I Don't Think Guitars Can Get Much Better...
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- čas přidán 16. 11. 2023
- Over the past 10-15 years, guitar manufacturing has come so far, that there's little progress left to be made. A mid-range price guitar today, is as good as a high-end guitar of yesterday. Take this AIO S4 as an example, a classic HSS strat type setup with locking tuners, brand name hardware and an ebony fretboard, with hours of QC and personal attention to the setup and playability, all for under $500. This is the result of the guitar revolution!
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BOSS IR-200: amzn.to/3MCGaJU
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Rubric: -5 points for Danzig references. -5 points for not reading the description. -5 points for not watching far enough into the video to answer your own question. -5 points for misquoting me in your comment. 20 points possible. Everyone starts with an A! - Hudba
I'm 57. I can't count anymore how many times I've said to myself. " I wish this was available at this price point when I was a teenager" It's amazing what's available now, especially the affordable stuff.
Same except just turned 60. Been playing for 50 years
I’m the same age and feel exactly the same way.
Said the same thing im only 45 but remember paying prices for used guitars still not even close to some of these now.
Yea no doubt. I started playing at 18 I’m now 33. I only had to screw around with cheap crap guitars, not even one year before I was able to layaway a wonderful MIM Strat that I still have to this day. The 99 dollar squires at that time were decent but something like the affinity squires are incredible for like 200 bucks.
I'm 45. I learned by fighting my Gremlin. Now, these guitars are awesome looking and sound great.
I agree with your QC comment. A brand name guitar that skipped it's QC process could be worse than a cheaper guitar that didn't.
I agree! I'm 55, and during my teen years, a playable guitar can cost a lot in a third-world country. Now the availability, prices, and quality is unbelievable!
Yeah really good point, meanwhile Europe has become a third world country and looks more like sub Saharan Africa. Guitars are cheaper tho 😢
It's truly incredible what is available today compared to 40 years ago. The playability is remarkable.
Agreed. I’ve still got a made in japan black in black squier that I bought brand new in 1987 yeah ages ago hey ? And even that had a bit of stigma attached to it
That thing is worth a fortune. Who’d have thunk hey ?🤣😂🤣😂
Cheers from this Aussie living in NZ 😎🎸🤘
@PeterMoore350 that's what's up 🤙
Even 20 years ago. A 2000's starter guitar under 500 was almost unplayable.
Forty years ago was '83. Are you actually unaware of the brands that were made then ?? I specialize in MIJ from @ '75 to @ '89. Maybe you should do a little Homework, first. Surprise Yerself 😅
@@jayrificBecause there is no such thing. Only Worse and Better.😊
My latest guitar purchase was a Harley Benton with locking tuners, stainless steel frets, a wilkinson trem, a graphtech nut and roller string trees for about 250$ new, and it plays just as good, has very similar specs, and had better QC than my Solar that I got for 900$ used, the thomann and Harley Benton stuff are just astounding!
They cant be touched ( i got 4), maybe by these aio or wolf brands
try iyv guitars, harley benton comes no where near
Couldn't agree with you more! I'm 68, been playing both acoustic and electric guitars for a lot of years. I have over 25 guitars, from cheap to fairly pricey. What you can get for a few hundred bux these days blows my mind! And I also whole heartedly agree about set up and proper intonation. A well set up axe is a joy to play and makes you want to pick it up!
That was definitely one of your best solos at the intro. You’re definitely improving a lot. Keep jamming brother , great video.
Agreed. I really enjoyed his intro esp when he switched over to cleans. Cheers
Improving?? He's been a very very good player for years.
@@eric_in_florida no he hasn't I ve been playing for 37 years. I know guitar players.
@@dananthony6258 I've been watching him 3-4 years and his playing always impressed me. I'm not talking about the early days of his channel.
@dananthony6258 I also disagree with you, I think that max can jam very good, and I betcha that I have been playing at a high level longer than you, my friend!
I agree so much! I've been playing for over 45 years. Some of the junk I learned on as a kid was downright embarrassing. It took me years to afford a really good quality instrument back in the day. Now I can buy virtually anything I look at but I love these solid quality not-so-expensive options. (It means I can buy more guitars, and who doesn't like that?!)
Appreciate your expertise on these type of instruments.
