Cheap Guitars

[chromeboy]

I've been looking for a cheap but good metal guitar and have been looking at two in particular.

The Ibanez grgr131ex and the harley benton st-hh active or the ja-20 hh active. Now I do love the Ibanez necks. I've always been a fan of them. The differences are the active pups in the harley benton and the infinity pups in the ibanez. I've never played a harley benton so I am not familiar with their necks. All three of these guitars are in matte black with black hardware and look great. So I'm not sure which guitar I should Buy. Anyone have any experience with any of these guitars and what were your thoughts on them?

 

[TheKman76]

I wonder at the wisdom in buying a guitar for a specific genre, especially a cheap one.

What do you have already?

Not tried any of them, nothing useful to say on the three guitars. Sorry.

 

[Kuga]

Ibanez are great guitars. Even cheap ones. But It's better don't buy It with Floyd Rose on the cheap ones. Harley Benton are not good as Ibanez.

 

[Nadir]

Harley Benton QC is inconsistent.
I bought a used CST24 - made in Vietnam - whose neck was absolutely unplayable and has needed a lot of work to level the frets beyond 12th and tuners and bridge replaceement (bridge is the fixed one, not tremolo).
If i bought it new I would have sent it back. They cost few but there is a risk to spend double ...

On the other hand I have a Hamer XT - made in Indonesia - same price tag of the HB - which is flawless.

 

[NumbSkull]

I would recommend this

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I have just bought one,
The pickups are OK, for the price they are suitable for high gain.
the neck and action are great, its a proper set neck shreddy guitar.

Not sure if they are available in the USA for such a silly price.

 

[ChrisLaarman]

Hey guys I've been looking for a cheap but good metal guitar and have been looking at two in particular.
The Ibanez grgr131ex and the harley benton st-hh active or the ja-20 hh active. Now I do love the Ibanez necks. I've always been a fan of them. The differences are the active pups in the harley benton and the infinity pups in the ibanez. I've never played a harley benton so I am not familiar with their necks. All three of these guitars are in matte black with black hardware and look great. So I'm not sure which guitar I should Buy. Anyone have any experience with any of these guitars and what were your thoughts on them?

Me, I do have both Ibanez and Harley Benton instruments (guitars and basses each), though not these models.

According to reviews, quality control at Harley Benton seems inconsistent. I must have been lucky, so far.

An aspect of string instruments in general that has become very important to me is the strings themselves. To the extent that I'm expecting a Harley Benton acoustic bass and a set of strings that costs half as much as the instrument (with factory strings).

I have recently bought the cheap Harley Benton ST-20HSS SBK as a testbed for flat-wound strings on a solid-body guitar. I mounted Thomastik JS110 strings. The result exceeded my already high expectations.

I would not recommend flat-wound strings for screaming metal style, though. I merely want to make the point that the strings themselves may be quite important beside the wood they make resonate and the pick-ups that transmit their vibrations.

 

[wagdog]

Schecter and Jackson have some decent budget guitars.

 

[Deftone]

I have a used Ibanez S420. Indonesian made, it's got a Mahogany body that sounds dark and IMHO lends itself well to Metal. Infinity p'ups are meh, replaced with an SD Full Shred, big improvement. Mine came with the Zero Return (ZR) trem, which I think is an amazing tremolo, and I'm a big Floyd fan.

I sanded the black paint off the top and sealed with Tru oil. I freaking love this guitar.


I paid $230 for mine, but it looks like they are running about $300-500 now....

https://reverb.com/p/ibanez-s420-standard#price-guide

 

[Goldguitarguy]

I like having a budget in mind and then trying out guitars within that price range. I always found the quality inconsistent with lower tier guitars but you always find a good diamond in the rough that way.

 

[BRMarshall]

I was on a bender several years ago buying a few cheap guitars (under $200) to upgrade some. I bought Squier, Epiphone, Ibanez and Jackson. Generally, the pickups seem to be the weak point for each, although I liked the charm of the Seafoam Green Squier Strat pickups enough to buy a second for the pickup swap.

For your “metal” guitar, consider a Jackson. I bought a JS11 for around $250 at the time. The Ibanez GRG120 is a nice guitar, but the Jackson seems a little better to me. Although I replaced the stock pickups with DiMarzio (SD and Aor Norton), the Jackson pickups were the pick if the litter. Mt Jackson is red and … it has a pointy head stock.

