Grote Has THE WORST LES PAUL Style Guitar ON AMAZON & I BOUGHT IT!!
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- čas přidán 18. 08. 2023
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In this video, we take a look at the worst under $200 guitar I have ever seen in my entire life ever and I’ve seen a bunch. I honestly don’t know where to start. You’ll have to watch the video to understand what I mean. I really appreciate you hanging out with me. Hope to see you in the live video tonight. If you want to use some of the tools you saw the video here’s some links
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You're doing a great thing for the CZcams guitar community - not only are you showing people how to do things for themselves but you're also warning us all about the brands that sell absolute rubbish. Your videos are always entertaining, informative and well presented.
I had a friend who got one of these for his teen son to learn on. I looked at it for about two minutes and told him to box it and send it back to Amazon. The nut was miscut, one tuning key was not working, the bridge pickup didn't work at all, and the bridge was exactly like the one you got. I told him if he was going to buy cheap to spend a little more and go through Guitar Fetish and get one of a little better quality as I didn't want that big of a project. Love watching your channel.
I bought a 335 style Grote in 2020. Neck and body were great so I gutted it, routed the cavities and threw a pair of J. Mascis Jazzmaster pickups in it and a wiring kit from Guitar Fetish. I put some locking tuners on it and a new nut. All told it was $170 for the guitar and $175 for the upgrades and it plays and sounds amazing. I didn't have the issues you had with the bridge and tailpiece.
I am surprised Shawn. Last couple years I have been a fan of Grote, buying an LP, an SG, a 335 and 3 tele's from them and they was all playable out the box and good decent guitars. To see the junk they sent you surprises me. Yet maybe that is the current trend the world is on. That blue Iyv you reviewed recently, I bought one too and it had the same problems you had. That is unheard of from Iyv yet it happened to you and me. So maybe these over seas companies see the end of the cheap guitar era is upon us and cut back on cost to milk it for all they can.
If you save 20 dollars in China or Vietnam... that might be a month's earnings instead of a trip to Burger King like it is here... They want to maximize the return and i cant blame them.
I had a customers guitar come in and the bridge was just as loose as this one. The customer could not afford a replacement so I used teflon tape on the bridge screws (quite a bit of it) and it worked. I let customer know that it was a temporary fix and that when he can afford a better bridge it would be worth doing a replacement.
That’s really nice of you to do that🤟👊
True- the disguised single coil stuff was standard in cheapie guitars of the 70s and 80s. I had a Hondo and Harmony with them
Can you believe the buyers that think they have real humbuckers.
Funny thing to me is. If you buy this apparently you're a Les paul humbucker person. I've not heard one review where anyone said. Wait a min. This humbucker sounds like a strat or a Tele. 😮
Can there really be much price difference between a cheap humbucker and a cheap single coil? My 100 buck squier mustang has real humbuckers that sound just fine. I guess when every penny counts...
look to the cheap price i worry may all part are cheap material..low quality
Nah they were just trying to redesign the P90, 😂
It’s a stacked humbucker, in a single coil case, with a full humbucker case. But it is a humbucker.
Gotta say i bought a Grote SG about 3 years ago for $151 tax included and it was amazing , I changed the pickups and installed locking tuner's and it's one of my favorite guitars now. Not a blemish or scratch on it , it's almost as nice as my $600 Epiphone SG G400 pro... it's always a gamble with budget guitars , but as long as you're willing to do a little work it's worth it IMO!
I paid 280 for a grote. Came out of the box great except frets needed polished up…. Wilkinson humbuckers and locking tuners and the flame maple moves so much you get sea sick. Lol I took it to the music shop and put it next to guitars in that price range and this one crushes
Well now I feel dumb, when I fixed some sloppy bridge posts with teflon tape I rerouted the ground to the tailpiece ... foil tape would have been so much easier.
was curious about these as a potential mod platform, I really appreciate you posting this. I love your delivery and how thorough you are, gained a new fan!
Much appreciated!
This was the first time I saw someone remove the pickup cover and me saying "WTF". This should be false advertizing just for the pickups. I was looking forward to getting this guitar. Fuck that.
Didn't know fake humbuckers were still a thing on cheap guitars. You'd find them a lot on very early pre-lawsuit era Japanese import models.
As they say, you get what you pay for. It’s common sense to know that the manufacturer cut labor, materials or both to sell something that low. As for these cheap guitars, don’t let the pretty paint job fool you. Be patient and save for one that’ll you’ll be happy with and you’ll keep for years.
