It happens a lot with Fender and Squier. The thing is, there is no original Squier headstock design and there were no Squier guitars at all until 1982, when Fender decided to use the Squier brand name for their (then new) Japanese made guitars. Epiphone on the other hand had already used the headstock design we know these days, decades before the company was bought by Gibson in 1957.
I can tell ya, the neck itself (7/8 size) is actually pretty fair. one I'd picked up couple years ago (LP style) needed about 1/3 turn to the truss, and about same to the bridge posts. slapped in a flat face epoxy sealed $7 "Gibson/Epiphone" pup from Amazon and called it done (very good output for a cheepo pup).
My friend has one of these. I’m fixing it up for him. All I had to do was switch out the machineheads with some new ones, put some new strings on, clean the fretboard and plug it into a good amp, now it actually feels and sounds great.
As someone who got one of those sets as a young kid, I absolutely was. It was a gift from my parents, and more than a decade later I still love and cherish that little Squier. I learned my first licks and chords on that guitar and it opened up a a whole new world and gave me something to be passionate about. The frets need some fixing up, and pot is scratchy, but that guitar still feels and plays better than any of the subsequent guitars I've owned. I will never sell that guitar.
i think I'd take the squier that gear sounds bloody awful. technically it's a guitar but in reality it's an SG shaped turd. A wall mart guitar enough said
@@sludgerat666 Not yet. I keep spending money on cheap guitars instead of power tools. I cleaned out my garage to set up a wood shop, so that's a start.
It's funny how Gibson can do the correct headstock for a $79 guitar, but can't seem to do the tooling for a $600 Epiphone - The mind boggles. But for $79, it's amazing they can include all of that for price. And that amp sounds like $5 of quality ;). Actually it sounds a bit like Brian Mays Deacy amp when it's cranked. Thanks for the video
As a first guitar was it fun? I just got one because it was cheap OfferUp. Been playing acoustic but my taste in music is so variant that I needed to get an electric
Guillermo Perez it was fun but only for a little bit. Once you start playing because it’s so cheap it makes it difficult to play guitar simply cause it’s such a low quality instrument. Either get it set up properly by a technician or spend a bit more money. It will greatly improve your playing. As it did mine.
Anthony Franco thanks! Yeah I’m realizing what you mean now as I keep playing more. I’m going to save a little more up. Do you mind me asking what guitar you play? Or recommend?
I came across a brown burst Les Paul with a real chunky neck. I put a trapeze tail piece on it, some Ernie Ball beefy slinky's and a set of real kluson tuners and that fucking straight up rocks all day and night. I couldn't believe how sweet that thing is.
That's cool. A youngster recently asked me what a guitar costs, I said $125.00... this has that beat by a mile. If the neck is no good then back it goes.
My favorite guitar is a 96 Fender Squire (has the standard Strat logo) that I bought at a pawn shop for $120. I upgraded it with an Epiphone SG bridge and Texas Special middle and neck. Locking tuners, two post trem and a roller nut. It looks sounds and plays awesome.
My son Roly bought this same axe and was kind enough to give it to my young granddaughter Sidney. She was so happy, it's her 2nd guitar. It's really a kool set up for a young axe slinger.. .. thank you Roly. ..Dad.....
Nick changing that bridge might be a mistake. PRS made a series of cheap guitars with this same type of tail piece. This guitar has the best intonation of my 20 plus guitar collection. Scott grove brought this model to my attention and swears by them. I would change the tuners before the bridge. If you have better turners throw them in there you will see I am right.
What I would do, personally(not sure how much it would be) is replace the bridge pickup with a P90(so it’ll be like a Les Paul Jr.), put locking tuners on, replace the bridge with something better, and possibly route a lipstick pickup for the neck. Oh, and of course set it up and file the frets.
I like it! I've thought about doing the dream 180 in the bridge and then a mini hum duncan in the neck. in Gold of course! First things first though... got to get the first pass done. Just got the neck bow out. Next there's a high fret that needs some attention. And then I'll do a quickie review of it stock through a good amp. Then she gets her day in the sun!
Could you do this for us lefties that can't really find these cheap guitars like there are for the Righties? Think it would be a great idea for your channel too! I love watching these type videos and wish someone could do this for us left handed players too! Yes that Amp rocks! LOL And for Nick Good job I do enjoy seeing you do these mods as well!
Just for giggles you should run that little amp thru a large 2x12 cab and crank it! I also had a Maestro, neck was thick as a ball bat, frets were horrible and those octagonal tuners are trash. I replaced them with a $20 set of Ping tuners that slapped right in and actually worked fine.
This one has a thin neck, but the frets are evil for sure. These tuners aren't octagonal but are epicly bad. I have some ping style ones on hand. Actually I think I have everything I need to make this properlike on hand.
Got it for Christmas,it is a great guitar so far...Why are you expecting the Maestro SG be the same as the Gibson SG? I don't use the amp. The tuner makes me feel like the strings are not gonna brake.
