Budget everything. Help.

[milton.mercade]

Hey.

I have been playing guitar for 7 years, but I always had crappy gear. I want to start from scratch. I plan on selling all my gear.

What would you recommend for the following?

Budget Electric guitar, acoustic/electric, and pedals.

Keep in mind, as cheap as possible, hopefully without giving up too much on quality.

Thank you so very much for all your time.

[Brad1]

I always had crappy gear. I want to start from scratch. I plan on selling all my gear.

What would you recommend for the following?

Budget Electric guitar, acoustic/electric, and pedals....as cheap as possible...

Seriously? You wish to sell crappy gear (good luck with that, BTW) to buy new crappy gear...the cheapest possible?

What are you hoping to gain...except new crappy gear, and an emptier bank account?

OK...OK...I'm being facetious...and maybe even a little condescending. I apologize, but consider your request.

First of all, we have no idea what kind of music you play, or what kind of 'pedals' (out of the thousands available) would interest you.

Do you even have an amp? Why do you need both an electric and an acoustic/electric, right now? Might you'll be better served to buy a slightly higher-quality guitar, and maybe leaving something for a higher-quality amp or pedal? A cheap guitar...even a better cheap guitar, will likely not benefit if ran through a completely crappy amp...so you've gained nothing (unless your current guitars are just completely unplayable because of action, etc.)

Give us a starting point. What do you currently have that you consider crappy? List brands and models. Don't be skeered! A LOT of us have cheezoid stuff lying around, and many..including me...even use the stuff often. Like my dear old early-60's (non-adjustable) "Steel-Reinforced Neck" Harmony H162, rescued for $15 from behind a stack of crappy guitars at a pawn shop...rusty strings, broken tuners, dirty, wobbly neck...but OH that neck. Sure felt good. Took it home, fixed it with neck reset, cleanup, new strings, new tuners, installed a Dean Markley ProMag with an endpin-jack...and she's a player! Fast, low action and a nice, balanced round-but-zingy acoustic tone, but can do the Monte Montgomery nasty if I want! (Guitar Wizard - Little Wing Instrumental (Monte Montgomery) Jimi Hendrix - YouTube , for example.)

What is your funding situation right now..on hand, and your limit? (Don't count 'projected' revenue from hoping to sell people crappy stuff...you're not the government.)

A little more specific info, please?

Good luck,

Brad1

[milton.mercade]

My gear:

My electrics:
-Epiphone Les Paul SPECIAL II Guitar, Black
-Another Epiohone Electric I bought for $100. They told the retail 8 years before was $800-$900
here's a pic:
On the 24th fret it says "PRO" the pick-ups say "OBL"
My acoustic:
-Epiphone PR-150 VS

As for a amp, I never had money to buy one and a 15 watt was given to me, which is what I used to practice at home. Whenever I have gigs I borrow an amp from friends.

Only pedal I have but I do not even use: Boss DS 1 Classis Distortion Effects Pedal.

My income: I work, but was I get the check and cash it goes to my expenses immediately and left with nothing.

Hope this helps you help me.

Also I can, just buy an Electric, I just would like to get both, but that's life I know.

[big_teee]

I've got several Budget guitars.
I am a big fan on the Agile Imports sold by Rondo.
Rondo has some real cheap stuff, but their higher priced Agiles are pretty decent!
Rondo Music Electric Guitars
If you don't like them Kurt the owner will pay UPS to pick it up, and start over.
This is Page 10 or 17 somewhere in the mid Price range.
Have Fun.
B_T

[milton.mercade]

Thank you

[Sweetfinger]

Nothing wrong with the guitars you have. Take them to a luthier and have them level the frets and do a setup. That work is the difference between a horrible playing guitar and a great playing one.

[milton.mercade]

Nothing wrong with the guitars you have. Take them to a luthier and have them level the frets and do a setup. That work is the difference between a horrible playing guitar and a great playing one.

how much does that usually cost?

[milton.mercade]

What about pedals?

[Sweetfinger]

In my shop the "deluxe" package:

Glue down loose/poorly fitted frets
level/crown/polish frets
setup w/ new strings

runs about $125.

