What's your favorite cheap import brand?

Re: What's your favorite cheap import brand?

I REALLY don't get PRS with those enormous heels they have.
I mean, not everyone only plays chords with their guitars...
 
Re: What's your favorite cheap import brand?

Squier...the higher end Epiphones are good too, but the cheapos like the LP special II and SG special suck.
 
Re: What's your favorite cheap import brand?

I go by the merits of the individual guitar, not merely a single brand. I can only play one of them at a time, anyways!

We live in a great age, where there is soo much great gear for the cash.

My next guitar will have P90's.
 
Re: What's your favorite cheap import brand?

PRS SE, Tribute (GnL), OLP basses (EBMM copies).

Squier, Epiphone (lower in price range, and you got to select carefully)
 
Re: What's your favorite cheap import brand?

KeeperOS said:
I REALLY don't get PRS with those enormous heels they have.
I mean, not everyone only plays chords with their guitars...
Click to expand...

Not all of them have the "heal from hell".
 
Re: What's your favorite cheap import brand?

theodie said:
Not all of them have the "heal from hell".
Click to expand...
Maybe the older ones, when they still had 24 frets but I ran each and every model they had at their web page (ie their current catalog) and every one had that enormous heel (the singlecuts seemed better but that was only because the singlecut shape hides most of the heel...)
 
Re: What's your favorite cheap import brand?

Another vote for Epiphone. Gibson came out with the world's best guitar designs in the 1950's & 1960's (which have since been copied by everyone), and with an Epi lets you have those without funky changes to the headstock and cutaways. With the LP, SG, 335, 330, Flying V, Firebird, Explorer, 175, ES-5, Byrdland, etc. (each with a number of variants) you get beautiful designs that naturally produce great tones. No one else has ever been able to come up with so many popular guitars.

If want better materials & workmanship, their Elitist line gives you Gibson quality from Japan at a nice price. What more does a boy need?
 
Re: What's your favorite cheap import brand?

Gamera said:
I don't know about the newer stuff but the early 80's Aria Pro II stuff was great.
Click to expand...

In the late 90s Aria Pro II stuff hopped around to several different factories. My SGT-004 (1997) is a Chinese guitar that I paid $200 for new in 1998. It's not bad, but not great, either. Hardware and electronics were junk, but the woods are nicer than I would have expected out of a late 90s Chinese instrument. With all new hardware and electronics, it was my #1 strat and #2 overall player. I got tired of looking at the shoddy paint job, though, so it's currently in paint. I can't wait to get it put back together.

Acoustics, though... man, I've got two Aria acousitics that are very nice. The AW-75 was ~250? and feels like a guitar twice that, but it certainly isn't up there with guitars pushing the $1K mark. My AW-830T, though, is a spectacular 12 string. I paid $550 for it new (quite a discount from the list price... the perks of being a student of a dealer) and I have yet to play a nicer 12 string that wasn't 4 times its cost. It truly is one of those rare gems. When my teacher/dealer got it in he purposefully did not set it up until I had a chance to see it, knowing that would deter people from playing it. He knew I was in the market for a 12 string, and man, did he come through with this one. That said, if you're looking at MIK Aria acoustics, stick to the ones that say Aria in script writing. The block letters appeared with a factory change late in 1998, and IMO with the factory change came a decrease in quality. The pre-1998 models can be very nice guitars.
 
Re: What's your favorite cheap import brand?

Have to go with Washburn. Even with the 59 set, cts pots, orange drop caps, straplocks and HSC, I still have way under $400 in my WI-64.
 
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