It's a great time to be alive and playing music. Almost all gear, including guitars, speakers, amps (particularly class D amps), effects (modelers), recording equipment, digital editing, and just about everything else has become so affordable and good and reliable. The barriers that used to hold folks back are gone. Everyone has access to the tools to make beautiful sounds for not very much money. It's all on the musician now to be the show and a show worth listening to! That's great. We all need to step up and create beautiful music.
It's nice to see that some manufactures are putting their time and real work into their products!
With precision CNC and PLEK machines out there.... it's no joke.
The CNC is only as good as the machinists that run them. That’s why better equipment is still made in USA and Japan.
What a fascinating conversation! Thanks, Max!
This is a satisfying follow-up to the AIO tour you did.
I do agree with you. Just the amount of information "about" guitars, setups, etc has move light years even in my lifetime. Keep up the goot work, it is much appreciated. Yes, the guitar you're playing sounds fantastic.
Beautiful guitar Max!!!❤
It looks like AIO have a decent range of left handers as well, which is a big plus for me! You'd be surprised how many larger manufacturers ignore this market.
I'm 64 and I only picked up the guitar two years ago.
Because of my age, and a heart operation, I wasn't sure how much time I had so I bought the best guitars I could afford.
But I was lucky to have been in a position to do it.
Still, I know I overdid it. I didn't buy anything that wasn't USA made our custom shop.
I'm embarrassed to admit I bought 20 guitars in 2 years. I have since stopped. It became an absolute obsession.
This gentleman can really play. He really plays from the heart.
🙏🕊️🙏
I have 30 guitars, so you're good to go.
@@EHou01
How long have you been playing?
A great review. I appreciate the attention to clean tones and slightly dirty.
That guitar is awesome. Love the finish and spec 👌
I know faux tortoise shell stuff is a throwback to the 60s etc but seriously bro I despise it. Change that pick guard/scratchplate to black and be done with it ffs 😂🤣😂🤣😎🎸🤘
(Cough) fender (cough)
@@PeterMoore350 what? Its my favourite one
"You won't fool the Children of the Revolution!" Great video Max and that guitar looks and sounds great. I bet it would serve any guitarist well.
Man, Ive been in the market for a guitar and havent shopped in so long I wasnt sure what to look for. You have helped me make up my mind onwhat to look for.
Beautiful guitar, and you make it sound great! It really is incredible how many quality options there are available in this price range. There are even fantastic options in the $300 to $400 price range, such as the Sire T3 and S3 models. Great video!
He plays really well. You’d think he was in a band or something…..oh wait….🤣😂🤣😂🤣😂
Gotta love those Sire guitars! Great instrument straight up!
I’ve been blessed to have many high end USA & Japanese guitars throughout the years. I recently bought a Charvel MIM and was blown away at the quality 🤯 It’s my main workhorse guitar now 🙂
Great video, I'm glad you brought this up. I've been thinking the same thing for a while. It seems like after you spend 1k$ your just splitting hairs on quality. Good time to be a guitar player! Obviously there will be innovations in design and technology (Tosin, Strandberg, etc), but for just great playing/sounding classic style guitars, manufacturers have truly raised the bar on quality control and production efficiency.
That bridge pickup under high gain has some wicked overtones, Max! Wow. It is like it is just asking for harmonic squeals.
The single coils sounds are very good as well. It truly is amazing how good a $500 guitar can be now!
I also agree with you. A good guitar that stays in tune, and sounds great will help you become a better player.
Great video Max! Good points. When I started playing, a $500 guitar was crap. It is amazing how far CNC machines have come, and those machines allow more time for human interaction. You nailed it, dude. ❤
Excellent points Max! I own an AIO ASG (SG style) and play it live more that my Gibson LP, Epiphone LP and American Strat. It plays so well and sounds amazing!
Thank you for sharing your perspective👍💯
Hi Max. I'm 75 and have been playing for over 60 years. You are spot on! Excellent guitars are no longer the domain of the wealthy. With just $200 you can buy excellent guitars. Shalom/gw
Thanks!
For so long you've been bringing us so many great videos and equipment. I bought a Chender, the red one YEARS ago because I saw it here. I did the same thing you did and used it for a mod platform. So many changes I made, and got it absolutely perfect for me. So good, someone stole it. 🤬. Is there any way you could find the seller we bought them from Max? I need to heal my broken heart. 😢. Thanks for the years of work man. It really has been appreciated by so many of us.
