Take a look at the specs that define a guitar’s price and what to look for ahead of your next splurge
The contemporary guitar market is vast. In a world where Strat copies can be bought for under £100 (approx $130), and multi-scale eight-strings can cost as little as £180 (approx $233) or go well into the thousands, it can be hard to figure out what the difference betwen cheap and expensive guitars is.
To help inform your next impulse buy, we’ve put together this helpful guide detailing some of the key differences between cheap guitars and their wallet-thinning counterparts.
Tonewoods and their cheaper alternatives
Many high-end and budget-friendly guitars can share the same or similar tonewood combinations, as many luthiers find greater success in cost-cutting elsewhere. However, there are some known alternatives.
Fender loves alder bodies and maple necks for many of its Stratocaster and Telecaster builds. For its budget guitars, alder is usually swapped for poplar, as it’s a similar-sounding but cheaper wood. It’s also very easy to work with, simplifying production costs.
Maple, though, isn’t too expensive, and so maple necks and tops can be found on guitars of all prices. Even Harley Benton’s R-458 eight-string guitars come with a seemingly luxurious roasted maple neck and fretboard. The guitar only costs £209.
It’s worth noting, though, that poplar isn’t the prettiest of woods. It’s very plain – and not very demure – so you’ll typically find these guitars given solid finishes to hide the grain. Only the prettiest of woods get natural finishes, for obvious reasons.
Basswood and Okume, meanwhile, are often employed as cheaper mahogany equivalents. They deliver much of the same warm and fat tonal characteristics but at a reduced cost.
But it isn’t all on the tonewoods. Epiphone’s new 'Inspired by Gibson Custom' Les Pauls share the same mahogany necks and ebony fretboards. They even share the same Grover tuners and CTS pots. It’s elsewhere, in the hardware, where the cost-cutting begins.
Hardware
Costs can be clawed back on matters like the pickups. Note own-brand pickups in many cheaper instruments from the likes of Squier, Harley Benton, and Epiphone.
The 'Inspired by Gibson' Epiphones employ what is basically a Tesco's version of the Gibson-proper's Burstbucker pros. They're “closely engineered” to sound the same, but are also designed with a lower price point in mind.
A quick look at the Bare Knuckle, Fishman, and Seymour Duncan websites will tell you that a good quality pickup set can cost hundreds, so it’s clear that this is one fruitful cost-saving option for luthiers.
Cheaper tuners are another quick way to lower the price of a guitar. We've all played budget guitars where it feels like, after turning the tuning peg for ages, the note never changes. Functionality-wise, it does the same job, just not quite as well. Locking tuners are a more costly appointment and come with a host of benefits.
The good thing here is that, in most instances, hardware upgrades are easy to pull off, especially with pickups. You also have the benefit of being able to live with a guitar to help you understand what exactly you'd be looking to achieve with your upgrades.
Nickel silver frets are often a cheaper replacement for stainless steel frets. The softer metal is easier to work with, and saving time equals saving money. Its softer nature means that they will wear quicker, while stainless steel frets are seen as being better for bends and slides as the material is a lot slicker - nickel has more drag resistance. However, some players prefer the feel of nickel, so it isn't an open/shut, good/bad case.
Premium appointments
Certain minor details can also help raise the price of a guitar. They’re appointments that while they may seem minute, can soon add up, and can make a big difference in making a guitar stage-ready.
Luminlay side dots are a favourite of gigging musician’s, but are rarely seen on budget guitars. Here, the fret marking dots on the side of the neck glow in the dark, making it easy to shred in the dark. They’re a feature too that, once you have them, you’ll feel naked without.
There are options for having after-market Luminlay side dots installed, but it won’t come cheap and you’d need a trusted and qualified luthier to carry out the work.
Then there are things like the nut of the guitar. Is it made of actual bone or synthetic? Bone is renowned for its rich, resonant qualities, and these can be found on high-end guitars, while synethic nuts are typically don't perform quite as well.
However, Graphtech TUSQ nuts buck this trend and prove that synethic nuts can do a great job. But again, these are rarely found on cheap instruments.
Craftsmanship
Budget guitars might have similar specs at a glance, but there’s a lot to be said about the craftsmanship that goes into putting the guitars together. Features like rolled fret edges, which make for a more comfortable playing experience, are typically reserved to more expensive guitars.
Cheaper guitars may not have the best neck joints, meaning access to the upper frets isn’t as VIP and general cuts may be rougher or a bit cruder.
Jackson JS Series Dinky (£239) with Misha Mansoor's Juggernaut signature (£869). Misha's axe is a lot cleaner concerning the neck joint, and it's sculpted for a much more premium playing experience. These are factors worth looking out for when weighing up your next purchase.
Aesthetics
Much like how poplar guitars often have grain-obscuring solid finishes, many expensive guitars vie to look expensive. This can come from visually appealing woods – just take a peek at IV from Sleep Token’s pale moon ebony bestowed custom Jackson.
It could also come from sparkling paint jobs or relic’d finishes. In all these instances, executing the finish takes a lot more time and skill, and that naturally contributes to its street price.
Cheaper body woods are typically given solid colour finishes to hide the fairly boring grain, while the prettiest woods - flame maple, I'm looking at you - are often given transparent, au naturel finishes.
Many cheaper guitars also have veneered body tops to keep their price low, as opposed to more expensive guitars which might use a top wood to complement or counterbalance the tonal qualities of the body and add an extra, luxurious, touch.
Another quick guide is to compare a guitar you’re looking at with a more expensive alternative. As you’ll see with the Gibson vs. Epiphone example discussed here, the clear difference is in the pickups and some other hardware choices.
Room for improvement
If the only difference is that the stock pickups are probably as used as a chocolate fire guard, you can look at the cost of sourcing and fitting replacements against buying a more expensive guitar.
Many players love a cheap guitar because it provides an ideal canvas for modding. Other players want their new guitar to be perfect out the box. Understanding the difference between cheap and expensive guitars lets you know where your money is and isn’t going. It can help make your next buying decision a lot easier.
Head over to the MMA blog page to learn more about gear, techniques, and riff writing hacks.
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