ilovefuzz.com

I also suggest G&L if you are looking for Fender style guitars. They are priced liked Fender knockoffs in the used market, but I prefer my Legacy Tribute to any MIM or Squier Strat I've tried.

new squiers are great bang for the buck if you find one with a good body and neck. I've done lots of mods for people on them, usually it's changing all the electronics for higher end stuff like lollar pickups, cts pots, switchcraft switch/jack, and then giving the guitar a good setup. After that, it sounds and plays just as well as a custom shop fender. Usually the bodies are lightweight and resonant, and with the tech that squier uses now, all of the necks are usually perfect in terms of fret height. The only thing you have to look out for are necks made of wood that is too young occasionally, as they warp a lot and might be beyond the help of a truss rod.

as far as hollowbodies go, epiphone sheratons or dots are usually pretty solid and sound decent with the stock pickups.

Newer G&Ls are PLEK'd so they have awesome necks and you can find them for good deals too. I've seen lots of sc-2's go for 500-600 bucks and they're awesome guitars.

sonidero wrote:I've found several MIM and CII Fenders and Squiers that were way mo awesome then their price... Also I see G&L's in Austin quite a bit... If you want a huge slab of wood Peavey T-60's can't be beat, or use can use it to beat the naysayers...

I'm going to say T-60's are the best MIA guitar for the money. Mine is never getting sold. T-25's and Patriots are also great guitars.

Natural finish T-60's are northern ash so they feel like a log strapped to you. The solid finish ones often have poplar bodies (didn't have to worry about grain blemishes) and are considerably lighter. Mine is black and no heavier than a Tele.

There has been 3 different nice Peaveys in town for months at $200 or less. People here have no clue

I'm going to also say CVs and the J mascis squire jazzmaster is great.

However, 90s japanese made Ibanez Talmans! Amazing! Usually under 500 too, Get 'em while you still can.

Love the current series of Gretsch Electromatics, they can be bought pretty cheap second hand and they have a great sound stock

For around the $500 mark, I'm partial to the Fender Blacktop stuff. I still need to pick myself up a Blacktop Tele with maple fretboard... one of these days....

Noise Supply wrote:For around the $500 mark, I'm partial to the Fender Blacktop stuff. I still need to pick myself up a Blacktop Tele with maple fretboard... one of these days....

I actually found one of those Blacktop Jazzmaster HS's on musicians friend for 350 brand spankin new.... That is one of the guitars that sticks out to me right now to be honest. Although, I am curious what kind of pickup fits in the neck incase I want to change it later.

Speaking of blacktop, I'm actually gonna pull the trigger on the tele baritone blacktop in a few days. Thing has been my dream guitar for a while now.

backwardsvoyager wrote:

HorseyBoy wrote:the Squier Mascis Jazzmaster (the JMJM) is a very, very nice guitar for the money.

this.
out of the box the best guitar i got in the last years. Nothing to moan about. Amazing value for the money. Love it.

These new Squiers are nothing short of impressive, especially if you invest a bit of time and money in simple upgrades.

I would say ibanez. Great build quality in the ones i have. The pickups are hit or miss but the ones in my jet king 2 are really good. That guitar was 200 used.
They have, imo of course, the bestest necks i have played.

Having my Squier JMJM for about a week and a half I can confirm that they're gorgeous. I had to set it up because the action was a little high for me out of the box, aside from that.

So yeah, Squier VM or G&L.

As everyone else has said, the Squier CV and VM stuff is top notch regardless of price.