Re: BUDGET AXES: Your favorite guitars under $500....New/Used/Vintage

[RumorsOFsurF]

I loves me some budget guitars.  I saw an article in Guitar Player, and it was like 20 guitars under 5 bills.

What are your favs?

Mine are:

My old MIM Std. Tele, just upgraded with 3 saddle bridge and '52 AVRI pickups  She still awaits some knobs and a white or mint 'guard.  The Pearloid was on there when I bought it.  \:-*






I played a Jagmaster at GC that I really liked, too.  It had a really nice neck, and the pickups weren't bad at all.  Like this one:

[fuzzking]

I really like almost everything Greco from the late 70s. I have a CBS style strat copy I really dig, my flatmate has a 60s style Jazz Bass copy, a 70s style Tele copy and a 50s style strat copy that are all super players, none of them more (or not much more than) than 300 Euros (450-500 $). He's so happy with his Grecos he's actually thinking of selling his "real" Telecaster and JM.
I also like them little Danelectro basses.

[eupat]

i love my Squier Telecaster Custom II :
paid 220 €

[ugly casanova]

so is the squier telecaster custom (the humbucker one) for nearly the same price:

[dryjoy]

Budget? Danelectro all the way.

[idiotbear]

my '95 Squier Strat - chinese, and excellent.

[del]

there are so many great, new guitars under $500 (or near that amount) right now.  I think many of the guitars that cost more - particularly those over $1k - are carrying huge branding/lifestyle-product mark-ups with only the smallest marginal increases in quality and performance.

here is a (brief and incomplete) list of my favorite under $500 gtrs that are easy to find at stores right now:

squier affinity telecaster
squier standard telecaster
squier standard stratocaster
squier deluxe stratocaster
squier jagmaster
squier tele custom
squier tele custom 2
fender standard telecaster
fender standard stratocaster
gretsch junior jet
gretsch pro jet
gretsch special jet
epiphone dot
epiphone plain-top les paul
epiphone les paul 1956 goldtop
hagstrom swede
ibanez artcore ag75

i think there are many more.  these are the ones that I came up with just now. 

del

[mynameisjonas]

gibson faded series

[del]

gibson faded series

are these under $500 in Sweden?  That could be a good deal.  In the US, the SG and Flying V are the least expensive ones and they're both almost $700; and the LP is almost $900.

[mynameisjonas]

gibson faded series

are these under $500 in Sweden?  That could be a good deal.  In the US, the SG and Flying V are the least expensive ones and they're both almost $700; and the LP is almost $900.

well, i should have said the faded SG specials, and i was mostly referring to what they go for on ebay, i see them go for less than $500 all the time.

you won't be able to make any deals buying from sweden, the cheapest i've seen a 2-pickup faded SG for is about $950. the standard price for them is usually around $1200, although it seems they are getting cheaper...

[ugly casanova]

yamaha sa500 looks sexy, too but the pickups sound to thin..
nearly bought it instead of a squier tele but as i said it's 'different' soundwise:

costs around ~300€ and i'd put chrome-covers on it

[aen]

i love my Squier Telecaster Custom II :
paid 220 €

+1!

Best bang for buck in my musical history.  I'll also vote for MIM standard tele, and used classic series teles.  *sigh* it used to be that used CIJ offsets were about $500 too.

[daydreamdelay]

[RumorsOFsurF]

I guess I only paid $500 for my CIJ Jag in December...Sold it in January. 





I had to have that AVRI!

Wasn't my favorite budget guitar, though.  I wasn't that impressed with it.  By the time I would have finished upgrading it, it would have been an $800 CIJ.  :-\

[mjet]

I got this for $375