How bad are cheap guitars? // I tested 4 affordable models

I've seen some terrible

guitars

over the years, especially when I was still giving private guitar lessons. The amount of horror I saw was not something you would wish on your enemy, from simply horrible sounding blocks of wood to absolutely unplayable

guitars

that you wonder how. Earth, someone could produce something like that. 20 years ago I had to settle for this my first acoustic guitar which wasn't particularly well built and didn't sound that good to be honest and now that I think about it, it wasn't that

cheap

. like these four, but how come

cheap

guitars are better these days?

Are they good enough? Let's find out. Here are four commonly seen

affordable

and popular guitars that I will put through a series of tests to find out how bad they really are, I think the most. The important thing for beginners is the playability and the sound, and probably even in that order, so let's comment on the playability later. Let's first make a direct comparison between the four contenders. Defender CD60, one of the best-selling budget guitars that is often seen in the hands of beginners. natural finish, it is not the first time that I see that your instrument deserves to carry the Fender name on its number two headstock here we have another giant, the yamaha f310nt, from the looks of it, there is not much difference between the previous one, but is this a little brother or big brother?

Does this guitar from that giant Japanese company have a place in the beginner market? Contender number three. The Harley Benton HB CLD 10s nsgs custom line. Can you give these guitars normal names? This guitar is Chinese. It became a baby of the German guitar store Toma and supposedly offers good quality guitars at a reasonable price. Contender number four is something totally different but nonetheless interesting, the orange wood ray. Is there a place for this brand when talking about budget guitars or is it just? a copy of us has existed for a long time. Additionally, this guitar has a slightly smaller waist and cutaway unlike the other three.

It's interesting, and by the way, it's only available in North America, so report back on these contenders when your guitar or guitar isn't boxed. Anyway, this video might be worth watching here. The way I test these guitars would be the same as when I go into a guitar store and look at different guitars, so when I choose these particular guitars, I browse various web stores to find popular

models

. I found five. I emailed the manufacturers if they would provide me with a review unit and these four were cool enough to do so which is awesome so thank you when I ordered the guitars I also said I would give them away to local music schools for purposes educational, which I will do at the end of this video, so let's get back to the test when I play these squeaky guitars, the ease of playability and setup is something that I'm always very skeptical or even worried about.

I've seen the worst things that beginner guitarists have enough trouble achieving. Damn C major chord down, so making it even harder by trying it with a bad guitar is just a form of sadism in my book, so here's a little spoiler for you all when we look at these four guitars, luckily we don't see anything shocking. stuff fresh out of the factory, they are all playable but there are some very interesting differences when talking about pure playability, it's a tie between the yamaha and the harley benton where if i have to pick favor i might lean slightly towards the harley harley benton , it's a little bit lighter to wrap around the entire neck, maybe even a little too light which can cause problems so more on that later, the orange hood is fine and the fender is coming up to a quarter decent, it's a little harder to worry. nut and I think this has to do with the string slots being cut too conservatively, so this is easily fixed of course, but this brings me to a very important point: can a Beginner do maintenance or even serious adjustments on a guitar?

At a little over 100 euros, taking it to a luther can cost about half that, which if the guitar will last five to ten years is probably a good investment, but I really don't think it's realistic to expect the same from the average novice or beginner guitarist. . Therefore, judging these guitars by how they come out of the factory is probably a fair approach. The action of all four guitars fits within specifications of what is desirable, a little less than 3 millimeters measured at the 12th fret of the low E string and about 2 millimeters. At high E, the thinner orangewood strings drop a little over 2 millimeters, which isn't very noticeable when playing, and the Harley Benton is on the low side, which is both a good and a bad thing.

This explains why this harley benton guitar plays a little lighter than the competition, but it also has a negative impact on the tone because there is a slight string buzz in the upper registers, so it's not much, it's actually just barely, but it's definitely there at some points along the line if, esp. It's always a compromise to get the action low to ensure good gameplay, but on the other hand it shouldn't have any negative impact on the tone. Fortunately we don't have to make any adjustments to the neck nor do all four have a slight bow or relief.

