@@thunderfootpower Back then everything that said made in China on it was junk. Like for real junk. I can't tell you how many Chinese made sockets, ratchets and wrenches I broke between the ages of 14 to 34.
or 1996 ...thats why they hate them so much.... the snobs are just gonna do what they always do...complain while buying them mexican strats didnt get to todays price by listening to those naysayers Harley benton and all the others will just get better till theres no point to make them better "polished with the hair of Nepalese virgins for tone" is on its deathbed and they gotta sell 'em
To quote a wise and strong aquatic animal: "Forgiveness is divine, but never pay full price for a late pizza." ...wait, what's this video about? Ah a guitar, right right....
Fazely Hot Rod. £78 guitar. George Lynch paint copy. 1 humbucker. Love mine. Chucked Rail hammer anvil into it. Brilliant. Recorded the last release with it (Gehazi GHC if you’re looking).
My demo of this guitar went up a week ago. I had a good experience with the company, but the guitar I received did have a few problems out of that box that were beyond basic setup work.
Awesome! The funny thing about some of these budget guitars is sometimes.. sometimes.. they're made in the same factories as the low-range models for major Japanese or US brands.
Some of these cheap guitars are great project platforms. Especially if you are learning how to perform maintenance yourself. Got a DMT-100 and practiced some fret leveling and polishing. Throw in some tuners that were laying around and a set of Klein pickups I got for $20. Its now one of my better playing guitars.
I felt the Heritage was slightly warmer (or less sharp) than the Fesley, but not a whole lot different. I think having these budget guitars out on the market is so cool. First, it allows beginners a chance to sound good while learning, and second, it kind of exposes the rediculous over-price of "status brands". Now, don't get me wrong, I have a range of guitars from a $150 Cort to a $4600 PRS, and I play the PRS almost every day and the Cort very rarely. And yet, I still enjoy grabbing my Fender Tele (Player series), before I ever grab my Gibson SG (Derek Trucks sig model). As one who WAS once a "status brand snob", I will always advise people to take a look at budget guitars before jumping right into an expensive one!
Best bang for the buck guitars I've ever experienced is the Jet Guitars JS-400.. $200 bucks for a basswood body, sunburst or solid finish, roasted Canadian Maple neck, one high output humbucker and two single coils (or two humbuckers), a nice neck heel and very good construction. Even though the stock pickups actually sound very good, I swapped the bridge humbucker in mine with a $55 dollar Bill Lawrence USA L500XL and the stock single coils with DiMarzio Areas and it sounds and plays phenomenal. I've owned various guitars over the last 40 years (both American and import) by Gibson, Fender, Ibanez, Schecter, Charvel, Ernie Ball, Carvin,Yamaha, PRS, ESP, etc, and it can easily compare with the best of them.
Just looked for fun, and they are $135 now on Amazon. Pretty cheap. Not for me, but that's a great price for what you get. Good mod platform if you are into that. Good review, thank you Mr. Bull.
Joyo also makes ANOTHER Great drive pedal I have two of for travel and practice rigs,( I usually use a Plumes and a JHS Haunting Mids parametric Mid Eq Boost after to dial it in more, precisely with my big rig). The Joyo Argos is a clome of the Horizon Precision Drive with the Gate and mids rotary as well. like $40. Best Chinese OD out there and Joyo NEVER disappoints, the Vintage OD from Joyo is just a TS9 Clone. I never did get that one but bought two Ultimate Drives, OCD clones, IE modded Rat I use as a dirty 18V boost
Fesley FDK800s are awesome too and seem to be designed after Jackson Dinky's ,Bald Shredder Marty 5150 and SixStringStanger all reviewed them , totally worth the $189-$219 (after coupon and dependent on which color you get) $239 retail
I bought mine new in January 2022 for $89 and was really happy with it. In fact, it had a very flamed neck, one of the best I've ever seen. I meant for it to be a throwaround guitar and leave out around the kids, but found it plays well above its price range. I even gigged with it and received compliments on its sound, paired with some surprised looks after I've said how much I paid for it 😂
Dude that thing is sick! im a sucker for blacked out strats en super strats. The brand name and headstock shape made me chuckle a little tho. The headstock shape is the Warmoth Warhead shape. And here in de Netherlands and the whole EU we have a big musicstore that has a in house line with the name "Fazley". at least it made you look cooler than that Heritage thats worth more than a car haha.
@@belligerentamateur Hahaha noice. Making a part 2 for this video by upgrading it yourself would be fun if this video does well. Belligerent amateur with a screw driver and soldering iron is peak amusement if you ask me. It may also help first timers to start modding.
It's awesome when a super budget piece of gear does the thing. I bought a semi hollowbody Firefly awhile back for not much cash either & I love the thing. Plays great sounds great through an amp especially cleans & slightly overdriven. Keep up the awesome videos Kyle!