Thanks for another fun vid! When you use the feeler gauges to assure your nut slots are right, do you set them a specific amount higher than the fret height? Thanks!
11:49 this is a great idea brotherman... it is almost foolproof. Would it be possible to get a CZcams short, or short tutorial video on how you setup the gauges and rubber bands? I need to get into shaping my own bonenuts and I'm a little bit nervous... but your method is awesome! Subscribed.
Nice work bro' you made a silk purse out of a sow's ear! Noticed cool edit running in the background, great program!
I have 2 Grote "Les Pauls" & think they're great for what they are: cheap guitars. I replaced the tuners with locking tuners, the nuts with tusq, the bridges with cheap roller saddles, the p/u selector switches with a better quality ones, & replaced the pickups in one. The pickups are stacked humbuckers in the other one & they sound okay. Not great, but okay. What you'd expect for a cheap guitar. They're great platforms for trying out new pickups.
Thanks for the great videos!!! How about checking out the Eart guitars please ?
Thank you so much! Close call! I was getting ready to buy a Grote semi hollowbody in a couple of weeks. Scratch that cr*p. I normally play slide on a strat, but wanted to try a semi hollowbody. All the other reviews I watched on CZcams about the Grote semi hollowbody I thought were fair, but none were as brutally honest as yours! You just dug in and exposed the new and not so improved singlebuckers. 🤣
That fake humbucker is CRAZY!!!! You made me extremely glad that I didn't buy one of their more expensive wine red ones that were supposed to have coil splitting and stainless steel frets... I didn't buy because Amazon didn't keep them in stock, and didn't have the Amazon Guarantee, which were huge red flags, plus there were bad reviews of the customer service when customers had issues.
I still can't believe the PICKUPS!!!!
I like that feeler gauge tip for nut slotting, but that's an area I'm still learning -- how much higher than the fret do you do the gauge?
Always enjoy your content 😊thanks you
Like you said this video is a good lesson when it comes to cheap guitars.
It's a fifty fifty shot that you get a decent one.
That would be a great video idea fixing the fretboard and frets.
Thanks for this. I had been eyeing a real pretty red and black one on Amazon. Guess I'll take it off my wish list.
Wow, very informative video about finding all the things that can be wrong on cheap guitars. But as you show so well, they can be modified a lot! #notificationsquad
If you’re going to spend the money to mod it, why not just save some more and buy the one with the things you want?
Great tip on the shielding tape to stiffen up those posts, thanks!
I haven’t watched yet but I got a grote for 199 and I put a Duncan Distirtion in the bridge, hipshot locking tuners and a new bridge and tail piece. Things a beast. I love it.
Hi Sean,
I would like to see how a GuitarFetish SBS (Steve Brown Sound) guitar measures up. They are NOT cheap guitars but they are "budget" guitars and would be interesting to see out of the "budget" guitars who gives you the most bang for your buck!
Sean, that’s a cool marketing idea. Make single coil pickups in a Humbucker case. Market them as single coils for players who want that sound in a Les Paul. Overwind them for a P90-ish sound, or just strat-ish for that single coil sound. Several companies make a pickup marketed as a P90 in a Humbucker sized package (Gibson P94), but they don’t look like a Humbucker. This one would.
You could have a switched cap off pot to change the voltage to a spanky sound and more power winds to sound like those Mini- Buckers Gibson is using.
Hey Shawn, Love Your Show, I Learn Something New With Each Video. I Got One Question....What Size Feeler Gauges Are You Using With Your Rubber Bands, To Set The Nut Height For Cutting? Thanks Dennis Hurt, Aurora Colorado
Put the fret rocker across the 1st and second frets. Use feeler gages to measure the fret height from the fretboard. Add .008 to .010 to the feeler gage stack. You can't go with a set stack height, as each fret height is slightly different guitar to guitar - or even across the same guitar if it's been leveled and crowned.
Can't believe those pick ups . LOL . Nice job Brother . 👍🏼🤠
Grote is still up to their crap as of 7/17/24. Against my better judgement, I bought one of these last week and got it today. Everything was great until I plugged it in "WTH is this? It sounds like a really hot single coil." Then I remembered this video. Loosened the strings, pulled the pickup. No coil on the covered side, no magnetism. I could bite myself. I wouldn't mind it as a project guitar, but I'm not gonna do business with a company trying to pull a fast one on me like this.
sweet transformation brother!
could you make a film dedicated to properly replacing a nut and the proper filing?
the feeler guage part is what im unsure of...