Surprisingly nice for the price. I could see some kid mowing some lawns to get one of these after their first week of business and then practicing and saving up the rest of the summer to get a more posh set up with that stuff added in as trade. That's the scenario I'd paint for my students at least and I bet one of them will do it.
Bought a Maestro LP Junior style from my son's friend for $10, cuz the bridge bolts snapped off when my son tried to change the strings for her few years back. Replaced the bolts, the pickup & the tuners & it was pretty good. Funny how they have the open book headstock & Epi don't! I did a vid on it
I'll have to go dig that video up. $10 is a steal! I have all the parts in for this bad boy. Just have to first to a stock video for it this week first. Hey, are you still rocking that THR5? My father in law is selling his THR10 for $150 or so if you want it.
I bought one of these a number of years ago, but it was a flying V model. The single humbucker pickup wasn't all that bad and it actually played OK right out of the box. It didn't have any amp with it like yours. The frets ends were pretty sharp though. I really like it that little crap ass guitar though, it's a great little backpacker/portable guitar. All I did to it was to sand down the sharp fret ends and a basic set up. It has a very tinny sound and I usually tune it to up to A (for the bottom E string). It sounds like a cross between a banjo and a ukulele, which is fine for me as a super small practice guitar. ... And it comes in handy if you want that ukulele/banjoey sound on a specific track .....
I've bought quite a few cheap string instruments and, for some reason, they always scrimp on the tuners. I'm surprised that they didn't include a tuner and I'm shocked that it didn't even sound good fully distorted. That usually fixes everything. Having said that, it does look nice and, if I were 13 again and just starting to play, I'd probably be very happy with it. I can't wait to see the upgrades.
"More shroudy like than your average shroud" That was my favorite info in this unboxing. Why does the "Big G" decide to use the correct headstock shape on this bargain basement starter guitar and the weird, neutered headstock on the Epi stuff? Things that make you go Hmmm.... Not a bad looking axe for the paltry sum you paid. That amp sounded like an angry, fist full-o-bees! Ha ha! I bet Johan could still make it sound like a Plexi! Can't wait to see what you guys do with these. Merry Christmas bro!
I think it is because Epiphone with open book headstock will take over part of the market from Gibson because Epiphones are so good these days. A lot of people turn to Gibson because they don't like the Epiphone headstock. So if Epiphone had the open book headstock, those people will very likely buy an Epiphone instead (because much better bang for the buck).
Epiphone is, and always has been a seperate brand. Even though Gibson own it, Epiphone have always had their own headstock shape. Gibson did actually make some Epiphone copies of US Gibson models with the standard headstock shape in the past, but these were only sold in Japan
Legolas Greenleaf you like what you like and I'll like what I like. That's what makes the world go round. I have tons of different guitars from cheap to expensive. I happen to not like some headstock shapes, that doesn't make me a "brand snob".
you can adjust the bridge or truss rod... If you search TH-cam for adjusting a truss rod, should find a good video describing when to do so. Just be careful! Twist too much and you can break things beyond repair.
I would buy: beam for use in leveling (aluminium square section or builders level), abrasive paper, masking tape, fretwire, wire wool, crowning file, 42awg magnet wire. Refret. Rewind pickups using guesswork and mum's sewing machine. Then peraps wilkinson or similar hardware if budget allowed. Probably their brass rollr bridge and fit a separate stopbar. Also decent strings. Ernie Ball, d'Addario or Rotosound. If owning tools in in the rules then I can't see the fret wire and magnet wire being more than $US 30, as i think I pay about £UK 8 for reasonable fretwire and £12 for a half pound of magnet wire.
It's weird because i have a couple of pretty decent quality guitars (Gibson Smartwood, Squier 50st An. stratocaster) but i want one of these bad. I'm a modder at heart and these are perfect for modding because they're so cheap and the electronics on the pick guard make it quite easy to work on and replace stuff. Put another 100 $ in there for pot's, cap, switches, output, maybe a Alnico3 magnet, tuners and a nut and you could turn that into a very good guitar.
I bought one of those new for $50 clearance. the neck was twisted, i could not adjust the bridge enough to get it to intonate it. from my experience I would not get them for my kids, I bought them squires, a mini strat, and a strat.
Right now ...10 am pt .. Wal-Mart shows it as $99 on the main page but once clicked on it says $159 for the black $109 for Brown sunburst... red was $89 but out of stock ...
I paid $12.00 for my first electric guitar, an Audition Jazz/jag (yes, gold foils) in '73. Then, Teiscos were up to $59.00 new at Thrifty's, This Maestro is insane for the money. I love it.
That'd be a great starter for a kid. With upgrades they could be a nice workhorse. I actually played out with mine a couple times! lol I don't think that amp sounds totally bad on the dirty channel. Mic it & put some 'verb on it through the board it could work ;)
We're going to have fun with these little amps. Because between Danny and I we have two, first we'll try them in stereo. Then I want to try and take the driven headphone out, pass it through my interface and re-amp it into a Plexi. Because why not!?!? It's not a bad little starter guitar. My only concern is that I have the next flattened out enough but I'm pretty sure that's the full truss rod adjustment to get there. Another twist and I'm pretty sure I'll hear the dreaded pop. It's good though for now.
