Kosthrash
SS.org Regular
I really dig a lot of Charvel superstrats specwise, they're vfm, as well as the Fender's Dave Murray strat. The king of vfm though is the PRS SE line imho.
What guitars would you consider to be the absolute best value for any price range?
- Thread starter bigswifty
- Start date
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youngthrasher9
Ur Mom Is Too Much Gain
Recent Jackson JS22 and JS32 series guitars with fixed bridges have consistently impressed me sound and playability wise. Finish is hit or miss but they’ve even been set up pretty decent right out of the box and I’ve played probably 10-12 of them at this point.
Agreed. And my RRX24 is great and I think that was around $650 on sale.
Christopher Har V
Real name: Max Prog
Nobody has mentioned Agile yet.
They make great mid-level guitars. Above entry-level, below high-end.
Their hardware and fretwork is always very quality. Even people who hate on them admit their fretwork is chef's kiss
The wood is solid, almost always they use Mahogany for the body, maybe with a maple top. Once you realize how "tone wood" is a complete hoax when it comes to solidbody electric guitars, guitars like Agiles start to look much more attractive. Wood matters more for weight and aesthetic than anything else.
I've almost never seen them sell a guitar fo over $1k. Except for the custom one I ordered from them. But they stopped doing customs, so that sucks.
Some of the extended-scale guitars with a headstock get heavy on the headstock end and don't have a nice centered weight. Its not crazy neck-dive, but it's noticeable and gets fatiguing when paying standing up for an extended period of time. This is the main reason I'm considering switching to a headless guitar, which Agile also makes.
Their house pickups, "Cepheus", are lackluster in my experience. Haven't played the Cepheus pickups since my last purchase of an Agile electric about 8 years ago, so maybe they've improved them since. So if you can set aside an extra $200 or so for a new pair of pickups, the Agiles come to life and IMO are easily in the quality range of a $1200-$1500 guitar. Many of the Agiles come with upgraded pickups built into the price. I see them offer Seymour Duncans or EMG's or Bareknuckles. I got a pair of Bareknuckles in my custom and wasn't impressed; the lead notes lacked body and clean tone sounded generic. So I sold those for a pair of DiMarzios - the Crunch Lab and Liquifire - and my Agile came to life.
One major downside to Agile is that their social media presence is basically non-existent. They do a post like once a year, at most, and it's just a stock photo of a guitar they're selling. This is a huge drawback because a lot of brands will give you a shoutout on their social media if you can put together a decent quality video of you playing their guitar. I've talked to Kurt, the head of Rondo Music who makes Agile Guitars, and he says that even with their practically non-existent social media presence, they will only feature such videos if the guitarist is using a model they are currently selling. Which sucks because a lot of their guitars are no longer being sold. I have 5 Agile guitars, and 4 of them aren't being sold any more. The other one is a 10-string I have no idea what to do with. It is an absolute work of art though and I will never sell it. Speaking of which, if you like crazy hyper-extended range guitars, Agile has got you covered.
So, they are great and I love mine but there are these couple major drawbacks to bear in mind.
Here are their 7 strings:
They make great mid-level guitars. Above entry-level, below high-end.
Their hardware and fretwork is always very quality. Even people who hate on them admit their fretwork is chef's kiss
The wood is solid, almost always they use Mahogany for the body, maybe with a maple top. Once you realize how "tone wood" is a complete hoax when it comes to solidbody electric guitars, guitars like Agiles start to look much more attractive. Wood matters more for weight and aesthetic than anything else.
I've almost never seen them sell a guitar fo over $1k. Except for the custom one I ordered from them. But they stopped doing customs, so that sucks.
Some of the extended-scale guitars with a headstock get heavy on the headstock end and don't have a nice centered weight. Its not crazy neck-dive, but it's noticeable and gets fatiguing when paying standing up for an extended period of time. This is the main reason I'm considering switching to a headless guitar, which Agile also makes.
Their house pickups, "Cepheus", are lackluster in my experience. Haven't played the Cepheus pickups since my last purchase of an Agile electric about 8 years ago, so maybe they've improved them since. So if you can set aside an extra $200 or so for a new pair of pickups, the Agiles come to life and IMO are easily in the quality range of a $1200-$1500 guitar. Many of the Agiles come with upgraded pickups built into the price. I see them offer Seymour Duncans or EMG's or Bareknuckles. I got a pair of Bareknuckles in my custom and wasn't impressed; the lead notes lacked body and clean tone sounded generic. So I sold those for a pair of DiMarzios - the Crunch Lab and Liquifire - and my Agile came to life.
