Good inexpensive guitars???

[Charles Long]

From briefly perusing here, it seems a lot of you play high end expensive guitars. I don't. What I'm looking for is good guitar for 500 or less. I live in a rural area and will have to order over the internet so no option to head to a music store and try a bunch out. If anyone has any ideas, I'd love to hear them. An Epiphone Texan looks pretty good. I'm not a very good player but I'm practicing and learning and trying to get better. The guitar I have now is pretty cheap and I really would like to upgrade and 500 is about the upper limit of what I want to spend at this point.

[Chris]

the guy next door to me owns a Freshman, he has been playing guitar now for 20 odd years so id think if he is playing one they must be more than okay for sure.

[ganon]

No personal experience, but there seem to be a lot of people who swear by Eastman, particularly the 320 model(s). ~ $700 new. They now a have a 100 series that comes in under $400. See, for example:

http://www.guitarsplususa.com/eastman-acoustic.shtml

[Charles Long]

Okay. I heard from the guy from the American Freshman site. The one used guitar he has is a discontinued model with electronics and he wants 1200 for it so it's well out of my price range. But if anyone here wants a Freshman guitar and has 1200 bucks to spend, let me know and I will give you his info.

[Charles Long]

He did say this guitar retailed for 3 times that so it would be a good deal. I don't have 1200 to spend and I don't need electronics.

[Charles Long]

I will be making a decision and ordering probably in the next week or two. I appreciate all the suggestions. I will let you all know and post a pic when I get it.

[Charles Long]

My new guitar came on Wednesday. I bought a Carvin Cobalt.

It was $357.10 delivered with a hardshell case.

For some reason the hyperlink function isn't working. Here's the site link:
http://www.carvinguitars.com/products/single.php?product=C250&c...

[Charles Long]

My initial assessment is that it's a very good guitar for the price. It sounds a lot better than the Takamine I was playing. The fit and finish are excellent. I looked it over closely to try to find any flaws and I couldn't. It's a nice guitar and is certainly worth what I paid. The case isn't as good as some I've seen but I'm happy with the guitar. One of these days, I would like to get a high end guitar but I think this one will see me through for awhile.

[lcarr]

Carvin looks nice! Not familiar with them. Seems a lot like a Walden. Would love to try one in person.

[Charles Long]

I'm happy with it. Never played a Walden.

[William Gray]

There are dozens of great acoustic guitars for $500 or less. Two of my favorites are the Epiphone Masterbilt DR-500M Dreadnought (ALL solid wood) and the Recording King Series II 000 and Dreadnaught models (ALL solid wood). Given your preference for the Gibson sound, you would probably prefer the Epiphones over the Recording Kings which are trying to emulate the Martin sound.

All the inexpensive guitar lines suffer from inconsistency of manufacture---even the exact same make and model, some turn out great, sound turn out okay, and some are terrible. And ALL of them need basic setup and minor adjustments beyond what the factory provides. Since you won't be able to play them, you should try to find an online dealer who will get on the phone with you, play the guitar, look it over carefully, and give you an honest opinion of how "right" it is. You won't get that kind of service from Musician's Friend, Guitar Center, or any of the big merchants. But there are many smaller more reputable stores that pride themselves on honesty and customer service. They're not hard to find.

Also, the big online merchants like Musician's Friend do NOT do any kind of setup (or inspection), they just ship it as it comes from the factory. I've had friends who received guitars with cracked headstocks, misaligned bridges, broken tuners that left the factory that way and were blindly shipped to the customer. Of course, they will take them back, but who wants to go through that hassle?

Those are my thoughts. Good luck and happy picking.

[Willie Hustad]

+1

epiphone has several models that ape gibson designs. I your looking for a dread, I'd take a look at their J-45 copy.

[Charles Long]

Here's the pic: