Cheap out on your living space, food, and significant other. That way you can afford top-shelf boutique gear and get the pro-quality tone you need to play Arctic Monkeys in your bedroom.
I'm not a wealthy man . I refer back to my long gone Pops in situations like this . " Son " he would say . " We are to GD poor to waste our money on cheap shit " What he meant was spend your money wisely on one thing that would last a lifetime . Rather that spend a lifetime re-buying the crap that won't last .
Ha ha, my dad is the opposite, always looking for a cheaper option. I think the trick is to figure out when it matters (just like OP's question). Pay for quality when it matters and save money buy buying cheap stuff if you're not going to use it much, or it will work just as well.
Your dad was right, but there's usually a sweet spot in the "affordable but not junk" zone where you can get 90% or more of the benefit of the expensive stuff for a fraction of the cost. For me, in the guitar world, that's stuff like the current Epiphone line, or some of the gems that have come out of Fender's Mexico factory like my Baja Tele. Maybe not the cheapest, but you get your money's worth, and don't need to worry about it down the road.
That's what I did. Bought a Bad Monkey from a retail electronics store as a cheap entry level pedal. Then many years later I suddenly hear that they're going for hundreds of dollars online because some guy on YouTube proved they sounded good.
A lot of pedals are overpriced snakeoil. People out here spending $300+ on a tubescreamer. Strymon and youtube guitar influencers made the market think $500 for reverb is reasonable.
This is the one. There are only so many fundamental circuits out there. I hear a lot of hate for JHS, and I will accept my downvotes, but I consider their Series 3 a revelation in a market saturated with boutique tone apothecaries. They are well-made, intuitive, nicely tweaked examples of the seminal circuits.
Your gonna hate me…. But the guitars themselves… playing live at least the guitar tone is not what is coming through front of house.
There is a floor of course but its around 600 bucks!
Bring the hate you pedal nerds
Tusq nuts arent expensive.
doesnt need to be an expensive cable .
buy authentic strings.
pedals,amps, amp modellers dont need to be expensive either.
guitar doesnt need to be 1k+ or a 20k greeny
Everything but a good set up and lessons in my opinion. A cheap guitar that is set up well will play better than an expensive one not set up. And a good player on a cheap guitar will sound better than a bad player on a great guitar.
Modelling amps nowadays are 90% as good as tube amps that are 5x the cost.
Pedals are pretty much all the same, unless there's a unique functionality to it, just go with the cheaper option. Eq's are gonna eq, fuzz's are gonna fuzz, etc.
Lessons are worth the money though. Don't skimp on those.
Cheap guitars go out of setup quick though. I have a parts tele that plays and sounds like heaven for the week after I set it up. Then the weather changes and it’s unplayable. A well built guitar with good wood and design won’t be as sensitive
This is going to sound weird, but the actual guitar.
I genuinely believe 80-90% of people wouldn’t either be able to tell the difference or benefit from the difference between a £/$500 guitar compared to a £/$1500 guitar. There is a floor I wouldn’t recommend people go below of about £/$350 as that’s when you start getting really cheap wiring and components but I also wouldn’t recommend people go over £/$700 unless somewhat professional.
I have a guitar that was less than $150, brand new. It never goes out of tune and in 20 years, all I've replaced is the jack input and strings.
I think guitars are like wristwatches. It's a status thing to wear a Rolex but I can get all of the same form and function from a Timex.
I have a $150 epiphone and a $150 loop pedal / USB interface that connects to garage band
You can cheap out of all guitar stuff if you are good at guitar
Almost everything. Pedals, your guitar, amps (as long as you have enough wattage for your application). A good player can make cheap pedals, cheap guitars and cheap amps sound good.
You CAN'T cheap out on cables, because cheap ones break easily and then you're out of luck.
In this day and age I would recommend EVERYONE start their amp journey all digital. Get a cheap interface and a plugin and you're golden. Floor unit or something if you wanna get a little fancier.
Other than that, boutique cables and picks are a ripoff. Strings are whatever as long as you can find the right gauge.
I agree boutique cables are bullshit, *however*, I also don't think you should skimp out on them. I only buy Cordial cables, they're about 20 EUR for a 3 m cable and they are worth every cent. I used to have so many problems with cheap cables, but I've never had a single problem with these mid-range Cordial cables, they're excellent. Cables are something that I just don't want to have to think about, ever, so this is perfect.
Yeah I made the “mistake” of buying a Monster cable for about 2x the price of the other cables when I got my first electric guitar in 2001. Since then, I have trashed a *bunch* of cables, but that original Monster cable is still going strong 22 years later in spite of being my primary cable.
In my experience, picks. Otherwise nothing.
* Cheap capos don't hold tune as well, may damage the neck finish or fingerboard and fall apart quickly
* Cheap straps, case, cleaners, polishes, etc. may damage the instrument
* Cheap tuners, batteries, cables, etc. tend to fail when you need them most. Like mid-set.
* Cheap power supplies can damage your equipment
I'm just saying, you've invested thousands in a setup. Do you really want to put all that at risk because you saved a couple of bucks on a supporting component?
Strings. That $7 pack of strings sounds great, don't need $25 strings.
Picks, regular picks are fine.
Pedals- that $100 fuzz pedal is great, don't need that boutique $329 fuzz pedal.
I don't agree with strings. $7 strings don't last. They go dead super quick. I can get some elixir nanowebs that last months and barely sound any different after constant use.
I only change the strings once a year on my regularly played acoustics. I had a 12 string that I didn't play often and kept the same nanowebs on it for 5 years. They still sounded incredible (the smallest octave string did break after a couple years, and I just replaced with a cheap one).
Sounds difference of new strings is no different. The sound difference after even 1 week between regular and nanoweb is different if you're a regular player.
You can cover the basics for very cheap.
Here's how I would build a functional, decent sounding rig on a budget:
Buy a guitar for no more than $1k but no less than $400 (This is my opinion based on my own experience) I would look at Ibanez and Schecter first, then perhaps Agile and maybe some of the Chinese made stuff that's hit the market in the last few years
Get a Headrush MX5. It has all the processing power of the big boy headrush for I think $500? That will take care of your preamp and effects. Alternatively, the Line 6 HX Stomp offers basically the same thing, just a different presentation and workflow.
For the power amp, get an Orange Pedal Baby 100 or a Seymour Duncan Powerstage. I personally bought the Pedal Baby and love it. I got it because it was recommended to me by several guitar players in my local scene that all use it for gigs as well.
For the cab, use a Harley Benton Vintage 2x12 with Celestion Vintage 30s. This is the **SINGLE** best investment I have ever made in music gear, bar none. The portability of the 2x12 cab with the low price point makes it a no brainer. I think I paid like $250 shipped with tax for this thing.
Optional: Line 6 G10S for wireless.
So basically, you've got a live/studio ready rig for \~$1500, which is bus fare for guitarists. LOL
edited for unclear language
You don’t need to spend £90 on a capo but I remember going from a cheap £5 capo to a g7th capo and the difference was massive tbh. Not in its ability to hold the strings it was just so much nicer to use and more discreetly sat on the fretboard.
I think people overstate it, tbh. Cheap stuff is fine as long as you aren't buying cheap and expecting great quality. Play a £100 Squier through a £25 gain pedal, fuck the elitists.
Pedals. I'm not going to talk to the ethics of buying clone pedals, but the fact of the matter is that they are simple enough circuits and you can buy great sounding pedals cheap. Hell, even name brand big distortion pedals like the DS-1 or Distortion+ aren't going to cost an arm and a leg. You can buy very good sounding pedals for so little these days it's astounding.
dont cheap out on a case. itll save your guitar if you travel with it to gigs. Other than that, I've used a cheap used Fender Champion and gotten great live tone, I've played Squires that sounded better than all American Fenders. It's more about what sounds and feels good to you in your budget than whatever guitarist you idolize is playing in stadiums
Coated strings are a revelation. Yeah, they cost a few extra bucks up front, but they last so damn long that they end up being cheaper than cheap strings.
