Tafty and his Grote semi-hollow archtop reveal the shocking truth about "affordable" guitars!
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- čas přidán 4. 07. 2024
- The truth about the economical guitar craze! In today's episode, Tafty (that's me) explains some of the hidden truths behind the wildly popular cheap guitar trend using a newly purchased Grote semi-hollow guitar (that's right, I bought it!). Then, we go for a deep dive exploring what may truly make these guitars, great players. It's non stop action! In the end, we learn a bit about what a guitar tech may offer in a "set up".
Also, I realize it was a long way around to try to be funny. But hey, I tried!
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Your clickbait title made me think this was actually going to be a video about this particular guitar which I'm thinking of buying. It was basically an advertisement for techs like yourself. Let's face it. People that buy cheap guitars like this are trying to save money. Why would they spend $100 to do so many of these things you mention which there are so many CZcams videos on and you can do yourself? Even a truss rod adjustment is scary to do at first but it's not rocket science if you look at a tutorial. And after you do it a couple of times you get over your fear. Just be reasonably careful when you do it. Not a big deal. So you buy a few tools and you watch a few tutorials. And the benefit is that it makes you feel empowered and more bonded to your guitar.. If you have multiple guitars or you intend on doing these adjustments in the future you're going to need the tools anyway. That's another thing you don't tell people. You make it sound like you only need to do a "setup" once. Not always true. Sometimes you have to adjust truss rods multiple times over the years because of different factors that alter neck bow and you might have to do other things that you mention multiple times as well. Obviously replacing strings is one of them, conditioning the frets, and so on.. You mean somebody who buys a $150 guitar is going to want to spend $100 every time to do these things? We're not all Donald Trump. So, I don't think so....thanks anyway. Good luck with your business though.
Agreed completely. A lot of people like us do these things on our own. Luthiers are needed for the really big jobs.
True and real
I got one of these a year ago. A slight truss rod adjustment, slapped some Gibson strings on it, Damn fine guitar. It has a similar tone to my old Italian 4770/335 copy.
After playing for decades and buying guitars - both used and new - for just as long, I learned one basic fact: It's RARE that you buy a guitar that doesn't need a set-up. Truss-Rods come in all different settings, intonation may be off, strings are usually set high, and the pickup height has to be adjusted. It doesn't matter if you're buying a Grote or a Gibson, you are going to HAVE TO do some adjusting when the guitar arrives. I've seen it first-hand and I am friends with MANY techs in the area due to the constant gigging I'd done over the years around here. IMO, ALL guitarists should learn how to do a full set-up.
I agree 100%
@@TaftysGuitars It will - at least - save them some money to learn how to do a set-up. And what better guitar to learn on than an inexpensive/cheap one? Then, they can get into the nitty gritty of fret leveling, pickup/electronics upgrades, tuner upgrades, nut upgrades, etc. (IF THEY WANT TO). That's the stuff I love to do. It's an accomplishment to make a guitar your very own 'custom shop' model which is better customized to YOU than any 'custom shop' model sitting on a rack in a store or mail-order company.
I've been an owner of a Grote ES 335 for almost 2 yrs. There is no shocking truth about it. Any change, such as the strings or truss rod adjustment would the exact one would do with a $4000.00 guitar. It's all a matter of preference. The title of this video is wrong and the cons regarding this guitar are understandable.
I was surprised as well becuase there are other channels that gave this ecact guitar great reviews! I think he got a bad one that probably failed quality big time! Glad he posted it though to sort of warn us that it may be a hit or miss. I have all my guitars ebevn $2K ones set up as soon as I receive them anyway.
Hey just an update to this video. It's 6 months later, and although the Grote played pretty well out of the box, it is pretty much un-playable now, as most of the frets have lifted out of the fingerboard. Maybe I'll do another video on how to re-seat them.
Yes they did!
10 months later, I'm even happier with my Grote. It is always in tune. Fretboard is great.
That's great! obviously you got a better one than I did.
You made a video explaining how you had to do a lot of things to get the guitar to play properly. Now you say it played good right out of the box. I don't think you are being honest about the fretboard, unless you don't take care of your guitar.
