Inexspensive guitars options

[The Trash God]

So for a while I have been wanting to upgrade my guitar. The current guitar I have is a Glarry GTL and while it is good, I'm looking to upgrade a bit. Now the problem is that I dont have a whole lot of money, especially for like a high end guitar, so I was wondering if there were any good recommendations for fairly cheap guitars, like in the 100 to 200 dollar range? Just so I can compile a list of options. Thank you all in advance for your help

 

[Steven Huth]

I think the first question is....what kind of music do you want to play?

 

[Rad Synner]

Steven's right. Though I would go ahead and say that I think you'd have more luck looking in the used market rather than buy new. With the right amount of patience, you could find gems in there that are worth a lot yet are sold for cheap!

 

[The Trash God]

I think the first question is....what kind of music do you want to play?

Rock and Metal are what I primarily play, or what I play the most of. So a guitar suited for those would definitely be optimal.

 

[Steven Huth]

Well, I will second what Radu said. You’re probably going to want to look at the secondary market. Epiphone and Ibanez have some entry level guitars that can probably get you what you want.

Jump on YouTube and search entry level guitars and see what you like. Every brand has a different tone, feel, aesthetic…etc that you may like or dislike. There’s a lot of personal preference when it comes choosing a guitar.

 

[Donovan Etue]

I'm with Radu on this, at around a $200 price point you'll want to try and search the used market. I'd highly recommend checking out Reverb.com as it frequently has some good deals on there from people selling gear they don't use anymore. Specific models/series I'd recommend. I've heard some pretty good things about Ibanez's Gio series. They aren't really comparable to Ibanez's Japanese models or their J Customs but you're also paying even as low as 1/10th the price on many of the models. Beware not to get one of their miKro models which have a shorter scale length which while being easier to play for those with smaller hands will result in having to really beef up the string gauge if you want to down tune any. I'd also stay clear of their models with a tremolo as tremolo's on cheaper guitars tend to be not so stable. Although you can block off the tremolo block with some wood/coins/even a 9v battery in some cases. I've got my current go to guitar setup this way. For rock and metal you'll probably want something with humbuckers. They tend to work best for metal as they tend to have a warmer/fuller tone compared to single coils. I bought an Ibanez RG6003FM as my first guitar on sale from Musicians Friend for $280 or so bucks. It's like a half tier above the Gio's so not notably better but I'm guessing some parts are a little nicer like the flame maple top for example. The guitar is built well but the electronics aren't the best. Luckily you can upgrade those later down the line like I am about to do. My new (to me) pickups arrived just today actually. Of course everything is subjective. While I like the thin feel of a wizard neck found on Ibanez guitars that may not be your cup of tea. Zakk Wylde is known for liking his necks to feel like metaphorical baseball bats. Absolutely thick. If you can it's definitely worth going to a shop to get a feel for what you like body shape wise and neck since each have such a wide variety of shapes that can feel drastically different. Sorry for rambling for a while.

Some quick recommendations being something like this.
https://reverb.com/item/40954101-ibanez-gio-grgr131ex-electric-guitar-black-flat
Or this https://reverb.com/item/41553550-ibanez-grg121dxwnf-gio-rg-6str-electric-guitar-2021-walnut-flat
and be sure to try and get it to a tech to be setup. I hope you enjoy whatever you do decide on picking up.

 

[The Trash God]

I'm with Radu on this, at around a $200 price point you'll want to try and search the used market. I'd highly recommend checking out Reverb.com as it frequently has some good deals on there from people selling gear they don't use anymore. Specific models/series I'd recommend. I've heard some pretty good things about Ibanez's Gio series. They aren't really comparable to Ibanez's Japanese models or their J Customs but you're also paying even as low as 1/10th the price on many of the models. Beware not to get one of their miKro models which have a shorter scale length which while being easier to play for those with smaller hands will result in having to really beef up the string gauge if you want to down tune any. I'd also stay clear of their models with a tremolo as tremolo's on cheaper guitars tend to be not so stable. Although you can block off the tremolo block with some wood/coins/even a 9v battery in some cases. I've got my current go to guitar setup this way. For rock and metal you'll probably want something with humbuckers. They tend to work best for metal as they tend to have a warmer/fuller tone compared to single coils. I bought an Ibanez RG6003FM as my first guitar on sale from Musicians Friend for $280 or so bucks. It's like a half tier above the Gio's so not notably better but I'm guessing some parts are a little nicer like the flame maple top for example. The guitar is built well but the electronics aren't the best. Luckily you can upgrade those later down the line like I am about to do. My new (to me) pickups arrived just today actually. Of course everything is subjective. While I like the thin feel of a wizard neck found on Ibanez guitars that may not be your cup of tea. Zakk Wylde is known for liking his necks to feel like metaphorical baseball bats. Absolutely thick. If you can it's definitely worth going to a shop to get a feel for what you like body shape wise and neck since each have such a wide variety of shapes that can feel drastically different. Sorry for rambling for a while.