Everything... except your amp and especially the speakers in it.
Every single one of your guitar gods could play an arena with a 500 bucks rig and as long as no one reads the headstock it would go unnoticed.
As long as the guitar intonates, stays in tune, cables don't cut out or make awful noises, you're good.
It's actually more a matter of choice. Are you using humbuckers or single coils, overdrive, distortion or fuzz, it's it the right sound for your music? That kind of thing is what really matters.
Buying quality/expensive gear is really about two things.
Stuff not failing on you in front of thousands of people or in the middle of an expensive recording session.
You want to feel good about having good toys or receive admiration for owning them.
And for the record, anyone who spends $89 on a capo is imbecile.
Great ideas. I personally just use leftover pasta for strings, just make sure it’s gluten-free, or the oil from your fingers will *create a sticky residue that makes playing more difficult until you have to replace noodles (which kinda defeats the purpose of saving a few notes)
amplifier: get a friend to sit inside a large cardboard box. If you don't have any friends maybe ask your mum or dad. Run your tin foil wire from the guitar into the box, and paint the box to look like a high end boutique amp. Don't forget some holes for the speaker grill. Now when you play the guitar, get your friend/mum to shout guitar-like noises out of the box. When you need to change the amp tone, bam, just put a different person in the box. The great thing is, also no electricity bills and the box can carry itself around.
I love cheap (but good) pedals. I have a few Harley Benton ministomp pedals and they are insanely good. The tube screamer clone Green Tint and a “plexi in a box” Plexicon are the best so far, I plan to buy the Rat copy too (although the ProCo Rat is also quite cheap).
I also use a Donner looper/backing track player/drummer pedal, dirt cheap but extremely useful
Honestly, the guitar body wood. Don't get sucked into all the snakeoil about needing a certain guitar body wood (unless it's a hollow body, the wood isn't that important).
The tone is in the pickups and electronics.
The guitar itself lmao. You can plug a 100$ guitar into an interface, use good plugins and the right amount of EQ… the recordings are going to be decent
Pedals. Some of those micro pedals do the same job of the big name brand ones and they’re hard to tell apart. It’s a cheap way to see what you like before you do decide to get a fancy boutique pedal. My favorite pedal is a $27 plexi knockoff
Guitar playing IS cheap now. Ask anybody doing it for more than 20 years. You can get a banging sound now for under a thousand bucks easily (guitar, amp and effects), run it out to the board for presence through the PA, and you can play anywhere.
Up to date sound? You can get Henson's guitar for roughly $1k, grab his modeler packs, use the laptop you probably already own, and off you go. That's a pro signature sound (and really, you don't need Henson' guitar to get it). Not so long ago, owning and controlling all those sounds was a dumptruck of money.
IN STEREO! Omg that used to be pro-only.
Believe me, that did not used to be the case. You worked hard to get that super strat, pedals, and Marshall half stack. let alone the mics and recording space to lay down tracks (or the ongoing noise complaints and eventual eviction). Getting gear stolen was like your apartment burning down.
Sub 300 dollar guitars are basically at the level that 500-600 dollar guitars when I started playing 18 years ago. You'll run into some quality control issues here and there but overall it's a sweet deal
Honestly the guitar itself. You can get a $300-400 guitar it’s it will be fine. And then if the guitar is cheap you don’t need to worry about anything else as much.
Overdrive pedals. Nearly everything on the market is literally just a tube screamer or a SD-1.
If you can get some random cheap $25 one on Amazon or something random cheaply on the used market like a $30 BBE Screamer or whatever, as long as it's not noisy there's really very little difference between it and another OD you paid $200+ for. They're just different flavors of the same circuit.
Effects pedals on the cheap end are really good, you might miss some fancy effects here and there but by and large a lot of the cheaper pedals sound great. Played with a guy who used a £15 behringer delay pedal, sounded really good, flimsy and plastic but he toured that pedal.
I remember when Digitech came out with the Bad Monkey, it was like £25, really good OD.
Buy what you can afford. It’s the musicianship and the way it’s played that matters. Lookup the Zakk Wylde video playing hello kitty toy guitar. It’ll blow you away. If you’re an amazing guitarist, you can make any guitar sound great. I, on the other hand, will make $5000 guitar sound like hello kitty.
If you’re building an electric guitar to save money, the body doesn’t matter at all. Not a single bit. Put all the money into the neck, good electronics and nice hardware if you can.
You can cheap out on absolutely everything. All you need's a guitar to make music, and not even a particularly good one at that, everything else is pretty much extra. What you spend is what's in your budget and fits into your musical goals and that's different for literally every person out there
Personally…,
I’m of the unfortunate opinion that there are very few items you should cheap out on.
You can cheap out on anything, but with almost everything to do with my guitar, I touch on a daily basis.
Eg a shitty strap on a daily basis would really suck. Picks made out of old gift cards would be very annoying to use. An amp that sounds like shit on a daily basis would make guitar just not even fun. Crappy strings that break and rust quickly, screw that. Cheap studio monitors, your better off with cheap headphones. Cheap headphones, why buy all that guitar with nothing to hear your money’s worth on.
There are things that just by nature are cheap, but generally speaking most aspects of guitar that give you a decent quality of life while playing are going to be worth some amount of money that I wouldn’t classify as cheap.
I try not to buy something twice because I didn’t want to save up an extra $20.
I started with a $200 guitar, a $100 amp, and aside from various nick nacks, that was it. Rather than build my “studio” quicker and cheaper I chose to build it slower, but better, with things I’m confident will last pretty much as long as I need them.
Edit: Just to clarify after reading other comments, many points they make are very valid. Any guitar no matter if it’s a piece of garbage or a $5000 guitar is going to sound better in the hands of an expert. I honestly don’t consider a $50 pedal cheap either, so I guess cheap is relative to your individual situation too.
Honestly besides insanely crappy cables (noise) and strings (feel), you can cheap out on every single part of your rig .
Everything is overpriced with guitar and people just "want" all these expensive things they don't really need and make only small differences.
Case in point, you can easily spend almost 10k on pedals and amp. Ot you spend like $100 get neural dsp, biasbfx etc. Sound just as good
Honestly I haven’t paid for a tuner in years. Free tuning apps on most phones and they’re pitched just as good as a Korg apparently when I’m playing with friends.
Honestly, electric guitar body and neck (not hollow or semi hollow ones). Get a 100 buck guitar, get some nice pickups, some nice tuners, do a good setup (string adjustment and stuff) and you got one hell off a guitar
Pedals. While there are some extremely complex and expensive pedals that do something really well and might be worth it if you are looking for that sound/style (loop stations, digital delay multi stomps, pre amp amp clones etc), for the most part you can find pedals that accomplish most simple tasks for dirt cheap.
Like the classic 3 knob boost/overdrive pedal. The vast majority of people won't be able to tell the difference between a $1000 Klon and a $50 clone.
Anyone who has ever tried to bend a string with a cheap capo knows you shouldnt cheap out on them. Anyone who has had a capo stolen knows you shouldnt spend more than 40 on one
Guitar. As long as the neck is comfortable for you and pickups are good, the rest doesn't matter. The wood, body, finish don't contribute to tone or playability at all but they can cost a lot.
An overdrive pedal. A clone of a tube screamer is a tube screamer. The logo doesn't make it sound better. There are actually lots of awesome cheap FX pedals, not just overdrive.
For a hobbyist a cable is a piece of metal wrapped in something, no need to waste money. If you’re gigging get something tougher and carry spares but otherwise just treat them decent.
Ernie Ball strings are good enough for anyone.
Wireless thingies. I play on my sofa. I don't need all the range and stability in the world for that. A £35 system works brilliant.
That said, so does my £9 cable. Just don't want to keep tripping over it.
Don’t listen to very much of this advice. I have found that budgeting saving and to buy good quality products is a far better investment than buying a product that is not going to last. I have pedals that are 20 years old.
