Edit: a couple things I want to clarify, because when I was editing, I cut these portions out to keep the pace of the video up, and people keep commenting about them. 1. I did stretch the strings. 2. When you intonate, loosen your string all the way. I did that here, just didn’t leave it in the edit. 3. The string gauge difference didn’t change the tension significantly because I also went from an e standard tuning to C standard. I apologize for any confusion, I will learn from these mistakes in the future. As of right now, they are actually on sale on Amazon! amzn.to/41jX59f
i have come to the Conclusion that these cheap guitars are perfect for learning Luthier skills. you can find what went wrong, what can be improved and what can be modded. I hate cheap guitars that are bottom barrel put together haphazardly and then advertised as a "Beginner Guitar". These guitars if you find cheap but its reasonable setup and is ok before setup around the 200 dollar range i think is great. the wood really is not the stuff you are buying, mainly the electronics and parts that are used.
@@neonblack211 depending on gauge and tuning, you can get the tensions almost or close to exact. best way is if you have 9-42 for e standard, if going to D standard would be 10-46 and the tension would feel the same. super light gauge for b standard i have usually seen 12-52 and works well for c standard because it is only half a step up intuning. Now the feeling and just the overall size difference i would say is big difference.
@@MorrisChannel4 I dano man if my guitar is set up for e standard... D standard works but feels completely different and C standard would be fine to play at home but not recordable without constant retuning and out of tune rock chords if you play too hard
Cheap guitars like this always make great project guitars. If the crappy stock pickups are microphonic or noisy, just swap them. Others have said that graphite or machine oil in the nut and stretching the strings are often the easiest solutions to tuning stability issues. Intentionally tuning a bit sharper than you normally would and running through your warmups like that when you first change them will often also help with breaking the strings in faster as well. I tend to play in C#, B, and A (both drop and standard for all 3) on non-baritone 6 string guitars, and when I first change the strings I tune to the standard tuning of the next one up for a bit before settling into whatever tuning I'm going to end up in.
This is exactly why I'm interested in this guitar. I am more interested in learning how to fix/set up guitars, so I'm in the market for problematic instruments, lol. Not too problematic, though, because I just want to learn how to make a decently playable instrument out of one that doesn't play well. Turning trash into treasure
I paid $90 for a black Jackson Dinky off of craigslist... I detailed it, and spent $200 for a Seymore Duncan distortion set and $10 for new strings, set it up myself.. $300 total and i love that guitar...
Glad to see guitar companies installing the bridge pickup closer to the bridge where it sounds the best, it literally loses all the harmonics if it's not in that sweet spot
You know what would be cool? Have one pickup but you can fine-tune it's position anywhere from bridge to neck. Or maybe even two single coils, but they can act as a humbucker and you can have them near each other, or one at the bridge and one at the neck and use them independently.
I got the white one, it came perfectly setup out of the box, plays incredible no buzzing anywhere, enough I justified putting a Nazgul/Sentient Duncan combo in it and its now one of my mains.
I just got those put in my Ibanez S maybe 2 months ago and love those. And a couple months before that, I got the Black Winters in my RG. Love both gitfiddles even more haha
Niiiiice!! Man, I got a 2012 Schecter Omen 7 that has been modded to hell and back, and ended up as my 'daily' player. My Solar tries to catch up but just can't lol. I got the same pups btw, Nazgul/Sentient ;)
Gotta file the nut out a bit for the bigger strings for tuning stability. Not as critical for a graphite based nut but for anything else, if you don't, you're gonna have a bad time
Amazon had the white ones on sale for $120 a little while back (after coupon). I used different accounts and bought 5 of them to fix/set up so I can donate them to young aspiring guitarists this Christmas. All 5 came almost good to go out of the box. They were very playable, but needed nut work, fret polishing, neck and bridge adjustments, etc to be their best.. Did a fret level job on 3 of the 5. Great guitars for the price, but I would have preferred Jumbo or XJumbo frets instead of the narrow/tall. The gig bag is surprisingly decent too!
Pretty cool. Something I see all the time is some kid wants to get a guitar, and the parents don’t want to dump money just for the kid to toss it aside, so they go for the cheapest thing they can get by with. More times than not, it’s usually one of those squier starter packs that have the cheapest 6pt trem bridges, and it just doesn’t serve the student, especially if they like heavier music. This at least seems like a better option than that for a kid wanting to learn.
@@IndependenceGuitar This is why guitar manufacturing is in it's golden age at the moment. There are so many killer budget options available that can appeal to everyone. I would have killed for something like this when I was a kid and not the painful First Act starter kit I started out on.
The fact that you didn’t have any issues that would make you return it is impressive. For example if you buy a Fender, you already need to do a complete level and crowning to get it to play well so for $200 this seems like a good buy.