Well, within the specifications so far, so good, let's do more tone testing, so let's take a look at the workmanship, hardware and woods. Most guitars at this price will likely have laminated woods, meaning there are multiple layers of wood or veneer glued to the top. one of the other you can see by looking through the mouth and if it looks a little weird, a little rough, it's probably laminated, if it looks nice, curvy and smooth, and you'll see the grain from the top. all the way through, it's probably a solid top, the orange hood has mahogany ply on the back and sides, the fender and yamaha have a laminated spruce top, but here the fender has a mahogany interior, as does than orange wood, where the yamaha has meranti.

Back and sides, finally, to my great surprise, the Harley Benton has a solid spruce top, which is surprising for a guitar under 150 euros, but is it just a fancy feature to sell it or does it really make a difference before To continue? Brief message from today's sponsor, it's my guitar course, so if you're a beginner or newbie to the guitar or maybe feel like you've skipped some of the fundamentals of learning to play the guitar, I'd love for you to check it out. my guitar. learn practice play course is a carefully designed roadmap to take everyone to the next level of guitar playing through seven core modules with over 55 in-depth videos including workbooks, tabs, downloadable backing tracks, worksheets sports and more, teaching you everything you need to know to become a great all-around guitarist, check out learnpracticeplay.com and now back to these babies when you look at the finish, the fender really outshines the other three, literally the finish looks pristine, shiny and feels very smooth and comfortable, the orange hood and the harley benton uses a matte finish which isn't bad but it just doesn't have the same appeal if you ask me, it's all preference for the way it these tuners do their job, thank goodness, but the ones on the harley benton are a little less tactile or responsive than the other three so it's not a problem to tune it but it just feels a little less solid overall the inlays and decorations are a little disappointing on the fender the dots on the fingerboard are strangely small which leaves me with a rather unsatisfying feeling, plus they are so small that I imagine it is difficult to make a nice clean hole to put them in where you can clearly see they are a little rough around the edges, the yamaha also has its quirks, some parts are not really finished from the looks of it or they just don't pay too much attention and interestingly some threats are too short at the top of the neck, the harley benton and The orange wood are tied for number one, both looking impeccable and carefully assembled with a good eye. in detail, but if I have to choose a winner, I would say it goes to the orange wood because of the rosette.

I personally don't like the rosette on the Harley Benton and whoever designed that bridge probably did it on a Friday night after it was done. too many, that's not good and finally the last comment about the tone, because that's always number one in my book, when I play them for the first time I couldn't help but feel a little disappointed, they just sounded a little boring, flat and empty. as projective as I expected, but then I realized that in my hand I was comparing them to my Martin D 42, which I know is not entirely fair. The money-to-value ratio is pretty impressive on these guitars, but there are actually pretty big differences.

I wasn't expecting the yamaha and this fender to sound very similar, where the yamaha sounds a little more open and full than the fender. The fender may be a little more balanced all around, but it has a little less shine. The fender is also the heaviest of the four, so maybe that's why it has a hard time resonating properly, maybe it opens a little when played, probably even, but that applies to all four guitars, the Yamaha is the one that It's more in the middle, it's not spectacular, it's not bad. it sounds very similar to how it looks almost a little modest so now for harley benton this guitar surprised me, it's more vivid, more responsive and louder than the other three.

Some might think that stronger is always better, which is not true, but in this case. I think the sound is not as restricted as the other three. It could be because this one has a solid top. In fact, I think maybe the glue between the layers just stops it from vibrating, which prevents the sound from coming out. from the sound chamber, the orange bell is definitely interesting, it may have the best balance overall, but it also sounds a little dull, it never surprises or disappoints me, which I guess is something a lot of people are looking for just a reliable guitar . without any problem, also with the body a little shallower and the waist smaller, oh and the cutaway of course, it's impressive that it can keep up with the battleships there in general, it looks very good, so This could be a very interesting guitar for a lot of people, so there you have it, none of these are bad and I'm really surprised by the value you get for the amount of money you pay.

All four can be the perfect beginner guitar. None of these will give you excuses not to practice. and I hope these guitars inspire at least a handful of next generation musicians to come along. Thank you all so much for watching and have a beautiful day. I'll see you in the next video, greetings, so in a few minutes this music teacher will learn two of these guitars that I'm giving away but there she is but as a joke I'm going to hang the Martian d42 on the wall too to see which one he chooses