Best Guitar - Overall

[jackal]

ok this might be a mash of topics brought up in the past, but I was just not satisfied by the answers..

What do you think is the Best Guitar or Guitar Manafacture in your opinion OVERALL....
by saying overall i mean you have to concider , Materials, hardware, finish, sound, playability, ( do not include looks).. and of course PRICE...

Now before you run off saying Fender, Gibson and all the normal answers, please think outside the box for this one... look for those guitars you dont hear of everyday, or see in jimmy paige's hands.. and remeber price.. keep the price low, like $300.00 - $800.00 max

thanx, i'm looking forwars to your answers, and if you can include links or pictures, for us to see

[MrSandMan]

Great thread!
;D

I'm very fond of LP style guitars. I love a big heavy slab of wood.. and like the Gibson/Epiphone necks.

With that said, I purchased a Agile AL-3100 (from Rondomusic.com) and I'm totally blown away! These guitars are very well built for $400!

So that's my answer-

If I can pick two, I'd like to pick the Schecter Tempest in white.... just for the playability and design. The duncan designs sucked and the fits and finish of the guitar was sub-par compared to Agile. But it was one of my favorites.

[jackal]

whats the difference between the AL-3100 and the Al-3100 Slim..??

[MrSandMan]

The neck, Slim tapered neck.

You can read the comparison chart:
http://www.rondomusic.com/alspec.html

[jackal]

Yeah Agile guitars seem to be a geat deal, but how do they play compared to name brand guitars...
i noticed on the site that there are two other guitars SX i think and douglas, do you have any exp with them???

[MrSandMan]

I've had a epi custom and an epi standard.. Agile is much nicer.

I've owned a Gibson Studio (you can see pics of it on here) the Agile still smoked it.

I'd say it compares to the Gibson standard but probably not as nice fits and finish as the gibson... not that Agile isn't good.. I would just expect the fits and finish to be a tad bit better on the $1xxx guitar. I'm willing to wager that the Gibson pickups might have the slight edge as well.

Never had a Douglas, but I did have two SX guitars. GG1 and GG2. The GG1 was like a B.C. Rich Mockingbird and the GG2 was a explorer knock off.

These guitars are HEAVY. Like 11ibs! The guitars setup from the factory sucked, the pick ups sucked, the tuners sucked... but overall the guitar was a heavy slab of Mahogany with a set neck.

All n All, I'm calling it a good project guitar.

you can see my youtube user review here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lieFlLqHYY

[Monster]

i have many brands i like... but i recently had a chance to play a OLP MM1fr that thing sounds nice and was set up great and the stock pups were nice.. for a cheap guitar it played like a much more $$$ guitar, i am starting to like these company's that not big name company's because i am finding that the big name company's are starting to worry more about the looks of a guitar then the feel and sound of it, not saying all big name company's make bad guitars , but you pay more for the name these days... i hear more quality issues with some big names instead of these smaller name company's

or i am just losing my mind......lol......

[jackal]

today i played a Flat black PRS SE Standard.. made in korea..
chrome hardware pups are pretty plain looking.. black humbuckers, no name on them..
so im not sure who makes them.. but the guitar felt and played GREAT
it was $516.00 CAN i think its worth it, i might acctually buy it.

[jackal]

check it out heres the link the that PRS SE Standard

http://www.prsguitars.com/sestandard/

[Monster]

yes them are nice sounding guitars, i just don't like the feel of the knecks for me.. but other wise yes great guitar and a great price...

[MrSandMan]

Looks like one of those guitars that are tempting to play. How are the pickups?

[jackal]

I love the neck on this guitar... its a glued on neck, i dont know how i feel about that... is that the same as a set neck??

the only flaw with this guitar, it the pickups..
Sound great clean, but not good for heavy distortion.. if you hit an Low E and let it ring then at the same time play the high e string, you cant even hear it..

i would buy one and change out the pickups

[MrSandMan]

yes, glued on is set neck.PRS are known for great necks

[jackal]

yeah a great neck indeed, but like i said the pickups are very weak... I wonder why they discontinued the PRS SE Standard???

[floydmoline]

squire telecaster's are nice...... i'm not a big fender fan i have had them, and theya re a guitar, but i don't find them special, but for some reason the squire teles are quite a nice little deal, they sound good, play well, and look nice, not many options for finishes though, i have no idea how a squire tele stands up to an actual fender tele never played an actual fender tele, but overall from what i have owned and player on guitars under 400 dollars the squire teles are really decent. i've had a mexican stratocaster, that i would have traded for an oriental squire telecaster in an instant, and at 250 bucks you can't go wrong.

[V-Type]

From $300-$800.
Well Gibson has a couple of under $800 models that are pretty nice once setup. And Fender has their Hwy1's. But thats more the top of the limit.
I say Epiphone,Jackson,LTD and Ibanez offer the most bang for the buck in this $$$ class.
I pick Jackson though cause most of their imports(DK2's,MG;s,Professionals,etc..) are made in their World class Jackson Japan plant. Also they have Real Duncans and Emgs in many models now.
Thats the same plant that the guy who formed Caparison guitars was a Designer/Luthier for in the 80's and 90's.

I had an Agile and didnt quite like the lower horn being newtered and it felt odd to me. A couple of frets needed leveling also. I traded up for my current Epiphone LP Custom which I seem to be more astetically drawn to. The Agiles have some awesome finishes though. The Ebony vs Rosewood fingerboards on the Agiles was nice but I could hardly hear or feel much difference over the Epi's Rosewood.
Those Xavieres look like the sweet deal Agiles were when they first came out. But nowadays the Agiles are nearly the same price as Epis,Ibanez,Jacksons,etcc...
The bad thing is other than the web Agiles arent even known and their resale is horrid in most cases.

[senor_penguin]

telecaster's are perfect. They can go from county to metal and I love that. I might get one within the next couple of months

[torgeot]

in that price range you can get a real nice guitar, but it depends on what type of music you're playing. I got my USA strat used but I got a steal for 400, I do play hard rock so I put a SD Hotrails in the bridge. Ut you can get a lot of guitar for 800. I'm also partial to Ibanez I have 4 right now.

[characterzero]

The PRS SEs are very decent guitars. I also really like the Ibanez SZ series (which is what I currently play). They're versatile guitars designed to sort meet half way between the major guitar models (i.e. an LP meets strat).

[Brian Krashpad]

ALL of my guitars were bought for under $800 USD (though many were bought used, and some were INCREDIBLE deals).

If anything looks interesting to you, ask and I'll respond:


http://img135.imageshack.us/img135/3428/guitarcollage08om7.jpg