ilovefuzz.com

Sure low output buckers could work out and sometimes those cheap pickups are nice sounding.. be it usually not very unique or mojoy but that’s not necessarily a bad thing.. and there is always down the road

yeah, pickups are kind of a secondary consideration unless they’re absolutely awful.

i found a Chinese rosewood bridge with the Gibson-style inlay like a real Byrdland, and Kluson makes the perfect tuners, big relief waffle-backs with metal keystone buttons permanently forged on. not horribly expensive if you shop around. the tailpiece is another question…there’s a visually adequate Allparts number that’s more affordable, and a nicer one (heavier gauge wire on the decorative loops and overall sturdier-looking) that’s over $100. i’ll probably get the better one because why not?

i think i may have solved a dilemma that's been pestering archtop fans for ages. Byrdlands, as well as ES-175s and other Gibson archtops (as well as some others e.g. Guilds) used a big rubber grommet around the toggle switch, allegedly to quiet the switching sounds. they're utterly unattainable, and apparently Gibson not only won't sell them but are absolutely snotty when asked. examination of contemporaneous Greco catalogs shows that my guitar should have the grommet, but the photos show it with a poker chip that looks suspiciously caved-in. fortunately, my Google Fu is still strong, and with that and a little lateral thinking i found a Maestro grommet used for old stompboxes that looks like it'll do. the 0.5" switch hole should fit a toggle switch, and at 1.06" diameter it should cover the oversized hole used for the original (0.8" IIRC), which no doubt is why the poker chip is sinking. they're not meant to be load-bearing elements, just ornamental. i hope i can get the chip off without fucking up the finish. this may be the point in my life where i have to buy a hair dryer...i never use them on my hair because it's exceedingly fine and frizzes and fries under the heat, but they're cited as a DIY tool for all kinds of things requiring removal of adhesives. with that i startlingly may already have solved all the questions regarding re-gilding the Byrdland. and if everything's getting done, there's no point in even contemplating aging the parts. so once it's here i'll have another little specific parts-ordering bonanza. tuners, bridge base, probably new bridge, tailpiece, grommet. there's a missing strap button i'll probably replace even though i don't think it's traditional. surprisingly the Fender-style black knobs with silver inserts are kosher both for the Greco and for 70s Byrdlands. so i think that's everything other than pickups, which will be evaluated when my ship plane comes in. need i add that my excitement level is ratcheting up as i wait for the guitar to ship? i'm gonna hate the wait even though they say they don't use economy shipping anywhere. so now i wait.


https://www.amplifiedparts.com/products ... XSKy2HD15E

the Byrdland has shipped, and startlingly is supposed to be here on Thursday. and so it begins. once i’ve done a post-arrival rundown here Byrdland activity will move to my project guitars thread. i really didn’t expect it so soon.

slight delay…the Byrdland got held up at Customs because the dealer didn’t file a Toxic Substances form certifying it, well, isn’t toxic. they had it sorted by 12:30 Sydney time and UPS says it’ll still be here tomorrow. flew out of LA within a couple of hours of the issue being sorted.

also, fuck aging the gold hardware. i didn’t relic the Bigsby B7 when it was installed on the ES-335, and i see no reason to mess with doing all that hardware.

I haven't gotten any gear in like a decade and I wanna get back into guitars, what's the cheapest decent line these days? or something in particular to seek out used, really.

I'm talkin...like, cheap cheap. as long as it can be made playable.

Achtane wrote: ↑Thu Dec 04, 2025 12:56 am I haven't gotten any gear in like a decade and I wanna get back into guitars, what's the cheapest decent line these days? or something in particular to seek out used, really.

I'm talkin...like, cheap cheap. as long as it can be made playable.