I got one Christmas season at my local pawn shop for $50. It was a "project". 🙄. I had to file the frets from nut area to the 14th fret with a STD file. Smooth/decent after the work. At least it didn't cut up my palm. I bought from eBay a PAF replica Humbucker. Chrome. This dude didn't like the tuners, but I had little issues with mine. I tightened up any and all screws connected to it which oddly enough did help. The input jack, potiometers (volume and tone) were subpar. As was the wraparound bridge too. I got the Humbucker changed out and was on my way to getting around to the other tasks when life hit me. Had to buy gas and food, so I "pawned" mine for $100. Lost interest in reclaiming it. So with a little bit of work, got $50 out of it. If one wants to see that way. These Maestro SG models are all around: pawn shop, online, etc. Mine was black too. Cheap, fun project to get into. Parts: I did get the aforementioned parts. I could buy another used Maestro SG, get a copy PAF, what I have, voila. Just wanted to kill the boredom. I'd play this one when my part time cover band does AC/DC. Get my Angus on!! Anyhow, recommend project for fun and thanks for reading!! 🎸🎶
The thick picks were great! I saved them. New strings needed. Intonation off on a couple of strings. I'm keeping this guitar. Better than my Ibanez that cost three times as much.
Turn that gain down,, your going to blow a window out.It will be interesting to see what you can do to it.79 bucks cant beat that.Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Love your stuff but I noticed looking through your chanel that while you like harley bentons you have never done a main street guitar. My wife bought mine and I have to say 130.00 well spent. Flame maple neck, basswood body and truss rod. If anything they are Chinese boutique guitars. Well made and great to play. I am putting rollers bridge, anico magnets pickups, and changing the nut and tuners. All in all under 250 bucks and a great playing. You should check them out.
I got the acoustic version as my first guitar and learned how to play on it and although it is terribly cheap and low quality it's a great guitar to see if you really want to learn and without hurting your bank account
If I was doing a modding project based on this guitar I would attach a bigsby clone, roller bridge, better strings, locking tuners and possibly either change or add an additional pickup. Otherwise I would also want to re-shape the neck joint to make it easier to play and clean up the frets.
I got a red maestro used for $44. Frets are surprisingly not bad. I plan of throwing some better tuners and a gfs adjustable intonatable wraparound on it and ptting a hot gfs tele bridge pickup in it as I already have a few humbuckers guitars
cool video! I recently saw these guitars at a Best Buy store in Canada, and I almost sliced my hands. The fret edges were so raw and dangerous! Anyways looking forward to the upgrades
Yeah man.. this one isn't horrible but Danny's is weapon licensed to kill. These things are hilarious. The upgrades should be pretty cool. If the neck settles properly it'll be a fun player.
it would be a quick throw into the fireplace its been cold as reverse hell in Ontario lately. just picked up a stagg les paul copy for $40 and its KILLER for the money spent,it would knock this turd into the dirt very quickly.
I have this and a old amp that has volume, tone, and tremolo. It really good for a beginner like me, but I can’t like just press and get sound like a lot of people do, which can discourage me sometimes, but whatever. It was my brothers at first, and I don’t know where the amp it came with is, so my grandads old amp it is.
Cheap guitars have come a long way. When I picked up my first guitar it cost twice as much, was made of plywood and didn't even have a truss rod..... That wasn't even all that long ago.
Which new tailpiece/bridge did you order? I recently bought a Wilkinson wraparound bridge for my new 99$ Epiphone SL, but I could hardly intonate it correctly and it just looked ugly on the guitar, so I'm still looking for something better.
Could you please tell me how much that guitar weighs? As a small person I always have the problem that proper guitars are pretty heavy, which makes it hard to me playing it while standing over 20 minutes.. I've heard that SG's are more flat an therefore don't weigh that much. Greetings from Germany
I'm actually thinking this is on par with the washburn lpsco7 Paul stanley signature garbage I've got and I'm following just to see if I can make it not such a trash thing. I was considering make it headless with 81-85 at 18v but it's got decent sounding pickups.. Idk where to start. I'm just gonna learn to play better I think impossible to find specs on my guitar
i have one, and i would say its the best cheap guitar you can get. :b especially with amp included and its not a bad sounding amp either. for the price its more than worth it. its also made well too. the guitar pics do suck tho. unless you love a meaty pic, i prefer some thin dunlop tho.
If you don't like the GM-05, I'd happily take it off your hands. I love these little amps! (I'm being serious, by the way. You can shoot me a message on Twitter about it, @blackcorvo.)
who needs a JCM when you have "Thee G.M.-05" W/drive channel! I have thought about buying one of these as well with the soul purpose of using it for a mod platform. look forward to seeing it come together.
