I dont own a guitar, but I build guitar effects... help me fix that!

[marcelomd]

I can relate to that. I'm a "ok" bass player and I decided to learn guitar recently. 50% of the motivation was testing the pedals. 50% not being stuck to power chords when one of the guys wants to play bass for a change and hands me their guitar.

TL,DR: Squier (any series but Affinity or Bullet) is the best bang for the buck. Not too fancy, good quality, workhorse instruments. 80-90% of the sound of a Fender and 1/3 of the cost. I guess Epiphone has the same relation to Gibson.

I have a 90's Korean Squier Jazz Bass that I got when my first bass was stolen 20 years ago. Feels like home. Best bang for the buck in the universe. Really.
Then I have an American G&L L2500 that is so good that, honestly, I don't have enough music in me to fully use it. I got just because the previous owner, my friend, was selling all his stuff for peanuts.

I have two guitars. One cheap local copy of a Telecaster and a Korean Squier '51. Both pretty good guitars. The Squier is good enough so I'll probably sell the telecaster. Or experiment on it.

[J0K3RX]

Hello Kitty Rocks  \m/_     _\m/   and don't let nobody tell you any different!

[Muttstang]

I could build you a sweet custom guitar

[amptramp]

I am not a guitar player either but I have a Cort guitar and Cort is well-known as a manufacturer of private-label entry-level guitars, which they are unless you add a decent grounding system internally.  Then they sound magnificent:






Here is a picture (from page 16 of the guitar pictures thread) of what has to be done to take it from low to high quality.





The yellow ground wires added from the pots to the output jack took the sound from fuzzy (in a bad way) to great - enough that a pro guitarist I let play it considered it to be a great blues guitar.  It came with a Univox G-65 guitar amp that was also in bad shape at a garage sale for $20.  The controls are simple: volume from fret pickup, volume from bridge pickup, tone.

[PRR]

> I guess Epiphone has the same relation to Gibson.

Epi and Gib fell on hard times and were owned by EMI, later Norlin. For a while they were kept totally apart, but when Epis were as good as Gibsons then Gibson squashed the product. Of course now Epi and Gibson are just brand-names for a befuddled corporation dancing on bankruptcy.

[stringsthings]

So I'm obsessed with building guitar pedals and the likes, but I'm not a guitar player. I know it sounds weird....

I've built 3 from the ground up but to test things out I;m using a buddies hello kitty squire with a single coil pickup at the bridge. Its driving me crazy that I'm testing with something so limited.


Which 1 or 2 guitars do you feel is "best" for all around testing? I'm not very well versed in guitars.....

I dont care about looks or used.... as long as its "affordable" and gibes me a good range to work with.

So which guitar are you going to buy?    (It doesn't count unless pics are provided) 

[pinkjimiphoton]

i second a telecaster. in my experience, if something sounds good with a tele, ANYthing ya plug into it will sound good. its a nice midway between strats and les pauls

[pinkjimiphoton]

A Strat style tremolo won't work on a true hollowbody because you need a solid chunk of wood to mount the spring claw to.  I love Bigsbys myself, but personal preferences are just that.

coff coff stetsbar...... try one. you will be amazed!

[thermionix]

A Strat style tremolo won't work on a true hollowbody because you need a solid chunk of wood to mount the spring claw to.  I love Bigsbys myself, but personal preferences are just that.

coff coff stetsbar...... try one. you will be amazed!

Washburn Wonderbar was always the running joke at the guitar shop.  Stetsbar...rings a vague bell, but I don't recall.

[pinkjimiphoton]

https://stetsbar.com

got one on my badcat <and three of my les pauls> i absolutely love it

[thermionix]

So what your trying to say is.....Louisville and Notre Dame are tied in OT?

[pinkjimiphoton]

that has wtf factor in spades

[JebemMajke]

Build your own guitar?

Order nice pickups from stew mac, like Bill Lawrence ones.

Cheap bridge and middle-quality tuners will be fine ( better than stock EPI ), use the same pots as for pedals.

Pine is a good and cheap wood to practice on. It doesn't sound like shit as many people like to point out online.

And you can score a decent neck for 30$ on aliexpress.

It is not the cheapest choice btw, it might be the most fun choice for you, fellow diy-er.

[deadastronaut]

ive setup some real cheapo guitars for friends to be very nice  playable guitars.....

its not the price tag, its the 'setup'...

so as long as you know how to setup action, intonation, truss rod, and string it..

go for a good old cheapy, you can always change pups etc....

+1 on the pacifica btw...

[slashandburn]

I'm no fan of Strat types but acquired a low-end Pacifica a while back. Its an excellent guitar and almost became main for a while but after years of playing LP types pretty much exclusively I quickly realised I couldn't palm-mute for shit with those strat bridges, even with them pinned down and fixed.  I still like to sing the Pacifica's praises and doubt I'll ever sell it.

Also, this: