buying a new guitar

[perez]

Hi,
im going to buy an eletric guitar and i want to know if any one have one like the one that im gona buy.
its a HARLEY BENTON HBS200BC.

What do you guys think of it??

[Katastrophe]

Hey, and welcome to the Fret! Cruise on by "The Fret Players" section and introduce yourself.

A quick bit of research shows that HB guitars are the house brand of music retailer Thomann, and look to be quite inexpensive.

Usually at that low price level, there have to be several cut corners in order to meet the price level. Quality control is usually the first to go. The next would be the quality of tuners, wiring, pots, pickups, the pickup switch and jack.

This doesn't mean necessarily that you won't get a perfectly serviceable guitar, but you might have to try a few out before you get a good one.

My old bass player bought a Rogue brand (house brand of Musician's Friend) acoustic bass, and it turned out to be a good bass guitar. At that price level, though, it really is more luck of the draw.

Is this your first guitar? The low price might be tempting, but I would save for a little bit longer for an Epiphone G 400 (their SG style model). You'd end up with a higher quality product.

[thearabianmage]

That is some very good info from Katastrophe - one more thing I should mention, as Harley Benton is a Thomann-based brand, Thomann have quite a bad reputation in many respects (not necessarily the guitars - I wouldn't know - but the company itself).

I assume you might be in the UK - if so, I highly recommend checking out

http://www.gak.co.uk

Great prices (best on the net, and they price-match), quick shipping, and they have dudes there that you can call and ask anything you want. I've used them quite a few times, never had a problem :)

Good luck with your search and I hope you find what you're looking for. Plenty of people here will be more than happy to help :dude

[perez]

Hey, and welcome to the Fret! Cruise on by "The Fret Players" section and introduce yourself.

A quick bit of research shows that HB guitars are the house brand of music retailer Thomann, and look to be quite inexpensive.

Usually at that low price level, there have to be several cut corners in order to meet the price level. Quality control is usually the first to go. The next would be the quality of tuners, wiring, pots, pickups, the pickup switch and jack.

This doesn't mean necessarily that you won't get a perfectly serviceable guitar, but you might have to try a few out before you get a good one.

My old bass player bought a Rogue brand (house brand of Musician's Friend) acoustic bass, and it turned out to be a good bass guitar. At that price level, though, it really is more luck of the draw.

Is this your first guitar? The low price might be tempting, but I would save for a little bit longer for an Epiphone G 400 (their SG style model). You'd end up with a higher quality product.

hi,
Im only 15 years old, so all the money that i have is given by my mom and she wont let me buy something too expansive...
but next year ill get a summer job and then ill buy a decent guitar.
until then ill have to live with that...
I have a friend that bought something on Thomann online store, and it come with defects, and the changed it. Maybe they are not the best, but neither the worst...

BTW: Im from Portugal.

[FusedGrooves]

hi,
Im only 15 years old, so all the money that i have is given by my mom and she wont let me buy something too expansive...
but next year ill get a summer job and then ill buy a decent guitar.
until then ill have to live with that...
I have a friend that bought something on Thomann online store, and it come with defects, and the changed it. Maybe they are not the best, but neither the worst...

BTW: Im from Portugal.

Hi Perez,

My suggestion would be to wait a little longer and to keep saving your $$ until you can buy something a bit better.

Part of the problem with cheaper guitars is as above, the lack of QA and low level PUPs/Pots etc means usually they sound pretty average, and play even worse. I know of alot of ppl who have wanted to start learning guitar so they (or their wives LOL) buy the cheapest thing they can lay their hands on > the guitar sits in the corner never played because it sounds terrible and the player will generally lose motivation to keep learning due to how bad they sound, even though it's potentially the guitars fault.

Look at it these few ways:
1. You say you will buy something better soon anyways, my thoughts on this are always if you're going to spend say $600 on something - and the 'thing' you really want is $1000 I would definately wait until I could get the better 'thing' - You'd end up spending $1600 on 2 things whereas waiting a little longer you would end up saving $ or spend the extra you've now saved buying 1 'thing' you can purchase other stuff to compliment it.

- I apply this to guitars, pedals, motorcycles and just about anything I look at buying.

2. The more $$$ something costs me the more I am willing to use it/take care of it etc. Getting a GOOD guitar is much like a good book, it should make you NOT want to put it down > a cheap (crap) guitar won't do this for you.

However if you are serious about playing this may not put you off but you'd still end up replace it with something in Summer anyways and that'll be the axe that MOTIVATES you to play all the time.....


At your age, you can afford to wait a little longer too even if it feels like you're waiting forever. In the meantime do your research, save save save and you'll have the nice guitar in no time! OR look around for 2nd hand instruments as a quality 2nd handy will always be better than a cheap brand new guitar.

The way to handle the 'Mum/wife' factor (we all have issues with them LOL) would be to explain basically the above. She will see you waiting, saving and being focused which may help your cause as would getting your own part time job. Explain the differences between the cheapest guitar and the one you really want - as a parent myself I'd support my kids more in their choice if I knew it wasn't just a 'fad' where I buy some Gibson for lots of $$ and the kid never plays it and moves to the next fad. If my child said they wanted to play but were prepared to work more, save and WAIT for the good instrument it would show me it's not just a passing fad and I'd be alot happier about spending the big bucks.

Dunno that's just me and my 2 cents worth though.

[deeaa]

I've never seen that particular model but I seriously doubt 85€ will buy a new guitar that is really anything but crap, basically. BUT these days even cheapest guitars do tend to be correctly made, thanks to CNC machines. It's just they may not really keep tune well and probably require quite a lot of setting up and adjusting.

I know for a fact, though, that for 120€ you can find a decent if not good playing starter guitar used, or enough parts to put together even a very very good player. That's about what my Squier Classic Player active mic partscaster came to cost in the end and it's a better guitar than my 1700€ Gibson Les Paul was. maybe a Squier or Yamaha Pacifica etc. or an older guitar...under 400€ I would definitely look for things used in any case.

In fact in recent years I've come to believe ~400 is the most that one should ever pay for a basic electric guitar; everything more than that is just for looks and brand, not any better any more in any real way, if you know how to mod and tweak guitars a little.

So I would beg, steal, save or whatever it takes to up the resources at least by another 50€ and find a nice used one. Chances are, you'd end up spending that 50€ on a luthier very soon anyway trying to make the cheap HB more playable.

[perez]

Hi Perez,

My suggestion would be to wait a little longer and to keep saving your $$ until you can buy something a bit better.

Part of the problem with cheaper guitars is as above, the lack of QA and low level PUPs/Pots etc means usually they sound pretty average, and play even worse. I know of alot of ppl who have wanted to start learning guitar so they (or their wives LOL) buy the cheapest thing they can lay their hands on > the guitar sits in the corner never played because it sounds terrible and the player will generally lose motivation to keep learning due to how bad they sound, even though it's potentially the guitars fault.

Look at it these few ways:
1. You say you will buy something better soon anyways, my thoughts on this are always if you're going to spend say $600 on something - and the 'thing' you really want is $1000 I would definately wait until I could get the better 'thing' - You'd end up spending $1600 on 2 things whereas waiting a little longer you would end up saving $ or spend the extra you've now saved buying 1 'thing' you can purchase other stuff to compliment it.

- I apply this to guitars, pedals, motorcycles and just about anything I look at buying.

2. The more $$$ something costs me the more I am willing to use it/take care of it etc. Getting a GOOD guitar is much like a good book, it should make you NOT want to put it down > a cheap (crap) guitar won't do this for you.

However if you are serious about playing this may not put you off but you'd still end up replace it with something in Summer anyways and that'll be the axe that MOTIVATES you to play all the time.....


At your age, you can afford to wait a little longer too even if it feels like you're waiting forever. In the meantime do your research, save save save and you'll have the nice guitar in no time! OR look around for 2nd hand instruments as a quality 2nd handy will always be better than a cheap brand new guitar.

The way to handle the 'Mum/wife' factor (we all have issues with them LOL) would be to explain basically the above. She will see you waiting, saving and being focused which may help your cause as would getting your own part time job. Explain the differences between the cheapest guitar and the one you really want - as a parent myself I'd support my kids more in their choice if I knew it wasn't just a 'fad' where I buy some Gibson for lots of $$ and the kid never plays it and moves to the next fad. If my child said they wanted to play but were prepared to work more, save and WAIT for the good instrument it would show me it's not just a passing fad and I'd be alot happier about spending the big bucks.

Dunno that's just me and my 2 cents worth though.

i've never thought of that in that way, maybe because i want the guitar so bad...
ill try to save as much as i can and buy a real SG :)
tanks all of you for your tips

[Katastrophe]

i've never thought of that in that way, maybe because i want the guitar so bad...
ill try to save as much as i can and buy a real SG :)
tanks all of you for your tips


Very wise decision!

[perez]

good thing i decided to create this thread!!!

btw, if someone wants to make a donation to my PayPal its welcome xD

[poodlesrule]

perez, you post reminded me of the E. Clapton bio I just read....!

He went through the same trials, I think. :rockya

[player]

even the Epiphone 400 SG used or new are not that bad.still it's always wise to have a guitarist with you when buying anything guitar they'll know where someone not a player won't.many if not most sales people don't care as long as they can or do make the sale.this something else to think about.
personally always liked playing before buying anything anyway