Nick, another question for you as you have never steered me wrong. I have a 2016 Gibson LP Studio Worn. I payed $699 new. I also have a Michael Kelly 1965 Strat style that is awesome. Can you compare the best MK Patriot to a LP Studio as I am considering selling my LP Studio and buying a Patriot. If you say you would pull the trigger on a patriot which model? Thank you kind sir
Hey David! I’d say the studio probably packs a bit more punch with the pickups. The MK Patriots with the rockfields are good, the ones with Duncan’s are better, but now you’re up to about what you paid for the studio.
I'm not sure about modding it... but we're definitely going to STACK TWO OF THEM!!!! METTTAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL! Actually, we may even route the headphone out back into larger amps for shits and giggles. Reamp the output of this beast into a Plexi.
+Nick in the States , amp is a real tinkertoy, swapping out the speaker DID help quite a bit. what I'd dropped in rated 10w max, wider freq, more magnet, and used a calculator to pop a port tube into it. it is what it is, but it was a lot louder and ballsier. stock is a junk 8 ohm 3W paper surround, the 10W max an old cloth surround rated 6 ohm I just happened to have kicking around. when they say 10W max they're talking about a sealed box, add a port you can typically cut that rating right in half for unrestricted cone travel.
I'm getting an SL in next week. I'll have a good idea at that point. It's a small step down from the Epi LP Junior bolt neck that I have, but only because of the painted neck on that guitar.
Maestro is a good guitar much better if you upgrade because the headstock is same like gibson. Its a heavy guitar i have one upgraded lespaul sunburst. Very nice guitar!
If Epiphones came with that same shape headstock they'd easily sell ten times as many.
No kidding, right?
Yes, but they don't want to sell more Epiphones, they want to sell Gibsons.
If they did, you could easily make an Epiphone look like a Gibson by applying a fake decal on the headstock.
soulagent79 Then why that doesn´t happen with Fender and Squier?
It happens a lot with Fender and Squier. The thing is, there is no original Squier headstock design and there were no Squier guitars at all until 1982, when Fender decided to use the Squier brand name for their (then new) Japanese made guitars. Epiphone on the other hand had already used the headstock design we know these days, decades before the company was bought by Gibson in 1957.
A simple mod like changing out the neck, then the body, and all electronics might improve this thing significantly.
Vicious Velocious replacing all the hardware would be the cherry on top of the cake, too. Just simple stuff.
Than replace player with someone like Agnus and all is fine ;)
I can tell ya, the neck itself (7/8 size) is actually pretty fair. one I'd picked up couple years ago (LP style) needed about 1/3 turn to the truss, and about same to the bridge posts. slapped in a flat face epoxy sealed $7 "Gibson/Epiphone" pup from Amazon and called it done (very good output for a cheepo pup).
My friend has one of these. I’m fixing it up for him. All I had to do was switch out the machineheads with some new ones, put some new strings on, clean the fretboard and plug it into a good amp, now it actually feels and sounds great.
If I was a young kid getting that or a squire set up for christmas I would have been over the moon.
Me too!
As someone who got one of those sets as a young kid, I absolutely was. It was a gift from my parents, and more than a decade later I still love and cherish that little Squier. I learned my first licks and chords on that guitar and it opened up a a whole new world and gave me something to be passionate about. The frets need some fixing up, and pot is scratchy, but that guitar still feels and plays better than any of the subsequent guitars I've owned. I will never sell that guitar.
i think I'd take the squier that gear sounds bloody awful. technically it's a guitar but in reality it's an SG shaped turd.
A wall mart guitar enough said
If I got that as a kid i'd be Thrilled to DEATH…..
I should know. I'm a kid and just got the Squier pack yesterday (Christmas)
Once you guys finish your challenge maybe you could send it off to a lucky subscriber if you don't intend to play it or anything. That would be cool.
The Les Paul version was my very first guitar brought it from BestBuy like 6 years ago on black Friday
Just picked up one of these at a thrift store for $50 in perfect condition. I'm here because I can't wait to mod this sucker!
Did you mod it out?
@@sludgerat666 Not yet. I keep spending money on cheap guitars instead of power tools. I cleaned out my garage to set up a wood shop, so that's a start.
It's funny how Gibson can do the correct headstock for a $79 guitar, but can't seem to do the tooling for a $600 Epiphone - The mind boggles. But for $79, it's amazing they can include all of that for price. And that amp sounds like $5 of quality ;). Actually it sounds a bit like Brian Mays Deacy amp when it's cranked. Thanks for the video
Damn this was my first guitar. I don’t have it anymore but mine was red and that amp was so bad lol but I loved it.
Bro it was my first one too, also red
As a first guitar was it fun? I just got one because it was cheap OfferUp. Been playing acoustic but my taste in music is so variant that I needed to get an electric
Guillermo Perez it was fun but only for a little bit. Once you start playing because it’s so cheap it makes it difficult to play guitar simply cause it’s such a low quality instrument. Either get it set up properly by a technician or spend a bit more money. It will greatly improve your playing. As it did mine.
Anthony Franco thanks! Yeah I’m realizing what you mean now as I keep playing more. I’m going to save a little more up.
Do you mind me asking what guitar you play? Or recommend?