ROCK ON MAX🤘
I loved both AIO guitars that I saw you analyze. It’s very exciting to me, a newcomer to playing, to be able to get quality at really reasonable and affordable prices. So, It gives pretty much anyone a great opportunity for anybody to learn. Thank you for your videos. Love your channel. Rock on!
That end little jam on the intro was awesome
You're right about the inexpensive guitars being much better these days. I remember back in the 70's and early 80's lots of cheap guitars started flooding in and many were not worth buying regardless of the price. Now, there are many companies producing high quality cheap guitars. I don't know how they can sell them for inexpensive prices when the quality is so good???
I hear you, brother. When I bought my $450 (IIRC) Peavey T-60 to play _hard rock_ and _metal_ on, instead of country, you could feel the laughter (not mine!) a mile away! But that was one of the most dependable, solid, great-sounding instruments I've ever had.
They are able to do it because China subsidizes the manufacturing in the country. It’s really crazy when you look into it. The whole government is a scam. They are going into a hole just to get the industry out of other countries.
Well they can cause theyre manufactured very cheaply in asia. Fender/gibson are overcharging on every single guitar
After watching your video on the aio les Paul I bought one about two years ago. Its lasted so well just had to make one truss rod adjustment. I play it every day.
Awesome channel awesome playing awesome communication skills! 🌟🌟🌟🌟🌟
Spot on! Great specs, fantastic price.
The only down side is that now folks have no excuse for failing to actually learn to play.
You are absolutely correct about the quality and pricing compared to the the past which in my case is from the 70's forward as I started playing at about 12 years old in the late 60's.
I agree with your analogy. I do think the quality of the guitar does effect the motivation to learn and play. I have a collection of 85 guitars that I have been building over the past 10 years (Guitar Builders and Collectors). I like to customize them and when I started that was a lot of work getting the mid price range and budget guitars to the standard of adding to the motivation to play. Now the customizations are much quicker and I don't have to change as much of the hardware. The fretwork has improved drastically over the last decade. When I get one and finish the review, I typically change the pickups (not always but I am kind of a particular when it comes to pickups B13K and N9K), put on a brass nut, and a roller bridge. These guitars have gotten a lot better at intonation I just prefer the roller bridge because of the extended string life. Anyways, great video and valid point.
Love your videos, I discovered you when I was thinking about buying a fender gtx50. Thanks for all your work
Thank you! Rock on!
Yes, started playing in 1977 and it was simply impossible to get a decent electric at a good price. Amazing what is available these days and sincevquite a few years.
My first guitar was a Jackson in the early 80's it was 300 bucks, that was a top end guitar,and believe me it was awesome, never had to do anything to it. Now i spend 2k on a gibson and there not even close to build quality or tone, if i could have my Jackson back today i wouldn't even think twice about it. That Jackson blew the doors off my Gibson.
pretty insightful topic, got me thinking.
I agree with you totally, the play-ability and tonal margins between expensive and mid priced guitars are becoming much narrower now. The after market accessories (necks and bodies, tuners etc) are also much much higher in quality, without having to pay a fortune. Some of the bespoke pickup makers out there are making great pickups at very affordable prices, Dawgtown being just one of them.There were some mid priced/cheaper guitars back in the 70s that were an exception, Hayman, Antoria, Jedson and a few of the Ibanez guitars at that period that were very good and gigable instruments, lets not forget Tokia when they appeared in the very early 80s. But nearly every mid priced guitar now, has a superior quality to everything that existed before.
Great stuff. Really valid simple points in the introduction. QC must be where costs are now as everything else is getting so much more streamlined/efficient
Some QC on more expensive guitar can be appalling sometimes
Another awesome vid! You are totally right about the state of guitar manufacturing over the last 10+ years. CNC technology tools, software technology and (of course) smart people have made it all possible. So grateful that we have just participated in (and witnessed) a major manufacturing revolution like this. Thanks for another great review!
Love that orangish yellow finish... also really like the nickel hardware, it will tarnish really nice and have a classic look/feel as it ages.
That guitar looks & sounds great!