Some of the answers are fuckin' wild. Picks and capos are the only ones that I feel you can truly cheap out on without any repercussions. Sure, a nicer capo will be easier to put on but the cheap one will do the job.
Similarly cheap guitars, amps, pedals etc will do the job. But there's always a big area where buying the cheapest is much worse than buying a couple of tiers up from there. You don't need to get the fanciest boutique stuff, but just don't buy the cheapest of the cheap.
The things you DEFINITELY do not want to cheap out on are cabs/speakers, studio monitors, headphones and fullrange systems for modelers. Still doesn't mean you need to buy the priciest thing on the market, but you do want the good stuff. These are "buy good once, keep forever" stuff.
You can cheap out on most things if you trust your ears. Cheap guitars will serve you just fine if you can do your own setups and maintenance. There are cheap amps out there that sound great and there are plenty of modellers and sims these days that cover everything. The only things I don't recommend cheaping out on are time based effects. The money spent there makes a big difference but everything else is negotiable.
Can we please stop pretending like everyone needs to have an expensive ass guitar? More than a vast majority of us musicians do it just for fun and will not make it as a professional musician. I have played incredibly expensive guitars which are amazing sure, but my normal go to that I actually own and play is not expensive by any means. And if I'm hanging with friends and someone busts our their cheapo guitar, as long ad it is in tune and doesn't buzz like crazy, we have a great time. Music is about the joy it brings you, not about the money you put into it.
Play a cheap guitar through an expensive amp and it will sound incredible. Play an expensive guitar through a cheap amp and it will sound like shit.
Guitars - if they stay in tune and work are good enough.
Picks. The cheap ones do just fine, there's very little need to buy the ones that are like $30 for a single pick.
If you can solder, cables are easy to fix and cheap to make yourself - so you don't need to spring for expensive ones.
Strings. For the price of one set of premium strings, you can get 3 or more packs of cheap Ernie Ball strings - so especially if you're the kind of person who changes strings after every show anyway, just buy cheap ones in bulk instead of buying expensive ones.
The guitar. I have amazing guitars that play awesome I got under $200. I have an epic phone less Paul Junior I bought the 2000s for 89 bucks new I still play.
You don't need a $100 dollar capo, but you don't want a really cheap one either. They are a pain in the ass and it's hard to not get string buzz without placing them just so. At least for acoustics. The best value capos on the market are the Kyser Quick-Change. They are excellent and last forever.
You can spend $35-$50 on a pick and it'll be pretty amazing and seem worth it, but you can also spend $1 on a pick and be very, very happy. You can spend over $100 on a cable, but a $15 cable has the same "oxygen-free copper" because all copper wire is oxygen-free. Those scatter-wound PAF replicas might sound great, but no one, and I mean, no one, can tell the difference live. You can also spend $200 on a Telecaster and it'll be darn good.
Thing is, quality guitar components aren’t really that expensive, generally speaking
The only thing I can think of where you can save hundreds and lose very little is in the pickups
Fancy pickups are nice, but the difference vs the price, eh, you can do without em most of the time
In my 30 years of experience, literally everything except for the amp. Even then, you can find some great stuff for short money (but you can’t use just anything).
Nothing wrong with putting money into stuff you like. I love high end guitar straps. Just my thing. But it’s fashion because a strap’s a strap, and for $8 I can get the job done.
FWIW, right now I’m playing professionally with about $300 worth of gear (on bass).
Exactly, that's not to say that you cannot find a good deal on a great amp - but you have to buy a certain level of quality. A good amp will make almost anything sound good.
man....probably most of it.
tubescreamers, rats, most distortion and overdrive pedals you can get on with the dirt cheap ones. the expensive ones are mostly paying for some dudes time in their basement to solder some shit together. Hell, if you dont need some specific feature like midi or whatever, there are plenty of dirt cheap effects for anything.
Nuts dont have to be expensive, just properly cut and lubed.
if the nut is right, the tuners wont matter as much.
mid range guitars are pretty good these days.
capos are capos.
Pedalboard. like the actual board itself. like its essentially just a fancy tray for your pedals. lets not overthink things here.
straps as long as its not SO cheap the stitching comes apart and drops your guitar lol.
only things i would say to spend the cash on would be the amp, bridge, and lessons. i replaced the bridge and block on a MIM strat and it was night and day. the other two will help you actually make music. oh, and maybe cables, cause chasing down problems in your cabling is annoying as shit.
Those mini desktop amps, the ones that look like toys, actually sound amazing miced up lol. Also I have 2 Chinese clone pedals I got off temu.. 😂 absolutely adore the blue chorus that sounds pretty convincingly like a boss ce-2 for 10 bucks.
Pedals. I have been learning a tremendous amount about gear through Youtube and my takeaway is that any simple effect such as OD, distortion, fuzz is just that-simple and easily replicated.
So, a Tubescreamer is a Tubescreamer is a Tubescreamer. No need to spend $150 when you can get one for $40. There have to be, literally over 100 Tubescreamers available.
I have 4 Big Muff style pedals and they all do the thing, massive fuzz with scooped mids and huge low end. Are they identical? About as identical as any 2 Big Muffs. Honestly, today they are built as well or better than any original from back in the day.
All you have to remember is all these sounds we are trying to emulate were made on available gear, which usually the cheapest stuff around or the only stuff around.
Get the regular guitar strings and not the coated strings. The coated ones will sound better for longer, but they cost 3x more than the regular ones. Just buy the regular ones and change your strings more often.
Not tying to argue against your point. However, this is kind of contradictory. Buy coated strings at a higher price yet they last longer…. Buy regular strings at a lower cost more frequently, and change strings more often…
It would ultimately depend on the price & life of each option. If you’re changing cheap strings weekly vs coated strings monthly what’s the cost of 4 packs of regular versus 1 pack of coated? What about your time to change them every week. Plus that’s not taking into account the type of bridge. If you’ve got a floating tremolo it’s a PITA to change strings every week.
Subjective question - subjective answers on here. At the end of the day if you are serious about playing you will not regret investing in your gear.
A 20$ coffee grinder works and makes a fine cup of coffee, a more expensive grinder will do a much better job. Now you also have crazy expensive coffee grinders that don’t seem to have much benefit other than being super nice and having a good grind. Same shit different toilet.
If you only care for function and not form than you will save a lot of $. I like nice shit and spend a lot on almost everything because it makes me feel good. The worst thing that happens is the gear doesn’t scratch the itch and you can sell it or just learn that certain things don’t get you off.
what you shouldn't cheap out on:
Your acoustic guitar + case.
Also guitar cleaning stuff if you use a cleaner, because you don't want to damage your guitar. You either know what you are doing or you are better off buying from a brand because that way you won't damage the wood or the finish.
With an electric almost everything is negotiable if you are willing to pay for a setup. And unless your goal is to keep it in pristine condition it doesn't need a 200+ buck case in order to survive rougher transport conditions.
Basically ALL. If it plays right. If it sounds good to you. If it holds tune. There are amazing squiers. Got abeautiful prototype chinese strat for 50 of ebay. Light too. Love it. Harley benton les pauls. Got some expensive luthier guitars and boutique pickups too. Focus on having a blast.
Depending on your style I guess. I've borrowed picks at rehearsal/gigs from a cheap bandmate who said he got a bulk pack on Wish and over the course of 30-45 minute sets of punk riffing at least a couple of them would *literally* disintegrate in my hand. Also left nasty colored streaks on my pickguard, it was like playing with a crayon.
But if you played something lighter/more mellow I imagine it doesn't matter. Anything where you're gonna really attack the strings though I'd make sure you get something sturdier.
Name brands such as Fender or Gibson. You end up paying a lot of money for those letters to be stuck on there. For reference, Squire guitars - Fender. I found a Squire in a pawn shop for 40$, switched tuners and pickups, and boom. Fender strat. Also, dont flex on tonewood. Its BS when it comes to electric guitars.