Your enthusiasm pleasures me
You should have tried a real amp - It looks good for the money! A nice starting point to mod away with! ;0)
I will in the full review. This was just an unboxing and farting around. It's a great inexpensive modding platform.
honestly considering thats a $4 amp that's not bad lol. Ive heard people who've spent $$$$$$$$ on a "vintage custom" amp with a similar tone :P
Bought mine almost ten years ago. Ground down sharp frets. Great pickup! For the price, no complaints.
I came across a brown burst Les Paul with a real chunky neck. I put a trapeze tail piece on it, some Ernie Ball beefy slinky's and a set of real kluson tuners and that fucking straight up rocks all day and night. I couldn't believe how sweet that thing is.
That's cool. A youngster recently asked me what a guitar costs, I said $125.00... this has that beat by a mile. If the neck is no good then back it goes.
My favorite guitar is a 96 Fender Squire (has the standard Strat logo) that I bought at a pawn shop for $120. I upgraded it with an Epiphone SG bridge and Texas Special middle and neck. Locking tuners, two post trem and a roller nut. It looks sounds and plays awesome.
My son Roly bought this same axe and was kind enough to give it to my young granddaughter Sidney. She was so happy, it's her 2nd guitar. It's really a kool set up for a young axe slinger.. .. thank you Roly. ..Dad.....
Nick changing that bridge might be a mistake. PRS made a series of cheap guitars with this same type of tail piece. This guitar has the best intonation of my 20 plus guitar collection. Scott grove brought this model to my attention and swears by them. I would change the tuners before the bridge. If you have better turners throw them in there you will see I am right.
Oh, my! Looking forward to seeing the next vid. How good can that thing be?? Great stuff!
What I would do, personally(not sure how much it would be) is replace the bridge pickup with a P90(so it’ll be like a Les Paul Jr.), put locking tuners on, replace the bridge with something better, and possibly route a lipstick pickup for the neck. Oh, and of course set it up and file the frets.
I like it! I've thought about doing the dream 180 in the bridge and then a mini hum duncan in the neck. in Gold of course! First things first though... got to get the first pass done. Just got the neck bow out. Next there's a high fret that needs some attention. And then I'll do a quickie review of it stock through a good amp. Then she gets her day in the sun!
Mate! That amp is awesome haha! 😆
Could you do this for us lefties that can't really find these cheap guitars like there are for the Righties? Think it would be a great idea for your channel too! I love watching these type videos and wish someone could do this for us left handed players too! Yes that Amp rocks! LOL
And for Nick Good job I do enjoy seeing you do these mods as well!
Just for giggles you should run that little amp thru a large 2x12 cab and crank it! I also had a Maestro, neck was thick as a ball bat, frets were horrible and those octagonal tuners are trash. I replaced them with a $20 set of Ping tuners that slapped right in and actually worked fine.
This one has a thin neck, but the frets are evil for sure. These tuners aren't octagonal but are epicly bad. I have some ping style ones on hand. Actually I think I have everything I need to make this properlike on hand.
Got it for Christmas,it is a great guitar so far...Why are you expecting the Maestro SG be the same as the Gibson SG? I don't use the amp. The tuner makes me feel like the strings are not gonna brake.
Surprisingly nice for the price. I could see some kid mowing some lawns to get one of these after their first week of business and then practicing and saving up the rest of the summer to get a more posh set up with that stuff added in as trade. That's the scenario I'd paint for my students at least and I bet one of them will do it.
I have owned that exact amp for 7 years and has not let me down!
$79 US for a new guitar is good, you get what you pay for. Great for a first electric...
i had one of them !! it really wasnt too bad ! you would have to change the pickups but its was ok ...
Bought a Maestro LP Junior style from my son's friend for $10, cuz the bridge bolts snapped off when my son tried to change the strings for her few years back. Replaced the bolts, the pickup & the tuners & it was pretty good. Funny how they have the open book headstock & Epi don't! I did a vid on it
I'll have to go dig that video up. $10 is a steal! I have all the parts in for this bad boy. Just have to first to a stock video for it this week first. Hey, are you still rocking that THR5? My father in law is selling his THR10 for $150 or so if you want it.
Cool video Nick! I enjoy your sense of humor. Can't wait to see the results.
That should be a fun project. It’s amazing that you can get a guitar and amp that is anything more than a toy for less than $100.
I bought one of these a number of years ago, but it was a flying V model. The single humbucker pickup wasn't all that bad and it actually played OK right out of the box. It didn't have any amp with it like yours. The frets ends were pretty sharp though. I really like it that little crap ass guitar though, it's a great little backpacker/portable guitar. All I did to it was to sand down the sharp fret ends and a basic set up. It has a very tinny sound and I usually tune it to up to A (for the bottom E string). It sounds like a cross between a banjo and a ukulele, which is fine for me as a super small practice guitar. ... And it comes in handy if you want that ukulele/banjoey sound on a specific track .....
$79 that's alot of guitar + amp for the cash - and it cool looks the part !
It's a fun guitar... it has its issues for sure but nothing a little elbow grease won't settle properly.
