Shane_B. Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 I've been looking for a new guitar and have extremely limited choices of lefty versions. I stumbled on the world of cheap Chibson and other brand guitars. Most reviews I'm reading say these are as good of quality than the name brand higher end guitars, and in some cases they actually are the originals that sort of fell off the assembly line, or were rejected because of a blemish in the finish and were meant to be destroyed. I found this on Amazon and have been thinking of grabbing one. It comes in a right handed version as well. Gstyle Left-handed Electric Guitar Spalted maple top Okoume Body https://a.co/d/9xDYPAP I know a metal player who has played for a long time. IOW he's not some guy who is just learning to play and likes this guitar because it looks pretty. He said it's the best playing guitar he's ever owned. He said he paid $399. EART GW2L Headless Electric Guitar - Lefty. https://a.co/d/hw0GHBY Has anyone ever tried one of these inexpensive guitars? I'm sure I'd replace the pups and electronics. I'm a huge fan of EMG noiseless replacements. And since it's Amazon, I can return it hassle free. I have to say, the best LP style guitar I ever played was an Epi Studio, and I had a Gibson LP Custom Black Beauty for years. The Epi was stripped down, looked like it was rattle can painted, but played like a dream and sounded better than my Custom. It was $499 iirc. I didn't buy it because it was so inexpensive. In hindsight I should have snagged it seeing how left handed guitars are so hard to find in a store. I saw the exact lefty Gretch I've been wanting for $450 a few weeks ago but it was beat to hell and one of the pickups were broken. I just sat it back down and walked away. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 The best inexpensive guitars that I know of (meaning friends have actually bought them and were surprised at how good they were; not Chinese crap) are Agile guitars. They're now currently sold through Rondo and I also don't know about their lefty options. Here's the website: https://www.rondomusic.com/electricguitar.html 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane_B. Posted January 15 Author Share Posted January 15 (edited) 32 minutes ago, craigb said: Here's the website: https://www.rondomusic.com/electricguitar.html They have the (almost) exact replica of a Gibson I always wanted. I saw a right handed one in person and I loved it just for the color. I played it the best I could and it felt great. They actually have lefty versions of both guitars I've been looking at. Thanks for the info! Here's a Rondo version of the Gibson one I saw in a shop. Double tap coils and all. They didnt cut anything back on this. Its on sale at Rondo's site right now ... https://www.rondomusic.com/al3200oceanburstflmleft.html Edited January 15 by Shane_B. Fixed typo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mettelus Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 I am not sure if you have done much guitar work, but many lower end guitars will need finishing work on frets, nut, and possibly hardware (bridge specifically). This is in addition to any PUP swaps or wiring changes. If looking for mahogany specifically, China has one of the largest reserves, so is easy to get one-piece bodies cheap that way. With the amount of work you may be facing (just keep that in mind), kits are another option, but you would also need to final finish the wood in addition to the above. I built a LP kit a couple years ago and only needed to replace one PUP and the bridge. @Grem also picked up Strat-style kit and just finished it recently, but some of that set up was a bit more than he was anticipating. Because of the level of attention I gave to that kit, the only guitar I own that plays better is the one I had PLEK'd. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
craigb Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 8 minutes ago, mettelus said: I am not sure if you have done much guitar work, but many lower end guitars will need finishing work on frets, nut, and possibly hardware (bridge specifically). This is in addition to any PUP swaps or wiring changes. If looking for mahogany specifically, China has one of the largest reserves, so is easy to get one-piece bodies cheap that way. With the amount of work you may be facing (just keep that in mind), kits are another option, but you would also need to final finish the wood in addition to the above. I built a LP kit a couple years ago and only needed to replace one PUP and the bridge. @Grem also picked up Strat-style kit and just finished it recently, but some of that set up was a bit more than he was anticipating. Because of the level of attention I gave to that kit, the only guitar I own that plays better is the one I had PLEK'd. Epiphone's seem to need a lot done and every Schecter I've seen, for some reason, needed the input jack replaced! However, the rest of the guitar (Schecter) was very playable. Like mettelus said, the frets usually need some TLC as some can be very sharp on the edges (heck, I've tried many flippin' Gibson's that had that issue too!). 