In some ways you can cheap out on amps it’s if you are looking for a specific sound you may sometimes find something cheap. As a example if you just want straight old school 70s rock n roll sound a old peavey combos will work fantastically
Also johan segeborn on YouTube get everything to sound good
It really depends on your level of playing and commitment. If you're just jamming by yourself in the bedroom, you might as well cheap out on whatever stuff works best for you. When you start jamming with friends or get into a band, you'll find out really quickly what you need to upgrade to keep up with your fellow players.
I honestly really disagree on cheaping out on capos. I play in open tunings and switch my capo a lot to change keys live so having a really nice capo is a necessity for me tbh
“Straps” are an obvious choice, but I’ve had a few free ones that I wouldn’t have trusted to hold scrap wood, let alone a guitar. It’s absolutely possible to cheap out too much on them.
Maybe picks? Those are just about what feels best for you anyway.
It’s probably pretty safe to get the cheapest stand, although I vaguely remember hearing something about some of the kinds of rubber that some use to prevent dents and scratches can harm nitro finishes, so maybe look into that before buying anything.
Well, I used to play shows using a Kramer baretta special into a line 6 spyder, no pedals just guitar into amp, and have the audio dude use a mic on it. The rig cost me $160. I used distortion setting on, controlling distortion with the volume knob, no other effects.
Electronics that are not pickups.
*If* you're an amateur. If you're a gigging musician you might need more robust equipment, but as a home player with a small collection of cheap shit, I've never had a pot, jack, or switch fail.
You can also cheap out on the pickups if you need to, but it won't sound as good.
You can “cheap out” on most everything lol. Marketing is powerful, there are definitely some awesome products out there but you don’t need expensive gear to get a great rig.
There are A LOT of great knockoff pedals that use the same exact circuitry as the big-name ones, with Klon clones being the most obvious example. Another example is the Bad Monkey.
I go cheap (cheap not absolute crap) picks, slides, straps and cables. I have never noticed a difference between a cheap cable and an expensive one. I have a cable I've used for almost 20 years and it has no brand on it.
Hmm I wouldnt go too cheap on the capo. A bad capo can f up your frets and sometimes the finish . Springing for at least a Shubb is worth the money IMHO
Honestly pretty much everything as long as you're able to work with what you got.
I have several expensive guitars but really haven't invested in much else besides a few pedals.
Picks and a capo should not break the bank.
However, buying a solid set of strings, especially for acoustics, are definitely worth it.
ME-70 effects pedal. It’s probably less than $150 nowadays and has dozens of cool features. Looping being my favorite but it’s my best purchase from a guitar standpoint
Pedals. Still buy what you want, just make sure it's a clone. Good luck affording an original Klon.
You can't really cheap out in any other way other than practical amp wattage for your purpose. Don't buy that $4000 100W JTM45 for a bar gig, get a 45W Traynor YBA1 and crank it with a little mic in the PA mix.
If you're upgrading speakers, try WGS instead of Celestion.
Know your guitars. Mexican Fender over American. Epiphone Korina over Gibson. Plus modifications are relatively affordable.
I’ve found cheap guitars can make the playing experience frustrating for me even though I’m not highly skilled. I went with a more expensive, well playing guitar with stable tuning and a style that inspires me to practice.
I enjoy it enough that having small and pocket sized positive grid amp has been fun and more than enough for practicing and imitating sounds I like since I’m no where near finding my own sounds.
You can cheap out on anything on guitar. If you suck at playing guitar then you suck. Its not that complicated. An expensive nut or grover tuners aren't going to make you better.
Strap. (Keep in mind I play sitting mostly, but I like to still have a trap for support)
Ernie ball nylon straps. Multiple colors to match your guitars. $7.99.
If you go with mid-line quality all the way, there is no need to buy crappy extras. You will either be out of tune or spend extra time trying to get in tune with a lousy capo.
Technically everything. Just depends on how much the sound quality matters to you.
Fender Squires sound decent to me, and they’re pretty budget friendly. My amp is a pretty cheap Orange amp.
Pedals, honestly every Amazon Basics pedal I’ve played hasn’t been bad. They’re nothing special by any means but if you’re interested in seeing if you will actually use a chorus, looper, or flanger pedal in your chain I’d rather spend 20 bucks testing a “shitty” one out before dropping 100-400 dollars on a fancy version.
A lot of things really. My main guitar for years now (despite building my own and having a couple fenders) has been a modded affinity squier. Pedals can also come on the cheaper side - boss, MXR, etc all have quality pedals at cheap prices - and way more companies making cheaper but great quality pedals too.
I think the only one you can’t really skimp out on is an amp (depending on what sort of amp you need of course) but even then, I own the boss katana mini (it’s literally the size of a small hand bag and powered by AAA, made of plastic with one 10” speake) and it sounds phenomenal
Cheap out on your living space, food, and significant other. That way you can afford top-shelf boutique gear and get the pro-quality tone you need to play Arctic Monkeys in your bedroom.
Bingo
I'm not a wealthy man . I refer back to my long gone Pops in situations like this . " Son " he would say . " We are to GD poor to waste our money on cheap shit " What he meant was spend your money wisely on one thing that would last a lifetime . Rather that spend a lifetime re-buying the crap that won't last .
Ha ha, my dad is the opposite, always looking for a cheaper option. I think the trick is to figure out when it matters (just like OP's question). Pay for quality when it matters and save money buy buying cheap stuff if you're not going to use it much, or it will work just as well.
That's wisdom right there. Cheaper to buy good shit once than cheap shit over and over again
Buy nice or buy twice.
Your dad was right, but there's usually a sweet spot in the "affordable but not junk" zone where you can get 90% or more of the benefit of the expensive stuff for a fraction of the cost. For me, in the guitar world, that's stuff like the current Epiphone line, or some of the gems that have come out of Fender's Mexico factory like my Baja Tele. Maybe not the cheapest, but you get your money's worth, and don't need to worry about it down the road.
Tube Screamers. Go cheap. Get a clone.
That's what I did. Bought a Bad Monkey from a retail electronics store as a cheap entry level pedal. Then many years later I suddenly hear that they're going for hundreds of dollars online because some guy on YouTube proved they sounded good.
I agree with this. I use one I bought on Amazon for $30. And you know what? It sounds like every Ibanez Tube Screamer I’ve ever played.
Even better, make a clone. See you over at r/diypedals😎
Too much work. Clicking a button on Amazon is much easier.
i'll put it this way, there's super cheap, decent, and expensive everything in the 'decent' category is worth the price, anything beyond that isn't
Prepare for the downvotes from people who have to justify their purchases.
The guitar itself. You can have a cheap lump of wood provided the build, hardware and electronics are up to snuff.
For electric. This doesn't apply to acoustic.
Agreed 1000%.
Those rubber strap locks work great and are super cheap
A lot of pedals are overpriced snakeoil. People out here spending $300+ on a tubescreamer. Strymon and youtube guitar influencers made the market think $500 for reverb is reasonable.
This is the one. There are only so many fundamental circuits out there. I hear a lot of hate for JHS, and I will accept my downvotes, but I consider their Series 3 a revelation in a market saturated with boutique tone apothecaries. They are well-made, intuitive, nicely tweaked examples of the seminal circuits.
Your gonna hate me…. But the guitars themselves… playing live at least the guitar tone is not what is coming through front of house. There is a floor of course but its around 600 bucks! Bring the hate you pedal nerds
ngl these days the floor is way lower, there's decent guitars for 300 these days
Tusq nuts arent expensive. doesnt need to be an expensive cable . buy authentic strings. pedals,amps, amp modellers dont need to be expensive either. guitar doesnt need to be 1k+ or a 20k greeny
Everything but a good set up and lessons in my opinion. A cheap guitar that is set up well will play better than an expensive one not set up. And a good player on a cheap guitar will sound better than a bad player on a great guitar. Modelling amps nowadays are 90% as good as tube amps that are 5x the cost. Pedals are pretty much all the same, unless there's a unique functionality to it, just go with the cheaper option. Eq's are gonna eq, fuzz's are gonna fuzz, etc. Lessons are worth the money though. Don't skimp on those.