I've bought quite a few cheap string instruments and, for some reason, they always scrimp on the tuners. I'm surprised that they didn't include a tuner and I'm shocked that it didn't even sound good fully distorted. That usually fixes everything. Having said that, it does look nice and, if I were 13 again and just starting to play, I'd probably be very happy with it. I can't wait to see the upgrades.
Thanks John! All the parts have arrived. Now just have to get a stock review recorded and then we can start having fun upgrading the lil beastie.
Nice but why's the camera looking at the box? most of the action is partially off screen making it hard to really enjoy.
Sorry Bob, unboxing can be tricky to shoot. And can't really re-unbox if you realize the shot isn't perfect.
np nick, just wanted to make you aware. keep em coming
Nice guitar, dude
"More shroudy like than your average shroud" That was my favorite info in this unboxing. Why does the "Big G" decide to use the correct headstock shape on this bargain basement starter guitar and the weird, neutered headstock on the Epi stuff? Things that make you go Hmmm.... Not a bad looking axe for the paltry sum you paid. That amp sounded like an angry, fist full-o-bees! Ha ha! I bet Johan could still make it sound like a Plexi! Can't wait to see what you guys do with these. Merry Christmas bro!
I think it is because Epiphone with open book headstock will take over part of the market from Gibson because Epiphones are so good these days.
A lot of people turn to Gibson because they don't like the Epiphone headstock. So if Epiphone had the open book headstock, those people will very likely buy an Epiphone instead (because much better bang for the buck).
jcoulter43 Because Epiphone is older, and has a better headstock angle
Epiphone is, and always has been a seperate brand. Even though Gibson own it, Epiphone have always had their own headstock shape. Gibson did actually make some Epiphone copies of US Gibson models with the standard headstock shape in the past, but these were only sold in Japan
+jcoulter43 You don't play the headstock, you play the guitar. What is it with you brand snobs?
Legolas Greenleaf you like what you like and I'll like what I like. That's what makes the world go round. I have tons of different guitars from cheap to expensive. I happen to not like some headstock shapes, that doesn't make me a "brand snob".
Hi. I'm new to guitars. What do you do if the action is too high? Do they adjust it for you with expensive guitars?
you can adjust the bridge or truss rod... If you search TH-cam for adjusting a truss rod, should find a good video describing when to do so. Just be careful! Twist too much and you can break things beyond repair.
@@NickintheStates Thanks for the help! I'll have a look.
AWESOME NICK !!! I HAD THE LES PAUL BLACK ONE !!!! I SOLD IT TO A BUDDY WHO LOVED IT !!! NICE GUITAR !!!
I would buy: beam for use in leveling (aluminium square section or builders level), abrasive paper, masking tape, fretwire, wire wool, crowning file, 42awg magnet wire. Refret. Rewind pickups using guesswork and mum's sewing machine. Then peraps wilkinson or similar hardware if budget allowed. Probably their brass rollr bridge and fit a separate stopbar. Also decent strings. Ernie Ball, d'Addario or Rotosound.
If owning tools in in the rules then I can't see the fret wire and magnet wire being more than $US 30, as i think I pay about £UK 8 for reasonable fretwire and £12 for a half pound of magnet wire.
Oh and a bit of bone to make a new nut.
It's weird because i have a couple of pretty decent quality guitars (Gibson Smartwood, Squier 50st An. stratocaster) but i want one of these bad.
I'm a modder at heart and these are perfect for modding because they're so cheap and the electronics on the pick guard make it quite easy to work on and replace stuff.
Put another 100 $ in there for pot's, cap, switches, output, maybe a Alnico3 magnet, tuners and a nut and you could turn that into a very good guitar.
I bought one of those new for $50 clearance. the neck was twisted, i could not adjust the bridge enough to get it to intonate it. from my experience I would not get them for my kids, I bought them squires, a mini strat, and a strat.
Right now ...10 am pt .. Wal-Mart shows it as $99 on the main page but once clicked on it says $159 for the black $109 for Brown sunburst... red was $89 but out of stock ...
I saw that! Bummer!
I paid $12.00 for my first electric guitar, an Audition Jazz/jag (yes, gold foils) in '73. Then, Teiscos were up to $59.00 new at Thrifty's, This Maestro is insane for the money. I love it.
What’s the name of the song you’re playing over and over?
That'd be a great starter for a kid. With upgrades they could be a nice workhorse. I actually played out with mine a couple times! lol I don't think that amp sounds totally bad on the dirty channel. Mic it & put some 'verb on it through the board it could work ;)
We're going to have fun with these little amps. Because between Danny and I we have two, first we'll try them in stereo. Then I want to try and take the driven headphone out, pass it through my interface and re-amp it into a Plexi. Because why not!?!?
It's not a bad little starter guitar. My only concern is that I have the next flattened out enough but I'm pretty sure that's the full truss rod adjustment to get there. Another twist and I'm pretty sure I'll hear the dreaded pop. It's good though for now.
I never thought i'd see the day where a grown man says "ouchy".