Building my first parts caster. What size drill bit do you think that I should use on the neck to get the holes for the screws to go in? Same question with the holes that the screws go in to hold the pick guard.
You take a drill bit out of your selection and line it up with the body of the screw, not the screw splines. Keep doing that until you find the right drill bit. It's easy. Every one of those kits is different regarding the screws. So, you have to figure it out for yourself. Best regards.
Thanks for making this video, thoroughly tearing this thing apart, and pointing out the flaws in this guitar. My son wanted one. I told him we need to check into it, and see if its worth it before I hand over the money. After watching your video, we'll be looking elsewhere. I don't want to have to build a decent guitar after paying to purchase one. Thanks again!
This guitar is boss. Same style as the Grote. He'll love this one! www.amazon.com/dp/B0C1YGB2V9?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details
Thanks for the upgrades, Sean! This is a fun guitar to play and it sounds great. Glad I got to it on eBay first!
Glad you like it!
I would have never thought of putting shielding tape on the bridge posts.
Thanks for your review. It might have been my old eyes, but the frets appeared to be of several different widths? When you played this Grote it sounded pretty good. However, I suspect that was because of your coil change out. I do wonder if your work on the neck bow might have also corrected the issue with the strings laying on frets? Anyway, thanks again for saving a guitar newbie like me the trouble of getting a Grote Lemon.
I haven't seen anything like those fake humbuckers before, but I think I've encountered something similar. My first guitar was a Framus Strato 6 and it was supposed to look (I think) like a Fender that didn't exist. It had a body shape somewhat like a Jazzmaster, and it has pickup styled like Fender's old Wide Range pickups. Near as I could tell, though, these weren't humbuckers at all, but had a construction that looked like it should have bucked hum, but didn't. They hummed and were microphonic as hell. I doubt seriously that replacing them would have been anything other than a nightmare; it would have been a miracle if those pickups were proportioned ANYTHING like a standard, Gibson-style humbucker. They weren't made anything like the Fender pickups they tried to resemble.
If those humbuckers represent the state of Grote's art, I'll pass -- PLEASE!
Sounds like a really rad guitar to me 😊
what thickness feeler guage did you use to set the nut string depth?
Just curious what you do with all these discount guitars? Have you tried the Tario brand? If so what's your opinion? Love the channel, found it about a month ago.👍
#notificationsquad. Seriously, you can build things WAY better than these and give people something actually worth playing! Cheers to whomever wins the 20k giveaway!
1970's UK there were a lot of manufacturers pumping out fake Gibson style guitars and most of them had one single coil bobbin in a humbucker casing. A classic case of 'Never mind the quality, feel the width' Long before your time but what comes around, comes around even if it's bad.
Can you return it after opening the pickups ? If they sell it as humbucker and you get a single coil 🤔
Awesome a new video from Scar My Guitar. Thanks Sean and wife
I just got one. I haven't opened pick up's I can't really play , so it is more for fun. Thanks for sharing. Mine seems a lot better but those pick ups mmmmm?
Popping the cover off the pickup had me lmao!
You should see the sg i've got free from buying a ds2 and wah pedal. It has 3 "humbuckers". Had all sort of issues. Fret wires were so small and electonics were not working. Left it sitting collecting dust for almost about 8 years. Just decided to fix. Found out there's no truss rod. It had a cover but there's no truss rod cavity. Check the humbuckers. Has a stack of magnet held together by masking tape on one side. No wire winding. But after doing the work actually plays great. Love the thick baseball like neck and 7.25 radius.
I bought Grote replaced tuners and had frets redone
It’s was cool guitar after that
But I knew that I’d have to pay for repairs 😊
#notificationsquad i almost missed it bro. These grotes have had a good run but ive heard more good than bad!
I like your nut-slotting trick with feelers and elastic bands. That's an excellent tip.
For the loose bridge, copper shielding tape on the threads firm them up nicely
Should finish the video before commenting lol
Enjoyed the video, subscribed.
I like the trick for cutting a nut, learned something thank you.
Sometimes it's fun to fix up cheap guitars, good practice where f'ing up doesn't matter as much.
That's a new low - impersonating a humbucker. Like WTF? One would think they could make a faux P-90 instead. Sort of surprised as Grote's semi-hollow model seems well-regarded.
