Originally Posted by: Nick McCullochI have a Fender Squier Strat and an Epiphone Les Paul. Unfortunately, cant afford the real deal right now, but they are good to start with :-)
Nothing unfortunate about those guitars at all Nick. Unfortunate would not being able to afford to buy any guitar. Seldom is anyone's guitar the weakest link in their playing, if used as a convenient excuse for it.
Without word of a lie one of my favourite players hanging on my wall is my Aldi Tele regardless it cost me a whopping USD$65 new! ROFL
A curiosity buy with a backup plan of 'return if junk' or as a potential project for its Alder body if not, my expectations for AUD$99 weren't high, so it wasn't going to be difficult to meet them. Instead, I was utterly blown away by it exceeding any reasonable expectation one might have of a unit for less than AUD$100 retail.
After adjusting the neck relief and action, it played fine right OOTB. I've made a couple of inexpensive minor mods since, neither absolutely necessary, and now it plays [u]great[/u]. Importantly, and something which can't be conveyed in any vid demo or hearing its tone or that of any guitar, is the hand feel playing it, notably neck feel, fit, weight and balance. It feels comfortable and facilitative like a well fitting pair of shoes rather than awkward, resisting or fighting the player in any way.
I was originally at time of purchase intending to make it a complete project rework job, but after playing it awhile I decided instead to leave it pretty much as was it didn't need it. New D'Addario strings, Korean quality Wilkinson 1:19 tuner mechs and Wilkinson brass compensated saddles the only changes I made.