I bought myself a Jackson JS12 Dinky MR a month or two ago (in order to simply have a guitar at the ready on D sharp tuning) for roughly 190 bucks, and it continues to surprise me just how good that thing actually is. A solid guitar doesn't have to break the bank.
I've had my eye on one of these for a while now since they're kinda reminiscent of a Mayones. Except WAY cheaper. I love modding cheap guitars so I'll end up swapping everything anyways. 200 for the guitar, 55 for Tone Ninja locking tuners, 60 for a pair of GFS pickups (GuitarFetishs brand, they're excellent budget pickups), and maybe some strap locks.
Thanks! I know your busy with your newer addition to your family but was waiting for this when I saw the reel that long time ago. You should enter treys contest on gear gods.
Yeah, there's a lot of other things that go on behind the scenes too. I honestly didn't want to promote this product for them, but in the end you guys are what's important so if you want to see it, I'll make it. Trey's contest? Is it for sexiest man bun?
@@TaylorDanley lol! It was for a revv g20 (the small revv amp) but now he changes it every month. Would like to see/hear how his reaction would go and if you'd win, you most likely would win he hates most of them for good reason, long intros, no top line.) Production doesn't matter but is a plus. Check the rules. The only things I remember is it has to be a new song for the contest, not released, and i think you can't be in a contract with a label. this month of you get in is a free thanos kiesel. But I'd guess you wouldn't get in until the March contest.
Yeah, I agree with a previous comment you need to really stretch those Ernie ball strings, which are my personal choice as well. Also you cant intonate properly till those strings are stretched and resting in tune. They are in a constant state of pitch shift.
New strings tends to go flat so stretching each individual strings helps the guitar to stay in tune My strat which does not have a locking system or good tuning pegs but when I stretch the string back and forth until it gets in tune promise me I don't have to tune it for a week or so
I mean.....tbh...for a non-pointy, it is a pretty damn sweet guitar and that price seems crazy. Strange how lately there are companies really testing the super low cost guitar market with much higher specs that people would think.
I have a Donner pedal. Has Delay. Chorus. And Distortion. It sounds and works good. So far so good. No problems. 👍💪🙌💯🎸🎸. Definitely worth the money!! Yes I use Ernie Ball strings for years. Probably before you were born uggh. 😂😂🤣
I think it's a pretty killer deal all things considered but it depends on what you wanna do. If you wanna buy a project guitar and turn it into something all your own, this may be a good candidate to do it. But imo doing that you're looking at spending a minimum of $300. New pickups and electronics, graphtec nut, locking tuners. And a professional set up if you can't do it yourself. But after that, you have a guitar that spec wise will compete with a lot of the other import guitars from the big brands. If you don't feel like doing all that, then yeah I'd save up more and get something different, and I'd definitely be looking on the used market. You'd be surprised what you can find for $500 on the used market. I've bought early 90's Japanese Jacksons for less than that... and those guitars have a reputation for being every bit as good as the USA made Jacksons of that era. I paid $450 for a 1992 Jackson Soloist XL. Schaller built German floyd, ebony fretboard, neck through. It had some buckle rash and one ding on the tip of the headstock, that's pretty much it. Guy hated that it was H/S/S and not H/H, and didn't really know what he had.
Yeah, I agree. I know used gear hunting isn't something a lot of people are comfortable with, especially when it comes to negotiations and actual acquisition, but that's where the best deals are had.
Poplar is becoming popular 😅. Actually I think it sounds 👍. Great beginners guitar paired with a decent amp. Hope it's not one of those that cost 200 but needs 600 worth of work 😅. I too hate the painted neck
I bought a white one based on the hype in early December 2022 when they were on sale for $159.00. I figured at worst I had a mod platform with a white base coat. OOO but it was good and still on sale! So I got a black one... I have put 1/21 locking tuners on both with new strings. Dunlop 11 to 50 heavy cores on the black one and D'addario 10 to 46 on the white one. Still have less than $200.00 in each one. Deals around where I am on used guitars are not so great. I see crazy deals instead. Like a "REAL "Chibson"offered for 1K or trade for a real whatever worth more than 1K. Gee I wonder if that happened? :) I have bought some deals but the deals are usually something I don't really want except I want a deal. $200.00 is the new $50.00 guitar.... well not really but if something does it for you at what ever price you got your moneys worth.
Ibanez Gio is probably one of the best budget/starter guitars you can get. There's TONS of them used everywhere online. New they're in the $150-200 range. Used, they usually go for around $100-120. I picked up an RG120 for $75 off Reverb. They were a Guitar Center exclusive model. Only real difference to the Gio is it has a floating bridge instead of fixed bridge. Has some chips and scratches but plays perfect with some TLC and new strings.