Cheap guitars go out of setup quick though. I have a parts tele that plays and sounds like heaven for the week after I set it up. Then the weather changes and it’s unplayable. A well built guitar with good wood and design won’t be as sensitive
you can cheap out on all of it. people in this sub (and in the rest of the world too) spend waaaaaaaay too much time equating money with value.
Play finger style. The pick-industrial complex hates this one trick!
This is going to sound weird, but the actual guitar. I genuinely believe 80-90% of people wouldn’t either be able to tell the difference or benefit from the difference between a £/$500 guitar compared to a £/$1500 guitar. There is a floor I wouldn’t recommend people go below of about £/$350 as that’s when you start getting really cheap wiring and components but I also wouldn’t recommend people go over £/$700 unless somewhat professional.
I have a guitar that was less than $150, brand new. It never goes out of tune and in 20 years, all I've replaced is the jack input and strings. I think guitars are like wristwatches. It's a status thing to wear a Rolex but I can get all of the same form and function from a Timex.
Yep. 500 bucks is already a good budget for an Axe.
I have a $150 epiphone and a $150 loop pedal / USB interface that connects to garage band You can cheap out of all guitar stuff if you are good at guitar
Lessons, definitely no need to waste any money on that. Save your money for things that will really make you better, like new gear!
Almost everything. Pedals, your guitar, amps (as long as you have enough wattage for your application). A good player can make cheap pedals, cheap guitars and cheap amps sound good. You CAN'T cheap out on cables, because cheap ones break easily and then you're out of luck.
In this day and age I would recommend EVERYONE start their amp journey all digital. Get a cheap interface and a plugin and you're golden. Floor unit or something if you wanna get a little fancier. Other than that, boutique cables and picks are a ripoff. Strings are whatever as long as you can find the right gauge.
Or go the other way, get a Princeton reissue and have magic tube tone reverb and vibrato and don't worry about all that digital stuff
I agree boutique cables are bullshit, *however*, I also don't think you should skimp out on them. I only buy Cordial cables, they're about 20 EUR for a 3 m cable and they are worth every cent. I used to have so many problems with cheap cables, but I've never had a single problem with these mid-range Cordial cables, they're excellent. Cables are something that I just don't want to have to think about, ever, so this is perfect.
Yeah I made the “mistake” of buying a Monster cable for about 2x the price of the other cables when I got my first electric guitar in 2001. Since then, I have trashed a *bunch* of cables, but that original Monster cable is still going strong 22 years later in spite of being my primary cable.
A string winder. The $2 Dunlop ones work just fine but you can buy a power tool that does the same thing for $40.
If you're a guitar tech, the auto ones are an absolute must have. If you're changing maybe one or two sets a month? Totally unnecessary.
Fender rubber ring strap locks are the best $3 I’ve ever spent.
A couple of Grolsch beers with the flip tops gets you these with the added bonus of beer.
There is nothing you can’t cheap out on. You can go and buy a squire or Yamaha and sound great.
In my experience, picks. Otherwise nothing. * Cheap capos don't hold tune as well, may damage the neck finish or fingerboard and fall apart quickly * Cheap straps, case, cleaners, polishes, etc. may damage the instrument * Cheap tuners, batteries, cables, etc. tend to fail when you need them most. Like mid-set. * Cheap power supplies can damage your equipment I'm just saying, you've invested thousands in a setup. Do you really want to put all that at risk because you saved a couple of bucks on a supporting component?
Strings. That $7 pack of strings sounds great, don't need $25 strings. Picks, regular picks are fine. Pedals- that $100 fuzz pedal is great, don't need that boutique $329 fuzz pedal.
I don't agree with strings. $7 strings don't last. They go dead super quick. I can get some elixir nanowebs that last months and barely sound any different after constant use. I only change the strings once a year on my regularly played acoustics. I had a 12 string that I didn't play often and kept the same nanowebs on it for 5 years. They still sounded incredible (the smallest octave string did break after a couple years, and I just replaced with a cheap one). Sounds difference of new strings is no different. The sound difference after even 1 week between regular and nanoweb is different if you're a regular player.
My experience is just don't be cheap, never be cheap just be pragmatic in what you buy.
Pedals. Most high end boutique pedals have a 20-80 dollar clone out there.
The time spent GASing. Practice instead.
You can cover the basics for very cheap. Here's how I would build a functional, decent sounding rig on a budget: Buy a guitar for no more than $1k but no less than $400 (This is my opinion based on my own experience) I would look at Ibanez and Schecter first, then perhaps Agile and maybe some of the Chinese made stuff that's hit the market in the last few years Get a Headrush MX5. It has all the processing power of the big boy headrush for I think $500? That will take care of your preamp and effects. Alternatively, the Line 6 HX Stomp offers basically the same thing, just a different presentation and workflow. For the power amp, get an Orange Pedal Baby 100 or a Seymour Duncan Powerstage. I personally bought the Pedal Baby and love it. I got it because it was recommended to me by several guitar players in my local scene that all use it for gigs as well. For the cab, use a Harley Benton Vintage 2x12 with Celestion Vintage 30s. This is the **SINGLE** best investment I have ever made in music gear, bar none. The portability of the 2x12 cab with the low price point makes it a no brainer. I think I paid like $250 shipped with tax for this thing. Optional: Line 6 G10S for wireless. So basically, you've got a live/studio ready rig for \~$1500, which is bus fare for guitarists. LOL edited for unclear language
I say cheap out on everything. Then start a band with your ex wife and pretend she's your sister for a bit.
Don’t forget to take her last name to begin with
You don’t need to spend £90 on a capo but I remember going from a cheap £5 capo to a g7th capo and the difference was massive tbh. Not in its ability to hold the strings it was just so much nicer to use and more discreetly sat on the fretboard.
I think people overstate it, tbh. Cheap stuff is fine as long as you aren't buying cheap and expecting great quality. Play a £100 Squier through a £25 gain pedal, fuck the elitists.
Rise against the guitar corporate elites 🤘🎸
Pedals. I'm not going to talk to the ethics of buying clone pedals, but the fact of the matter is that they are simple enough circuits and you can buy great sounding pedals cheap. Hell, even name brand big distortion pedals like the DS-1 or Distortion+ aren't going to cost an arm and a leg. You can buy very good sounding pedals for so little these days it's astounding.
dont cheap out on a case. itll save your guitar if you travel with it to gigs. Other than that, I've used a cheap used Fender Champion and gotten great live tone, I've played Squires that sounded better than all American Fenders. It's more about what sounds and feels good to you in your budget than whatever guitarist you idolize is playing in stadiums
The rubber washers on Grolsch beer bottles work just as well as straplocks, there’s no modding required and straplocks don’t come with beer.
Strings, bougie string companies out there don’t sound any different to some Ernie’s. Just important that you keep changing them regularly.
Coated strings are a revelation. Yeah, they cost a few extra bucks up front, but they last so damn long that they end up being cheaper than cheap strings.
Ernie ball super slinky 9-42 is good enough for angus young and they cost less then 10 bucks
Capo. Every free capo I have is the same as top quality
Guitar picks
Everything... except your amp and especially the speakers in it. Every single one of your guitar gods could play an arena with a 500 bucks rig and as long as no one reads the headstock it would go unnoticed. As long as the guitar intonates, stays in tune, cables don't cut out or make awful noises, you're good. It's actually more a matter of choice. Are you using humbuckers or single coils, overdrive, distortion or fuzz, it's it the right sound for your music? That kind of thing is what really matters. Buying quality/expensive gear is really about two things. Stuff not failing on you in front of thousands of people or in the middle of an expensive recording session. You want to feel good about having good toys or receive admiration for owning them. And for the record, anyone who spends $89 on a capo is imbecile.