I have a Volgoa VSR-1 guitar coming tomorrow from Amazon. I bought another Volgoa over a year ago and it was quite bad. We'll see... Free returns, why not
Looks like a pretty decent guitar. I've seen them on Amazon but I've actually had my eye on a Grote tele style guitar, hss configuration for $229. I'm actually impressed, especially since I already have the joyo od and a Boss katana. When you switched between guitars the only really difference I could hear in tone was the Heritage seemed voiced darker. Little more growl but the Felsey seemed punchier. The felsey actually seemed a bit more crisp. Just my two cents.
Man that cheap guitar is thousands or times better then any guitar I had growing up. We had such trash for $50 which would be equivalent to 150.00 today.
Just like the other review I recently watched with a Fesley HSS, the plastic pickup covers are very bulky and bright white. Like Kyle said, a cheap loaded pickgaurd should fit with some custom work. These guitars are pretty decent for the price, and would probably turn out great after some mods. The bones are there.
I wonder what I'm having for lunch? ( thought that I just had) Also, this seems WAY better than my first electric guitar which was $50, and had the input jack mounted only on the pickguard... which I ripped out when I stood up while stepping on my guitar cable. But yeah, sounds like a good deal for a beginner guitar for my son. Gonna look into it.
The major problem with Fesley guitars that you didnt mention is that the tone control doesnt work for the bridge pickup, which is by far the most common pickup most players will be using. The tone controls only work when the pickup selector is set between pickups. There is one budget Amazon brand I highly recommend if anyone wants a tele clone, that is the $200 Censtar. Not only does it play well and sound great out of the box, but the build quality is as good or better than mid-range priced guitars.
Fender Strats don't have any tone control on the bridge pick ups either , not even the ones made in the U.S.A. , the following comes from an article from Premiere Guitar - *Strat Bridge Pickup Tone Control* by Dirk Wacker Premiere Guitar magazine November 10, 2008 As you know, the standard Stratocaster has a master volume and two tone controls, one for the middle and one for the neck pickup, but none for the bridge pickup! To understand why Fender did this, you have to take a look at the past. The Fender Stratocaster showed up around April 1954 as a follow- up to Leo Fender's first genius strike: the Esquire/Telecaster guitar. At this time, Western Swing was very popular, and not just in California, where Leo Fender lived and worked. He was a confessed Western Swing fan, so this was the sound he had in mind when he developed the Stratocaster concept. Leo Fender liked the pedal steel-like lead tone; he described it as “bell-like with shimmering highs" (today you'll often hear “penetrating highs"). This was the lead tone for Western Swing, and back in the good old days of the fifties there was simply no need for a tone control for the bridge pickup. In the last fifty-four years, tastes changed a lot, and now few Stratocaster players use the bridge pickup alone because the sound is too trebly and shrill to them. This is also the reason why a lot of people are buying replacement pickups for the Strat's bridge position: they're looking for a warmer tone with decent high-end. So adding a tone control for the bridge pickup is a good idea because it has a double effect: You can dial in a lot of different tones with the tone control, especially when using a tonecap with a much smaller value than the stock 0.022uF. Even with the tone control fully opened, a little load is added to your bridge pickup, especially with the standard 250k pots, to smooth things out. Try this mod before you replace your bridge pickup. Chances are good that this will do it for you, and save you some bucks!
RE: Demo guitar v. Heritage The Fesley (sp?) guitar actually had a stronger attack/bite to my ears when compared to the Heritage. Is that a bolt-on vs set neck thing? A scale length thing? Poplar vs Mahogany? I can't say. I'm just reporting what I heard.
Fully agree bro, I do tend to go towards LTDs, but that's a personal experience, when I was younger, they endorsed a band I was in, but I have played great $200 guitars and horrible $3000 guitars. If it plays and sounds good, who cares.
I think it sounds good through the recording. For that kind of money it's hard to complain. Maybe it's a good mod platform? But I feel like once you start upgrading it, the value of the initial investment is diminished. Unless you are already doing your own fret work rolling the board etcetera (if you like those sort of things). A new player that isn't really sure what they want and like yet I believe guitars like this are awesome. And maybe for the more experienced player that wants something cheap to experiment on. If you already know what you like, then browsing used market is vastly superior in value and selection. My opinion, of course.
I got a donner off Amazon for my son's GF. It wasn't bad and super cheap. Even after 2 harley benton guitars, they are garbage. Still. I thought it was just mine. My buddy got a higher end HB and it was pure garbage. Good looking out for some cheap alternatives for people.
They sound virtually identical. Where were these quality, cheap guitars in the 90's when I was starting out? I spent $500 in 1991 on an Epiphone S-series as my first guitar purchase. Now I have a rack full of Harley Benton's for the same money and they are all superior to it.
