So, that B stock a legator arrived.

[G_3_3_k_]

It's funny how two different players can have such different perspectives on guitars. I don't think that lower priced are toys at all, in fact generally I just see them as the same thing as high priced guitars made by foreign luthiers with worse parts. But I'm not like, a collecter kind of dude, I am a player. I just want them made dimensionally correct, I'll take care of the rest if need be. Rarely do I see a major brand offering a cheap guitar that is dimensionally and fundamentally made incorrectly, at least to the degree that I see here.

The Legator was made wrong, and is mechanically unsalvagable.

I understand. And if you don't mind the differences, thats great. To me, in the case of a $200 guitar, if it plays ok, and sounds halfway decent, you got lucky. You could absolutely salvage the pickup cavity with a wood block cut to the right dimensions and use dowels to plug the mount holes on the bridge and re-route and re drill the guitar to get the geometry right and give it a good fret dressing. There will be some irregularities in the finish because of it. But what would you rather have? Good finish or a guitar that plays right? If the wood is decent quality, it would absolutely be worth the time to salvage the guitar. Toss some good pickups in it and you'd have a good player for less than buying one off the shelf. I generally don't buy from companies that exploit laborers or set unrealistic standards for the price of a guitar. So I don't buy from the big names generally for that reason. I don't run into many guitars that do have crazy issues anymore because of it.

 

[Hollowway]

Eh, I disagree about $179 guitars from other manufacturers routinely having string alignment issues and bridges placed in the wrong spot. I mean, I guess they’re out there, but generally I think it’s amazing what quality you can get for a sub $200 guitar these days. I’ve not seen fundamental issues, like poor routes, misaligned bridges, etc on any major company production instruments. Just stuff like poorly crowned frets, high buts, etc.

 

[KnightBrolaire]

yeah my cheap agiles/LTDs, jacksons, ibbys and squiers never had bad routes or misaligned bridges. There were some clear coat issues or electronics issues on some of them, but for what I paid for most of those guitars, that's perfectly acceptable to me (plus electronics are a stupidly easy fix). Structural issues are not. I've played and owned A LOOOOOT of cheaper guitars over the years, and generally speaking 200+$ will get you a pretty solid guitar anymore in terms of general functionality.
case in point, my modded tele made from cheap ass squier parts:

 

[USMarine75]

You can get a lot of guitar for cheap money these days:

^ $150 IIRC - looks fake relic'd but it's actually 30 years old lol. Plays flawless and sounds killer.

^$399 brand new, MII and flawless. Sounds 10/10 with the G&L wide dynamic pickups. MF regularly has the G&L teles and strats for $250-399 SDOTD

$250 IIRC with case for Samick "strat" with flamed maple neck and fretboard (+$150 for Fluence SSS pickups)

$399 shipped brand new

 

[Lord Voldemort]

Eh. Yeah, I mean I completely agree with these guys, that's been my experience in cheap guitars as well. I go through a lot of cheap stuff, while having like a single expensive thing. It's kind of like my little deal with my wife, I have some monthly or bi-monthly money that goes to guitars and guitar related stuff, but it's nothing too substantial. So for now I have a Strandberg that was like, 2 grand, and that's my expensive guitar. I have like 3 or 4 cheap ones, legator included, laying around that rotate all the time. So I know cheap guitars very intimately and I actually love cheap guitars, I just haven't seen one with these problems to this level literally ever.

I think this experiment was successful, while disappointing. There's a lot of melodramatic guitar Karen's out there that criticize guitars so emphatically that it's hard to know what's good and what's bad.

But Legator is bad, that's the synapses of this experiment. They have more bad guitars than other brands, and the lemons they put out are sincerely incredibly flawed, far more flawed than one would ever expect to find on a guitar that made it out of a factory from any reputable brand.

The hype is real, don't buy legator.

 

[GenghisCoyne]

was the nostril flair at 9:14 meant to assert dominance? because i feel threatened

 

[Lord Voldemort]

was the nostril flair at 9:14 meant to assert dominance? because i feel threatened

What nostril flare, what you trying say son you trying to throw hands right now because I swear to God I will knock you, uh...actually maybe I was asserting dominance. Hm.

 

[Merrekof]

How are they still in business?

Because they are cheap! People will always fall for it. I work in construction and see it with cheap power tools. It works, but that's about it. You can't make quality without quality tools.
Also a lot of people just don't have the money. Not to brag but I can buy a 200$ guitar every month without problems but there are lots of folks in the world who can't even buy one in a year with their wages.