Bummer to see this :( Had mine for over a year now and still love the thing. Did have the die problem and cleaned and oiled couple times and haven't had any problems with inlays either.
Any fairly experienced guitarist can make every adjustment you mentioned without paying a single dime for a tech to do it. I have ten guitars including two basses and a double neck. I set up every one of them myself and I could'nt be happier with the way they play.
It was always my understanding that any guitar under $500 is going to need a set up. I factor in the cost of the setup as part of the cost of the guitar.
That's a great plan right there
I must be lucky. I just got a Grote archtop last week. Played beautiful out of the box. Sure, I'll need to replace the strings, they leave my fingers black, but everything else? Spot on. Maybe because I gave Grote a tip. lol
Then I am also a lucky guy, I have played my Grote jazz guitar for 2 month now, without any problems, and the only thing I did was to change the strings .
I must also be luck as well. I've owned the Grote ES 335 for 2yrs. Pro-sound, great feel and no issues what so ever.
Ditto , same here fellas. My Grote 335 in cherry red is an absolute gem and that’s just the truth.
No problem with my Grote Century copycat. It's the best guitar I've ever bought right out of the box!
This review was not a review of the. Grote 335, it is an opinion review of “cheap guitars” in general. The workmanship and playability of the Grote 335 (copy) is a bargain at their price point and a great beginners guitar right out of the box after tuning it.
If you have at least a 5th grade education than you can do it. 1st get Bouled linseed oil for the fretboard and bridge 2nd turtle wax spray polish for the body. 3rd a $10 file set for the frets . 4th good strings. 5th take out bows from neck. Replace the tuners. Files amazon and the oil n spray wax walmart and just do it .
I’d rather build my own guitar, why buy one when you can make one?
So it needs a setup....
I just got mine last week. All Instruments I have bought need a set up regardless of the price I bought mine knowing I would need to do that and the price that I paid it is definitely worth it
I'm a beginner (since Xmas) & I bought a Grote like the one in the video for 3 very important reasons - Firstly, it's cheap, second, it can function as an acoustic when everyone else is in bed & thirdly & most importantly, I can monkey with it & not feel bad if I completely screw it up!
Mine had a fret which was a bit proud, so I bought the appropriate luthiers' tool & dressed it down. I plan on changing the nut & the pick-ups at some stage too. If something goes wrong at any stage, I can buy another one for a 10th of the price of the real thing.
And if it all works out, I'll have a top quality guitar which I won't be too scared to take places like jam nights.
Win/win!
Those are all the best reasons for getting one!
I JUST ORDER ONE I LIKE BUYING $200=300 GUITAR AND MOD THE SHIT OUT OF IT THEY ALL SOUND AND PLAY GREAT
I just got one of these and the frets were perfect. No sharp edges and nice and level, polished nicely. The guitars finish and construction and intonation were also spot on.I could not find a flaw anywhere. I did give the truss rod a quarter turn. Tuners need upgrade replacement. Wilkenson EZ lock is inexpensive and they work great. The electronics and pickups are complete junk. I had to fix bad connections just to get both pickups working. I planned on rewiring and up grading anyway so no problem. It ships with a silica pack under the strings not ideal for keeping moisture in the fret board, so add some lemon oil. If someone doesn`t know how to do guitar work it would have to be shipped back. Guitar is worth the money for the guitar itself but only if you like doing some work.
I bought mine a year ago and play it every day wouldn't change a thing cause no one will ever know
I love my two grotes. Both came out of the box setup pretty good.
All I did was change the strings.
With discount mine cost $123. If I had another $100 I would buy a better guitar. Therefore I will do the setup myself, thank you very much.
I'm gonna sum this video up in one sentence. If you've never held a phiilips screwdriver or an allen wrench in your hands or have never used a piece of sand paper, don't buy this guitar. These are for people who know how to work on things. it's just that simple.
Totally agree.
Mine was a lefty and set up was good, except had to lower string height. Body was advertised as solid wood, rare for a semi hollow body axe
I was amazed when I got my daughter a used Epi LP studio (2003 made in china). It was a 13th birthday present so I let her pick it out because I knew nothing about guitars at the time. It was $270 at a pawn shop. In one month I wanted my own lol. Went with a new kind of crazy Tagima ja3 (HSH with hotrail on neck) from a local guitar store $430. He told me it was playable, but needed a set up (free w/purchase). Took the daughter's LP in (as well as the upgraded squire i got on fb... $250) and he said they were fine and did not need a set up. I will learn how to do my own set up and fret-work and upgrade tuning machines, pots , switches eventually THANK YOU CZcams! You can literally buy a $150 guitar and spend $500-ish on upgrades and have something that SOUNDS as good as a $1000+ guitar. Its only been 3 months and we now have an accoustic, her Les Paul, the upgraded squire (fender neck and a seymore bridge pup and custom pickguard), the crazy tagima and my red flame Grote just shipped today! fn rabbit hole this is, hmmm?
Question is, how many of these things need to be done to any other guitar, sometimes regardless of price. I had a friend bring me a $900 name brand guitar that needed all the same things. What is the price point at which we can be certain all of these things are right when you open the box. I buy these cheap guitars. Some of them are surprisingly well set up out of the box. Some are pretty bad. So far, after working with maybe ten guitars from a variety of sources, every single one was easily sorted out with my minimal amateur luthier skills. AND I ENJOY doing the work and seeing the fruits of my labor. There's no argument to me made that these guitars are not affordable (you put that word in quotes). Of course they are inexpensive and affordable. To my mind, no beginner should be handed a guitar that has not been inspected and set up as needed by a knowledgeable guitar tech - and you don't need to be a professional to do these simple fixes. Finally, I have handled name brand guitars costing twice what these Grote guitars cost that are no better set up than the Grotes I have gotten from Amazon. In fact, the Grotes and IYVs seem to come in the best shape of all the "affordable" brands.
Two years ago for me, a Fender American Pro Strat new and far from being setup 'til the store tech offered to do (basic and free) before I bought. I did buy, and went over it even more meticulously afterwards.
This year, two Firefly guitars (338 and FFPTH), also far from being setup. Stain (shoe polish maybe, for fingerboard 'touch up'? Yuck!) rubbing off while playing, unpolished frets which did 'play in', but I expected some level of buggyness at 1/10th the price of the strat.
But for each of these guitars at wildly different purchase price, ALL sound and play wonderfully well, but absolutely needed attention to get to that point. And those little Fireflies just keep surprising, in a different voice than the Strat but every bit as capable musically!
Much agreed, keep setup in mind...and PLEASE budget in for tech assistance you might need especially when buying online. It's all FOR you and you'll be glad you did!
On the other hand you can buy a spendy guitar that could use a set up. My IYV Les Paul was really decent out of the box, but I still did what I would call personalization. The factory really couldn't know I want a wound G string and an extremely low nut. But the fret work was solid. So I spent maybe $20 still under $200, and it's great. I don't know if they are all this good, but I have a much nicer guitar than I ever thought I would.
For a minute I thought you had the neck resting on an old rotary phone.
Thanks for your informative video. All of us here don't everything and it was helpful.
(Elephant) "What does the guitar sound like?"
All good advice. I love my Grote 335. Especially after adding P90s, new wires, knobs, pickguard, roller bridge and locking tuners.
What strings should you buy????
@bigfoot2708 This instrument feels and sounds great with flat wound LaBella 52-12. Heavy strings make booming chords out of this semi hollow.
My Tec (friend) does it for 20 bucks plus parts and is teaching me. I bought the Glarry Burning fire and am learning setup myself on that. I also have an Epiphone LP Standard and an Ibanez SR300E bass.
These kinds of guitars are perfect for that!
I got that very model and I can't stop playing it. Set it up myself and slapped some Gibson strings on it.
Nice. What I've discovered is that my experience is not the majority. Enjoy it!
This guy ought to be overjoyed that ANY guitar needs an initial check and setup, and just about ANY guitar (Grote or name brand) WILL need an initial setup.
Next, here's an unpopular opinion that I have. If you care enough about guitar to learn more than three chords, you ought to care enough to understand how the guitar functions and how to do basic maintenance. I'm old school, and I can actually change a tire and check the oil on my car. I have two different Grote guitars, and it took at most an hour of my time to take them from nearly perfect setup to perfect setup, and when these are properly set up, they will play as well as guitars costing many times what your Grote cost you.
The TRUTH is that these really are AFFORDABLE guitars compared to any entry level name brand guitar from a big name manufacturer.
Finally, I have tried some of these affordable guitars, and they cannot all be tossed into on basket and spoken of in generalizations. You may believe that they are all made in the same factory or some such myth, but different companies have different standards, specifications and parts. They also have different quality control standards.
As far as Grote goes, when I restrung mine and took the pieces apart, the hard tail was a casting with the word EPIPHONE cast into the part.
If you don't mind could you give me a list of what are the important steps in setting up a guitar for the first time?
I know videos like these exist but often there's so much in the video that I can't figure out what they're doing that's essential and what they're doing that's their own preference.
Support your local guitar tech! Buy cheap, bring strings!
I have one of these too. Out of the box I removed the factory strings, threw them away, aggressively cleaned the fingerboard to remove the dye/stain from the wood. Polished the frets, oiled this fingerboard with Guitar Nomad frine juice, removed the truss rod cover and...the truss rod was not even screwed in :) just came out with my allen wrench, so I turned it until it caught (thank goodness) and set the relief. Put on some decent strings, adjusted string height, neck relief, string height again, then set up the intonation. About an hour in, and it sounds okay acoustically. Lots of leftover wood bits in each side of the guitar; blew them out with some canned air. Replaced the speed knobs with some extras I had laying around. Plugged it in and found it really easy to play and sounced good for a $165.00 USD instrument. Have played it some since, but about to sell it as I've lost interest in making it a 'project' guitar. Oh and the wiring was messy, hard to move so that you can't see it through the f holes. Not a bad beginner guitar for the money, but a solid body is probably best for a beginner and not a semi-hollow. FOr the intermediate guitar player - go get an Epiphone 335.
I just bought one at local guitar shop for 159 dollars very slightly used I really love it for the price cant beat it , would recommend any intermediate player or season guitar player to try one
I have one, too. I don't know what any company is using anymore in place of rosewood, but I found no trace of any dye on the fingerboards of either of the Grotes I own. Near as I can tell, it's a dark wood that looks like rosewood (well, cheap rosewood, maybe) but probably isn't rosewood at this price point.
Lol CZcams has MANY VIDS of how to fix EVERY ONE of those mostly simple issues... What a joke.
Yea yea maybe so but so called techs here around will not take on a affordable and if they do they will only fool money off the customer. A backbow is not that easy to sort out like hey hoo a dual action truss! Hell no, the truss dialed at zero and then the neck is to be forced back to an full bow and to accept it, we are talking many hours, money money money money.
A thick gauge 12`s is oftenly used to tame the neck and those methods used in before is not to be avealed as some people would faint.
I can everyone time to watch video: I bought the Grote and set up with new strings etc. Cost 80.
I had new pickups installed later : labor was 80 pickups were 35 and the tech made them push pull knobs
I guess a lot of you never had a Zen-on or a Teisco or some other brand as your first guitar. The guitars they make now are like driving a Honda as compared to a Model T. Most all these guitars are playable right out of the box. And many are super nice with a good setup and maybe some new hardware (if needed) no matter what I did to my old Zen-on it still played terrible and sounded like crap. We live in some good times and some don't even realize it.
The reason that l chose "Honda" as I didn't want to say something like a "Ferrari" although some are probably that good. Because Actually, I'm just not a "Ferrari" type of guy.
Zen-On guitars with those gold foil pickups are amazing for playing slide.
AIO WOLF GUITARS ARE THE ONLY CHEAP ONES THAT ARE WORTH IT .
You forgot about dealing with unseated and high frets
Your 100% right. In my neck of the woods a level, crown, and polish will cost you $120-$150
Monoprice Indio Boardwalk is setup at the factory and shipped to the consumer
You could include some info in this video. Information is the key to these videos.
Very true thanks man. I'm getting better with my newer videos
I like Grote .
this is my video number 30 about this guitar... you are the only one hating on this brand....and you didn't even play it... so, I'll stick to the other reviews...
instead of targetting a video at people buying the CHEAPEST guitars available (who are also the LEAST likely to fork out money to a guitar tech), I'd aim at people buying NICER instruments AND try to impress upon those people that YOU can do a much better job than they can (which is, admittedly, a tough sell...)
either way, good luck!!!
