So have any of you found a guitar for under $200 that plays super nice and has very few flaws?

Me and My friend have, I recently found a Dean ML XM which is the lowest model ML out there, i paid $150 and it just needs better pickups, tuners, and a set-up...my friend got a low end Dean Vendetta that plays super good too, and his was only $100...

i just want to know if anyone else has scored like My friend and i have...

I heard that Agile (the les paul looking ones) are cheap and play really good.

But I would have to say all the guitars under $200 I have played were crap. Actually that goes for all the electrics. I have played some nice acoustics around $250 (CAN Funds, so around $200 USD). The Dean vendetta looks like a really nice guitar. I want to get the Dean Vendetta 5 with floyd. Of course it costs a lot more then $200.

hay i play a guitar the cost around $200 it was in a sale and it plays like a beast, its a Kramer Striker FR-422SM, the pick-ups are fantastic and the build quality is really good, the only problem is the floyd rose which im not a big fan of any way but i can live with it. great guitar plays great and its a bargin i think there $250 now but that aint much.

I like the Squire Stratocaster. There are many different models that have that name on them. The best ones are made in Japan. I own three, and they make great guitars for alt tunnings.








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Rick

Most of my guitars were really cheap guitars because I've bought on sale or closeout on the online sites. Lets see, the first cheap deal I got was a Washburn WI64 Idol Deluxe Limited Edition for $270. That guitar normally goes for over $400 on most sites. It was also a limited edition model that had a gray/black quilt top with all black hardware. That was a couple years ago, and it was the first set-neck guitar I bought. If you haven't seen an idol, it's basically a Les Paul/SG hybrid.
A few months before I bought the Idol, I bought a Washburn WG587 7-string for $180, which the retail should be over $900. I didn't like the pickups, so I spend another $120 on DiMarzio Blaze humbuckers. That one also got me into playing 7-string guitars. It plays and sounds better than a Ibanez RG7321 for around $50 cheaper.
Some months after I bought the Idol, I picked up a Washburn X10 for $100. Although I had to make some adjustments to the bridge and strings, it played very well for a beginner guitar. The pickups were shit(atleast the single coils were), so I replaced the neck and bridge while leaving the middle empty. I replaced those with a DiMarzio PAF pro in the bridge and a Chopper in the neck for about $120.
Earlier this year I bought a BC Rich neck-thru NJ Classic Bich for $350 with a free RF wireless unit. The same guitar goes for over $699 on every other site, and the retail is over $1000. Its a really sweet metal guitar. Since I bought it, I installed a Gibson Iommi pickup in the bridge I swapped out of another guitar that I installed EMG's into.
In March I bought a new Epiphone Metallic Gold G400 for $199.99 from Music123.com. Not even 3 months ago the site was selling it for $449.99. I've also checked on Ebay, and its a pretty hard guitar to find and its going for over $350-$400.
The last good deal I got was a Washburn X25 HSH with a floyd rose system for about $140 last week. It needed some adjustments to the floyd as well as the truss rod, but after all that it plays very well. I plan on upgrading the pickups sometime soon. They're good, but they need a little more output and character imo.

i think that some cheap cort can be really good for the price. squier is also not so bad, but with squiers pickups you wont be able to play rock.

WOW....thats cool that you can find a good guitar that cheap.

i will have to check them out.

Almighty_Guitarist wrote:

So have any of you found a guitar for under $200 that plays super nice and has very few flaws?

i just want to know if anyone else has scored like My friend and i have...

I've been using two guitars on-stage for the past 10 years that cost $200 or less. My main one I bought brand new from Musician's Friend is an ESP LTD EC-50 was $200, my back-up I bought in a pawn shop about 11 years ago for under $200 is a Yamaha SE300H. Both of them play great.
The Eclipse doesn't sound as good since I fell from 10 feet on top of it at a show, but I know I can get another one for $200.
The only draw back with the Yamaha is that originally it had a push/pull knob that made go from single coil to dual coil. The spring lock broke in it and was obsolete when i went to have it replaced/re-wired. So when it was re-wired it only plays single coil now which is a little too bright for my liking, but the action's great.
In over 25 years of playing I have rarely ever played or owned a guitar that cost more than $200. I've become a connesuer of pawn shop/garage sale guitars.
You have to be when you're poor.

OLP MM1 has a great neck and the pickups are pretty reasonable. Not sure about US price, but they're about $400 AUD.

Plus it looks pretty genuin to the ol Van Halen 1991 Music Man.

This would certainly be the cheapest guitar I've bought with the best feel.








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Waycool
www.azazel.com.au

Deans aren't a bad choice but by the time you replace the pickups and tuning pegs, you've got a $400.00 guitar. There is an entire movement of people who buy cheap guitars for the basic body and then gut them. I have done this with cheap Squire Stratocasters. Most of the guitars I play are mid to high level instruments in cost. I play them because of the sound. However, you can get a $400.00 Gretsch Electromatic and put about $200.00 into it and it will perform like their $2000.00 model. I like the lower priced Epiphone Les Pauls (around $399.00). The Alnico pickups are good but the tuning pegs are bad. Dean is probably the best choice for an inexpensive guitar.








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I've been playing 26 years. I live to play guitar and will die a guitarist.

I play a SX Jazz 5 String Bass and it plays awsome. I sold my Fender Jazz 5 string after buying this ans have never looked back. Im now going to buy 2 of there guitars!

I LOVE cheap guitars! It is what inspiration is all about.
I have a Japaneese Squier Strat and a Mexican made Tele. Both are nice guitars. I can't remember the prices I paid, but they were both under $200 each.
I've since re-fretted both of them and added decent pick-ups over the years. They play great.

I know I will never get my money back unless I find a real sucker (and i'm not looking for one), but for me it was a logical thing to get a couple of great playing and great sounding Fenders without spending an arm and a leg.

I think it is cool when somebody comes in to the jam session with a 'cheap' guitar and proceeds to spit chards of molten glass with it.








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Play what you want, play what you feel and don't look so suprised when the people you play for don't get it.

yeah i've gotten guitars for under $200 that play great. heck i've gotten guitars for free that play great. i had a jackson dinky with a floyd that i got for $99. i fixed some bridge parts and was playing it that day. my steinberger spirit was only $150 and my 1980 charvel was free.








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"you have a decent ear for notes
but you can't yet appreciate harmony."

jadzia666 wrote:

i think that some cheap cort can be really good for the price. squier is also not so bad, but with squiers pickups you wont be able to play rock.

Yeah, you try to turn them up and they squeal like Ned Beatty did in Deliverence.








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Play what you want, play what you feel and don't look so suprised when the people you play for don't get it.

the best i've ever done as far as a cheap guitar was my Gibson Sonex 180 Deluxe, for which i payed about $250 (you can regularly find them on e-bay for between $200-$400) they're a student model Les Paul with a composite body that was produced from '81 through the mid eighties. they sound sick, play like you would expect a gibson to play, and for the money you really can't do better. the tuners, electronics, and the pick-ups are all original. it wasn't necessary to do any upgrades.








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One can make a useful thing as long as one does not admire it. The only reason to make something which is not useful is that one admires it intensely. -Oscar Wilde