Holy cow that thing sounds totally awesome direct through that ir 200
i just tuned in after a while your play is sounding polished nice guitar too.
I remember the harley bentons of mid 2000's, their quality was so bad it was almost criminal to call them an instrument. Nowadays, they are borderline unrivaled in price/performance. Like you mentioned, the manufacturing process has gotten so far in this time.
I’ve purchased five guitars (so far) from AIO. Setup is always spot on even after being shipped from California to Alabama.
I'm trying to pay attention, but I can't stop looking at that model plane on the left of the screen. ✈️ Agree on all points by the way...
I bought a Strat (Copy) from wish… plays exactly the same notes as a $2k fender.
I really really like that guitar, sound, looks and all , great value also 👍
Hi Max. I bought three guitars based on your reviews. All are magnificent! Thanks! I've been playing for sixty years. I think A.I. has the potential to take over inspection and setup. Not only for guitars but for everything. Couple that with advent of nanobots, capable of emulating the basic elements of the periodic table and it will really get crazy. The only further step is manipulating the quantum fields, through consienceness. Implementation without instrumention ala The Krell of the 1958 movie, Forbidden Planet. I know, deep stuff, sounds crazy. But all of my physicist friends agree. I am also grateful to have lived through such magnificent times. Shalom (May the Peace and all possible Blessings of God be with you!) /gw
You're not wrong. I am continually amazed at how good these new inexpensive guitars really are. I think part of it is that China has shifted some of their focus from making good counterfeit guitars over to making their own legitimate versions of the popular guitars we all love. Either way, I'm not complaining.
You nailed it buddy! I got my first guitar in 1965. In the 1970s you could not purchase a guitar for $500 that was worth playing. Now you can buy brand new guitars for $100 that are amazing instruments. I, too, am happy to have lived through the revolution and I am more excited about guitars and guitar playing than ever. Keep up the great work! Your playing is always amazing and your views mean a lot. I very much appreciate what you do and how consistently you do it -- both as a player and a program host.
You could absolutely buy a great guitar for $500 in the 1970s. Why would you make something like that up?
I’ve been playing, buying, selling and trading guitars for more than fifty years and I agree with you that the best guitars are being made right now and are definitely the best bang for the buck.
Not quite as long for me. i agree with respect to elec guitars. But quality’s acoustics get better with age imo
I put 2 velvet hammer pups on my mex made strat along with a tele neck and it sounds great. Plays like a dream. The only pedals I use are my Marshall Blues Breaker and Marshall Drive master along with a hush pedal to quell the noise. I run it through my Marshall DSL 100 and my fender 4×12 cab outfitted with 2 EV 12 L classic speakers. Love this rig. ( yes I only have 2 speakers in my 4×12 cab.)
I usually judge on the clean sounds first, so far so good!
I’m 57 too… and it’s RIDONKULOUS!
I’m a pig in sh*t with ALL the $500 guitars I now have since I sold my ONE $3,500 Les Paul that I never even loved the feel of in the first place!
Someone with his talent can make any guitar sound great, just my opinion .
Its in the hands but nowdays there are lots of good guitars for a cheap price
@@the.communist people who say this kind of stuff have probably never tried to learn on something that can't stay in tune
Love that color!
Things will always advance and get better and better. We have heard this before.
I can think of a few things that will elevate the mid-range guitar: stainless frets, locking tuners, lumed side dots, Pure Tone jacks, brass trem block. Like you, I consider QC and setup to be the best differentiating factor between equally priced guitars.
I totally agree! When i was 15, you either had to buy a guitar with horrible action all messed up or spend alot more money for something of high quality. There weren't all these playable affordable guitars. Competition and engineering have both contributed. Great video as this is often not mentioned as young players probably assume playable guitars were always available for a few bucks. tom
Totally agree. I can't imagine any guitar being built better any than my PRS Standard 24-08 - except for a fancy bookmatched top or other upscale details. With a wealth of reviews to be found on YT, manufacturers have to provide excellent quality to survive these days. Boutique luthiers are up against some tough competition.
The best guitar is the one that you have!
Imho 🎸
I would argue that there is ONE company...that has pushed the level of quality to its current place MORE than other company...