I have a Gio for free from my friend. And for being a beginner guitar that thing slaps. I never had it detune after the initial tuning, even going from E standard to Drop C. The pickups are definitely enough for the price and work good for metal. I 100% recommend Gios
I've owned a couple of cheap guitars. I bought them because I assessed the "Pros & Cons" and figured out what it would take to make the guitar comparable to a mid range guitar. Usually a nice set of tuners and a Floyd Rose tremolo bridge (yes I have a template and a router, and I know how to measure for correct intonation), will improve the guitar's tuning and intonation exponentially. Of course you can replace the pickups and electronics, but at that point you may as well just buy a better guitar. I've done the same thing with a mid range guitar and ended up with a $900 guitar that plays and sounds as good as a $3500 guitar. Now I will say that price doesn't always equal quality, because in many cases you're paying for the name and model, but you have to remember there are $500 Stratocasters and there are $5000 Stratocasters. You have to do the research to find out where the difference in price is actually reflected in the guitar.
Brush some gun oil on the saddles and nut. You don't want a friction grab there, it'll go out of tune fast. It will be on point first, then when you play it, the friction grab will let go.
My first guitar was a Washburn, beginners pack. Around 2005 year. It always sounded good compared to expensive guitars. And is easy to play. It was $200 back then. Looks the same as the guitar you showed except all 4 pickups have controls on the Washburn and a whammy bar. I'd use the same strings too heavy gauge. I could toss it on the couch pick it up and it still be in tune.
Your peeve on the painted neck, mine on the not cleaning up the neck with some lemon oil, and light fret polish when the strings were off. lol It's all good brother.
Great vid man! For the guitar just do a little tweaks like replace the pickups/tuners/pots and this will be a knocker of a guitar. But i digress great video bud.
Rather have the jumbo frets because after time frets wear down and if they already are low frets then it will be like your playing fretless after a while from the frets that do eventually wear down.
I regret not mentioning that in the video. If you are in love with the idea of this guitar, you could certainly spice it up for another couple hundred bucks.
You don't need to loosen strings when intonating especially when lengthening the string as long as you push saddle forward when shortening length a half turn of machine head not post is plenty to loosen ! Loosening too much will loosen winds on p9st and then will,detune many times as they tighten again . Strings are probably getting snagged in nut as they're much heavier just make them bigger with cut off stringbends and wet or dry sandpaper if no nut files around . Then lube with a soft graphite pencil or nut sauce !
The best thing about it is that it's shaped like a Mayones Regius. A really basic version, but still. For me, the shape is more attractive than the more Fender/Jackson/Ibanez-styled superstrats that usually are aimed at metalheads in these price ranges. Maybe it'll at least make other manufacturers like Harley Benton take a stab on it, maybe with a bit better specs.
I'm no shredder. I'm a not an experienced player and am still learning. I like a neck with some meat on it. I dont like the Ibanez wizard necks. I play alot of rythum riffs so the chunky neck is welcome. Plus my Deam C350 and my Guild D40 feel so much different I usually only play my Guild
I'm just going to say that the way my friends and I think is that you can buy a $200 or $300 guitar and run it through a stellar amp and you're going to sound amazing. The amp is more important to your sound than the guitar, in our opinion. So I can understand why people were like hey dude, you took a budget guitar and run it through a really sweet amp of course it's going to sound good. Is this a topic for a future video? Budget guitars into sweet amps VS sweet guitars into budget VS budget guitars into budget apps. Sweet guitars into sweet amps should be a foregone conclusion
For this price range some possibly better alternatives might be: -Jackson JS-range 159€-329€ -Harley Benton R-446 159€ I got a JS12 and that HB. Both are great! I got some string buzzing issue on the HB thou, but I gotta look into that... The pickups on the HB are really good thou! Better than the Jacksons and probably some of the best in budget guitars. The Jackson has a killer neck, very much like my old Ibanez. The HB has a bit thicker neck, still very playable thou. And damn, that Soloist u got for 200$ is the kind of deal that NO ONE else will ever make! Lol... That's more like a 400-600$ guitar. U literally won the lottery on that one. Any guitar with EMG's used is prolly at least 300$ if lucky...
Check tremelos. Look up specs and adjust. The front screws must be correct or the knife edges. It cannot return if one is wrong. 1600.00 PRS or any requires 2.5 mm relief. Mine was all different. Check it out
I'm mostly making jokes, I don't like bolt on necks at all. But the aesthetic of a painted neck bolted onto a painted body in particular is just a pet peeve of mine. I can't justify this logically.
Sooooo glad decent guitars are being made... and sold to players who live in the real world. I have 1 guitar. I bought, traded, scrapped, saved to afford my fender parts caster that I have. I love my tele more than any I've ever owned or played. I'm glad that guitars are being made that are financially attainable for some pretty decent players out here.
A micron is short for micro meter which is 10^(-6) meters or 10^(-3) mm so the 648 micron should be 0,648 mm but they said 648 micro is 648 mm so I believe this is a mistake on their part but I might be wrong.
