i beleive that it would be better to buy a 350 dollar guitar and then upgrade it when necessary than to buy a 200 guitar and then spend 150. Besides that upgrading pickups alone would be 150 dollars alone. Tuners, bridge and other hardware would cost more. It would not be worth it to replace the cheap parts with other cheap parts.

you could probably get a better deal just buying a nicer guitar, you are right. but starting witha crappy one and upgrading as you see fit is acceptable for a beginner/alt instrument. if you dont have the money/not sure how long you will be playing/want something you feel safe beating up- go with the beater. if you have the money, get the nicer guitar that you will probably get more out of in the long run.

pro: the upgrades for the crap guitar can be moved to your next guitar.

pro: any time you customize an instrument it feels like it is tailored to you. mine make me feel special

con: once you start modding you cant take it back without restoring it to origional parts. -and i bet people take back new squires all the time.

by all means price them out. research the options before you buy, when you look at something you think youd like at a music store, play it. ignore the snobby pro behind the counter he doesnt know what you want. -just my take on it, there is no "right answer" here. if this were an acoustic discussion i would never recommend a cheap-built guitar.

for $350 you can buy a used good condition MIJ Ibanez guitar or other decent quality guitars that are actually pro instruments.


heres the problem with buying a squier and upgrading it:

- Neck has a good chance of uneven frets
-Body + neck made with sub par woods
- Bridge goes out of tune
- need to replace the nut on the squier
- need to replace the electronics

that right there is way more than $350, even if you do it yourself.

Which is why, kids, you always play your guitar before you buy it. Buying guitars blindly online leads to bad results.

Bought my ESP on eebay from a U.S seller so I couldn't try it and I must say I love it. No bad results

Well, there are exceptions. ESP usually has pretty good QC. It depends on the brand I guess. I always think it's a good idea to try it before you buy it though.

some good points, but most musicians know to play the instrument beforehand, and check the frets/nut/etc problems beforehand.

Haha, I was so expecting an answer like that, but I totally agree.
Doubt you can really go wrong whenever it's pretty much high-end stuff, unless you're getting it way too cheap.

But yeah, trying before buying is avery very good.

usually when you are dealing with craigslist like i have so many times, the sellers will let you try the guitar.

ESP is a great brand....LTD on the other hand.....


but the cool thing about used guitars is that you can get high end guitars at low - mid end guitar prices. and sometimes you can find them with cool mods

This post was edited by Blackarrowx on Jan 27 2010 01:17am

You sure about that? I've tried one or two LTDs and I must say that for a sub-branch of a major brand, it is fucking awesome quality/price ratio.
And I've also only heard good things about them.