Harley Benton...😊
Totally agree, I own 6 Harley Benton guitars including an SC550-II (Les Paul copy) that I received 2-days ago. It’s an unbelievable guitar with fantastic spec including modern weight relief 7.8lbs, AAAA maple veneer top, stainless steel frets, Kluson tuners etc. all for £288. I also own Suhr and some other high end custom built guitars too, costing 10 times more but definitely not 10 times better than the Harley Benton’s, which are not that far off. I modded a Harley Benton Fusion Pro, their version of the Suhr Pete Thorn signature standard to Suhr spec with the addition of Thornbuckers and a Wilkinson WVS130-2P bridge, refinished the headstock and neck to my preferred finish of a blend of gunstock oil and wax (Music Man’s standard neck finish). This Fusion Pro is easily as good as my other Suhr’s now and cost £800 in total as opposed to the ‘eye watering’ £4000 retail price tag of the Suhr Pete Thorn Standard.
I'll stay with my 2021 high end Epiphones and Gibson
as kirk Hammett said, you can play on any trade or quality. u're so good no matter the guitar you have in your hands. They are so many guitar makers those days, it's just a matter of what you feel and love about your instrument.
You are a very good guitar player, Max.
I fell for the hype and bought a gold top LP from AIO., the high E string and B string rested on the first two frets. The strings kept slipping and had been wound around the posts one or two times with no locking procedures. After changing the strings it was still hard to keep in tune. I checked the string posts and they were all loose. I adjusted the intonation and finally had a guitar I could use. I think it came straight from the factory, so much for paying for a superb set up, clearly that didn't happen.
Nice guitar!
Love my Wolf and AIO guitars.
Hello and congrats on your channel! It has really helped me stop being a gear snob and I really love your content.
One question I have, though, is what your watch is. I have a passion for watches and I'd really like to know :)
I have been playing for 35 years and currently own 47 various Guitars and Basses.... The Guitars being mainly Fender, Squire, Epiphone, and Jackson, and I do all the set ups myself and also fix my Students Guitars as well, and show them how to do it themselves and I can tell you that in many cases my Squires of around £250.00 play as well as my much more expensive Fenders, and my Epiphjone Les Pauls feel and sound better than any Gibson equivalent that I have used,...so I agree totally,.. it's all about the attention to details and personalizing your Guitar to your own specific requirements.
I have also recently purchased a few Jackson's which were all sub £350.00 brand new and they played perfectly right out of the box, barring a few very minor tweaks, which to me proves your point exactly.
I think the next revolution will be in electronics. Imagine a guitar that has the power to have every combination of amp sim and effect chain built in, where you simply sync it to your phone via BT and have every tone you could ever want simply by plugging into the house via a DI out, you could even have a BT pedalboard to let you turn amps and effects on/off and would need nothing more than the guitar and pedal. The tech exists today with the insane amount of power you can get out of ARM processors and sooner or later someone is going to wed that to a guitar and its going to be insanely powerful.
I think the revolution may have began a little sooner than 15 years ago, at least as far as the Squier stuff is concerned. I have a 2007 Squier Vintage Modified 70s Jazz Bass I bought new for about $475? from Guitar Center in 2007. It's got the Duncan Design pickups, and would still be a quality gigable bass without them. A few years ago I rescued an older Korean Squier P Bass from the 90s that had been left for years in a friend's garage. It was a pretty good instrument and I giged with it one night just to make a point. I do agree though that this is an amazing time. I just bought a couple Glary instruments for my kids for Christmas. They will need a little work and a setup, but I think that really just makes your point in a way. Some of the human ellements that are lacking in an inexpensive instrument fall under the catagory of "I can do that myself". Great video!
Now that I think about it, that Jazz bass was probably about $375 back in 2007. Just trying to go from memory, sorry.
I think in the 80s we were getting great Japanese Strats cheap. Then we went downhill and now we’re starting finally get back to those standards. You could buy a custom made Leo Fender Music Man Stingray guitar in 1978 for $800
Yeah that’s $3,823.47 in 2023
Pickups can be made through machines that control to the wiring wrapping and magnet strength based on whatever pickup they want to simulate.
