Famous but bad guitars and less famous but good guitars

[Bombadil]

They were better than avg. in how they treated theirworkers and more discriminating in where they got their wood from. My understanding is they were pressured to close by the gov't. Whatever that means in China, I don't know.

[Josuave]

Less famous but great!

my 2 favorite axes are from lesser known builders blackwater guitars and nile guitars; craftsmanship is unparalleled

[tapper mike]

It always comes down to personal taste. You like what you like. Others like what they like. It will never be a consensus building project.

[Leo1999]

they all sound crap when I play them

Have you considered Guitar Lessons?

i did consider them, about 35 years ago....

You can learn enough on youtube nowadays anyway, if you take the time to follow the lessons and practice. practice practice.

What Youtube channel would u recommend?
Have not found a good one for me yet.

[Zipede]

they all sound crap when I play them

Have you considered Guitar Lessons?

i did consider them, about 35 years ago....

You can learn enough on youtube nowadays anyway, if you take the time to follow the lessons and practice. practice practice.

What Youtube channel would u recommend?
Have not found a good one for me yet.

BERNTH

[mountainmaster]

I would rather have a good guitar than a famous one, but my favourites are Strats which are both good and famous. I used to own a pink paisley Strat that cost me £400 at the time but I have also had a Tempest that my brother sold me, similar to the one here and despite it being really heavy, it was a really good guitar.

My first guitar in the eighties was the same model. These were made in Japan and sold under many different brand names. Mine was a Bozo. Although that famous acoustic guitar builder had nothing to do with the build he somehow allowed them to be sold under his name.

The guitar itself was OK, but the tuning knobs would unscrew themselves and fall off unless you held them in place with pliers while tuning.

[Hink]

I would rather have a good guitar than a famous one, but my favourites are Strats which are both good and famous. I used to own a pink paisley Strat that cost me £400 at the time but I have also had a Tempest that my brother sold me, similar to the one here and despite it being really heavy, it was a really good guitar.

A friend of mine had something that looked similar in the early 80s. It was a Vantage, and probably worth more now than what he paid for it. Made at the Terada plant in Japan.

Glenn was it what I bought from Muffwiggler...a Daion? Amazing guitars...mine is a Power Mark XX, true neck thru, made of 14 pieces of maple and rosewood. The company developed a system for laminating that was really good, they actually started making high end golf clubs...the craftsmanship on these guitars is great...not mine but a pic of one just like it



mine hanging on my wall in my studio



https://jedistar.com/daion/

[Bombadil]

Looks good! I went with my friend went to get his just after I got my Ibanez ST-50 in April, 1981. He didn't seem to bond with it at the time, we were trying to get a band going, but a job, that kept me off the street, landed in my lap, and there wasn't time. I mentioned it to him a number of years on FB, he scoffed at the brand. I told him to check it out again, because it is very likely a really good guitar. He did, and agreed with me.
Some of the stuff to come out of Japan in the late 70's early 80's is absolutely excellent.

[Mister Natural]

Gibson Firebird = answer to BOTH of the OP's topic

[JerGoertz]

I found a little guitar a while back that I like. Seems like a small, unknown manufacturer, the "Fender Stratocaster."

It sounds pretty decent, although one of the strings rattles.

[MogwaiBoy]

Less famous but good: Godin

[Yadrichik_Chaya]

Less famous but good: Godin

+1 on Godin but I thought they were a well known guitar brand since none other than John Mclaughlin himself endorses Godin. Plus a whole bunch of others: https://godinguitars.com/artists-listing

[tapper mike]

Godin makes.... Gibson guitars in their NY, USA facility for Gibson.

Actually I have had Three of them now I have two that don't get much play. The freeway sounds like rubber. The only reason why Mclaughlin uses and endorses them is because they are the leader in midi guitar. The early ones were based on Roland 13 pin design. In order to get the ghost notes out of the way Godin tried to limit overtones (harmonics) as much as humanly possible. On the freeway and other solid body guitars it loses a lot of brightness as a consequence. On the multiac ACS SA I always had tuning/intonation issues and the midi out always had cut off issues.

The last one my LR Baggs model (precursor to acoustcaster) was awesome. Most significant was that it used tines not reeds as was the case with the latter. the sympatheic vibrations gave off a fender rhodes(electric piano)
type character which was magical.

Here's the regality - Regardless of where a guitar is made the guitar is designed to a price point. It is neither the worker nor the equipment that determines the quality of the build. Builders that know their market succeed. Those that don't fade away. Sometimes I think that Yamaha only builds guitars to say they do because the sale of yamaha guitars is so marginal it isn't even funny. Yet the list of other yamaha products from motorcycles and everything else is quite staggering. They don't have to build guitars but if they stopped it's not like the US where they can simply close down a shop.

It's not just the salary men who have issues with working too much in Japan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qp_KiDqfjGo

It's also the workforce and legal system. Japanese laws make it very hard to fire or let go of employees, regardless of work ethics or economic conditions.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kBt9eNVV7V0

[Yadrichik_Chaya]

Godin makes.... Gibson guitars in their NY, USA facility for Gibson.

Actually I have had Three of them now I have two that don't get much play. The freeway sounds like rubber. The only reason why Mclaughlin uses and endorses them is because they are the leader in midi guitar. The early ones were based on Roland 13 pin design. In order to get the ghost notes out of the way Godin tried to limit overtones (harmonics) as much as humanly possible. On the freeway and other solid body guitars it loses a lot of brightness as a consequence. On the multiac ACS SA I always had tuning/intonation issues and the midi out always had cut off issues.

The last one my LR Baggs model (precursor to acoustcaster) was awesome. Most significant was that it used tines not reeds as was the case with the latter. the sympatheic vibrations gave off a fender rhodes(electric piano)
type character which was magical.

13-pin is something I'm really hooked on, I have almost all the various 13-pin Boss/Roland boxes out there except the VG88 and Boss GP-10 (I plan to get the GP-10 sooner or later).

I use these various boxes like the SY-1000, VG8EX, VG99 etc. with the
Godin LGX-SA Trans Blue Flame AAA - Love this guitar!
I also use the Godin Multiac Nylon Fretless which is just perfect and of course also has 13-pin out. Switching to ”bass mode” on the SY-1000 and playing upright bass patches with a fretless guitar is amazing! (atleast to me)

The fretless guitar solo in this short jam is actually played with an upright bass patch:

https://soundcloud.com/user-414219875/i ... etless-jam

This short progressive rock idea is with the fretless driving the Boss SY-1000 & Roland GR-55:

https://soundcloud.com/user-414219875/virtue-gita

So yeah, I really love Godin + 13-pin boxes.

[tapper mike]

Honestly the best response I ever had with a 13 pin was via the gk2a attached to my Fender Strat Plus but pushed forward a little as opposed to butting up to the bridge. The only time I experienced note cancellation was when I'd overbend. FR30, GR33, GI20 GR20. I had everything dating back to the GR1 and GK(1) As well as ibanez Xing 2020 Gibson Kaman/Passac

I finally threw in the towel. Moved on to ztars, artiphons yourock, yamaha ezeg. The linnstrument changed me for life. In my mind there is nothing finer as a midi controller than the linnstrument.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TTp7GKltHQ