any right to object to another company using the same shape?

Power Tube - Your comment about your Kona guitars is well noted. I've owned some expensive guitars that were very nice and I still have a couple, but what I think has given me more pleasure is some inexpensive guitars I stumbled across that were such good value and performed so well that I questioned whether I should hang so much money, (in the shape of guitars), on the wall of my music room.

[Gootenhang]

After seeing Toby Walker play his in our lesson, I picked this one up for $285 and love it.

[stratokatsu]

The way you all talk about the Loar guitars, maybe I'd better check one out.

[PowerTube]

Originally Posted by stratokatsu

Power Tube - Your comment about your Kona guitars is well noted. I've owned some expensive guitars that were very nice and I still have a couple, but what I think has given me more pleasure is some inexpensive guitars I stumbled across that were such good value and performed so well that I questioned whether I should hang so much money, (in the shape of guitars), on the wall of my music room.

Thanks for introducing me to Xaviere Guitars, which I had never even heard of until this thread.

So, my curiosity has gotten the best of me and I just ordered the XV-130S model:



Info on this model

Is this a copy of a Taylor 114 or what?

So I must ask......how does yours compare to the Taylor in sound?

[Mr Peebuddy]

bristol by blueridge

all lam OM. great guitars for the money, and i prefer them over solid toppers around or a little above the price range

[DrRhythm]

If I can be allowed the usual £1 = $1 guitar exchange rate (grrr), then by a country mile it would be my little Tanglewood TW-133 mahogany parlour guitar.



£240 from one of the 3 excellent guitar stores locally (all of whom match internet prices), I put a set of Silk and Steels on it last week and have not been able to stop playing it since!

If that's ruled out on exchange rate grounds, then it would have to be the £50 Korean-made Palmer dread' I bought in 1992 that's still going strong.

[stratokatsu]

Originally Posted by PowerTube

Is this a copy of a Taylor 114 or what?

More like a 110 since it's a dread, but the specs seem similar. Yes, they seem to have copied the bridge and the headstock is similar. The pickguard is more like some Gibsons I've seen.

So I must ask......how does yours compare to the Taylor in sound?

Not like a Taylor at all because I have the bubinga with a cedar top. Whether it's the body structure or simply the warmer cedar tone, my guitar has more bass than the typical Taylor. It's very different than my 110 or my 416ce.

[Tnfiddler]

A Canadian Art Et Lutherie! It's what got me started on this journey and my friend bought it from me and he loves it. They are great beginner and intermediate player guitars.

[jlwoodall]

$75 for my Taylor Big Baby!!

It had a few cracks in the top and I had to reset the neck, but now it plays like a dream. Great guitar to sit on the couch with.

[jwmtele]

my $275 epiphone EL00 is awsome,after a pro setup and quality medium strings it plays and sounds just like a gibson for 1/10 of the price.Everyday when i play it i think how good it is for so little money.

[Tony Burns]

An old 60's Kay Jumbo -I owned back in the late seventies -wish i kept that guitar , but at the time 75 bucks -bought a couple of text books and gas -

[rschultz]

There's an American Legacy AL100 on CL for $125, with pickup.. Any thoughts? I'm looking for a guitar to send to Africa to be used in a ministry there.

For that matter, any suggestions would ba appreciated.

Thanks