 

[7-request]

Because they are cheap! People will always fall for it. I work in construction and see it with cheap power tools. It works, but that's about it. You can't make quality without quality tools.
Also a lot of people just don't have the money. Not to brag but I can buy a 200$ guitar every month without problems but there are lots of folks in the world who can't even buy one in a year with their wages.

True... I only can afford to buy guitar (around 400-600 usd new or used) one in every 5 years... Kinda

2005 bought new RG1527 (600usd) at that time they didnt have hardcase...

2012 bought used cort m600 (150usd) gotta have 6 strings

2013 bought b-stock RGIR27FE (300usd)

2019 i was Thinking to get legator ninja 7 strings and 2 weeks ago (2019) bought used km7 mk1 LOR (550usd) (ngd threads coming)



And my friends still think i rich...

 

[G_3_3_k_]

I have one electric. I'd rather have one or two sick guitars that can be versatile, than several that only get attention every once in a while.

 

[Obsidian Soul]

True... I only can afford to buy guitar (around 400-600 usd new or used) one in every 5 years... Kinda

2005 bought new RG1527 (600usd) at that time they didnt have hardcase...

2012 bought used cort m600 (150usd) gotta have 6 strings

2013 bought b-stock RGIR27FE (300usd)

2019 i was Thinking to get legator ninja 7 strings and 2 weeks ago (2019) bought used km7 mk1 LOR (550usd) (ngd threads coming)

View attachment 75080

And my friends still think i rich...

That picture looks tasty

 

[jephjacques]

Yeah you can definitely get a better guitar than that for the money.

 

[TomParenteau]

Since it's a bolt-on, can you loosen the neck joint (loosen the strings first, or course) and pull the strings into better alignment? I see the countersunk screw holes in the body will limit that adjustability, but maybe you can get something out of it. Pull the headstock upward, or in the direction of the bass side, and tighten the neck joint screws.

 

[Jonathan20022]

I think this experiment was successful, while disappointing. There's a lot of melodramatic guitar Karen's out there that criticize guitars so emphatically that it's hard to know what's good and what's bad.

But Legator is bad, that's the synapses of this experiment. They have more bad guitars than other brands, and the lemons they put out are sincerely incredibly flawed, far more flawed than one would ever expect to find on a guitar that made it out of a factory from any reputable brand.

The hype is real, don't buy legator.

I hope you realize at the end of the day, I really did hope you have a positive experience with this Legator. But like I said before, it's not really an experiment and therefore not enough of a sample size to make a statement that Legator is good or Legator is bad. They've just been historically worse than they have been good, so when you told us you bought one for the sake of just trying it out and documenting your experience it doesn't change the historical view people have on the company which from personal experience is so bad that it's not worth wasting any cash on.

You said earlier that you think cheap guitars are just high end guitars made with worse parts and hardware and that's not correct. You can make the argument that the components of the guitar hardware are as good as they are and wood is just wood, but the wood passing through the hands of skilled luthiers in high end companies is treated with more care and given more time to settle so when clients receive them they do not run into issues. And what you see in guitars that are compromises just about everywhere, it's lower quality wood that can be bought in bulk with workers spending less time on each instrument because that Luthier's time is worth more than the profit that guitar will make.

That's why Legator's business model is terrible, they lure you in with multiscale, ERG, finishes, pickups, etc. And some of that shit doesn't even make a difference because you get a guitar with the bridge misaligned and several other issues.

 

[op1e]

I'm the $200 guitar guy. And in 30 years I've never had a bad Squier. Hell I've had 2 Grendels and the worst was sharp frets. Any Douglas has been fine.
I get setups and replace most the electronics/pickups. But never fitment issues from the factory.

 

[QUADDITY]

Did you try Legator customer service and see if they would do anything about it since it doesn't fit the description of fully functional?

 

[Lord Voldemort]

Did you try Legator customer service and see if they would do anything about it since it doesn't fit the description of fully functional?

No. An owner did comment on my video post on a Facebook group, basically saying that he knew these sucked hence the price, but I haven't contacted them.

I have already modded it with new pickups, I don't think I could send it back if I tried.

 

[kingpinMS3]

If legator fucked up a $1500 semi-custom, twice(see the video review from arnold plays guitar on youtube) i wouldn't put it past them to put out a seriously steaming pile of shit at $180.