Makes "cheap" guitars play better than big name custom shop instruments and makes big name custom shop instruments play the way you expected them to

[milton.mercade]

In my shop the "deluxe" package:

Glue down loose/poorly fitted frets
level/crown/polish frets
setup w/ new strings

runs about $125.

Makes "cheap" guitars play better than big name custom shop instruments and makes big name custom shop instruments play the way you expected them to

That's awesome. What are some other packages you have? So I may get a better idea..

[Brad1]

What about pedals?

There are literally thousands of effects pedals that can be had, old and new...or even homebrew or modified commercial pedals, ala one of the more well-known modifiers, "Keeley", and even by following some of the links in the "Effects" section of this forum. (Apparently, Keeley has achieved the honor of being adjectivized...as in "It's been 'Keeley'ed!")

There are many different types of pedals that do many different things. There is the "clipping" family, such as distortion, overdrive and fuzz pedals. (You have a Boss DS1. It's a smooth distortion that can get near the sound of Satch or Vai, paired with a delay). Distortion is generally smoother, overdrive usually tries to emulate a tube saturation, and fuzz is for those moments where you just "Can't Get No Satisfaction". But, don't believe everything a pedal states it to be in its name.

You have the level modifiers, like compressors, volume treadles or straight-ahead boost pedals.

There are time-delay-based pedals, like phasers, chorus, flangers, reverbs and analog or digital delays. Reverbs have the shortest delay time with many repeats, followed by phasers, chorus, flangers and then delays...repeats variable on some.

You have filter effects like EQs, wah-wahs and auto-wah/envelope followers that mess with frequencies.

There are octave effects, like Hendrix used, or harmonizers. Even things like a Digitech Whammy pedal that simulates a dive-bomb of a whammy bar of a guitar. They even have pedals that can automatically capo/open-tune your guitar sound with the press of a footswitch.

Tremolo effects give you the pulsating volume throb of a Fender amps' 'vibrato' circuit, while vibrato gives you some of the volume throb in conjuction with pitch fluctuatons...as in an old Magnatone amp. (Fender misnamed "Vibrato". It's really tremolo, but we love'em anyway!)

Vibrato leads us to the Rotary effect, as in a Leslie speaker cab. The spinning drum/rotor of a Leslie produces a rythmic volume fluctuation while the the projecting out of the sound generates a Doppler-esque rythmic pitch fluctuation.

There are synthesizer-effects pedals that can turn your notes into something that sounds like it came out of 50's Sci-Fi movie. And then there are pedals for the more adventurous that defy all logic, from mad geniuses like Zachary Vex (amongst others) whose apparent sole intended purpose is to cause people to exclaim "WHAT the **** is THAT!!!???" when they hear it.

There are noise reduction pedals to tame the noise caused by all the other pedals.

So, there are hundreds and hundreds of pedals of each group, and, basically, they ALL sound different. They are in every price point, from the lowly cheezy Danelectro plastic things for under $50, to hundreds of dollars for each effect...even to thousands of dollars for a rare working vintage effect.

We have no idea what to recommend to you.

Remember a statement from my previous post?

First of all, we have no idea what kind of music you play, or what kind of 'pedals' (out of the thousands available) would interest you.

When asking for advice in forums, it's generally a good idea to let people know what kind of music you play. When asking advice about effects, we have no idea which type, because we don't know the sound you are after. Molten Metal Mayhem will generate a completely different list of effects than Classic Country, which will be different than Blues Rock, which will be different than Rockabilly...etc.

Decent individual pedals can add up, in cost, fairly quickly. You really can't go wrong with Roland/Boss pedals...unless you can't find one to make the sound you are after. They are generally good-sounding, solid and reliable, and somewhat fairly priced. Used Bosses that still work can be good buys, if you can pick them up for 1/2 retail or less at a pawn shop/yard sale. I've got dozens of them. There's a reason they are very popular platforms for modifications by a lot of people. They start off good, and can be made better.

Having said that, there are many other manufacturers out there...large and small...that create very desireable effects that impart their own characteristics, and nothing sounds just them for that intended purpose. There are many re-creating sought-after vintage pedals. Some of them are mass produced, like Electo-Harmonix stuff, and some of them come from smaller shops in smaller batches using high-quality components and hand-built. There's a reason they are more expensive.