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane_B. Posted January 15 Author Share Posted January 15 1 hour ago, craigb said: Epiphone's seem to need a lot done and every Schecter I've seen, for some reason, needed the input jack replaced! However, the rest of the guitar (Schecter) was very playable. Like mettelus said, the frets usually need some TLC as some can be very sharp on the edges (heck, I've tried many flippin' Gibson's that had that issue too!). I bought a used Epiphone Sheraton II many years ago, so I have no idea how old it is. Ive had it about 13 years. It looked like nobody ever touched it. It was in mint condition and came with an Epi logo'd hardshell case. I think I paid $275 iirc at GC? I went to their website and downloaded their setup instructions. I did a setup on it and it plays like a dream. Not so much when I got it. The thing never ever goes out of tune. Same with my 83 strat. I followed every spec to a T, including tremolo height which didn't look right to me. It never goes out of tune and it has a generic replacement bridge I bought 30+ years ago. The original rusted beyond recognition from playing out all the time and sweat. The ad for the Gibson clone at Rondo's site says it has hand filed frets and comes set up. According to Gibson, all their guitars are factory Plek'd now. But yeah, I've seen new ones too that leave a lot to be desired. Kind of makes me loose faith in the Plek technelogy. I see guys, especially over on that popular Tele forum, talk about all their custom setup techniques, but I swear by the factory recommendations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jim Roseberry Posted January 16 Share Posted January 16 (edited) Nicest Gibson that I've played recently was a Les Paul Axcess Floyd Rose (at Sweetwater). Played and sounded (to me) better than several R9s... which were more than double its cost. While not cheap (in any sense), that Axcess was $3k (two thousand off normal price). Amazing deal for a Gibson Custom (about same cost as a Standard). Edited January 16 by Jim Roseberry 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shane_B. Posted January 16 Author Share Posted January 16 I had one Gibson. It was a Custom Black Beauty. It had tuners with built in winding arms that popped out of the middle of tuner knobs. Flat frets. I never could warm up to it. It was a beautiful guitar but I never could get the sound I wanted out of it. It was an 83. Dave, from my other thread, called me when he got it in and said you have to come see this. Hah. I had it authenticated and everything was 100% original. It's funny how every guitar feels different even within the same model run. I played a very nice US Strat with a maple neck/fretboard. It was horrible. I couldn't even form an open chord on it comfortably. But I've played others with that neck and spec and they felt great. My Sheraton II is MIK and I wouldn't trade it for the world. I've always wanted to do a kit but currently don't have a workshop. That will be changing soon so maybe I'll dive in to that eventually. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheSteven Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 (edited) I've bought 2 guitars in the past from MonoPrice and they were both pretty good. I had been wanting a Tele for ages but had no real budget. So I bought MonoPrices Tele knockoff and it turned out to be an excellent guitar. It came properly setup / intonated, nice fret job and came with locking tuners. I was impressed. This was over 5 years ago when they had brought a new master luthier onboard and were talking about their quality in their advertising. Not sure if quality is same or not on current line https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=610261 don't know what else has changed but the one they sell now doesn't have locking tuners. Around 2 or 3 years ago I got their red Strat version to use as the basis for a parts-caster. I had a variety of components (Fluence - Fishman loaded pickguard, locking tuner set, etc.) that I was going to use on Strat upgrade that never happened. The guitar needed some minor fret dressing but was overall not a bad guitar (I've seen worse real Fenders**) and didn't sound half bad; if I didn't have close over $400 of parts looking for a home I might have kept it as it was. This guitar is now one of my favorites. Monoprice has a 30 day money back guarantee so if you get crap you can also get your money back. **My Fender Jazzmaster Squire came with the worst fret job on any guitar I've ever owned etc for the $15 junker I bought at garage sale to test pickups on. Edited January 18 by TheSteven Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Heath Row Posted January 18 Share Posted January 18 On 1/16/2024 at 6:41 AM, craigb said: Epiphone's seem to need a lot done and every Schecter I've seen, for some reason, needed the input jack replaced! However, the rest of the guitar (Schecter) was very playable. Like mettelus said, the frets usually need some TLC as some can be very sharp on the edges (heck, I've tried many flippin' Gibson's that had that issue too!). shhhhhhh, don't let my Schecters hear you say that, never had an issue with the input jacks on any of them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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