Pro guitarists who play cheap guitars

[teamSKDM]

I'm friends with a day to remembers guitarists brother, and their guitarist Neil plays a ton of made in China schecters along side Gibson les Paul's.

 

[Analog Kid]

The brilliant Peter Hammill - who plays a bottom of range Squier Affinity and saw him last month - just brilliant



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[LLink2411]

Anyone mention Jack White yet?

 

[Malkav]

Buke & Gass - They literally make their own guitars and amps Let's just say that they're not Walterson when it comes to their homebuilds

Yngwie Malmsteen plays a Squier live, generally for the last song in his set, he then proceeds to smash it so lol.

Wasn't Kurt Cobain's Jaguar or something like shit cheap? Or he brought it really cheap?

Likewise with the Jazzmaster J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr used to use, I believe at least there was a lot of that kind of thing with "grunge"

I can't really think of anyone who does out of choice and not for endorsement reasons really...

Also regarding the wood debate that seems to have reared it's ugly head, to which my opinion of I shall keep to myself, I just wanna say that what really irritates me is when people say Mahogany has a dark tone and I'm just like "What species of Mahogany you douchehole?" likewise with Rosewood, it's one of the most bullshit things the guitar industry has roped everyone into - Here's the entire family of wood, we're now going to claim that despite the fact that there are a whole bunch of sub species to that family with lots of differences between them (E.g Sapele is a part of the Mahogany family but it's quite a dense hard wood, so it's "tonal imprint" should be a lot closer to that of Maple) they now all share the exact same sonic characteristics... .... off...

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Yngwie Malmsteen plays a Squier live, generally for the last song in his set, he then proceeds to smash it so lol.

Vai would do the same thing with RG350 and RG450 models when playing stuff like The Attitude Song.

I wouldn't exactly call it "pro playing cheap" when the whole idea is that they're just going to use it for one song, then destroy it.

Wasn't Kurt Cobain's Jaguar or something like shit cheap? Or he brought it really cheap?

Likewise with the Jazzmaster J Mascis of Dinosaur Jr used to use, I believe at least there was a lot of that kind of thing with "grunge"

A lot of those guys were really lucky they bought those guitars before the vintage market exploded some years later. While they might have purchased the guitars for cheap at the time, they were by no means "cheap" in the sense of build or materials.

In fact, the Jaguar and Jazzmaster were higher end Fender models when sold new, they just didn't have the allure back then so were sold cheap.

That said, Kurt Cobain did like buying and using cheaper guitars like the import Strats and funky 60's/70's Japanese creations from pawn shops.

 

[will_shred]

Nile. They use moslty dean 79 series guitars and they are usually under $500. I seen older picktures of them using imported jackson's or bc ich's.

Don't they use USA customs now? I know Karl was rocking a USA custom 7 string in the studio for the new album, and in the music video for Enduring the Eternal Molestation of Flame.


Also, I haven't read the whole thread but has anyone mentioned Rob Chapman? I'm not sure if it's just for shameless self promotion but he seems to sware by his brand of guitars, above his ESP's, PRS's and his Huf custom. Given, I've never heard anything but great things about Chapman guitars, but better than a Huf or custom 24?

 

[will_shred]

Apparently no one has mentioned Paul Gilbert and his new signature, the Fireman something or other. It's reasonably priced and he seems to be using it almost exclusively nowadays.

Yeah, he has several LACS models but for touring he uses the off the shelf FRM100.

 

[breadtruck]

Also, I haven't read the whole thread but has anyone mentioned Rob Chapman? I'm not sure if it's just for shameless self promotion but he seems to sware by his brand of guitars, above his ESP's, PRS's and his Huf custom. Given, I've never heard anything but great things about Chapman guitars, but better than a Huf or custom 24?

It's probably a bit of both self-promotion and that he loves how it sounds/plays. I mean come on, if you had your own guitar company then of course you would spend a lot of time playing your own models. They're made to your specifications after all. If they are at least half decent then you'd proudly want to play it a lot and take it to the stage etc.

 

[jonajon91]

Come on, Devin Townsend using Peavy guitars! I know he plays framus as well, but he has a peavy signature model!

 

[MaxOfMetal]

Come on, Devin Townsend using Peavy guitars!

He hasn't really used his sig a lot though, it was in development hell long enough for the project he wanted it for to finish up.

All the actual Peaveys he used were USA custom shop models, and while CS Peaveys aren't incredibly expensive, they are by no means cheap.

 

[TheWarAgainstTime]

Upon a Burning Body plays Peavey Tomb IIs. They are like $300 guitars.

This, though they were using Halo Tele 7's when I saw them at Warped Tour back in July. Still not expensive/high-end by any means, but maybe a little better than the Peavey's.

Then again, they are Halos

 

[acrcmb]

Chino Moreno from Deftones used an epiphone g400 a bit around the release of white pony

 

[abandonist]

Thou play off the rack Epiphones.

 

[Wrecklyss]

Dave Rude of Tesla plays Epiphones

 

[taliababa]

Hetfield does use a LTD whenever they play stuff from St Anger. It's his Grynch model. Fortunately, it's rare for them to play any St Anger song these past few years.

 

[jimwratt]

The question is why would they? Sure, you can get a $3-500 to play like a 3k guitar, if you dump another $3-500 into it, but it's less work to get a more expensive model that's ready to roll out of the gate. If you have even a partial endorsement deal that covers maybe 50% of any instrument from a given company, a $500 instrument for you is actually a $1000 axe for us.

That said, I don't think guitars are like basketball shoes for example. A Lebron James or Michael Jordan basketball shoe represents like $10 worth of materials and labor but gets marked up to an obscene price. When I look at a Strandberg, I'm, at the very least, not perceiving that level of mark up. Obviously Ola is netting a profit, but we're also not getting ripped off.

 

[will_shred]

The question is why would they?

why take your expensive axes on the road, when you can just not do that?

I mean seriously, I'm sure a lot of people don't tour with their most expensive guitars.

Plus in some cases, take maybe Jeff Loomis for example. I wonder how many guitars he gets from schecter for free? and all in all, Schecters are pretty nice guitars. I don't know what kind of high end guitars he might own, but I've never seen him play one. I only ever see him with off the shelf Schecters. My guess is because they're pretty good, and he can get them for free. Why spend more money on guitars when you can spend it on amps? hahah.

 

[IbanezDaemon]

It's the player that makes the guitar not the other way around. Put Paul Gilbert for instance on a cheapie guitar and he's still gonna make it sound good.

Sorry if that views been posted but I didn't have time to go thru the all the posts in the thread.

 

[FireInside]

Hetfield does use a LTD whenever they play stuff from St Anger. It's his Grynch model. Fortunately, it's rare for them to play any St Anger song these past few years.

Not exactly cheap and rare as hell. I think they only made a couple hundred of them.

 

[farren]

It's the player that makes the guitar not the other way around. Put Paul Gilbert for instance on a cheapie guitar and he's still gonna make it sound good.

Sorry if that views been posted but I didn't have time to go thru the all the posts in the thread.

I don't entirely agree with that as tone has made it hard for me to enjoy quite a few guitarists as much as I otherwise might (usually thanks to EMGs), but I'm just glad you didn't go so far as to say "tone is all in the fingers" and suggest pickups don't matter as many an elderly gentleman or young golden-ageist has said on more traditional guitar forums. Cheap guitars can most certainly be equipped to sound great, though.