Some quick recommendations being something like this.
https://reverb.com/item/40954101-ibanez-gio-grgr131ex-electric-guitar-black-flat
Or this https://reverb.com/item/41553550-ibanez-grg121dxwnf-gio-rg-6str-electric-guitar-2021-walnut-flat
and be sure to try and get it to a tech to be setup. I hope you enjoy whatever you do decide on picking up.

Thank you so much this very useful and informative! I will definitely be looking into this brand and looking into others like it. Again thank you so much!

 

[Donovan Etue]

Thank you so much this very useful and informative! I will definitely be looking into this brand and looking into others like it. Again thank you so much!

Not a problem man! I'm more than happy to help out. If you've got any more questions feel free to ask away on here or in my pm's. Guitar hardware/gear I can happily talk a lot about. If I can't get you any info I can probably get you sent in the right direction. They may be a little bit out of your budget but I've heard some pretty decent things about Jackson's JS32 line of instruments. I was actually 50:50 split on going with a JS32 Kelly as my first guitar instead of my Ibanez. I ended up with the Ibanez because I thought the shape may be easier to play while sitting and because of the 5 way switch having Neck/Parallel/Both Humbuckers/Coil Split/Bridge configuration being a bit more versatile. I ended up not using the Parallel spot much if at all and I only started using the coil split more after owning the guitar for over 2 years at this point haha.

 

[Dominik Gräber]

So for a while I have been wanting to upgrade my guitar. The current guitar I have is a Glarry GTL and while it is good, I'm looking to upgrade a bit. Now the problem is that I dont have a whole lot of money, especially for like a high end guitar, so I was wondering if there were any good recommendations for fairly cheap guitars, like in the 100 to 200 dollar range? Just so I can compile a list of options. Thank you all in advance for your help

Look into Harley Benton, Ibanez and Schecter. Their guitars are really good in the 200€ range!!

 

[Dominik Gräber]

Steven's right. Though I would go ahead and say that I think you'd have more luck looking in the used market rather than buy new. With the right amount of patience, you could find gems in there that are worth a lot yet are sold for cheap!

To add to this, I got my schecter c-1 Classic, Sold Out, but new around 1000 bucks, for 350 on eBay. So definetly keep an eye out. You can always reach out to us If you found a used Instrument and are not sure If it's any good

 

[iridecently]

Look into Harley Benton, Ibanez and Schecter. Their guitars are really good in the 200€ range!!

To add onto this, Squier also has a pretty large range of guitars under 200€ that are amazing quality.

 

[Donovan Etue]

Look into Harley Benton, Ibanez and Schecter. Their guitars are really good in the 200€ range!!

I don't know how the hell I forgot about Harley Benton haha. Yeah, I've seen video after video of people thoroughly enjoying their Harley.

 

[Donovan Etue]

To add onto this, Squier also has a pretty large range of guitars under 200€ that are amazing quality.

I can't believe I forgot about Squier as well. Squiers can easily be found in and around $200.

 

[ari.mac]

If you want a new guitar I can vouch for the Ibanez Gio (Ibanez cheap line). Mine is pretty good and stays in tune really well!! If you want a greater upgrade I would suggest too you look for some good used gear

 

[Kim]

I agree with ari, my first guitar was Ibanez GIo and i liked it, bought it for 75 euro (including amp) second handed
I also like Epiphone, think they have cheaper LP versions, friend of mine has one and likes it, i have epiphone LP too, but that was bit more money, but really like it

 

[Ethan Keeling]

Defo look at used guitars. you could get a $500 guitar for $200 if you look closely. Theres a company called chapman Guitars who are British. They make brilliant guitars for the pricepoint and if you were to find a used one im sure you wouldnt be disappointed!

 

[The Raven]

Could get a decent schecter off the used markets. I picked up a Schecter Gryphon with upgraded pickups and a hardcase for $150 and its one of my favorite guitars still.

 

[Toby Jones]

Can always build your own aswell, there are some cheap kits out there, but you most likely need to replace the pickups/entire fret board.
You can find cheap pre-wired pickguards.
If you decide to go with a fender style (Jaguar, tele, stratocaster ect) you can go with pre-wired squire or mexican pickguards
If you have a bit more money, you can get some seymore duncans..