double blind tone test

It's not necessarily the sound that is better with more expensive guitars (it is ONE of the factors)...but it's the playablity and quality of the guitar. Bigger named guitars tend to have a more rigorous inspection process before they leave the plant. Plus they are made from better quality materials.

Having said all this...DON'T get caught up in the NAME GAME. Many of these companies are COUNTING on their name to get you to buy their products. There are PLENTY of lesser know companies that are putting out quality products at a much more reasonable price. Less of a name, less advertising, less money spent, MORE money saved!

AMPLIFIER AMPLIFIER AMPLIFIER 8)

I agree. big names do a better job in details and inspection.

Ive played expensive guitars that didnt feel rioght or sound very good.
and Ive played alot of less expensive guitars that didnt feel right and had no distinct character is tone.

the more expensive guitars are better in terms of playabliity; ie: fret dressing, weight and balance, quality finishes, good tuners (very important).

amplifiers make a difference too.
more so, a good guitar sounds good unplugged. they have good resonance.
plugged in they sound very nice.

a good amp cannot make a crappy guitar sound good.

and tone , finally, is in the fingers.
Ive seen really impressive players take a crummy guitar and make it sing.

I will hesitate to disagree with dogbite, simply because I'm not sure what he meant by crappy guitar. However, a not so good guitar can sound wonderous through a very decent amp. If the guitar is nice to play and keeps good tune, all you really have to worry about is keeping decent strings on and making sure your amp is where u want it.

So to answer: I would invest in a pricey tube amp such as the Peavey Classic or Hot Rod Deluxe, rather than a over-the-top expensive guitar.

peace

good call re: crappy guitar.

what I meant, is that a guitar that isnt made very well; ie: bad tuners tht slip so it's impossible to stay in tune, poorly made pickup that simply sounds loud and mushy, no interior shielding, laminated woods (I know, there are good guitars with lams), ...that kind of thing.

I plugged in a inexpensive Korean made guitar to a nice amp. it sounded bad. just bad.
theamp was a Fender Vibrolux Custom. a really nice sounding amp.

there are great sounds to be had with inexpensive and /or crappy guitars.
heck, a cigar box guitar can sound good....giving a sound specific to what one was looking for.

some blues sound good on a gutiar that buzzes. you know, atmosphere.

a good amp cannot make a really bad guitar sound great.

Ive got to stand by that.

Quality control with the big name brands has suffered greatly the last few years and appears to still be in trouble.

my horror story,
i decided i had to have a 50th anniversary deluxe american strat and because i live within 20 minutes of MF in Kansas city i decided to go and buy one.
i made a cursory exam on the first and took it home because i had to hear it thru my amp to be sure it was a "keeper" then i found an unacceptable flaw and returned it.
5 guitars later i was about to give up when the sales guy at MF decided to knock $200 off by giving me a "in store" credit.
i decided to accept the cosmetic flaws and ended up with a great playing guitar and a multi-effects rig, shirt, and beaucoup strings.

i could have kept the first one but the case was messed up and they wouldn't swap guitars.

it really disappoints me that the supposed "top of the line" strat below CS had finger prints in all the gold plated parts. it may sound picky to some but when i spend over $1000 dollars on anything i expect it to be flawless within its manufacturing realm

the salesman shrugged it off and told me he was glad i wasn't buying an LP because they were experiancing even worse Quality Control flaws coming from Gibson.

on the other hand i also bought a Oscar Shmidt OE-30 for $149 that is built and plays like several of the name brand semi-hollows that cost several hundred dollars more after only checking 2

ok, it seems that price and tone are not necessarily proportional. I was hoping to avoid the NAME GAME that results in guitars costing as much as small cars, and get a guitar with the quality and sound of a NAME brand without the Name price tag. Is this possible?
Also, is amp selection as critical as the axe itself when it comes to tone?

if you get a good amp you can sound a behringer vtone costing only 100 $$ like almost a fender 8)

Ok do one more thing.Try plugging your guitar in your pc and using a FX software to get the effects.Then you will find out what i mean by the importance of an amp.

Of course a 100 or 200 $ guitar won't give you the quality of a 1500 $ les paul or a 1000 $ american strat still if you play these guitar through a 50 $ crappy amp then for sure you will get screwed up by the sound quality.There was a band performance of smoke on the water recently in my college and although the lead guitarist used a fender (costing around 500 $ still the amp was so small that even after using a good distortion / overdrive processor they sounded real bad and it was drums all we could hear.( :evil: )

So unless you are not planning to buy a les paul or a US strat do go for a better amp. (with a low end guitar ).Hope this helps

Rahul

I think most people will have great difficulty telling a MIM and MIA strat apart when played. There is a difference which you will notice when you play it yourself, but for a few hundred dollars you can get a guitar that sounds just like a gibson or Fender to most people in your audience. If you don't think the difference is enough to warrant the extra cash just don't get it. If you do like it better just get it. In any case the bulk of well known asian guitars are too good to blame bad sound on them.

