The parts used and the amount of time to correct should be taken into account when buying "cheap" guitars. Example, the Squire CV series uses quality Alpha pots and correct caps. The wiring is very good too. Perfect as is and an excellent modding platform should you desire.

Before buying any questionable, Chinese or Asian knockoff put the 300 or so bones towards a parts built guitar. I just had my tele done for under $500 and all the parts are top shelf and picked by me. There is simply no reason to take the chance on buying from some unknown vendor overseas.

As an example, and not to pimp a product. Go to Fretteck and look what $550 bucks will get you. Strat? Tele? Take a look. You pick the neck of your choice from Allparts, you get a custom bone nut, CTS pots, the whole nine and it's done by a quality builder with a great rep. I've got a strat build being planned out now. $550 or so spent this way will yield you a far superior instrument than what you'll get from Agile, Epi, etc. There is no skimping on the electronics - no need to swap and waste more time and money later.

I'm also a big proponent of buying used equipment. Some of the best guitars in my collection were obtained that way with a huge savings as a result. There is simply NO REASON to buy a cheap, knockoff guitar unless you are truly new to this game and have no one to guide you in the right direction when it comes picking out a good playing, quality instrument.