6:38 I've got an Ibanez RGA742FM that has the same problem: microphonic pickups. I didn't notice the problem until last year, and I've had this guitar since 2017. I didn't notice the pickups had this problem because I always have a noise gate in my signal chain, whether it's a cheap multieffects pedal or plugins.
What Ive found to be the two biggest issues(by far), with these budget/generic instruments, is 1) quality control and 2) *SETUP NEEDED* The setup is probably the worst issue, because they are mostly marketed to beginners, who are most critically in need of a properly setup guitar, out of the box. That said, most of these ~$200 guitars are as good or better than the midrange guitars available in the 80s. Decent pickups are cheap enough to replace stock coils.
I actually really like the design of the headstock straight string through the nut shoulder help with tuning stability, it’s got to be those hog cables getting pinched in the nut, anyway the headstock reminds me of Mayones and Caparison. I like it better than the Jackson Broderick 3+3 headstock.
i refuse to spend over $250 since i know by changing tuners electronics and if it needs fret work i can fix those.....im gonna piss engL fans off but that free plugin amp sounds so much better than that engL head but thats me..i grew up with peavey and CRATE amps and love them..🤘90S DEATH METAL FOREVER🤘
Some constructive criticism: Be a bit more mindful of how your review may be taken by a beginner - I.e., saying the pickups “aren’t bad” sends the wrong message, they are complete garbage based on how microphonic they are - A beginner doesn’t have the experience to recognize that and saying they aren’t bad? I think you get my point.
TBH: i don´t get the point, why people buy these cheap guitars and then put pickups in it, which cost more than the guitar in the firstplace. The microphonics turn me completely off right away... for double the price you can get a good LTD, Ibanez, Squier or even a used PRS SE (i once bought a Gibson LP Worn Brown with Duncan Distortions from Ebay for 400€...)
The guitar wouldn’t stay in tune because you didn’t file the nut for the thicker strings. When the string isn’t fully sitting in the nut it won’t stay in tune.
I got the violet gradient, it was horrible! Tuners are garbage, string Farrells fell out, and the pickups was not adjustable because they was buried to the body that smash the cushions the point that they wouldn't work! And one of the pickup screws was stripped@the head which also made it impossible to adjust properly. If anyone is thinking of buying this guitar! Beware! Even with a $30 coupon it's not worth it! You'll end paying more than that on decent tuners. I'm currently fighting the urge to return.
Edit: a couple things I want to clarify, because when I was editing, I cut these portions out to keep the pace of the video up, and people keep commenting about them.
1. I did stretch the strings.
2. When you intonate, loosen your string all the way. I did that here, just didn’t leave it in the edit.
3. The string gauge difference didn’t change the tension significantly because I also went from an e standard tuning to C standard.
I apologize for any confusion, I will learn from these mistakes in the future.
As of right now, they are actually on sale on Amazon! amzn.to/41jX59f
i have come to the Conclusion that these cheap guitars are perfect for learning Luthier skills. you can find what went wrong, what can be improved and what can be modded. I hate cheap guitars that are bottom barrel put together haphazardly and then advertised as a "Beginner Guitar". These guitars if you find cheap but its reasonable setup and is ok before setup around the 200 dollar range i think is great. the wood really is not the stuff you are buying, mainly the electronics and parts that are used.
Unavailable now 16th March 2023.
How is going from e standard to C not Significant? It defebetly calls for a higher string gauge for most people
@@neonblack211 depending on gauge and tuning, you can get the tensions almost or close to exact. best way is if you have 9-42 for e standard, if going to D standard would be 10-46 and the tension would feel the same. super light gauge for b standard i have usually seen 12-52 and works well for c standard because it is only half a step up intuning. Now the feeling and just the overall size difference i would say is big difference.
@@MorrisChannel4 I dano man if my guitar is set up for e standard... D standard works but feels completely different and C standard would be fine to play at home but not recordable without constant retuning and out of tune rock chords if you play too hard
Cheap guitars like this always make great project guitars. If the crappy stock pickups are microphonic or noisy, just swap them. Others have said that graphite or machine oil in the nut and stretching the strings are often the easiest solutions to tuning stability issues. Intentionally tuning a bit sharper than you normally would and running through your warmups like that when you first change them will often also help with breaking the strings in faster as well. I tend to play in C#, B, and A (both drop and standard for all 3) on non-baritone 6 string guitars, and when I first change the strings I tune to the standard tuning of the next one up for a bit before settling into whatever tuning I'm going to end up in.
Yeah, I forgot to mention that it could work well as a mod platform.
This is exactly why I'm interested in this guitar. I am more interested in learning how to fix/set up guitars, so I'm in the market for problematic instruments, lol. Not too problematic, though, because I just want to learn how to make a decently playable instrument out of one that doesn't play well. Turning trash into treasure
I paid $90 for a black Jackson Dinky off of craigslist... I detailed it, and spent $200 for a Seymore Duncan distortion set and $10 for new strings, set it up myself.. $300 total and i love that guitar...