Agree, bought a gretsch under $300 AUD, played well sounds good, got another one for my 8 yr old nephew just for fun. He’s learning has great ears. Great to be alive 2023 n playing guitars
I have a USA Charvel San Dimas, I/200 in its particular color. I also have a $179 Tagima S-type that I dropped $100 for a setup on and the the Tagima sits on its own stand by my desk and the Charvel has migrated form the rack to its case in the corner.
One of the reasons is the neck.
Charvel neck is fantastic. The Tagima is even better. It is pretty close to an early 60s fender baseball bat neck. That is a perfect profile for my hands and style.
Without C&C and computers and 3d scanning Tagima would't be able to make that guitar at that price.
That's because you really don't have a Charvel..
Agree, you can get a great playing and sounding guitar that many people can afford for all the reasons you said.
Sharp looking color. edit I hadn't even made it to the ebony fretboard on a strat part. Sold!
The other fantastic corollary to the guitar revolution is you can buy a dirt cheap guitar as an upgrade platform and it will play well out of the box. It might not stay in tune all that well and will have crappy pickups that sound crap but as a framework for upgrades it's a solid platform.
One of my favourite more recent acquisitions has been 65gbp Harley Benton Strat in candy apple red. Body is basswood and the neck is maple with a rosewood fingerboard.
I've fitted the lace sensor rainbow pack pickups in it, Tusq Nut and String trees, Ratio locking tuners and Vega trem on it.
It plays like a Strat Ultra from back in the day. Sounds amazing too. Absolutely rock solid tuning stability.
Now granted it's a bit of a ship of Theseus type of deal but the skeleton of the guitar had to be solid to accomplish this.
We live in amazing times as modern guitarists.
To contrast this my first halfway decent Strat back in the 80s was a Ninja Nighthawk and it was rubbish. Plywood body and The worst locking trem setup ever committed to any guitar ever.
Luv and Peace.
Damn nice tone
My les paul is 10 years old. Not a great year for Gibson but it has had some upgrades and it’s just been perfect
I totally agree with you.😊👍
The quality and playability of inexpensive guitars is excellent. But i wish they had more switching options. Like neck, middle and bridge pickups with serial switching so that they work like humbuckers. Or humbuckers of humbuckers. Or parallel options for humbuckers, which sound amazing for clean tones.
my brother has a squier strat that plays and sounds incredible. if you just put locking tuners on that thing to stabilize tuning a bit i could see a non-pro being happy and well served with just that guitar for the rest of his/her life.
Very good insight into the state of guitar manufacturing. Though, if you've ever tried to make a guitar out of Temu parts, you'll see there's still lots of crappy parts out there 😂
Totally agree with you when you say the better the guitar plays the better you get as a player and the easyer Is learning...there are so many good great guitars out there now on the 500/700 bucks range that for that money you can get a real pro instrument when 25/30 years ago that was guaranteed only by the most famous brands(Gibson,Fender,Jackson,Charvel and so on) that now skyrocketed their prices for no apparent reason... Cheers from Italy as always... you' re always interesting to Watch and listen to...ROCK ON GUITAR MAX🍻🍻🍻🤟🤟🤟💪💪💪👍👍👍🎸🎸🎸
Dang! That’s great git playing.
Do you plan to review any of the new S by Solar guitars?
Yes!
Like that P-38 Lighting in the background.
Thanks! One of my favorite aircraft.
Max I love your humour although before i go on my iPhone prompted me to accept “hair” as the next word as in I love your hair. So funny. Anyway
You’re spot on WRT c&c machines and QC.
Isn’t it ironic (no im not Alanis Morrisette 🤣😂🤣😂) that an 80s group called The C and C Music Factory could be relevant in the context of your guitar channel ?
I actually like playing to “gonna make you sweat “ or whatever it was called. I think Leo over at Frog Leap should do a heavy metal cover of that.
Peace and as usual cheers from NZ 😎🍻🎸🤘
agree 1000% on base line being constantly raised. harley benton is killing it. i got my daughter a squire bass 2 years ago and holy hell thats the best 300 dollar bass ive ever played. i then got a chinese knock off fender 6 string bass (fender doesn't really make 6 strings) and dude holy hell its great. i used to play spector and warwick and these basses DO NOT live up to those higher end basses but the amount of value for your dollar is HUGE
I love my boss ir200. It's also underrated so you can get one for 250 on reverb if you're patient!
Yep - couldn't agree with you more!