Any decent Squier still seems to be the answer I feel like

Squier Classic Vibes generally punch way above their weight. in particular the pickups are better than they have any right to be. i hear good things about Vintage and Harley Benton, but have never seen either in the shops. Epiphone is getting too expensive for bargain stuff.

for cheap cheap you want to go used, refurb, open box. the used guitar market is so in the toilet now that i see Wandrés for less than $2500. after playability work my 2025 Squier Custom Esquire kills and was $379 open-box, and there’s all manner of needs-work stuff out there for pennies. this year i bought a DeArmond husk for less than $200, found the proper Bigsby, stuck Chinese Firebird pickups in, and finished for less than $500.

Byrdland still due today, surprisingly enough.

I know there are some folks out there swearing by import cheapie brands as giving better value than Squier and Epiphone in the under $250 range, but I dunno since I haven’t tried them. In that range I’d go Squier, since I think the Epiphones in the $450ish and up range are where to go if you want into that line. Epiphone and Squier have come a long way in quality and feel. And the parent companies seem to have finally sent the CNC files to carve the necks properly.

Gretsch usually has more heat in their import hollow and semi-hollow stuff on the north side of $500, but some of that stuff will get deep sales and I see good things about lower priced solid bodies, including a recent batch of single pickup guitars that give LP Jr. vibes.

If PRS doesn’t repel on aesthetic grounds, their SE import line seems to get uniformly solid reviews even at the lowest priced model. I saw one on a pretty deep sale at $350 recently.

Gone Fission wrote: ↑Thu Dec 04, 2025 7:35 am I know there are some folks out there swearing by import cheapie brands as giving better value

There is a Harley Benton tele w/ 2 hum buckers that's been sitting at the antique mall near my house for months, at $125. I don't need it, anyway, but I picked it up and immediately put it back down due to the weight, must have been 9 pounds. It looked cool and may well sound ok, and at the prices such things go for, it's not a big risk, even ordering online, but the older I get, the less likely I am to play a heavy guitar.

Lightweight and solid-body gets tough in the cheap range. I'm happy enough that my Epi LP is under 8.5 (don't know if it's "weight relieved"), and my brother says his Fender Player Telecaster is heavier. Unless you're leaning into a model with a Paulownia body, light weight seems to be a more deluxe feature and chambering or weight relief, being an extra production feature, is premium. There are smaller models like Mustangs, but while cool, they look silly small on a guy like me.

Sometimes even the traditional ES-style semi-hollows aren't that much lighter or are even heavier. Full-sized Gretsch hollow bodies with the Bigsby, same. Probably the best I've seen for light, good quality, and $500-ish is the Epi Casino Worn model; Sweetwater lets you pick your specimen and they tend to weigh in the 6-7 pound range, but looking for stock I get a bad feeling those may have discontinued.

Achtane wrote: ↑Thu Dec 04, 2025 12:56 am I haven't gotten any gear in like a decade and I wanna get back into guitars, what's the cheapest decent line these days? or something in particular to seek out used, really.

I'm talkin...like, cheap cheap. as long as it can be made playable.

Lower-end Cort and Yamaha stuff comes out of the same factory as higher end Squier, Ibanez, PRS SE etc. (Cortek Indonesia) and they're arguably the cheapest not-shit guitars as of late.

Also, while the ship has mostly sailed on old Japanese stuff being good value, there might still be some deals out there on the more 'metal' brands?
Was on a cheapskate bass hunt recently and ended up with an 80s MIJ Kramer, which I've been really happy with.

after a rather aggravating delay caused by UPS sending it to the gulag until they figured out i needed to pay Trump Tax, the Byrdland finally arrived today. it’s even nicer in person. it seems like the current pickups will be fine…they were a bit raspy so i backed them off the strings and now it sounds just like a jazz guitar. despite its short scale the body size makes it huge compared to the Strats and such. i’ll go into it more after i spend some time with it.

regarding cheap guitars, there are currently Squier Jazzmasters and Jaguars all over eBay for $350-400, which still qualifies as cheap in my world. in fact, i just bought a CVJM for like $360.