Yep, personally I think that's the way to go. But I understand why people wouldn't want to do it.
I've heard of short scale guitars, but 648 microns is ridiculous.
😂
Glad to see guitar companies installing the bridge pickup closer to the bridge where it sounds the best, it literally loses all the harmonics if it's not in that sweet spot
You know what would be cool? Have one pickup but you can fine-tune it's position anywhere from bridge to neck. Or maybe even two single coils, but they can act as a humbucker and you can have them near each other, or one at the bridge and one at the neck and use them independently.
I got the white one, it came perfectly setup out of the box, plays incredible no buzzing anywhere, enough I justified putting a Nazgul/Sentient Duncan combo in it and its now one of my mains.
I just got those put in my Ibanez S maybe 2 months ago and love those. And a couple months before that, I got the Black Winters in my RG. Love both gitfiddles even more haha
Niiiiice!! Man, I got a 2012 Schecter Omen 7 that has been modded to hell and back, and ended up as my 'daily' player. My Solar tries to catch up but just can't lol.
I got the same pups btw, Nazgul/Sentient ;)
Gotta file the nut out a bit for the bigger strings for tuning stability. Not as critical for a graphite based nut but for anything else, if you don't, you're gonna have a bad time
I mean, you can pick up a Jackson for like £200 too, and the pickups are decent. The neck is also not a chunky speed killer
Amazon had the white ones on sale for $120 a little while back (after coupon). I used different accounts and bought 5 of them to fix/set up so I can donate them to young aspiring guitarists this Christmas. All 5 came almost good to go out of the box. They were very playable, but needed nut work, fret polishing, neck and bridge adjustments, etc to be their best.. Did a fret level job on 3 of the 5. Great guitars for the price, but I would have preferred Jumbo or XJumbo frets instead of the narrow/tall. The gig bag is surprisingly decent too!
That's A LOT of work for "almost good to go" 😬😵
Pretty cool. Something I see all the time is some kid wants to get a guitar, and the parents don’t want to dump money just for the kid to toss it aside, so they go for the cheapest thing they can get by with. More times than not, it’s usually one of those squier starter packs that have the cheapest 6pt trem bridges, and it just doesn’t serve the student, especially if they like heavier music. This at least seems like a better option than that for a kid wanting to learn.
@@IndependenceGuitar This is why guitar manufacturing is in it's golden age at the moment. There are so many killer budget options available that can appeal to everyone. I would have killed for something like this when I was a kid and not the painful First Act starter kit I started out on.
The fact that you didn’t have any issues that would make you return it is impressive. For example if you buy a Fender, you already need to do a complete level and crowning to get it to play well so for $200 this seems like a good buy.
I bought myself a Jackson JS12 Dinky MR a month or two ago (in order to simply have a guitar at the ready on D sharp tuning) for roughly 190 bucks, and it continues to surprise me just how good that thing actually is. A solid guitar doesn't have to break the bank.
I've had my eye on one of these for a while now since they're kinda reminiscent of a Mayones. Except WAY cheaper. I love modding cheap guitars so I'll end up swapping everything anyways. 200 for the guitar, 55 for Tone Ninja locking tuners, 60 for a pair of GFS pickups (GuitarFetishs brand, they're excellent budget pickups), and maybe some strap locks.
I have also discovered that I hate all floating trems. I don't use them 90% of the time, and they annoy me, tuning wise.
Fair
Same here I play both bass and guitar I hate the 2 point tremolo on my Jackson dinky js12 I don't even use it.
seeing a metal guitar being played in clean feels like it's an edited video.
Thanks! I know your busy with your newer addition to your family but was waiting for this when I saw the reel that long time ago.
You should enter treys contest on gear gods.
Yeah, there's a lot of other things that go on behind the scenes too. I honestly didn't want to promote this product for them, but in the end you guys are what's important so if you want to see it, I'll make it.
Trey's contest? Is it for sexiest man bun?
@@TaylorDanley lol! It was for a revv g20 (the small revv amp) but now he changes it every month. Would like to see/hear how his reaction would go and if you'd win, you most likely would win he hates most of them for good reason, long intros, no top line.) Production doesn't matter but is a plus. Check the rules. The only things I remember is it has to be a new song for the contest, not released, and i think you can't be in a contract with a label. this month of you get in is a free thanos kiesel. But I'd guess you wouldn't get in until the March contest.
Yeah, I agree with a previous comment you need to really stretch those Ernie ball strings, which are my personal choice as well. Also you cant intonate properly till those strings are stretched and resting in tune. They are in a constant state of pitch shift.