TOO MUCH YAPPIN'....AT 2:52 IM OUT!
This video hated me. So I hated it back. Click bait. Don't waste your time.
Thank goodness for you sir
Might as well call this the truth about any guitar
how bout the tuners
I bought the 335 model. The tuners are great. I've had it for about 8 months and I haven't even changed the strings yet.
Have to disagree on this , I've been playing 44 years and have bought brand name guitars that still had to be fully set up, so cheap versus affordable is the question? If a person doesn't have a clue then yes set up will cost a bit, but anyone that's played any amount of time has a preference. Sorry but this video is just bashing off brands and promoting extremely expensive brands.
Amen. I've been playing 40 years. I've gotten my hands on many dream guitars, being at the right place at the right time (a few of them you've seen featured in books and articles). And I've seen and played some absolute POS guitars escape from the expensive "Big Brands". I recently got to play one of those Firefly 335 copies, and it played better than many of their vintage Gibson counterparts.
I would never say the big brands don't need the work also. This is a rebuttal to the videos that unbox a $88 guitar (and get paid to do it) and say "its killer! It might need a set up or new pickups but it's awesome!".
What was the shocking truth?
It was the truth, I admit it wasn't very shocking.
@@TaftysGuitars i'm very please with mine
@@TaftysGuitars Hello there :) I just wanted to say thanks a million for posting/sharing this video. I found it to be very comprehensive, straightforward, informative, and thoroughly enjoyable to watch. I really dig your presentation style an awful lot, so much so in fact that I immediately hit the ol sub button, and am looking forward to catching your other content offerings. Thanks again and I wish you nothing but the very very best in all things.
@@SultanOfTwang1956 thanks so much man!
why not show how to set up save $
will do. But I have to correct the things that have gone wrong since I bought it. It's not worth setting up right now.
@@TaftysGuitars Are you going out of your way to antagonize readers or something? Of course it's worth an hour of your time to make it right.
IS THE PRICE OF A FULLY SET UP GUITAR WORTH IT ON THESE CHEAP ASS GUITARS .
yes
I suggest investing in a better mic
3 minutes in and havent seen anything pertaining to the title ,, and its only a 9 minute video
sorry ,, moving on
1/3 of this is a commercial for your shyt.
And whats the issue with simply forwarding past his plug? Why are you angry hes trying to make money man? Smh
You can't "get past" this dude's "plug" because the entire video is basically a plug either for himself or guitar techs in general. But he had a deceptive clickbait title making you think this was a video about this particular "budget" Grote e355 clone guitar that I was thinking about buying and maybe other people were as well. So he made some of us waste our time watching a video that was basically an advertisement for techs. Judging by the other comments on here I don't think I'm the only person who thought this was about this particular guitar and was wading through this entire video to see when he was actually going to pick up this Grote ax and maybe strum it a little bit????? lol...So I don't know what your deal is... For all I know you could be a guitar tech or this guy's pal. Who knows? The fact is that some of us don't appreciate our time being wasted because like you said, people are trying to "make money" right? Well, time is money, as they say. The time some of us wasted watching this video was time we could have devoted to something else more financially beneficial to us. Sorry, maybe all of this is going over your head. Lol
This guy is a seller on Marketplace. He has many cheap guitars for sale every day! But in his defense, he does charge more money than most people for the cheap guitars he sells.
Bad clickbait title
Yeah but do you have to pay a tech to make all these adjustments? Or can you learn to do it yourself - not that hard - and save a lot of money.
bet he was a 3 chord player....no real content here
most Grotes come with great frets and set up,so your just nit picking ,most budget guitars are now as good as top range for playability..Its all subjective and down to who-plays the guitar.. Guitars are all marketing hype
I have a low end ibanez, grg 121 $200. Now.....its not a Cadillac....but there is absolutely nothing "wrong" with it. I don't even need to change the tuners. I would be confident to take it on stage or record with.
He's literally just going over potential setup issues that an affordable guitar may have. How is that nitpicking? He even recommends the guitar at the end of the video.