Guitars brands, who owns who?

Started by Elantric, May 10, 2017, 12:54:49 PM

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Elantric


Mrchevy

Great info! It also explains why paying big bucks for major brands is a waste of money in most cases. For example, I have a Custom Shop built Les Paul Custom. Made in USA and more hands on workmanship than the regular production LP line. It is my baby and it plays like a dream and sounds so sweet. I have done a few tweaks to it to make it mine but is definitely a fine crafted instrument. It's final stages had eyes and hands on by seasoned builders. I have recently over the last year or two, been considering adding a second LP to my stable because we all know we all need just one more guitar to make life complete :). I have been looking at Standards. After playing dozens of reg production guitars, not one has felt worth a crap or sounded any better than the Epiphones for 1/4 the cost. The setups were abysmal and some I couldn't even get to tune up properly. Really! a $2000-$3000 guitar that you cant get  it to even tune up. I'm sure with some good setup work they would be fine but come on!

Another brand I have tried really hard to like is PRS guitars. There is such a hub bub over these but have played many and never been impressed at all, whether it was the USA made or the SE line, cheap or high end ones. Last week I was checking some out and played a few in the $2000-$4000 range and also some SE's in the $600-$900 range. While there were some subtle differences, there was not (to me) several thousand in difference. Then I tried out a 2017 PRS SE Custom 24 Floyd Rose model. $899 and made in Korea. This guitar played and felt SO much better than anything I tried previously from Gibson, Epiphone, PRS, or PRS SE. Nice action, very fast feel, sounded great, very nice workmanship, AND, after dive bombing the enemy and destroying every building in site, it still stayed in perfect tune. After some hard negotiations with the enemy (GC) I came home with it for $805 out the door and free string club membership. It rivals my LP Custom and cost 1/5 the price. Once again proving, boys and girls, to buy the guitar, not the name or price tag. Now days the saying "you get what you pay for" doesn't mean squat in my book. Everything now days is made with pieces-parts from who knows where and built by who knows who.

Ignore the name, ignore the price, and find the one that just feels right. On a side note, I am bummed because I have not been able to, nor does it look like this guitar will accommodate a GK3 pickup. Many factors with action height, clearance between bridge and bridge pickup, volume knob location, just don't allow for a satisfactory install without permanent/non-reversible mods to guitar. I have a pickup trim ring but even mounted flat to the top of guitar the GK3 clearance is barely 1mm. I would have to raise the bridge a bit and that puts the action a bit high for my liking. Too bad because the string spacing at the bridge is dead on perfect.
Gibson Les Paul Custom
Epi Les Paul Standard
Gibson SG 50's prototype
Squire classic vibe 60's
Epi LP Modern
Epi SG Custom
Martin acoustic

Princeton chorus 210

GT100
GR-55
Helix LT
Waza Air Headphones
Boomerang III

And, a lot of stuff I DON'T need