I myself would rather play a $200 guitar through a $1000 then the other way around, so get a basic guitar that plays well and sounds good to you and spend the rest on the amp. Note that tube amps are less forgiving then cheap digital amps when the guitar isn't that good.

My vote goes for a better amp as well. When I got my first guitar (Epi LP) I also got a Marshall practice amp. Not bad and I still like the amp a lot. However, a few months later I got a great deal on a Fender Deluxe Reverb Reissue, so I grabbed it. Made a HUGE difference in how I sounded! 'Course it's hard to compare a $160 SS practice amp to a $800 all tube amp. Anyway, I'd spend a little extra on the amp, like the Classic 30 or similar.

Jason

I'm gonna be the guy that says buy a good quality high end guitar. There is a difference in tone, playability and quality. Construction design of the guitar also plays a role in it's tone. When you buy one of those inexpensive guitars you get low end parts such as tuners, pickups and bridges. The cost to replace those with high quality parts is going to cost more then buying the high end stuff the first time because of labor alone, IMHO.

Some imported guitars are a good deal, do some research before you buy. Check neck construction, pickups, tuners and bridges.

I bought a Japanese Squier and it sounded great tonally and the finish was fantastic but the rest of the hardware was horrible. I've had to replace the bridge, tuners, pickups, switch's, pots. Needless to say if I would have spent $1000.00 on a good guitar I wouldn't have had to put all the money into this one.

Im with fumble fingers.

I also decided to get a good amp.

now I cant complain when I suck.
it isnt the guitar.
it isnt the amp.
it isnt the other guy.

Im practising more.

I do think it important to have the good parts and details on a guitar.
so many years of playing hand me down no names maybe.

a properly made and dressed guitar will have me wanting to play it more.
that in itself is a good reason to spend for a good ax.
I dont rely on brand names.

i totally agree with Arjen,
the differance is felt by the "player" tho. at least it was for me. the fit and finish of the parts and the feel of the neck were what made all the diff imo.
i'm not trying to scare you out of buying a less expensive axe or into saving for a more expensive one. just know that either way you go, you are going to need to put some hands on time into your choice.

some here have had both great and terrible experiances with purchases shipped to them sight unseen. and i personally have had the opposite in both circumstances.
if you cannot actually go to a shop and rummage thru their stock to find one that you want then there are alternatives with MF and Rondo that have reportedly great return policys
personally the next $300 i can scrape together is going to Rondo for an Agile LP :wink:

btw the hardware on my OE-30 is fine (some cheaper guitars come with good hardware too)

I also agree with Arjen that unless your audience are EXPERIENCED guitar players no one will know WHERE your guitar was made (or care!) unless they look at the label on the back (and even experienced guitar players might not know without looking at your guitar.)

As for inexpensive guitars (as opposed to CHEAP guitars) my Behringer has impressed me. I have been playing my Agile exclusively since I got it over a month ago. The other day I wanted to play late at night but didn't want to annoy the neighbors so I used the Behringer and didn't plug it in. I figured I should at least tune it (since it was probably WAY out of tune) and low and behold NOT ONE string was out of tune after 1 month of sitting.

On the same topic of inexpensive guitars..when I was at GC a week ago the sales cleark asked me what I played and I told him Agile and he kind of wrinkled his nose as if he were smelling onions and said he never heard of them. All this without never playing one. He also tried to talk me out of buying guitars over the internet. Personally I think he HAS heard of them and knows he is losing business because of them! When he offered me his card I wrinkled my nose and said no thanks.

The point I am trying to make (the LONG WAY to my point!) is that guitars must be played. When I consider buying a guitar over the internet I go to GC to play one to see if I like it (with the exception of Agile) and even then it may not be the same feel when you get it. But personally, the money that can be saved by buying online is sometimes worth the chance.

I also think the amp is just as important (probably MORE important) than the guitar...when I took my behringer in to Daddy's Junky Music for it's setup a few weeks ago I plugged it into a $800 Fender Amp (I don't remember the model) and to my ears (as well as the clerks) it didn't sound half bad! He even asked if he could give it a go (since he knew how to play better than me!) and it sounded great.
personally the next $300 i can scrape together is going to Rondo for an Agile LP

It's nice to hear you are coming over to the darkside Twisted! :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: 8) 8) 8) 8) 8) 8)