Anyway, I'd say it's a safe bet that you don't really want to spend hundreds on two or three core pedals at this time? Then, a multi-effects unit may be something to consider. Generally, you'll get several flavors each of any or most of the effects mentioned above. Some will come with a CC pedal to do volume swells, wah...whatever. Most will let you internally connect several effects at once, and some can even change the order of effects and/or internally connect them serially or parallel. Many can be programmed to call up the patch for a certain tune. There are a BUNCH of those units available, new and used. You have Roland/Boss, Digitech, Zoom, Line 6, Vox, TC Electronic...the list goes on. Some of the lower-priced ones can be had for less than $100 new (even less used), and they can get into the the $500+ range.

If you've not experienced much more than a DS1, having all those effects in one box to experiment with will at least lead you to new sounds and techniques. When you figure out which effects you really need to use for 99% of your needs, you can then start to consider buying single effects, as you can afford them. You can plug a stompbox into (or out of) a multi-effects unit. Won't hurt anything. If you like your new delay pedal much better than the multieffect delay, plug it in AFTER, disable all delay in the multi-, and just run the other stuff through. No problem. If you like your new Tube Driver better, then don't use distortion in the multi-. Just plug the Tube Driver INTO the multi-.

Now...(this is getting lengthy, but I hope you appreciate the advice)...here's what I would consider if I was in your position.

You were wanting to buy an acoustic, an electric and a pedal. Let's figure for anything NEAR playable and decent for all three..$500-$600..and that's used.

Does your guitar really NEED fret work, or does it just need new strings and a proper setup (neck adjust/intonation/string height, etc)? If so, that's maybe $30.

Buy a mid-level multieffect...maybe $150-$200. There's $180-$230, so far.

What I would do is buy a small tube amp. Fender Champion 600 for $170, or maybe a bit more for something in the similar type low-power tube amp range. Trust me...that little 5W tube amp will sound better and more inspiring than whatever cheezoid solid-state thing you have now does...and don't let the 5W tube vs. 15W solid-state thing fool you. 15W solid-state is neglible volume difference compared with 5W tube.

So, I've just outfitted you with a bunch of effects AND a more-pleasing-sounding tube amp, PLUS a guitar setup for about $400. Which leaves you with maybe a couple hundred to put toward saving up for a better acoustic, should you want. if your guitar actually DOES need more-extensive fret work...there's your $100-$200 to cover that. You got what you wanted PLUS a fun little amp that will likely inspire you more than ANY stompbox that you could plug into a crappy amp.

BTW, if you like tinkering...those little Champion 600's can be upgraded to sound even better starting with really inexpensive things to help right off the bat, all the way to new speakers and transformers.

Anyway, give a clue of what type of music you play, and you may get at LEAST what TYPE of effects to look for?

OK...I'm done.

Good luck.
Brad1

[jmaf]

I am normally really proud of my made in USA Strat. Which by the way has just received the "deluxe" treatment from my friend Achiles who returned it to me just this week, he turned me into a better guitarist. Or I guess it's the adjusted guitar.

A friend here in town bought a made-in-nowhere strat clone that everyone thought would suck. Turns out, the dang thing sounds amazing, is excellent to play even on the 012 strings he insists on using and the hardware isn't exactly throwaway(it stays in tune...). So he got a great strat for 1/7th the price of mine.

Sometimes "gear that sucks" doesn't really suck.... If you'll take a tip from a complete stranger : don't call your gear crap, just remember Jimi Hendrix learned to play on a stick of wood.

Edit: I just noticed that I am holding his made-in-nowhere strat on my avatar photo.

[Sweetfinger]

That's really the only "package" that I regularly do, consisting of three of the more common repairs we do: setup, fret leveling, gluing/re-seating. Most other work is by the job, like a standard pickup install: $25 or a new bone nut for $45. Some shops charge by the hour, some are more, some are a little less. Many shops will have general prices listed on their website.

[Chuck H]

Right on. My past is peppered with used $200 (US) guitars. I know what I like acoustically (in an electric guitar) and I can hear/feel that if it's right. And it turns out that it can be found in both cheap and expensive instruments. I usually change the pickups for something I know I like and though cheap hardware is known to be problematic, I haven't had much trouble.

I do play on more expensive guitars (now that I don't play much). But I remember some real sweethearts that didn't cost much.