I got one Christmas season at my local pawn shop for $50. It was a "project". 🙄. I had to file the frets from nut area to the 14th fret with a STD file. Smooth/decent after the work. At least it didn't cut up my palm. I bought from eBay a PAF replica Humbucker. Chrome. This dude didn't like the tuners, but I had little issues with mine. I tightened up any and all screws connected to it which oddly enough did help. The input jack, potiometers (volume and tone) were subpar. As was the wraparound bridge too. I got the Humbucker changed out and was on my way to getting around to the other tasks when life hit me. Had to buy gas and food, so I "pawned" mine for $100. Lost interest in reclaiming it. So with a little bit of work, got $50 out of it. If one wants to see that way. These Maestro SG models are all around: pawn shop, online, etc. Mine was black too. Cheap, fun project to get into. Parts: I did get the aforementioned parts. I could buy another used Maestro SG, get a copy PAF, what I have, voila. Just wanted to kill the boredom. I'd play this one when my part time cover band does AC/DC. Get my Angus on!! Anyhow, recommend project for fun and thanks for reading!! 🎸🎶
The thick picks were great! I saved them. New strings needed. Intonation off on a couple of strings. I'm keeping this guitar. Better than my Ibanez that cost three times as much.
Turn that gain down,, your going to blow a window out.It will be interesting to see what you can do to it.79 bucks cant beat that.Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Love your stuff but I noticed looking through your chanel that while you like harley bentons you have never done a main street guitar. My wife bought mine and I have to say 130.00 well spent. Flame maple neck, basswood body and truss rod. If anything they are Chinese boutique guitars. Well made and great to play. I am putting rollers bridge, anico magnets pickups, and changing the nut and tuners. All in all under 250 bucks and a great playing. You should check them out.
I got the acoustic version as my first guitar and learned how to play on it and although it is terribly cheap and low quality it's a great guitar to see if you really want to learn and without hurting your bank account
"Out of the box ... it is technically a guitar." LOL
I try to give an honest assessment LOL
it's an SG shaped turd.
Where are the guitars made? Everyone seems to modify it automatically! It's not playable out of the box?
If I was doing a modding project based on this guitar I would attach a bigsby clone, roller bridge, better strings, locking tuners and possibly either change or add an additional pickup. Otherwise I would also want to re-shape the neck joint to make it easier to play and clean up the frets.
That guitar plugged into even a half decent amp isnt bad IF set up properly which isnt often. That amp is, though
I got a red maestro used for $44. Frets are surprisingly not bad. I plan of throwing some better tuners and a gfs adjustable intonatable wraparound on it and ptting a hot gfs tele bridge pickup in it as I already have a few humbuckers guitars
cool video! I recently saw these guitars at a Best Buy store in Canada, and I almost sliced my hands. The fret edges were so raw and dangerous! Anyways looking forward to the upgrades
Yeah man.. this one isn't horrible but Danny's is weapon licensed to kill. These things are hilarious. The upgrades should be pretty cool. If the neck settles properly it'll be a fun player.
it would be a quick throw into the fireplace its been cold as reverse hell in Ontario lately.
just picked up a stagg les paul copy for $40 and its KILLER for the money spent,it would
knock this turd into the dirt very quickly.
lando27music Canada...
lando27music Gibson $5000 LPs have the same crappy fret work,might as well be made in China too
trillrif axegrindor o
Thanks Nick, now you've got me interested because..............I love to tinker with cheap guitars. It looks pretty cool.
I have this and a old amp that has volume, tone, and tremolo. It really good for a beginner like me, but I can’t like just press and get sound like a lot of people do, which can discourage me sometimes, but whatever. It was my brothers at first, and I don’t know where the amp it came with is, so my grandads old amp it is.
Nick in the States - is this a 3/4 or 1/2 size version of an sg ,,, or is it a full size version?
Whats under that scratch plate don't suppose its hollow and you could add a new scratch plate with a second pick up?
Since used Epi Jrs can be had for the same price or lower, I might try something similar myself. Looking forward to the next steps.
Used Epi Juniors are getting hard to find! I've actually been stalking them for a while and haven't seen one under $150 in a while. Depressing!
Seen a few on CL but maybe the market's drying up :(
Nick in the States I got my first guitar about a year and 4 months ago. It's an Epiphone jr and I love it.
Nick in the States got it for $80 too
Whats danny's youtube channel? Thanks. Looking forward to the end product.
Had a friend who was jealous of me having this cause mine looked more like an actual SG than his Ephiphone SG
if I had a guitar like that when I was a kid I would have been so happy ! all I had was a very very cheap strat copy that was terrible
I was given one and threw some twelve gauge slinkys on it and...it's tough playing but honestly sounds good through my setup haha!!!
That's the guitar I started with love it
Hay Nick,
i got a question...
What is that chair you're sitting on, i love the design!!!!
Cheap guitars have come a long way. When I picked up my first guitar it cost twice as much, was made of plywood and didn't even have a truss rod..... That wasn't even all that long ago.
As far as I remember, Maestro started out as a brand Gibson wanted to sell directly to music schools.
I think I recall something about that myself.
