Guitars that punch well above their price tag?

I have this Ibanez art 100 LP copy that I put a Duncan distortion in... It's killer for what I paid. Really resonant, plays great. On par with my Ltd Viper, which is another killer cheap guitar.
 
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anomaly said:
I have this Ibanez art 100 LP copy that I put a Duncan distortion in... It's killer for what I paid. Really resonant, plays great. On par with my Ltd Viper, which is another killer cheap guitar.
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Heck yeah I love my Viper, it's a total ripping player. Quite a few nice features for the dough. Three piece mahogany set thru neck, mahogany body, ebony board, locking tuners, tonepros bridge. I never worry about pickups and guts I always pull them out anyways.

All I got right now is that LTD viper and two Edwards, an ES-A and an E-LP and all those guitars were high quality for comparatively sane pricing. I love ESP products.
 
Got a Carvin TL60 I bought new in the late 90s with the best action of any guitar I’ve ever played.

My experience with Fenders is that regardless of where they’re made you have to wade through about 40 of them to find one that doesn’t suck. And if that one is not American you might as well gut the electronics and swap the bridge and tuners.
 
Schecter Nick Johnston sig models are amazing bang for the buck. Pretty much anything Charvel makes too.
 
My most recent acquisition, a Yamaha AES420 has blown my mind as far as the quality available for almost no money. I've had and still own other "budget" guitars, like an Ibanez RGA42FM. It's a really decent guitar, but you can tell it's a budget guitar. The thin matte finish, low end hardware, slightly rough fret ends. This Yamaha though, it has a gorgeous, flawless metallic dark red finish, rich, dark rosewood board, perfect fretwork with smooth finished fret ends. They even undercut the fret tangs, and filled the slots. My USA Strat doesn't have that. Even the hardware is better than you normally see on budget guitars. The lightning style tailpiece is actually partially adjustable. Looking inside, the pots are full size units, and are about the smoothest turning pots I've ever encountered. They are smooth as glass and offer just the right amount of resistance. I can't help comparing this guitar to my PRS S2. They feel remarkably similar with almost identical neck profiles, and the overall weight and feel of the guitars is so close. I'd even go so far as to say the Yamaha has a slight edge with regards to fit and finish. I can't compare the stock pickups because neither of these guitars was equipped with the original pickups when I got them. I paid $360 CAN for this guitar ($264 US)

The problem is, I'm now looking at other Yamaha AES models.

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I’ve been loving my new-to-me Schecter 006. Any of those older Schecters with SDs or EMGs can sometimes be found for 300-400. That’s a steal in my book. Same goes for the ESP LTD EC-401 and 1000s.

Yamaha Revstar.
Stirling Albert Lee.
 
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