I would pay $200 just to see you awkwardly play clean tones for 1 hour
@@impossivel2006 goat comment lmao
New strings tends to go flat so stretching each individual strings helps the guitar to stay in tune
My strat which does not have a locking system or good tuning pegs but when I stretch the string back and forth until it gets in tune promise me I don't have to tune it for a week or so
Was my first guitar, reliable, good tone and comes with an amp it's probably one of the best budget guitars out there
I mean.....tbh...for a non-pointy, it is a pretty damn sweet guitar and that price seems crazy. Strange how lately there are companies really testing the super low cost guitar market with much higher specs that people would think.
Man it feels like 8 string multi scales for $200 are just around the corner lol
You're probably not wrong... Although you gotta wonder what a guitar like that would play like.
Burl top 8 string on ebay $260.00 fun guitar, no name MIC
I have a Donner pedal. Has Delay. Chorus. And Distortion. It sounds and works good. So far so good. No problems. 👍💪🙌💯🎸🎸. Definitely worth the money!! Yes I use Ernie Ball strings for years. Probably before you were born uggh. 😂😂🤣
I think it's a pretty killer deal all things considered but it depends on what you wanna do. If you wanna buy a project guitar and turn it into something all your own, this may be a good candidate to do it. But imo doing that you're looking at spending a minimum of $300. New pickups and electronics, graphtec nut, locking tuners. And a professional set up if you can't do it yourself. But after that, you have a guitar that spec wise will compete with a lot of the other import guitars from the big brands.
If you don't feel like doing all that, then yeah I'd save up more and get something different, and I'd definitely be looking on the used market. You'd be surprised what you can find for $500 on the used market. I've bought early 90's Japanese Jacksons for less than that... and those guitars have a reputation for being every bit as good as the USA made Jacksons of that era. I paid $450 for a 1992 Jackson Soloist XL. Schaller built German floyd, ebony fretboard, neck through. It had some buckle rash and one ding on the tip of the headstock, that's pretty much it. Guy hated that it was H/S/S and not H/H, and didn't really know what he had.
Yeah, I agree. I know used gear hunting isn't something a lot of people are comfortable with, especially when it comes to negotiations and actual acquisition, but that's where the best deals are had.
Poplar is becoming popular 😅. Actually I think it sounds 👍. Great beginners guitar paired with a decent amp. Hope it's not one of those that cost 200 but needs 600 worth of work 😅. I too hate the painted neck
I bought a white one based on the hype in early December 2022 when they were on sale for $159.00. I figured at worst I had a mod platform with a white base coat. OOO but it was good and still on sale! So I got a black one... I have put 1/21 locking tuners on both with new strings. Dunlop 11 to 50 heavy cores on the black one and D'addario 10 to 46 on the white one. Still have less than $200.00 in each one. Deals around where I am on used guitars are not so great. I see crazy deals instead. Like a "REAL "Chibson"offered for 1K or trade for a real whatever worth more than 1K. Gee I wonder if that happened? :) I have bought some deals but the deals are usually something I don't really want except I want a deal. $200.00 is the new $50.00 guitar.... well not really but if something does it for you at what ever price you got your moneys worth.
I really wanna grab one of these, they seem super solid for the price
I want to see you grab one and slam some ridiculous string gauges on it in drop X tuning, and see if it holds up. Also, new logo? Looks good!
@@TaylorDanley That is exactly what I want one for, some Drop A# brutality 🤘And yeah, new logo just to clean things up a little
Pretty cool guitar. Nice work buddy 🤘
💪
Ibanez Gio is probably one of the best budget/starter guitars you can get.
There's TONS of them used everywhere online. New they're in the $150-200 range. Used, they usually go for around $100-120.
I picked up an RG120 for $75 off Reverb. They were a Guitar Center exclusive model. Only real difference to the Gio is it has a floating bridge instead of fixed bridge.
Has some chips and scratches but plays perfect with some TLC and new strings.
I have a Gio for free from my friend. And for being a beginner guitar that thing slaps. I never had it detune after the initial tuning, even going from E standard to Drop C. The pickups are definitely enough for the price and work good for metal.
I 100% recommend Gios
I own one of these gios 😂 surprised the quality isn't shit I mean with the bill Lawrence l-500 this things a beast on a budget
I've owned a couple of cheap guitars. I bought them because I assessed the "Pros & Cons" and figured out what it would take to make the guitar comparable to a mid range guitar. Usually a nice set of tuners and a Floyd Rose tremolo bridge (yes I have a template and a router, and I know how to measure for correct intonation), will improve the guitar's tuning and intonation exponentially. Of course you can replace the pickups and electronics, but at that point you may as well just buy a better guitar. I've done the same thing with a mid range guitar and ended up with a $900 guitar that plays and sounds as good as a $3500 guitar. Now I will say that price doesn't always equal quality, because in many cases you're paying for the name and model, but you have to remember there are $500 Stratocasters and there are $5000 Stratocasters. You have to do the research to find out where the difference in price is actually reflected in the guitar.
Brush some gun oil on the saddles and nut. You don't want a friction grab there, it'll go out of tune fast. It will be on point first, then when you play it, the friction grab will let go.