Best of luck. Cheap guitars can be great and you can mod them without worrying too much about money.

 

[BRMarshall]

Sorry the JS11 was around $150 when I bought it.

 

[archer63bj]

Hey guys I've been looking for a cheap but good metal guitar and have been looking at two in particular.
The Ibanez grgr131ex and the harley benton st-hh active or the ja-20 hh active. Now I do love the Ibanez necks. I've always been a fan of them. The differences are the active pups in the harley benton and the infinity pups in the ibanez. I've never played a harley benton so I am not familiar with their necks. All three of these guitars are in matte black with black hardware and look great. So I'm not sure which guitar I should Buy. Anyone have any experience with any of these guitars and what were your thoughts on them?

I would, in my opinion buy a used Ibanez not with what I call a G model or Greg model. Go with something a little bit better. Ibanez are great guitars and with fast necks and strong electronics. The guitars can last a lifetime. Rock on

 

[kman]

At this point finding an acceptable guitar in the under 200 is not easy. Not impossible.
I have an Ibanez RG350 YE with Floyd Rose tremolo. Nice solid Maple neck. And of course Ibanez touch and feel.
It is listed on reverb now including a hard case.
It doesn't get much more metal than that.

 

[Mike_LA]

Jackson Dinkys can be found for pretty cheap.
Do you Really want a guitar that Needs a Battery?

 

[Ken Ops]

Step up to an Ibanez RG421, say, or a Jackson JS22. Both better than those you named.

 

[Antti Heikkinen]

I think you already answered your own question. If you really like the necks on Ibanez, well that's the most important thing on a guitar that it "fits your hand". Personally, I can't stand Jackson and Ibanez etc necks, too wide and flat for me - so I would never buy one no matter how good otherwise. The neck is always a deal breaker or sealer for me on any guitar.

So if you love them - to me that would be an easy choice. That Iba is also a very classic metal design that doesn't scream 'cheap' to anyone except maybe some guitar afocionados.

Furthermore, I've never come across a bad Ibanez, they have _very_ consistent QC and even the cheap ones are pretty decent. You can always change pups later if you feel like you must, easy to do on a passive guitar, plus you'd probably need to swap only the bridge pup - if even that is really necessary.

So it's pretty hard IMO to build a case for getting anything other than the Ibanez, when you really list all the pros and cons.

 

[Dale Faulkner]

Hey guys I've been looking for a cheap but good metal guitar and have been looking at two in particular.
The Ibanez grgr131ex and the harley benton st-hh active or the ja-20 hh active. Now I do love the Ibanez necks. I've always been a fan of them. The differences are the active pups in the harley benton and the infinity pups in the ibanez. I've never played a harley benton so I am not familiar with their necks. All three of these guitars are in matte black with black hardware and look great. So I'm not sure which guitar I should Buy. Anyone have any experience with any of these guitars and what were your thoughts on them?

I don’t know if any of those are good or not but don’t buy a cheap guitar. Just dont

 

[Moose Coghill]

THE most important thing is how a guitar feels in your hands, and how comfortable you are playing it. Any guitar can be a metal guitar - it's a matter of pickups and amplification. Get out and play some guitars in person. Find the neck type that suits you, what it's specs are - then go from there. The more you LIKE the look and feel of a guitar, the more you will want to pick it up and play. That is paramount. Out of the dozens of guitars I've owned in my career, there have only been 2 that I did not change out the electronics... and yes, that includes anything from Gibson Les Paul Customs to Fender Stratocasters.

 

[Clifdawg]

The best cheap shreddy guitar I’ve played is the Ibanez RGRT421.

A real neck-through hardtail shred machine for 500 bucks. It’s about as simple and stripped down as an instrument can get.

 

[TheLoudness!!]

It depends on the budget really. Cheap means different things to different people.

I would avoid buying budget guitars with a locking tremelo. They tend to suck really bad.

For it's $219 current price, I like the Rhoades JS32T. String through body.
Just find one with good fret work. The pickups aren't anything special by any means. I'd swap those and have a bone nut put on.

Schecter has lots of good options as well.

Metal tone is mostly about what amp is being used and a person's right hand attack. I have heard huge crunch tones coming from a 335...

Last but not least, Yamaha. I own many and they are difficult to beat for consistency.