Are cheap guitars more fun?

Above is the Epiphone Les Paul Special I P90. The price? Cheap. As in under $150 cheap. And I got one because I've been wanting a P90-equipped guitar for a while now.

I am a guy who prefers cheap electrics over expensive ones for various reasons, but the best reason is that cheap electrics are just plain fun to play.

What makes cheap guitars fun?

Cheap

When you get a cool guitar that doesn't cost a lot, you immediately feel a lot more comfortable with it. And comfort has a lot to do with fun factor. Guitars that don't cost a lot takes off a lot of pressure. With expensive axes you have the feelings of "I have to polish this thing and keep it pristine clean all the time" or "I always must put this in its case when I'm finished playing it" and so on. Not so with cheap electrics.

Carefree

Want to use a cheap gig bag instead of a hard case? Go right head. Want to leave your guitar on its stand instead of constantly having to put it in its case when finished playing? Go right ahead. Want to let the guitar get dirty? Go right ahead.

It's like I said, a lot of pressure is taken off your mind when you have a cheap guitar. And that feels great.

No, I'm not saying you should totally neglect your cheap axe and let it go into ruin. But I am saying that it's okay to let it get banged up and dirty since you hardly paid anything for it to begin with.

Hackable

Expensive guitars aren't meant to be upgraded, but cheap guitars are. If you want to switch out the bridge, pickups, nut, electronics or whatever else you can think of, then do it.

Again, this has a lot to do with comfort. You will feel much more comfortable hacking up a cheap guitar than you would an expensive one.

Much easier to build your "guitar army"

Three new cheap guitars can be had easily for under $500. Think about that for a moment. Three guitars. And you can mod/hack them up any way you wish. Buy a couple of Squier Stratocasters and an Epiphone Les Paul, and you've got enough guitar goodness to last you a good long time.

As I've said before, it's not a sin to own multiple guitars. Not only is it more fun, but it can be cheap. And it's also cool to be able to pick up one of your other guitars should you have a string snap on you. 🙂

Published 2012 Dec 14