Id love to hear your thoughts on first act...ive heard they improved over the years but ive still got scares from the god awful fret job they did on mine back in the day lol
Yeah man. I think that the word bias is the proper word to use here. Not that there arent some bad pieces of gear out there, but I feel like most people are really stuck on brand names and popular opinion. I would say most of us will change out pickups on most guitars anyways. If it stays in tune and the neck feels good..its as good or better than guitars that cost twice as much. Really good video..budget gear is on a whole new level these days.
I think it sounds REALLY good. I kinda don't care what the brand name is on the guitar to a point. I try to make my own opinion once I've played it. I do typically choose a guitar by a brand with a good reputation though. Harley Benton, Squier & Epiphone I find hit & miss. Epiphone has REALLY good build quality but I'm not a fan of the stock Epiphone pickups. I have one Epiphone with EMG after market pickups that were installed in 2003. That was my first Epiphone from my girlfriend now wife WAY back for Christmas of 2002.
Sounded really good! Good idea to compare it to the million dollar Gibson! Very small difference. I would have been incredibly interested to hear this compared to the Harley Benton R-446, which is the exact same price!
I'm more impressed with the katana 😂 My first guitar was a hss squire like 30 years ago. That is probably better. I had no idea about string height or any of that stuff for years and played thousands of hours
Thing sounds pretty damn good 👍 the company that I can't stand the name of is Pyle...... They make all kinds of audio equipment: car stereos, guitars and Amps for both (and other stuff too) lol but imagine talking to your buddies and saying "yeah I got a new guitar." Buddies " what kind did you get?" You "Eh, it's called a Pyle..." Buddies, " that good, huh? You are already calling it junk?"
I thought it sounded great honestly. I love great cheap gear haha In your opinion...this Fesley, the Harley Benton JA-20HH or the Donner DMT-100 as the best one (since you reviewed those 3!)?
Yes. I shockingly thought it sounds better than the 4 grand guitar, too. I have 7 Harley Bentons (I every time changed the pickups with EMGs, Dimarzios or SD's). The Harley Benton guitars for more than 250 Euros are absolutely phenomenal for the price. When you are buying HB's for 100-150 Euros, it is a little gamble, if the guitars are really playable or not. But I live in germany, so it's no problem to send it back. But the higher priced HB`s are comparable with guitars from other brand's priced 1000 Euros.
@belligerentamateur how do you determine weird? I can tell you why I asked, no one who reviewed their products can substantiate your claim. Problem with online reviews they are amateurs with no training, discernment, moral base or tact...all opinion.
@@bluwng Well mate, the "problem" with online commenters is, a large percentage of them are full of shit... Having no padding isn't an opinion, and your "question" was "Are you sure you aren't exaggerating", your comprehension skills are sadly lacking. And then your next effort, "Problem with online reviews they are amateurs with no training, discernment, moral base or tact", AND " no one who reviewed their products can substantiate your claim", is complete bullshit, You didn't ask anyone or substantiate anything, it's just your misinformed OPINION..... FFS
I came from the school of "A good guitarist can make a bad guitar sound great". You are one of those dudes that can make the cheapest Glarry sound like a Gibson. However, what you said about the way it plays matters. An experienced guitarist can deal with bad intonation and a wobbly neck with uneven frets. But, to gush about how "good it feels" means a lot. Even if the humbucker had three winds in it, that can be fixed rather easily and cheaply. But structural issues of playability are harder and more expensive to fix, negating it being worth fixing to begin with. That was verbose. Sorry. Although a guitar that "sucks" may mean it's actually the guitarist who sucks, and a $3,000 Gibson won't fix that, a guitar with good structural bones by definition does NOT suck. Spend an additional $99 on a Super Distortion or whatever You want, and your guitar will sound how you want AND play how you want. Which makes it a decent guitar. Good video. I hope my comment made half as much sense as your presentation.
I had to stop watching when you said you lost the trem bar and didn't have a review on it. You may not use it, but many others do, the review is incomplete IMO without mention of how well the trem worked, good or bad.
If your kid plays once a week, get him something like this or a harley benton. If he plays around 3 times a week, get him a Sire, Schecter, cheap Ibanez or Cheap Jackson. If he plays everyday for hours, get him/her no less than a Charvel, Jackson or mid Ibanez...the Charvel or mid Inanez should be around $1000-1500.
I don't get why people make videos and don't mention what they're even talking about until way late into the video. I'm 3 minuts in and no idea what brand. I'm out.
the white is a matter of taste but I agree there. As far as single pickups being useless, I don't use them at all but those who do will tell you that a split hunbucker and true single coil pickup will never sound the same, so take that for what it's worth
@@samizdat113 I know. What does taking 10 minutes have anything to do with that? whether it takes 10 min or an hour, I didn't feel it needed it for the demo
I like how you took a jab at Gibson, I dont think Ive seen anybody else do that before. Especially on you tube. That makes you an original thinker who doesn't join in group think. It's also very brave to go after a big company like that, I know nobody else would do it. Anyway thank you for being an independant free thinker that does unique and original things. Very awesome. Party on dude.