My first guitar was a Washburn, beginners pack. Around 2005 year. It always sounded good compared to expensive guitars. And is easy to play. It was $200 back then. Looks the same as the guitar you showed except all 4 pickups have controls on the Washburn and a whammy bar. I'd use the same strings too heavy gauge. I could toss it on the couch pick it up and it still be in tune.
Your peeve on the painted neck, mine on the not cleaning up the neck with some lemon oil, and light fret polish when the strings were off. lol It's all good brother.
Great vid man! For the guitar just do a little tweaks like replace the pickups/tuners/pots and this will be a knocker of a guitar. But i digress great video bud.
Thank you! 🥳
I picked up a Jackson Dinky JS32 from reverb for about $250 including shipping.
8:26 i was like "IM SUBSCRIBING TO THIS MAN.... HES COOL!" litt frfr
Rather have the jumbo frets because after time frets wear down and if they already are low frets then it will be like your playing fretless after a while from the frets that do eventually wear down.
Don't call me out like that 7:35
40.00 set of gotohs and a tube of nut lube or graphite powder in the nut and on the string saddles where the string meets the saddle will go far.
I feel like this guitar could work well as a project guitar. Swap out the bridge, tuners, electronics and pickups and have a decent riff machine
I regret not mentioning that in the video. If you are in love with the idea of this guitar, you could certainly spice it up for another couple hundred bucks.
You don't need to loosen strings when intonating especially when lengthening the string as long as you push saddle forward when shortening length a half turn of machine head not post is plenty to loosen ! Loosening too much will loosen winds on p9st and then will,detune many times as they tighten again . Strings are probably getting snagged in nut as they're much heavier just make them bigger with cut off stringbends and wet or dry sandpaper if no nut files around . Then lube with a soft graphite pencil or nut sauce !
Sounds like a decent guitar to me. I wish they had a lefty
The best thing about it is that it's shaped like a Mayones Regius. A really basic version, but still. For me, the shape is more attractive than the more Fender/Jackson/Ibanez-styled superstrats that usually are aimed at metalheads in these price ranges. Maybe it'll at least make other manufacturers like Harley Benton take a stab on it, maybe with a bit better specs.
I'm no shredder. I'm a not an experienced player and am still learning. I like a neck with some meat on it. I dont like the Ibanez wizard necks. I play alot of rythum riffs so the chunky neck is welcome. Plus my Deam C350 and my Guild D40 feel so much different I usually only play my Guild
I'm just going to say that the way my friends and I think is that you can buy a $200 or $300 guitar and run it through a stellar amp and you're going to sound amazing.
The amp is more important to your sound than the guitar, in our opinion.
So I can understand why people were like hey dude, you took a budget guitar and run it through a really sweet amp of course it's going to sound good.
Is this a topic for a future video?
Budget guitars into sweet amps VS sweet guitars into budget VS budget guitars into budget apps.
Sweet guitars into sweet amps should be a foregone conclusion
7:35 thats me bro, I was just starting to think about the clean tone
....the headstock just like caparison guitar... sounds great..
For this price range some possibly better alternatives might be:
-Jackson JS-range 159€-329€
-Harley Benton R-446 159€
I got a JS12 and that HB. Both are great! I got some string buzzing issue on the HB thou, but I gotta look into that... The pickups on the HB are really good thou! Better than the Jacksons and probably some of the best in budget guitars. The Jackson has a killer neck, very much like my old Ibanez. The HB has a bit thicker neck, still very playable thou.
And damn, that Soloist u got for 200$ is the kind of deal that NO ONE else will ever make! Lol... That's more like a 400-600$ guitar. U literally won the lottery on that one. Any guitar with EMG's used is prolly at least 300$ if lucky...
Check tremelos. Look up specs and adjust. The front screws must be correct or the knife edges. It cannot return if one is wrong. 1600.00 PRS or any requires 2.5 mm relief. Mine was all different. Check it out
Like jumbo frets better but it still sounds good and looks really good yeah I would say its worth 200$. It's chugging pretty good for that price.
That is an exact replica of Ibanez Gio.
I love 24 fretters with no neck plate after I got an Ibanez knock off for $88 in 2020. I now longer will buy a guitar with any neck plate
Better than that one acoustic they had back in the day
I'm surprised at your reaction to the guitar not having a neck plate. It's very common
I'm mostly making jokes, I don't like bolt on necks at all. But the aesthetic of a painted neck bolted onto a painted body in particular is just a pet peeve of mine. I can't justify this logically.
Great honest review
Great equipment buddy. Sweet 👍💪🎸🎸💯. I subscribed today. Take care
Sooooo glad decent guitars are being made... and sold to players who live in the real world. I have 1 guitar. I bought, traded, scrapped, saved to afford my fender parts caster that I have. I love my tele more than any I've ever owned or played. I'm glad that guitars are being made that are financially attainable for some pretty decent players out here.