Yeah I have a 335 style I added an X trem and changed the nut, pretty darned nice player now. Oh I put locking tuners and a roller bridge. So I spent a bit extra though
@@josephmcguiness6452 That sounds like a nice trem. Yeah - it's amazing how reasonable quality parts have become over the years, and a few well-chosen ones can significantly increase a guitar's playability.
Those are top quality pickkk ups
One of the comments suggests you sold this guitar on ebay. I'm just curious; did you untwist the neck? As a beginner I bought a Hagstrom. They had an H-shaped truss-rod to prevent that.
Never ever heard of a company making fake humbuckers that’s a new one
You can pretty count on cheap electronics in cheap guitars. Got one of these for a beater. I put all new pots, wire, caps & a Screamin' Demon bridge & a Pearly Gates neck about a minute after it was delivered. Mostly I play Gretsch & a hot rodded Tele
What sort of Pots are you replacing those small ones with
I just found your channel, I dig your videos dude. The fake Humbucker is cracking me up 😂
Wuz up Jw?
The single coil pickup in a humbucker housing was done way back in the early yo mid 80's on a lot of cheap guitars.
What do u do when the the bridge inserts fall out of the guitar because the holes in the wood were drilled to big. This is the problem i have with these lp copies
Fill them with some Bondo pushed the post in and then pull it back out and let it harden before you put it back in lol giggity
@@scarmyguitar I have cut beer cans and wrap around pencil the super glue in the holes
the old Supro dual tones had single coils in a Humbucker looking cover as well
Airline has a single coil that looks like a humbucker. But they also overwind their's like a heaviest set of Telecaster single coils somewhere between +/-8K neck & +/-12K for the bridge. I have no idea what they look like dismantled, but they definitely are the covered HH look completely assembled. CZcams one of RJ Ronquillo's demos of a Airline '59 2P or Jetsons 2P.. Their's sound Valco original 1960's Montgomery Ward catalog accurate. I did read a blog on those & they're overwound single coils N/B +/- 12K for both. The faux HH, works for Jack White (7 Nation Army). The original Valco's had 20 fret 25 inch scale necks, no truss rod & a Res-O-Glass (Fiberglass) body.
I used to have a Grote 335 copy and it didn't have those issues.
Did the add say "Humbuckers"??? Dude thats insane!
is there a guide somewhere on the gauge and rubber band trick? I've been messing up my nut filing lately
I own a Grote ES 335 copy I bought a few years ago. And I’ll be honest right out of the box. The frets were good. The nut was good. The neck is good and the pickups sound like Humbuckers to me. I haven’t taken them out to look . I put a Alvin Lee woodstock sticker kit on it and I have gigged with the guitar with no problems. I Musta got a good one. I can’t say anything bad about the one I got.
KD-EP-1 is on the tailpiece.
Also, buy solder wick. Makes your life a hell of a lot easier when desoldering.
I was gonna suggest a warped neck video. just discovered a warp in one of my all time favourite guitars neck.
my first electric in the 70s - a plywood SG copy - had fake HBuckers, but you wouldn't expect to see it now xx
Who on earth expects ANY guitar to be in tune from the factory? My $2300 PRS wasn't even close to in tune when it arrived.
That single coil in a humbucker case is too much. You turned it into a good guitar though. Still thinking about playing that westcreek❤
Fake humbuckers, fake maple veneer, junk electronics, nut, tuners, and bridge. Was there a single redeeming quality with this one? It was packaged well I guess lol #notificationsquad
Don't really need to drill for the pots, usually you place a tooth lock washer on the inside. Nothing wrong with dime sized pots if they work, I always install beter pots as well.
For the tuners sometimes you can get away with poping off the covers, cleaning out the powdered grease and installing new grease. As well tighten up the pieces. Though I like locking tuners so usually upgrade them as well.
"If looks could kill this thing would be murdering us dead".....Hi. Larious!!! Man you are funny as well as informative. Didn't think it was possible but I love your channel more and more. LoL Run from Grote guitars faster than Mexican water thru a colon
Hey Shawn, I swear that’s a strange P90 that looks like Humbuckers. Lol. I have Epiphone LesPaul Special 2. P90s. It set up well, I had to put a decent bridge on it because it came with a wrap tail and no way it would intonate. I got it set up, tuned. Back about a year before , I shattered my shoulder and it was bad, they couldn’t fix it, it was my left which is my strong side and just wrapped me up like a burrito and it is what it is. I went to play that thing and my hand went numb. That neck is really thin. My Tele reissue 52 has a u neck, and that Silvertone with Fender guts is a 9.5 medium. I can play them. I miss my Hofner 12 string. Anyway. That Epiphone is a bolt neck. I’d like to get a better neck for it. It’s a 24.5 12” scale but it is flat and too small for my hands. My work gloves were 8.5 before having to hang up my hammer. 7.25 Strats and Teles are the most comfortable, but Les Pauls are great for chord runs and top end griffin. How do I measure for a half crippled hand. I used to spar with oak trees so I still have the strength, but at 63 the joints are going. Does anyone know of a Epi bolt neck size or how they describe them so I could buy a good neck to fit properly done pocket?
