The King of Cheap

I was in no real hurry to enter the work force after high school graduation. I also had no plans for college since I assumed college was just a more self-disciplined version of high school and I really hated high school (and self-discipline). All I really wanted to do was play rock and roll guitar. I figured a had a two year window or so before I had to either buckle down and find a career path or “make it” as a rock and roll star. I figured I could just live at home while things sorted themselves out.

I had a number of very industrious friends who had cars, cash and – for those with a passion for music – good gear, and while I admired their drive, I in no way envied their 40/7 routines. So my short term plan was to live at home and try and scratch out a living playing guitar which proved difficult living in a fairly remote town in Michigan.

One of the downsides of this plan was I never had any money. It’s hard to scratch out a living playing rock and roll with no money for gear. It was during this time that I became the “King of Cheap”. I learned to look beyond the obvious and the highly desirable and seek the forgotten and somewhat attainable. What this meant is that while my peers were fawning over Stratocasters and Les Paul Standards/Customs I was more enamored by Fender Mustangs and Gibson Melody Makers or any number of budget models released by the big Guitar companies.

Let’s make one thing perfectly clear. Even at my most destitute I found no appeal in crap. I would rather go without than suffer low quality. For example, not too long ago, I purchased a 50.00 Squier Stratocaster from Craigslist out of curiosity. I figured I’d try my hand at tricking it out. It was depressingly bad. I know that there are decent, even good versions by Squier but this was not one of them. There was wood filler on the edge of the fretboard, rough frets, shitty hardware etc. Everything about it felt cheap. I put it back on Craigslist and closed the “wonder what a 50.00 Squier is like” chapter of my life.

This King of Cheap approach has stuck with me and to this day I am still a fan of the lesser known “bang for buck” stuff. This approach is not limited to guitars. Below are a few of my favorite (mostly vintage) things with the King of Cheap stamp of approval. This is off the top of my head so I’m sure I’ll miss some things:

Guitars

– 50s and 60s Gibson ‘Student’ Models

The Melody Maker for example is one of the greatest deals in classic American vintage guitars. If you are patient you can still snag one in the neighborhood of a grand.

– 70s/80s Gibson and Fender budget minded models

I wrote about Gibson’s The Paul model and Fender’s Lead series. There was also the Fender Bullet series – made in both USA and Japan – and Gibson’s Firebrand series. These are going up in price but when you compare them to the companies’ vintage flagship models they still offer great bang for buck.

– 80s USA Epiphone

For a brief time in the early 80s Gibson dabbled with building Epiphones in the USA again. They released the Spirit and Special models. The former a sort of Les Paul Special style and the latter SG flavored. These are identical in build quality to the era’s Gibsons and are killer guitars.

– Late 70s/early to mid Made in Japan guitars

Arming yourself with knowledge of the deep and fascinating world of Japanese guitar manufacturing from the golden era opens up a whole world of great, high quality instruments at really great prices. Again, some of the more well-know brands/models are steadily climbing in price but there are still tons of deals to be had for someone willing to work a little.

Amplifiers

I wrote about the Musicmaster Bass Amp. That’s always at the top of my King of Cheap list for quality affordable combo amps. Another amp I really dig is the Fender Pro Junior. It’s one of my favorite modern Fenders. It sounds like a cool old amp and can often be found CHEAP.

Effects

– Vintage staples

To me any pedal under 100.00 is a good deal. There are a number of vintage pedals from folks like MXR, DOD, Electroharmonix etc. that can be had for under 100.00. With the exception of my tuner and a 90s RI Tube Screamer all the pedals on my board are from the 70s and 80s. I don’t think I paid any more than 100.00 for any of them.

– Danelectro Tuna Melt

This is one of the best sounding tremolo pedals ever made to my ears. It sounds every bit as good as the trem on my 64 Princeton and my old early 60s Sivlertone 1472. Yes it’s housed in shitty plastic but I had one on my board for 10 years with absolutely no issues. I think I paid 20.00 for it. STUPID LOW price for the sound quality.

Home Recording Stuff

– RANE MS1 preamp

These can be found for 50.00 sometimes less if you are patient. They have a funky power adapter so you need to make sure it’s included but these things are super clean with a lot of available gain. While many of the entry level preamps in today’s interfaces are fairly decent, I’ve found that the RANE MS1s are noticeably better. They also allow you to use outboard gear if you have the available inputs on your interface.

– Vintage DBX Compressors

There are a number of cool vintage DBX compressors that you can still get pretty cheap. I like the DBX 166 – the 1980s blackface version with the colored knobs. I also dig the DBX 163x. The 163x also has a preamp and a hi-z input so it can double as a bass or guitar D.I.

– SURE SM57

Still super cheap and still super useful.

– Audio Technica AT2020/ Digital Reference DR-CX1

Love This mic. Not a true large diaphragm (more of a medium) but it’s a great and useful mic at a stupid cheap price second hand. For even cheaper check out the Digital Reference dr-cx1 which is the same mic, rebranded. I picked up one of these for 30.00 shipped.

Anyhow that a list of some of my fave cheapo stuff. Hopefully I’m not causing the prices to go up on any of this stuff.