lesser known guitar brands....

[WezV]

yeah - practically unknown... thats me!! ;)

[Roobubba]

I was thinking more of 'lesser' at the time, but yeah, you've got a point :D

[Mr. Air]

I don't know if Godin qualifies as an "unknown" brand, but I don't come across them very often. I got a LG model and it's the most playable guitar I have tried so far. Well I'm not a guy who have tried guitars by the thousand or even by the hundreds, but it sure feels right in my hands. It's an older LG model with a really flat neck which suits me well. I have tried one of the newer LG models and it didn't feel as playable is my own.

I also have a Reverend Manta Ray and it's quite nice as well. I think Reverend is a good choice if you're looking for a cheap, but good guitar. They cost around 900$. I bought mine for app. 540 Euros.

There's a small company not too far from where I live (nothing's too far away when you live in Denmark) that sell realy cheap guitars (Les Paul, Tele and Strat copies under 350 Euros) and people rate them quite good. I can't wait to try out some of these guitars.

[ToneMonkey]

Tanglewood for acoustic bang for buck.  I've got a Tanglewood super jumbo (TS-155 I think).

Got a CSL (rebranded Ibanez from the lawsuit era) and a Fenix which is who apparently used to make squires, but kept the good wood for themselves to make copies.  Mines a strat copy with stacked HB's which I'm in the process of stealing from the wifes uncle.

[mikeluke]

Roo

I thought that Fender (well, at least the Teles) was a lesser known brand in your book?

:-)

[Roobubba]

Roo

I thought that Fender (well, at least the Teles) was a lesser known brand in your book?

:-)

Don't get be wrong, there are some awesome Fenders out there. Telecasters are not amongst them. Beside, they're hardly little known ;)

Roo

[dave_mc]

japanese copies for the win- tokai (they're not all japanese-made, though, it's the japanese-made ones you want), edwards, etc. etc.

[the prince of shred]

btw roo i really like ur axe ;) :D

[Bob Johnson]

Hey c'mon Wez; your definitely not lesser known as far as us guys are concerned :D

[JustBecos]

I think some of the small British builders must be becoming even better value with the weakness of the pound even with the their costs going up. A lot of the american guitar companies also seem to be significantly increasing there prices on top of the exchange movement.

Though they are still high end guitars with high end prices the below would still probably come in cheaper than a custom shop Gibson or Fender.  I also love that they are not direct copies and have there own ideas.

I know someone on here has one of these but I can not remember who

Vanquish  http://www.vanquishguitars.co.uk/main.htm

same with the organic

Organic  http://www.organicguitars.co.uk/

and even better both come with BKP's as standard you could almost consider that as a £170 saving to start with  :lol:

There are plenty of others as well, even before you start thinking of the likes of the more pure custom luthiers of which we are honoured to get help and advice from on here such as Wez, Johnathan and Bob etc which are possibly even better value. Then you not only get every thing you want, you don't have to pay for anything you don't.

[Ratrod]

I used to have a DeArmond M77-T. It was the 'Epiphone' of Guild at the time. It was the only cheap alternative to a Gretsch.

Very cool little guitar. Too bad FMIC pulled the plug on them. Guild doesn't even make electrics anymore.

[headtheball]

^^

Yup. And as a man who wants an S100 pretty damned badly, this saddens me.

[the prince of shred]

anyone got an agile or cort they like? what model? whats good/bad about it?

[GuiTony]

Does a Wez Venables guitar count?

Oh yes!

And what about Kawai ... I bet very few people here have heard of them ... unless you've read my various posts and blog !!






(and that's just 2 of them ... )

[Sifu Ben]

anyone got an agile or cort they like? what model? whats good/bad about it?

I've got 2 Agiles and 2 Corts, and they're great.
I've got an Agile AL-3100 (Les Paul clone) in green quilt, and I've got a Septor 727 (extended scale 7 string) in black flame. The AL is great. It's mainly mahogany with just a veneer of maple, but it's real figured maple, not fotoflame. The fingerbaord is nice and flat (13.7") and ebony with real MOP inlays. I've got the standard neck which is still nice and slim. It's stupidly comfortable to play. The pickups are OK if you like PAFs. They sound much better through my Peavey Vypyr than they do through my Ashdown.
 The Septor is a thing of beauty. 5 piece through neck, carved mahogany body with maple veneer, the most glass like ebony board, string-through-body Tonepros TOM. HUGE cutaways and a uniform profile neck that's slightly fuller than you'd expect make it fast and comfortable with unbeatable fret access.
 Problems with Agiles? They need setting up. My AL's bridge and pickup covers were slightly tarnished (although I quite like that). The main problems though are 1) because they're so cheap and so good they're addictive and you can easily get 5, 2) the exchange rate at the minute makes them much more expensive :(

 Corts: I've got an X custom and a G290. They're both slightly older versions though.
The X custom is a straight superstrat. Big cutaways, lightly figured bolt on maple neck (current version is a neck through) which is killer. Very slim, very flat, very thin satin finish. Nice wide rosewood fingerboard. SD Invader and Jazz pickups (neither of which I'm overly fond of) (current version has EMGs). The weak point is the Floyd, which was really mild steel with weak springs. Nightmare to tune, and strings kept snapping off at the bridge. However it is standard floyd spacing, so easy to upgrade, and the new ones have OFRs.
 The G290 is a boutique strat type. carved top swampash body with quilted maple veneer, bolt on birdseye maple neck (current versions a 5 piece neck through) with rosewood board. Locking Sperzels, Wilkinson Vs50 (current models have a cort 2 point trem) and SD JB and vintage stagger pickups (also available with EMG 89/SA). This is a fantastic guitar. Really comfortable to play, looks really classy, love the Wilkinson. I'm not overly keen on the JB, but it's OK split, and the singlecoils are really sweet. One of the great things about these is you can pick them up used on Ebay for £250!! :o