335 or similar semi-hollow GAS

[spawnofthesith]

I have a rule, never pay over $1000 for a Chinese guitar. Sorry if that sounds racist, it is not meant to be, it is about economics. There are some fine Chinese luthiers for sure but the items that come over in huge containers are not those. I have to agree with Eagle in the sense that I am a pro luthier and I have all of these guitar coming through my shop all the time. Based on what I have seen the Sire stuff is nothing special and I would go for Epiphone over Sire given the choice. Eastman is too expensive and for a few dollars more you can have the real thing. Edwards are hit and miss but can be a good bargain if you can get a good deal on a good one. That said, I have an Ibanez AS-93FM that is superb after a little setup work. A high quality instrument for around $700 that satisfies that semi-hollow thing when I need to. It is not however a Gibson ES-335 and it never will be. I have owned and played a few and am currently on the hunt for a nice one for myself.

I’m kind of the same way with even Indo and Korean (although seems like those have started to fade into obscurity) guitars

I really want a strandberg and I have a feeling one day I might just bite the bullet, but the pricing on those bugs me.

I’d love to grab an Edwards one day, AFAIK they only had a brief stint being MIC and are fully Japanese again but the water is a little muddy there. That said I don’t think I’ve ever heard a bad thing about them

 

[spawnofthesith]

Burstbuckers are very guitar dependent and even then I think there’s better options. I had a set of BBs in my R7 that sounded good. Prior to that I had a Standard with a Burstbucker 2 bridge but it wasn’t great in that guitar (previous owner had swapped the neck for a Duncan Antiquity which was AMAZING). Wound up swapping the bridge to a 498T. The R7 sounded much better with BBs. The R7 kept its BBs for a while until I got pickup curious and put in some Mules. Once I put the Mules in I didn’t look back at the BBs at all.

Particular models of Burstbuckers sound vastly different too.
BB1 (neck) and BB2 (bridge) is a fantastic combo, which I would describe as a great example of how I expect a Gibson to sound.
BB Pros (Alnico V) are quite bright - almost like a thick, noiseless single coil sound. I like them, but they are different than what players typically expect when they buy a Les Paul or 335.

My LP had the pros. I still have the neck BB in my LP but I just couldn’t jive with that bridge

I put an SD Pegasus in my Lp so definitely a departure from there lol

 

[la szum]

I’m kind of the same way with even Indo and Korean (although seems like those have started to fade into obscurity) guitars

I really want a strandberg and I have a feeling one day I might just bite the bullet, but the pricing on those bugs me.

I’d love to grab an Edwards one day, AFAIK they only had a brief stint being MIC and are fully Japanese again but the water is a little muddy there. That said I don’t think I’ve ever heard a bad thing about them

I have 3. They are

 

[aerial7]

I’m a cheap guitar guy. I grabbed a an Epiphone ES-335

Preach it! My main guitar is a Squier Starcaster. My brother gave it to me in exchange for my old American Standard Strat. On paper, he got at least twice the guitar, but I believe I got the better value!!

 

[laxu]

I’m kind of the same way with even Indo and Korean (although seems like those have started to fade into obscurity) guitars

I really want a strandberg and I have a feeling one day I might just bite the bullet, but the pricing on those bugs me.

I’d love to grab an Edwards one day, AFAIK they only had a brief stint being MIC and are fully Japanese again but the water is a little muddy there. That said I don’t think I’ve ever heard a bad thing about them

The absolute worst made guitar I've owned was a South Korea made Strandberg. I feel as a brand the labor costs they save by making their guitars in China or Indonesia do not translate to the prices for the buyer. Their bridge design also sucks, it's just imprecise and cumbersome for action adjustment.

The other truly bad guitars I've tried have been US made Gibsons costing over 2000 €. I still swear they ship the worst to Finland.

I don't put a whole lot of stock in the country of manufacture. Since I'm not American I don't have any "imports vs domestic" dichotomy because nearly everything is an "import" for me. It's all about where the savings are and whether those translate to the price.

The only Chinese made guitar I own atm is my Ibanez AW800 acoustic. All solid wood, well built, slim electric style neck. I've had it since 2007 and my only complaint is its very light rosewood fretboard.

I also have an absolutely lovely, Indonesian made Schecter Coupe hollowbody where it's hard to complain about anything. Easily compares to any similar Gretsch Electromatic models. Out of all Asian factories, the guitars from Indonesia have been the most impressive to me regardless of brand.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

The absolute worst made guitar I've owned was a South Korea made Strandberg. I feel as a brand the labor costs they save by making their guitars in China or Indonesia do not translate to the prices for the buyer. Their bridge design also sucks, it's just imprecise and cumbersome for action adjustment.

The other truly bad guitars I've tried have been US made Gibsons costing over 2000 €. I still swear they ship the worst to Finland.

I don't put a whole lot of stock in the country of manufacture. Since I'm not American I don't have any "imports vs domestic" dichotomy because nearly everything is an "import" for me. It's all about where the savings are and whether those translate to the price.

The only Chinese made guitar I own atm is my Ibanez AW800 acoustic. All solid wood, well built, slim electric style neck. I've had it since 2007 and my only complaint is its very light rosewood fretboard.

I also have an absolutely lovely, Indonesian made Schecter Coupe hollowbody where it's hard to complain about anything. Easily compares to any similar Gretsch Electromatic models. Out of all Asian factories, the guitars from Indonesia have been the most impressive to me regardless of brand.

View attachment 32347

Wow that looks great. I've never seen a schecter I've ever liked the look of before.

 

[laxu]

Wow that looks great. I've never seen a schecter I've ever liked the look of before.

Schecter's website is terrible when they have 100 different ranges where it's impossible to figure out what they mean and going through them one by one is a huge chore.

But they make a lot of interesting stuff. IMO their "Retro" range where the Coupe was (I think it's now discontinued) is one of the most interesting usually.

I only found this because I was thinking of buying a Gretsch that was not available at the time, and I stumbled upon the Schecter when searching for alternatives. Then I found a demo model for a very favorable price at a local store, so stars definitely aligned there.

 

[SillyOctpuss]

Schecter's website is terrible when they have 100 different ranges where it's impossible to figure out what they mean and going through them one by one is a huge chore.

But they make a lot of interesting stuff. IMO their "Retro" range where the Coupe was (I think it's now discontinued) is one of the most interesting usually.

I only found this because I was thinking of buying a Gretsch that was not available at the time, and I stumbled upon the Schecter when searching for alternatives. Then I found a demo model for a very favorable price at a local store, so stars definitely aligned there.

I've never been on their site before. My only real experience of schecter has been their super blingy metal guitars and I've never looked any further. I didn't even realise they made anything else tbh

 

[laxu]

I've never been on their site before. My only real experience of schecter has been their super blingy metal guitars and I've never looked any further. I didn't even realise they made anything else tbh

It's not surprising because those are the most visible, and they have like a dozen ranges consisting of those type of guitars.

 

[likitlikeyoulikeit]

Also, they have been around FOREVER!

As I was growing up, the old heads looked at schecter much the same as ESP....not lying.

This modern blingy Schecter is still weird to me.

But at least they try to offer something for everyone.

Also....framus are nice too!