One major downside to Agile is that their social media presence is basically non-existent. They do a post like once a year, at most, and it's just a stock photo of a guitar they're selling. This is a huge drawback because a lot of brands will give you a shoutout on their social media if you can put together a decent quality video of you playing their guitar. I've talked to Kurt, the head of Rondo Music who makes Agile Guitars, and he says that even with their practically non-existent social media presence, they will only feature such videos if the guitarist is using a model they are currently selling. Which sucks because a lot of their guitars are no longer being sold. I have 5 Agile guitars, and 4 of them aren't being sold any more. The other one is a 10-string I have no idea what to do with. It is an absolute work of art though and I will never sell it. Speaking of which, if you like crazy hyper-extended range guitars, Agile has got you covered.
So, they are great and I love mine but there are these couple major drawbacks to bear in mind.
Here are their 7 strings:
S4M4R1N
SS.org Regular
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Vola Guitar Shop
Buy Vola Guitars direct with Shop Vola Guitar. Vola Guitars are the makers of high quality, Made In Japan and USA made guitars.
volaguitars.com
Great price points, can't go wrong with MIJ quality.
We are old now. People have forgotten our history. They don't know what we know.
sigh
Today many serious brands offers good value in lower price range. I'm weak for MIK Schecter and LTD 1000 Series. I can play my EC1000 and Blackjack ATX for hours, while the Eclipse, Les Paul Classic or the other MIJ/USA guitars remains untouched for weeks.
will_shred
Wannabe audio engineer
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I think there's something to be said about a lot of the big brands being pretty consistent. Namely Ibanez, PRS, Epiphone, ESP/LTD, Schecter, and Squire. I also LOVE Yamaha guitars and think they're really slept on. Out of all the major label brands, I see the most problems with new fenders and fender brand things like Jackson and Charvel.
I think the days of old MIJ stuff being a good value are gone considering Grecos are now regularly going for over $1k.
I think the days of old MIJ stuff being a good value are gone considering Grecos are now regularly going for over $1k.
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Kaura
Je suis ketchup
An used Prestige is what it is. A fucking meme. Speaking from personal experience. I'd never touch a new Prestige let alone an used one. Having bought two new ones, both have deteriorated to the point of being almost unplayable in just bedroom usage. And they're just a bit over 10 years old meanwhile my 16 year old MIM Fender that has been to hell and back plays just as good as new.
So to answer the question, biased or not (I prefer the word "experience"). Squiers FTW. There's still some lemons out there but some of their stuff is just nuts good for their price.
So to answer the question, biased or not (I prefer the word "experience"). Squiers FTW. There's still some lemons out there but some of their stuff is just nuts good for their price.
I don't want to fight or argue with you. Your experience is your experience. I'm genuinely curious to know what it is about your Prestiges that went wrong. Could you share some details?
Kaura
Je suis ketchup
Knobs falling apart and troubles with the electronics. Hell, my RG1527 simply died on me out of the sudden back in the day. Turned out that one of the solder joints just came loose out of nowhere. But lke you said, that's my experience. There's always the case that I just happened to get myself two lemons. Wouldn't really be a surprise even on a MIJ guitar. I've tried other MIJ guitars that felt like baby's toy overall quality wise.
OneTwoThrill
SS.org Regular
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A full thread about it is needed
Grindspine
likes pointy things
Ibanez Prestige RGD2127 and PRS CE24 are just such solid player guitars. Both are high quality to cost ratio. I am glad to have one of each!
Neon_Knight_
Well-Known Member
Apparently either you got 2 lemons or I massively lucked out with my 9 Prestiges that are all going strong at up to 20 years old without any issues.
Neon_Knight_
Well-Known Member
I'm right with you on the RGD2127. I own the Z variant...whcih do you have? They're not the flashiest model, and they definitely benefit from a pickup upgrade, but solid and great playability (as I've come to expect from Prestiges).
I'm not too familiar with the various PRS lines. Is CE their cheapest (but not cheap!) 'Made in USA' models?
nightsprinter
resident pat metheny fanatic
Love/Hate relationship with Agile here. Had a Septor 827 that had a really nice maple fingerboard, but one of the frets was beveled in so far it would make the EBMM shop blush. Couldn't fret the high E string on it without it slipping off that particular fret. The bridge placement was such that the F# wouldn't intonate with an .080, headstock is illegal to carry in NYC, nut slots filed too low, and the thing refused to hold tune even after I fixed all that stuff. Had a nice veneer top and a decent neck, so I'm willing to give them another try now that they're seemingly decapitation specialists.
