Challenge: Create a $150 guitar that's different and better than those on the market at that price

[Pine Cone]

I was thinking about this today and thought it would be a fun topic. So, think of a guitar design for mass production that's different than the existing ones out on the market (fender squier teles and strats, epiphone and ibanez and other dual humbucker setups) and a step above those ones. Stripping it down to the bare bones, what's most essential on a guitar?

Would you go for a all around general guitar or a slightly more niche one?

I think what I would do is use a EMG H4 like pickup; a very solid, high quality, versatile pickup as the base to work off of. Because a pickup like this is so expensive, I would only have one, up near the neck position since that seems to be the more commonly played position, but have a coil tap on it so users could get both a single coil and humbucker experience.

With such a high output pickup, this guitar would be about distortion and heavy effects. This means that finer aspects of the guitar, like the wood wouldn't be as important, so I would use a cheap wood like a pine wood and forget about through body for the string ends. Also pine wood would make the guitar lighter. They would be all heavily coated in plastic like a strat is for durability. Finally, I'd make sure that the frets, tuning nobs, and bridge are all high quality.

I don't know what shape I would use.

Basically a simple setup that's all about the bare necessities needed to deliver an uninterrupted string vibration to a very good pickup.

How about you, what would you do?

 

[László]

I'd forget the whole thing and spend the $150 on drinks and dinner.

 

[drawshot]

I'd forget the whole thing and spend the $150 on drinks and dinner.

I'd skip the dinner, put it all into drinks, then play a spatula for an hour. If I'm $150 bucks deep in alcohol, that utensil will rival any Private Stock ever created, in my ears.

I'm a lightweight. It is what it is.

 

[László]

I'd skip the dinner, put it all into drinks, then play a spatula for an hour. If I'm $150 bucks deep in alcohol, that utensil will rival any Private Stock ever created, in my ears.

I'm a lightweight. It is what it is.

I'm with ya, man!

 

[Dusty Chalk]

I'd skip the dinner, put it all into drinks, then play a spatula for an hour. If I'm $150 bucks deep in alcohol, that utensil will rival any Private Stock ever created, in my ears.

I'm a lightweight. It is what it is.

You say, 'lightweight'; I say, 'efficient' (at getting buzzed).

 

[rugerpc]

I'd spend the $150 on a nice dinner and drinks with the wife while I continue to try convincing her that I need a PS.

 

[toothace]

I'd make my lady dinner, put the $150 towards my own PS, and earn brownie points all around

 

[László]

I'd make my lady dinner, put the $150 towards my own PS, and earn brownie points all around

If only I could cook more than microwave popcorn, I'm sure my wife would be happy. As it is, however, I think she likes a nice dinner out, though she's a very fine cook.

I've got enough Private Stocks to last me the rest of my life and then some (actually, one PS would have done nicely in that regard), so I can skip the guitar and get to the food/drink part without much concern.

 

[markintime]

$150 PRS? Unh, uh, not happenin'. I'd rather put that on a top of the line Scotch, not a cheapened plasticized PRS.

 

[Alan Manning]

I'd take the wife out spend 50 on getting her drunk then ask for a 100 &put 200 towards a Ps.
"I might work on that" lol!!!

 

[Furtive]

I want to say one word to you. Just one word.

Plastics.

 

[Pine Cone]

So apparently pleasing the wife seems to be a much bigger issue than coming up with $150 on this forum

I wasn't suggesting that PRS should make a $150 guitar or anything, it was just more of a thought exercise as to when it comes push to shove, what really are the key parts to a guitar when you can't have it all.

 

[Mixstar]

I always look at stuff that comes from Indonesia or China and think to myself "how can they possibly make that at that price and make a profit?" The shipping alone costs $150+ add a pickup at $65 - budget blown.

 

[veinbuster]

I understand the point of the question, but really don't think the price point is viable. I've given guitars to kids whose parent didn't know any better because I didn't want them to get frustrated playing a piece of junk and give up on something they might come to love.
The minimum requirements for a guitar is that it has to be stable physically, and stay in tune. Staying in tune includes being in tune when you press the string down to the frets.

 

[CantankerousCarl]

I agree that the $150 price point is really tough. My kid's $100 Squier 3/4 Strat barely holds tune - although the hardware feels like it should, and the wood is pretty decent.

I was thinking alternative construction like plastics might be a good way to go if you could pump out a body and neck for less than the wood. Some uber-cheap flaxwood type construct. But I have no idea how much that would cost.

I think 3/4 of the price of the guitar would have to go toward hardware and electronics. At $150 that's tough!

 

[DHW]

I agree that the $150 price point is really tough. My kid's $100 Squier 3/4 Strat barely holds tune - although the hardware feels like it should, and the wood is pretty decent.

I was thinking alternative construction like plastics might be a good way to go if you could pump out a body and neck for less than the wood. Some uber-cheap flaxwood type construct. But I have no idea how much that would cost.

I think 3/4 of the price of the guitar would have to go toward hardware and electronics. At $150 that's tough!

When you buy them by the boatload and they are made by 10 year olds in a sweatshop it's not that hard to get the electronics dirt cheap... There's about $0.10 worth of materials in a pickup and a computer can wind them consistently. Might have to move up to 12 year olds for the forge to cast the tuners/bridges. Again, pot metal to make most of those parts would be dirt cheap... Right now on alibaba you can get single coils for $0.50 each... $5 for a trem. $10 for a complete neck. $1.50 for tuners. $10 for an unfinished body. Figure about $10 more for pots, pickguard, jack, and strings.... $38 + paint and clear coat... $0.53 per hour minimum wage in indonesia... Box and about $2 for shipping when you ship full container by ship... There we go... about $60 and I've built a strat that I will make $60 profit on and leave 10% for the distributor and 10% for the retailer and I sourced the parts off the first page of alibaba.

 

[Mixstar]

The only way you *may* be able to do it is pay your staff 10¢/hour.

 

[Pine Cone]

When you buy them by the boatload and they are made by 10 year olds in a sweatshop it's not that hard to get the electronics dirt cheap... There's about $0.10 worth of materials in a pickup and a computer can wind them consistently. Might have to move up to 12 year olds for the forge to cast the tuners/bridges. Again, pot metal to make most of those parts would be dirt cheap... Right now on alibaba you can get single coils for $0.50 each... $5 for a trem. $10 for a complete neck. $1.50 for tuners. $10 for an unfinished body. Figure about $10 more for pots, pickguard, jack, and strings.... $38 + paint and clear coat... $0.53 per hour minimum wage in indonesia... Box and about $2 for shipping when you ship full container by ship... There we go... about $60 and I've built a strat that I will make $60 profit on and leave 10% for the distributor and 10% for the retailer and I sourced the parts off the first page of alibaba.

So THAT's how they do it... I was wondering...

I guess $150 is too far of a reach to make something ethically and with decent quality. So let's bump it to $250, do you think you could design a solid yet simple guitar for that price?

I think the 1 high output decent quality pickup would be key though because I don't think the neck/bridge thing is THAT important, it could fulfill a metal guitar niche that's kind of absent in the low price range, and the build character doesn't matter with high output.