Finding Good Cheap Guitars

It is always a tricky thing when you put together the words "good and cheap." This is the case when it comes to finding good cheap guitars. We must remember to look at the word "cheap" two different ways. One, the guitar is inexpensive or two, its just plain garbage. We will be speaking to both meanings in this article. You can own a sweet instrument without spending a lot of money. There are several things you can do in order to be satisfied with the purchasing of cheap guitars. Lets take a look at a few points that will help you make a wise decision.

General Considerations
One of the most important things to keep in mind is, how does the guitar feel when you hold it, as well as the quality of sound it produces. With a few exceptions the guitar will be made from quality wood such as walnut, hickory or rosewood. Avoid guitars made out of composite materials. They just do not resonate sound like wood does. (There are a few exceptions to this rule.)

The shape is important as well. How it fits your body while your sitting down or the feel of balance if you are standing up. Pick a shape that makes it feel like it is a extension of your body. Visit a local music store and have an employee or a friend play several guitars and listen for a sound that is the most pleasing to your ears.
Note:( When you decide to purchase, do so on-line. You WILL pay less there.)

Replace Tuner Heads and Pickups
You will be amazed at how much better a guitar can sound by replacing cheap pickups with ones that have strong name recognition. There are several to choose from. Find pickups that fit your style. Also the tuner heads on cheap guitars often do not stay in tune very well. Again there are several quality heads that will be fine replacements. Simply doing these two things will narrow your search in finding good cheap guitars and boost your guitars performance quite a bit. They are easy to do using simple tools.

Be Willing to Spend $100 or More
In your pursuit of finding good cheap guitars the most important thing to keep in mind is maintaining that passion to practice. Especially for beginners it is essential that you own a guitar that you just can not wait to play when you get home. If you own something that is really cheap, you will not be enthusiastic about playing it. From my experience plan on spending at least $100 or you will end up with a dust collector.

Check Out Reviews and Ratings
Finally, spend some time on the Internet researching and learning.You will need to educate yourself on the vast array of options available to you. There is a huge amount of selection out there. Many guitar manufacturers are battling for your dollars. That being the case, competition is fierce, and companies are producing fine guitars at a fair price. The most difficult thing in finding good cheap guitars is deciding between all the options you have.

The good news is, there are websites out there that have done the research for you.

It can be frustrating weeding through all the forums and blogs out there while trying to find cheap guitars. If you want to see several 5 star guitars for under $500 all in one place, check out my website Cheap Guitars

I have been in the music business since the early 70's. My goal is to bring all the reviewed guitars and related gear to one place. Saving you the time of running all over the Internet.
Gold Top Musician- Researcher
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=T._Gibson

Ibanez, heavy metal axe

beside the legendary guitar such as Fender stratocaster or Gibson les paul, there is also the "Ibanez". The main guitar that exclusively used by rock musician. here is a brief history of ibanez guitar, how can a japanese product used a spanish name and more.







The Hoshino Gakki company began in 1908 as a musical instrument sales division of the Hoshino Shoten bookstore company. In 1935 they began manufacturing their own stringed instruments. The company had little presence in the Western world until the mid-1960s.

In 1954, Harry Rosenbloom opened a music store in Ardmore, Pennsylvania, northwest of Philadelphia along with his main store on Arch Street. In the mid-1970s, Harry moved his entire operation to the location it is today, in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. Due to the post-World War II music boom, his sales soon outstripped his inventory, and he began a company called Elger Guitars (named so after his son Gerson who is now running the business and his daughter Ellen) in an attempt to manufacture enough guitars to fill his needs. The Elger Guitar company made a relatively small number of hand-built, high quality guitars through the early 1960s.

Ibanez JEMBy 1965 Rosenbloom had decided to stop manufacturing guitars and chose to become the exclusive North American distributor for Hoshino Gakki instruments. At the time, the phrase "made in Japan" was considered to have negative connotations of low quality, so Hoshino Gakki and Rosenbloom wanted to distribute the instruments under a "non-Japanese" name. Hoshino had recently acquired a small Spanish guitar company named Ibanez, and it was decided to market the instruments under this brand name. In 1971 Hoshino purchased Elger Guitars, renaming the company "Ibanez U.S.A." and retaining the company headquarters in Bensalem, Pennsylvania as a distribution and quality-control center.

In the early 1970s Ibanez began making guitars that were almost exact copies of popular models by Gibson, Fender and Rickenbacker. Using somewhat cheaper materials and greater automation in manufacturing, they were able to sell these guitars for a significantly lower price than the originals. The low price combined with the relatively high quality of the guitars made these models very popular. Many guitar aficionados feel that the early- and mid-70s mark a low point in the quality of guitars from the major manufacturers, which helped contribute to the popularity of the Ibanez copies. These guitars have become known as "lawsuit" guitars and have become somewhat collectible.

The actual lawsuit referred to was brought by the Norlin Corporation, the parent company of Gibson guitars, in 1977, and was based on an Ibanez headstock design that had been discontinued by 1976. Ibanez settled out of court, and by 1978 had begun making guitars from their own designs.





Abandoning the strategy of copying "classic" electric guitar designs, the newer models began incorporating more modern elements into their design, such as radical body shapes, slimmer necks and flatter fingerboards (which allowed for faster playing), higher-output electronics and colorful finishes. This led to an increasing popularity with heavy metal musicians. The company also began an extensive program of consulting with well-known guitar players, such as Joe Satriani and Steve Vai and creating signature models made to the players' specifications.