Which new tailpiece/bridge did you order? I recently bought a Wilkinson wraparound bridge for my new 99$ Epiphone SL, but I could hardly intonate it correctly and it just looked ugly on the guitar, so I'm still looking for something better.
Stoptail is known to bend forward after tuning it for sometime. Cheap bolts made of aluminum and plastic haha
Could you please tell me how much that guitar weighs? As a small person I always have the problem that proper guitars are pretty heavy, which makes it hard to me playing it while standing over 20 minutes.. I've heard that SG's are more flat an therefore don't weigh that much.
Greetings from Germany
I believe he said 6 and half pounds
With this much power comes great responsibility. Ha!!!
way buy it if you are going to replace everything on it?
that box kicked your butt :)
Box 1
Nick 0
They can put an open book headstock on this thing but not on an Epiphone?
I'm actually thinking this is on par with the washburn lpsco7 Paul stanley signature garbage I've got and I'm following just to see if I can make it not such a trash thing. I was considering make it headless with 81-85 at 18v but it's got decent sounding pickups.. Idk where to start. I'm just gonna learn to play better I think impossible to find specs on my guitar
i have one, and i would say its the best cheap guitar you can get. :b especially with amp included and its not a bad sounding amp either. for the price its more than worth it. its also made well too. the guitar pics do suck tho. unless you love a meaty pic, i prefer some thin dunlop tho.
The song at 11:00 - is Caroline by status quo I think
Put a Bigsby on it. Ebay has a faux version for about 20 bucks
Got my bullet strat for $110 And it plays and sounds like any I've played for $1k. I had to do the setup but that's easy.
Is this a good guitar for beginners?
looks like a great fun project!
I have one of these! The neck on mine is totally screwed so I'm going to buy one of the gfs set neck style bolt on necks and plop it in
Got it for 40 dollars
Is it short scale or regular scale guitar?
My first electric guitar was a Synsonics Terminator. I’d have killed for a pack like this back then.
Can someone please tell me the song he was practicing
If you don't like the GM-05, I'd happily take it off your hands. I love these little amps!
(I'm being serious, by the way. You can shoot me a message on Twitter about it, @blackcorvo.)
blackcorvo sometimes the small starter amps give the best sound, am I right?
who needs a JCM when you have "Thee G.M.-05" W/drive channel! I have thought about buying one of these as well with the soul purpose of using it for a mod platform. look forward to seeing it come together.
EXACTLY!!!
Nick, another question for you as you have never steered me wrong. I have a 2016 Gibson LP Studio Worn. I payed $699 new. I also have a Michael Kelly 1965 Strat style that is awesome.
Can you compare the best MK Patriot to a LP Studio as I am considering selling my LP Studio and buying a Patriot. If you say you would pull the trigger on a patriot which model?
Thank you kind sir
Hey David! I’d say the studio probably packs a bit more punch with the pickups. The MK Patriots with the rockfields are good, the ones with Duncan’s are better, but now you’re up to about what you paid for the studio.
I'd like to see you guys add a twist - who can mod the amp out the best?? HUh?? Huh???
Jack
I'm not sure about modding it... but we're definitely going to STACK TWO OF THEM!!!! METTTAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL!
Actually, we may even route the headphone out back into larger amps for shits and giggles. Reamp the output of this beast into a Plexi.
+Nick in the States , amp is a real tinkertoy, swapping out the speaker DID help quite a bit. what I'd dropped in rated 10w max, wider freq, more magnet, and used a calculator to pop a port tube into it. it is what it is, but it was a
lot louder and ballsier. stock is a junk 8 ohm 3W paper surround, the 10W max an old cloth surround rated 6 ohm I just happened to have kicking around. when they say 10W max they're talking about a sealed box, add a port you can typically cut that rating right in half for unrestricted cone travel.
Is it a good guitar with a proper amp im thinking about getting one
Wassup Nick?! Merry Christmas 🎄🎁
Merry Christmas Donna!
Trying to learn for the first time. My low E string has really bad fret buzz to it. -_-
actually it doesnt sound too bad with how it sits !! ha ha ha
Dude, not cool to make comments about how other guys sit.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
And the frets will cut the skin from your fingers if you slide down the neck too quickly!
This is really interesting, I've never heard of Maestro before. How would this compare to Gibson's other cheap gear such as an Epiphone SL?
I'm getting an SL in next week. I'll have a good idea at that point. It's a small step down from the Epi LP Junior bolt neck that I have, but only because of the painted neck on that guitar.
Look at all them possibilities man !
Mod the Amp too, turn it into a mini head, driving a decent speaker it might surprise you.
I'm also going to reamp through a big boy nice amp and see what the angry box of bees sounds like!
Maestro is a good guitar much better if you upgrade because the headstock is same like gibson. Its a heavy guitar i have one upgraded lespaul sunburst. Very nice guitar!
I have the exact same thing by maestro amp strings picks strap same package but a black les paul
Is there a certain amp chord this guitar uses?
"Set neck" with bolts? Those sneaky Chinese!!!
Jack