Cool. I'm glad I watched this. Grote guitars look good, but I don't think I want one even though I know how to work on them. Ain't worth my money
Good man,u did good,what do u got into now?
Weird those pickups are like the modern cheap version of an old Gretsch HiLo-tron pickup, which was 1 coil from a filtertron with the magnet seated right next to it. Cheap at the time but now they're considered classics.
Well, I think you’d enjoy the Gretsch / Fender G2220 bass guitar. Advertised as having mini bass buckers BUT came with single coils pickups. Advertised for a while before one podcaster took it apart and low and behold no buckers
Where are they made?
Much improved. 🤘👍
I guess it is all in the luck of the draw. I have a Grote 335 style, the nut needed attention, the output jack gave me trouble and the pickups were ok but not great. I like it.
Just picked up a Standard T from Grote, should be in soon. Stainless steel frets, poplar body and maple/poplar neck.
My buddy and I opened up his "Lotus" LP copy and discovered that they did this same thing to the pickups around 1982 or 3.
And even though we had nearly zero experience, we both knew these pickups were microphonic and couldn't get rid of the 60 cycle hum. Ohh, and they sucked awful bad.
Hard to believe what they go through to make guitars out of cheese and air. Someone tell them they could just paint pickups on there.
Never seen such hum-buckers and that brig - but still neck and soundboard for this money really good -it looks you've thermal Your life repaired and upgrade guitars. Maybe some time its good to have such nice friend as you!
I remember finding a single coil humbucker back in the late ‘60s. I guess it’s an old trick.
Great video!
Another awesome presentation!
#NotificationSquad
$200 guitars are way better than they used to be so I'm surprised at how bad this Grote really is. A total POS.
Shawn, Global guitars in the 80s had similar psuedobuckers
Some of the really old 70's/80's Japanese and Korean dirt cheap guitars used to have single coils disguised as humbuckers. I have some odball LP copy that is almost identical to that one but from the 90's, with the same printed "flame" top but in a horrible clown/tomatoe burst. Sanded it off, sprayed it up as a gold top, replced the wobly hardware with a set of the modern Epiphone Loktone stuff, new bone nut, fitted it with a set of Kluson Deluxes (same as the ones you used but Kluson branded) and a set of Gibson 57 Classic/57 classic plus pickups. Next to my telecaster bitser its one of my faviourites
I've seen a lot in guitar building, but that pickups man... 🤣
I bought a very similar Grote Les Paul a few years ago. Mine has real uncovered humbuckers, and they actually sound pretty decent for such a cheap guitar. Yes, the hardware is cheap. Tuners and bridge could definitely be upgraded, but the major issue with mine was the neck and fretwork. The frets were not level, and I had such a hard time getting them level, that I eventually pulled them all out, leveled and re-radiused the fretboard, and completely re-fretted the guitar. It plays fantastic now. 🤣
With all that work I would hope so lol
I remember a friend had a cheap Aria les paul copy, at it had exactly the same pickups as that!
I have seen many people give high marks to Grote but not this specific model. The fretwork especially is rated high by a lot of people that have video reviews for Grote. Did these other people get lucky or did Sean get an odd bad one? Or is this model especially bad? (The ones I have looked into were semi-hollow models).
#NotificationSquad
I had a Pan SG copy years ago that had single coils faked to look like humbuckers in it also.
I got a beautiful semi hollow from Grote and it plays and sounds nice
Same here! 335 style. I had to replace the nut and the bridge, but the humbuckers are real. Oh yeah I had to replace the tuners also.
@@michaelmillican5592 i could replace all those but for me it's good enough the way it is
Love the box cutter bro!!!
Me too!!
Thanks for the big eye opener on Grote guitars. Fake humbuckers, what a fraud! Those new rounded Frets Don't Mean a Thing if the ends don't line up. What a joke.
Man, never seen that before. GLad I saw this video before buying the 335 version of this guitar.