Donner Dimethyltryptamine 100!!!!!
*Joe Rogan has entered the chat*
I'm pretty sure that a neck plate costs less than the countersunk spacers under the screws
A micron is short for micro meter which is 10^(-6) meters or 10^(-3) mm so the 648 micron should be 0,648 mm but they said 648 micro is 648 mm so I believe this is a mistake on their part but I might be wrong.
10:21 even when you're playing with just DI signal you can't help but to try to chug LMAO
6:38
I've got an Ibanez RGA742FM that has the same problem: microphonic pickups. I didn't notice the problem until last year, and I've had this guitar since 2017. I didn't notice the pickups had this problem because I always have a noise gate in my signal chain, whether it's a cheap multieffects pedal or plugins.
man i got a 12 year old and if little man ever (hopefully) says he wants to start playing this would be a good starter
I can believe it. It’s a Donor…I mean Donner.
What Ive found to be the two biggest issues(by far), with these budget/generic instruments, is 1) quality control and 2) *SETUP NEEDED*
The setup is probably the worst issue, because they are mostly marketed to beginners, who are most critically in need of a properly setup guitar, out of the box.
That said, most of these ~$200 guitars are as good or better than the midrange guitars available in the 80s.
Decent pickups are cheap enough to replace stock coils.
I actually really like the design of the headstock straight string through the nut shoulder help with tuning stability, it’s got to be those hog cables getting pinched in the nut, anyway the headstock reminds me of Mayones and Caparison. I like it better than the Jackson Broderick 3+3 headstock.
I can dig it
One micron is one thousandth of a millimeter, lol. That would make the scale length microscopic 🤣
Yeah, whoever is running their amazon site is not doing a good job
Would you recommend this over the Jackson JS22?
Off topic, What are you going to do with all those amp. heads behind you ? My guitar only has one lead jack for one amp. But now I got an idea.......
At least the headstock shape is very nice... I don't know why other brands give us hideous headstock shapes...
cool you posted on my birthday too
Happy birthday!
@@TaylorDanley thanks
C standard!!hell yes!im subscribing based on THAT alone!
I wonder how it would sound with a decent tone dialed in.
I literally thought it was a hipshot bridge lol
How hard is it to stay in tune on a fixed bridge. I can make any fixed bridge stay in tune. Floating bridge is an art form and science.
I didn't see you stretch your strings. Did you ?
Solid body sounds
What ENGL amp head is he using? Sounds killer!
i refuse to spend over $250 since i know by changing tuners electronics and if it needs fret work i can fix those.....im gonna piss engL fans off but that free plugin amp sounds so much better than that engL head but thats me..i grew up with peavey and CRATE amps and love them..🤘90S DEATH METAL FOREVER🤘
Idk I like painted bolt ons if it’s fitting with the color of the body
why would you take the tuner off the guitar
Try a Sawtooth ST M24!
Jackson JS-22 for $199
Not bad, especially for the price but the pickups seem to have a harshness to my ears, at least when paying the ENGL
for beginners i guess is a good choise.
Did you stretch your strings?
The internet is mad at you? I'M MAD AT YOU!!
I have no reason, I just like chaos.
Some constructive criticism: Be a bit more mindful of how your review may be taken by a beginner - I.e., saying the pickups “aren’t bad” sends the wrong message, they are complete garbage based on how microphonic they are - A beginner doesn’t have the experience to recognize that and saying they aren’t bad? I think you get my point.
But they SOUNDED good, thus they aren't "complete garbage". And the microphonic issue might be solvable... 🤔
Great! subscribed
whats microphonic mean? too sensative? love that jackson n the roots too lol
i like the lack of pickup rings
Only if these guitras were available in India 😢....
Anyway fantastic video man ❤❤❤
What is the width of the neck at the nut?
A micron is a micrometer One micrometer is One millionth of a millimeter which is the size of a single bacteria cell
TBH: i don´t get the point, why people buy these cheap guitars and then put pickups in it, which cost more than the guitar in the firstplace. The microphonics turn me completely off right away...
for double the price you can get a good LTD, Ibanez, Squier or even a used PRS SE (i once bought a Gibson LP Worn Brown with Duncan Distortions from Ebay for 400€...)
More budget than free is when they pay you to play their gear hehe
where is the riff at 9:55 from?
The guitar wouldn’t stay in tune because you didn’t file the nut for the thicker strings. When the string isn’t fully sitting in the nut it won’t stay in tune.
I got the violet gradient, it was horrible! Tuners are garbage, string Farrells fell out, and the pickups was not adjustable because they was buried to the body that smash the cushions the point that they wouldn't work! And one of the pickup screws was stripped@the head which also made it impossible to adjust properly. If anyone is thinking of buying this guitar! Beware! Even with a $30 coupon it's not worth it! You'll end paying more than that on decent tuners. I'm currently fighting the urge to return.