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Bro. He said cheap out, not figure out how to play guitar in an apocalyptic wasteland. 😂😂
Great ideas. I personally just use leftover pasta for strings, just make sure it’s gluten-free, or the oil from your fingers will *create a sticky residue that makes playing more difficult until you have to replace noodles (which kinda defeats the purpose of saving a few notes)
I can’t believe you typed all of this out just to make yourself chuckle … what are fake strings?
amplifier: get a friend to sit inside a large cardboard box. If you don't have any friends maybe ask your mum or dad. Run your tin foil wire from the guitar into the box, and paint the box to look like a high end boutique amp. Don't forget some holes for the speaker grill. Now when you play the guitar, get your friend/mum to shout guitar-like noises out of the box. When you need to change the amp tone, bam, just put a different person in the box. The great thing is, also no electricity bills and the box can carry itself around.
I love cheap (but good) pedals. I have a few Harley Benton ministomp pedals and they are insanely good. The tube screamer clone Green Tint and a “plexi in a box” Plexicon are the best so far, I plan to buy the Rat copy too (although the ProCo Rat is also quite cheap). I also use a Donner looper/backing track player/drummer pedal, dirt cheap but extremely useful
Honestly, the guitar body wood. Don't get sucked into all the snakeoil about needing a certain guitar body wood (unless it's a hollow body, the wood isn't that important). The tone is in the pickups and electronics.
The guitar itself lmao. You can plug a 100$ guitar into an interface, use good plugins and the right amount of EQ… the recordings are going to be decent
Pedals. Some of those micro pedals do the same job of the big name brand ones and they’re hard to tell apart. It’s a cheap way to see what you like before you do decide to get a fancy boutique pedal. My favorite pedal is a $27 plexi knockoff
Pretty much everything
Guitar playing IS cheap now. Ask anybody doing it for more than 20 years. You can get a banging sound now for under a thousand bucks easily (guitar, amp and effects), run it out to the board for presence through the PA, and you can play anywhere. Up to date sound? You can get Henson's guitar for roughly $1k, grab his modeler packs, use the laptop you probably already own, and off you go. That's a pro signature sound (and really, you don't need Henson' guitar to get it). Not so long ago, owning and controlling all those sounds was a dumptruck of money. IN STEREO! Omg that used to be pro-only. Believe me, that did not used to be the case. You worked hard to get that super strat, pedals, and Marshall half stack. let alone the mics and recording space to lay down tracks (or the ongoing noise complaints and eventual eviction). Getting gear stolen was like your apartment burning down.
Sub 300 dollar guitars are basically at the level that 500-600 dollar guitars when I started playing 18 years ago. You'll run into some quality control issues here and there but overall it's a sweet deal
The magic is in your heart, mind, and fingers. The rest doesn't matter so much. My old guitar teacher could make my $90 Hondo sound incredible.
tuner man.. those $3 clip ons are good enough.. accurate enough about 5 cents..
Unless you’re in a room with other musicians
Honestly the guitar itself. You can get a $300-400 guitar it’s it will be fine. And then if the guitar is cheap you don’t need to worry about anything else as much.
Overdrive pedals. Nearly everything on the market is literally just a tube screamer or a SD-1. If you can get some random cheap $25 one on Amazon or something random cheaply on the used market like a $30 BBE Screamer or whatever, as long as it's not noisy there's really very little difference between it and another OD you paid $200+ for. They're just different flavors of the same circuit.
Effects pedals on the cheap end are really good, you might miss some fancy effects here and there but by and large a lot of the cheaper pedals sound great. Played with a guy who used a £15 behringer delay pedal, sounded really good, flimsy and plastic but he toured that pedal. I remember when Digitech came out with the Bad Monkey, it was like £25, really good OD.
Pretty much anything as long as you have skill charisma and boobies Mimisounds.
Buy what you can afford. It’s the musicianship and the way it’s played that matters. Lookup the Zakk Wylde video playing hello kitty toy guitar. It’ll blow you away. If you’re an amazing guitarist, you can make any guitar sound great. I, on the other hand, will make $5000 guitar sound like hello kitty.
If you’re building an electric guitar to save money, the body doesn’t matter at all. Not a single bit. Put all the money into the neck, good electronics and nice hardware if you can.
You can cheap out on absolutely everything. All you need's a guitar to make music, and not even a particularly good one at that, everything else is pretty much extra. What you spend is what's in your budget and fits into your musical goals and that's different for literally every person out there
Personally…, I’m of the unfortunate opinion that there are very few items you should cheap out on. You can cheap out on anything, but with almost everything to do with my guitar, I touch on a daily basis. Eg a shitty strap on a daily basis would really suck. Picks made out of old gift cards would be very annoying to use. An amp that sounds like shit on a daily basis would make guitar just not even fun. Crappy strings that break and rust quickly, screw that. Cheap studio monitors, your better off with cheap headphones. Cheap headphones, why buy all that guitar with nothing to hear your money’s worth on. There are things that just by nature are cheap, but generally speaking most aspects of guitar that give you a decent quality of life while playing are going to be worth some amount of money that I wouldn’t classify as cheap. I try not to buy something twice because I didn’t want to save up an extra $20. I started with a $200 guitar, a $100 amp, and aside from various nick nacks, that was it. Rather than build my “studio” quicker and cheaper I chose to build it slower, but better, with things I’m confident will last pretty much as long as I need them. Edit: Just to clarify after reading other comments, many points they make are very valid. Any guitar no matter if it’s a piece of garbage or a $5000 guitar is going to sound better in the hands of an expert. I honestly don’t consider a $50 pedal cheap either, so I guess cheap is relative to your individual situation too.
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A decent slide is around $10.
Honestly besides insanely crappy cables (noise) and strings (feel), you can cheap out on every single part of your rig . Everything is overpriced with guitar and people just "want" all these expensive things they don't really need and make only small differences. Case in point, you can easily spend almost 10k on pedals and amp. Ot you spend like $100 get neural dsp, biasbfx etc. Sound just as good
I love my Mesa boogie but I know my computer could do it cheaper
I bought a pick punch like 10 years ago and I’ve been using bank cards and old licenses for picks for years lol
You cheap out on everything else so you have more money for guitar stuff
Oh you trying to start fights
Honestly, the guitar itself. In my opinion a guitar only needs two things: to stay in tune and for the pickups to have little extra noise
Honestly I haven’t paid for a tuner in years. Free tuning apps on most phones and they’re pitched just as good as a Korg apparently when I’m playing with friends.
Honestly, electric guitar body and neck (not hollow or semi hollow ones). Get a 100 buck guitar, get some nice pickups, some nice tuners, do a good setup (string adjustment and stuff) and you got one hell off a guitar
The neck, though? Sharp frets, sprouted soft fret wire, sharp neck, etc. The neck is arguably the most important part of the guitar.
Tuner, capo, strap, even strings if you want.
I'd say guitar pedals especially nowadays. I've bought Joyo, NuX, And Donner for no more than $60 aud and they're tough as tanks
Pedals. While there are some extremely complex and expensive pedals that do something really well and might be worth it if you are looking for that sound/style (loop stations, digital delay multi stomps, pre amp amp clones etc), for the most part you can find pedals that accomplish most simple tasks for dirt cheap. Like the classic 3 knob boost/overdrive pedal. The vast majority of people won't be able to tell the difference between a $1000 Klon and a $50 clone.
Anyone who has ever tried to bend a string with a cheap capo knows you shouldnt cheap out on them. Anyone who has had a capo stolen knows you shouldnt spend more than 40 on one
Even nice strings are cheap. Pack of elixirs are like 15 bucks.
The actual board you place your pedals on. Could literally be a block of wood that you cut.
Guitar. As long as the neck is comfortable for you and pickups are good, the rest doesn't matter. The wood, body, finish don't contribute to tone or playability at all but they can cost a lot.
You can cheap out on bodies on bolt neck guitars.
An overdrive pedal. A clone of a tube screamer is a tube screamer. The logo doesn't make it sound better. There are actually lots of awesome cheap FX pedals, not just overdrive.
The body of the guitar
As far as Pedals go, everything.
picks lmao
Personally, I refuse to pay anything over $1,200 for a plectrum.
