Hello all,
I have a home recording studio which I have mainly used to produce electronic music and I've decided to produce an album of heavy rock music for internet distribution. I have a cheap Washburn I picked up for $60 just to use on random electronic tracks when needed in the past, but it does not quite have the versatility I'm used to with my DAW and all of it's software patches and options. So it seems I'll need some new gear.
Ideally, I'd like to have a Les Paul, a Tele, a Strat, a JEM, and a baritone guitar to get all of the tones I'd like to play with.
I can almost hear all of you saying, "Yeah, I'd like all those guitars too, buddy!"
But stay with me here...
A little quick and dirty math suggests that even if I bought midrange models, I'd spend about $5,000, give or take. I could build a second DAW studio for that kinda money, and seeing as I now have a two year old girl, I'll probably never see that much money sitting in one spot ever again.
This limits my options.
So I started researching cheaper instruments, and I'm talking dirt cheap. Brands like SX, Douglas, Agile (from rondomusic.com), Xaviere (from Guitarfetish.com), Axl, Cort, and others.
In my research, the models from Rondo Music and Guitarfetish.com got excellent reviews across almost all of their models. These models consist of copies and one-offs of every popular guitar imaginable.
I couldn't resist: I bought a Tele copy with a maple neck from rondomusic.com and I'm waiting for it to get to me. It cost $109. With shipping, it was $126 to get it to my door. If the guitar completes an actual electrical circuit when it gets to me, I'll be happy. If it is nice to play and has a Tele-like tone, I'll be ecstatic.
Now, going by the old adage: you get out what you put in, I figure that even if the guitar is crap, the parts alone are worth the cost and I can always customize it later (and probably will). I can perform my own setup as well so that won't add to the potential cost.
None of the guitars on that site cost more that $650 including some double necks, and some even come equipped with EMG 81/85 pickups. If I bought all of the guitars I want from them, it would cost about $2100. If I changed pickups and tuners on all of them, that adds another $650 or so.
Sure beats $5000.
I know they wont sound quite the same as the real things, but it's not my intention for my recordings to sound like everyone else's. I might just find a new tonal quality I like from one of these cheap POS's.
It always comes down to the player, I know. Do you like this guitar? How does it sound to you? Preference is highly subjective, so I ask you:
Do you have one of these cheap knock-offs? Tell me your story about what it is, how you found it and your (mis)adventures getting it to sound like you expected (or not).
Should be fun.
Cheers.