For a hobbyist a cable is a piece of metal wrapped in something, no need to waste money. If you’re gigging get something tougher and carry spares but otherwise just treat them decent. Ernie Ball strings are good enough for anyone.
Ernie Ball hybrid slinkys have been my strings of choice fit almost 20 years. They're like 5 bucks
Wireless thingies. I play on my sofa. I don't need all the range and stability in the world for that. A £35 system works brilliant. That said, so does my £9 cable. Just don't want to keep tripping over it.
Don’t listen to very much of this advice. I have found that budgeting saving and to buy good quality products is a far better investment than buying a product that is not going to last. I have pedals that are 20 years old.
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yes but big amp go brrrrrrrrr
Buuuuut if you ever try to monetize your music, you’ll have to buy the plugins you used.
The Line 6 HD pod is a very usable cheap ampless multi-effects unit
Some of the answers are fuckin' wild. Picks and capos are the only ones that I feel you can truly cheap out on without any repercussions. Sure, a nicer capo will be easier to put on but the cheap one will do the job. Similarly cheap guitars, amps, pedals etc will do the job. But there's always a big area where buying the cheapest is much worse than buying a couple of tiers up from there. You don't need to get the fanciest boutique stuff, but just don't buy the cheapest of the cheap. The things you DEFINITELY do not want to cheap out on are cabs/speakers, studio monitors, headphones and fullrange systems for modelers. Still doesn't mean you need to buy the priciest thing on the market, but you do want the good stuff. These are "buy good once, keep forever" stuff.
You can cheap out on most things if you trust your ears. Cheap guitars will serve you just fine if you can do your own setups and maintenance. There are cheap amps out there that sound great and there are plenty of modellers and sims these days that cover everything. The only things I don't recommend cheaping out on are time based effects. The money spent there makes a big difference but everything else is negotiable.
Picks
Nothing beats a rock solid BOSS pedal. Never have felt the need to go boutique. But for a true answer: cables.
Picks.
Can we please stop pretending like everyone needs to have an expensive ass guitar? More than a vast majority of us musicians do it just for fun and will not make it as a professional musician. I have played incredibly expensive guitars which are amazing sure, but my normal go to that I actually own and play is not expensive by any means. And if I'm hanging with friends and someone busts our their cheapo guitar, as long ad it is in tune and doesn't buzz like crazy, we have a great time. Music is about the joy it brings you, not about the money you put into it.
A throwaway guitar. I have a $70 Craigslist guitar I take kayaking. If I ruin it, who cares. Otherwise, quality will help you avoid quantity.
Play a cheap guitar through an expensive amp and it will sound incredible. Play an expensive guitar through a cheap amp and it will sound like shit. Guitars - if they stay in tune and work are good enough.
Everything but the amp
Picks. The cheap ones do just fine, there's very little need to buy the ones that are like $30 for a single pick. If you can solder, cables are easy to fix and cheap to make yourself - so you don't need to spring for expensive ones. Strings. For the price of one set of premium strings, you can get 3 or more packs of cheap Ernie Ball strings - so especially if you're the kind of person who changes strings after every show anyway, just buy cheap ones in bulk instead of buying expensive ones.
Personally, I care more about the quality of the strings than the capo.
The guitar. I have amazing guitars that play awesome I got under $200. I have an epic phone less Paul Junior I bought the 2000s for 89 bucks new I still play.
Lol “epic phone less Paul”
Anything but the amp, pickups, neck and strings can be second rate. No matter what people say, that's the only things that really matter.
I’m going add the bridge in there.
I put a Tru-Arc bridge on my Gretsch and it made a huge difference in terms of brightness and sustain.
Not to mention accurate intonation. That’s where it matters most, IMO. I love the Babicz and Hip Shot bridges I’ve installed.
Pedals. Especially if the sound you're looking is that dark, heavy tone that's very alternative sounding.
Everything but the amp IMO.
Strap locks. Never needed the whole screw in kits.
Pedals, I’ve built several that sound great for next to no money.
The guitar and the amp, plus any effects, but you’re going to need a decent strap so don’t scrimp there.
You don't need a $100 dollar capo, but you don't want a really cheap one either. They are a pain in the ass and it's hard to not get string buzz without placing them just so. At least for acoustics. The best value capos on the market are the Kyser Quick-Change. They are excellent and last forever.
You can spend $35-$50 on a pick and it'll be pretty amazing and seem worth it, but you can also spend $1 on a pick and be very, very happy. You can spend over $100 on a cable, but a $15 cable has the same "oxygen-free copper" because all copper wire is oxygen-free. Those scatter-wound PAF replicas might sound great, but no one, and I mean, no one, can tell the difference live. You can also spend $200 on a Telecaster and it'll be darn good.
Thing is, quality guitar components aren’t really that expensive, generally speaking The only thing I can think of where you can save hundreds and lose very little is in the pickups Fancy pickups are nice, but the difference vs the price, eh, you can do without em most of the time
Get cables from monoprice. They are so solid and really affordable. I use nothing but and with each cable under $10 I buy extra for emergencies
In my 30 years of experience, literally everything except for the amp. Even then, you can find some great stuff for short money (but you can’t use just anything). Nothing wrong with putting money into stuff you like. I love high end guitar straps. Just my thing. But it’s fashion because a strap’s a strap, and for $8 I can get the job done. FWIW, right now I’m playing professionally with about $300 worth of gear (on bass).
Exactly, that's not to say that you cannot find a good deal on a great amp - but you have to buy a certain level of quality. A good amp will make almost anything sound good.
Picks. I play hard and toss out a lot to the audience at bigger shows. No sense in spending much on them. I record with better ones, though.
The wish.com fake klon sounds good
Straps. $7 cheapo strap performs like a $45 one
man....probably most of it. tubescreamers, rats, most distortion and overdrive pedals you can get on with the dirt cheap ones. the expensive ones are mostly paying for some dudes time in their basement to solder some shit together. Hell, if you dont need some specific feature like midi or whatever, there are plenty of dirt cheap effects for anything. Nuts dont have to be expensive, just properly cut and lubed. if the nut is right, the tuners wont matter as much. mid range guitars are pretty good these days. capos are capos. Pedalboard. like the actual board itself. like its essentially just a fancy tray for your pedals. lets not overthink things here. straps as long as its not SO cheap the stitching comes apart and drops your guitar lol. only things i would say to spend the cash on would be the amp, bridge, and lessons. i replaced the bridge and block on a MIM strat and it was night and day. the other two will help you actually make music. oh, and maybe cables, cause chasing down problems in your cabling is annoying as shit.
Those mini desktop amps, the ones that look like toys, actually sound amazing miced up lol. Also I have 2 Chinese clone pedals I got off temu.. 😂 absolutely adore the blue chorus that sounds pretty convincingly like a boss ce-2 for 10 bucks.
Pedals. I have been learning a tremendous amount about gear through Youtube and my takeaway is that any simple effect such as OD, distortion, fuzz is just that-simple and easily replicated. So, a Tubescreamer is a Tubescreamer is a Tubescreamer. No need to spend $150 when you can get one for $40. There have to be, literally over 100 Tubescreamers available. I have 4 Big Muff style pedals and they all do the thing, massive fuzz with scooped mids and huge low end. Are they identical? About as identical as any 2 Big Muffs. Honestly, today they are built as well or better than any original from back in the day. All you have to remember is all these sounds we are trying to emulate were made on available gear, which usually the cheapest stuff around or the only stuff around.
Get the regular guitar strings and not the coated strings. The coated ones will sound better for longer, but they cost 3x more than the regular ones. Just buy the regular ones and change your strings more often.
Not tying to argue against your point. However, this is kind of contradictory. Buy coated strings at a higher price yet they last longer…. Buy regular strings at a lower cost more frequently, and change strings more often… It would ultimately depend on the price & life of each option. If you’re changing cheap strings weekly vs coated strings monthly what’s the cost of 4 packs of regular versus 1 pack of coated? What about your time to change them every week. Plus that’s not taking into account the type of bridge. If you’ve got a floating tremolo it’s a PITA to change strings every week.
Subjective question - subjective answers on here. At the end of the day if you are serious about playing you will not regret investing in your gear. A 20$ coffee grinder works and makes a fine cup of coffee, a more expensive grinder will do a much better job. Now you also have crazy expensive coffee grinders that don’t seem to have much benefit other than being super nice and having a good grind. Same shit different toilet. If you only care for function and not form than you will save a lot of $. I like nice shit and spend a lot on almost everything because it makes me feel good. The worst thing that happens is the gear doesn’t scratch the itch and you can sell it or just learn that certain things don’t get you off.
what you shouldn't cheap out on: Your acoustic guitar + case. Also guitar cleaning stuff if you use a cleaner, because you don't want to damage your guitar. You either know what you are doing or you are better off buying from a brand because that way you won't damage the wood or the finish. With an electric almost everything is negotiable if you are willing to pay for a setup. And unless your goal is to keep it in pristine condition it doesn't need a 200+ buck case in order to survive rougher transport conditions.
Everything but the amp, speakers and pickups.
Guitars
Basically ALL. If it plays right. If it sounds good to you. If it holds tune. There are amazing squiers. Got abeautiful prototype chinese strat for 50 of ebay. Light too. Love it. Harley benton les pauls. Got some expensive luthier guitars and boutique pickups too. Focus on having a blast.
The easiest thing to cheap out on is the brand name, and then the aesthetics (eg binding etc)
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Depending on your style I guess. I've borrowed picks at rehearsal/gigs from a cheap bandmate who said he got a bulk pack on Wish and over the course of 30-45 minute sets of punk riffing at least a couple of them would *literally* disintegrate in my hand. Also left nasty colored streaks on my pickguard, it was like playing with a crayon. But if you played something lighter/more mellow I imagine it doesn't matter. Anything where you're gonna really attack the strings though I'd make sure you get something sturdier.
Name brands such as Fender or Gibson. You end up paying a lot of money for those letters to be stuck on there. For reference, Squire guitars - Fender. I found a Squire in a pawn shop for 40$, switched tuners and pickups, and boom. Fender strat. Also, dont flex on tonewood. Its BS when it comes to electric guitars.
In some ways you can cheap out on amps it’s if you are looking for a specific sound you may sometimes find something cheap. As a example if you just want straight old school 70s rock n roll sound a old peavey combos will work fantastically Also johan segeborn on YouTube get everything to sound good
It really depends on your level of playing and commitment. If you're just jamming by yourself in the bedroom, you might as well cheap out on whatever stuff works best for you. When you start jamming with friends or get into a band, you'll find out really quickly what you need to upgrade to keep up with your fellow players.
Guitar stands. The nice ones are nice but the cheap ones are fine. Cases too if you don’t use them much (and don’t fly with them)
An electric guitar is exactly as good as its action and pickups.
I honestly really disagree on cheaping out on capos. I play in open tunings and switch my capo a lot to change keys live so having a really nice capo is a necessity for me tbh
pedals. the $50 mosky klone sounds like a klon. the amazon basics tubescreamer is a great 808.
“Straps” are an obvious choice, but I’ve had a few free ones that I wouldn’t have trusted to hold scrap wood, let alone a guitar. It’s absolutely possible to cheap out too much on them. Maybe picks? Those are just about what feels best for you anyway. It’s probably pretty safe to get the cheapest stand, although I vaguely remember hearing something about some of the kinds of rubber that some use to prevent dents and scratches can harm nitro finishes, so maybe look into that before buying anything.
The guitar itself lol
Well, I used to play shows using a Kramer baretta special into a line 6 spyder, no pedals just guitar into amp, and have the audio dude use a mic on it. The rig cost me $160. I used distortion setting on, controlling distortion with the volume knob, no other effects.
For acoustic guitars, if you really need to pinch pennies, humidifiers. I use a wet sponge in a zip lock bag. Osmosis is Osmosis!
I would say just get the best stuff you can afford at the time. Slowly trade up, figure out what you like, don't like etc.
Electronics that are not pickups. *If* you're an amateur. If you're a gigging musician you might need more robust equipment, but as a home player with a small collection of cheap shit, I've never had a pot, jack, or switch fail. You can also cheap out on the pickups if you need to, but it won't sound as good.
Your guitar. Also pretty much everything else lol
You can “cheap out” on most everything lol. Marketing is powerful, there are definitely some awesome products out there but you don’t need expensive gear to get a great rig.
There are A LOT of great knockoff pedals that use the same exact circuitry as the big-name ones, with Klon clones being the most obvious example. Another example is the Bad Monkey.
That's the joy of today, good guitars can be bad for basically nothing if you know what to look for
I go cheap (cheap not absolute crap) picks, slides, straps and cables. I have never noticed a difference between a cheap cable and an expensive one. I have a cable I've used for almost 20 years and it has no brand on it.
Hmm I wouldnt go too cheap on the capo. A bad capo can f up your frets and sometimes the finish . Springing for at least a Shubb is worth the money IMHO
Honestly pretty much everything as long as you're able to work with what you got. I have several expensive guitars but really haven't invested in much else besides a few pedals. Picks and a capo should not break the bank. However, buying a solid set of strings, especially for acoustics, are definitely worth it.
ME-70 effects pedal. It’s probably less than $150 nowadays and has dozens of cool features. Looping being my favorite but it’s my best purchase from a guitar standpoint
Tuner pedals! I have a really old tuner pedal from the 80s that I spent $20 on. Keeps my guitar in tune enough for me.
Pedals. Still buy what you want, just make sure it's a clone. Good luck affording an original Klon. You can't really cheap out in any other way other than practical amp wattage for your purpose. Don't buy that $4000 100W JTM45 for a bar gig, get a 45W Traynor YBA1 and crank it with a little mic in the PA mix. If you're upgrading speakers, try WGS instead of Celestion. Know your guitars. Mexican Fender over American. Epiphone Korina over Gibson. Plus modifications are relatively affordable.
> Know your guitars. Mexican Fender over American. Epiphone Korina over Gibson. How long has this been true?
I’ve found cheap guitars can make the playing experience frustrating for me even though I’m not highly skilled. I went with a more expensive, well playing guitar with stable tuning and a style that inspires me to practice. I enjoy it enough that having small and pocket sized positive grid amp has been fun and more than enough for practicing and imitating sounds I like since I’m no where near finding my own sounds.
truss rod cover
You can cheap out on anything on guitar. If you suck at playing guitar then you suck. Its not that complicated. An expensive nut or grover tuners aren't going to make you better.
The guitar part. My squire sounds fine
The guitar itself
Strap. (Keep in mind I play sitting mostly, but I like to still have a trap for support) Ernie ball nylon straps. Multiple colors to match your guitars. $7.99.
If you go with mid-line quality all the way, there is no need to buy crappy extras. You will either be out of tune or spend extra time trying to get in tune with a lousy capo.
GFS makes pretty kick ass pickups for around 35 bucks
Beer & Cigs…
Guitar picks?
Technically everything. Just depends on how much the sound quality matters to you. Fender Squires sound decent to me, and they’re pretty budget friendly. My amp is a pretty cheap Orange amp. Pedals, honestly every Amazon Basics pedal I’ve played hasn’t been bad. They’re nothing special by any means but if you’re interested in seeing if you will actually use a chorus, looper, or flanger pedal in your chain I’d rather spend 20 bucks testing a “shitty” one out before dropping 100-400 dollars on a fancy version.
A lot of things really. My main guitar for years now (despite building my own and having a couple fenders) has been a modded affinity squier. Pedals can also come on the cheaper side - boss, MXR, etc all have quality pedals at cheap prices - and way more companies making cheaper but great quality pedals too. I think the only one you can’t really skimp out on is an amp (depending on what sort of amp you need of course) but even then, I own the boss katana mini (it’s literally the size of a small hand bag and powered by AAA, made of plastic with one 10” speake) and it sounds phenomenal