How much is an ok, not great but not bad either electric guitar?

Question

How much is an ok, not great but not bad either electric guitar?

Answer 1

1. Poor guitar:  $50

2. Fair guitar:  $300

3. Good guitar: $900

4. Great guitar: $3,500

5. Superb guitar: $50,000

Answer 2

I wouldn't buy an instrument any less than $500. That is an ok instrument.

Answer 3

The real question is how much time are you willing to devote to finding such an instrument. The playability of a guitar is dependent on the intonation, action and tone ie: you don't want you guitar to be out of tune, have the frets too hard to press, or sound like c**p.

Typically, construction variances, proper hardware and set up, and a solid top, and decent electronics put you in the ball park range for a new instrument around 150-200 bucks honestly. The problem with low end guitars is not the features it lacks, but the quality control on the construction of the instrument is poor. The best bet for you is to find a nice local shop that sells used instruments. Play around till you find a jem and have the owner set it up correctly for you. As far as tone goes, do you have to be a studio musician to know what sounds pleasing to your ear? not reallly...  New guitars are a bit harder to find at a good price point. Here's why.

For example, the fender squier line of guitars are made in indonesia, korea and china in an assembly line. Each worker has a specific task whether it be hammering frets, soldering electronics, finishing the wood... etc... each process is blind to the other. In addition the line workers have NO CLUE how what they do affects the sound of the guitar. With all these factors in play, theres a chance you might get a properly set up and constructed guitar but odds are a bit more slim.

Estimated price ~ 100-200 USD

Compare now to lets say the standard strat made in mexico, where now they add to the production line at the end, someone who knows what to look for and tweaks each part of the assembly until the instrument is deemed up to standards.

Estimated price ~ 300-400 USD

Even further are assembly lines in the USA or Spain or Europe where the line workers actually take pride in their work.

Estimated price ~ 600 - 1000

And the final upper eschelon is luthiers who design and construct all components of the guitar from start to finish adjusting each step to account for the natural variances and nuances of the materials as he adds them on.

Estimated price ~ 1000 +

With all this being said, i've stumbled upon a few times while working in a guitar shop, a cheap korean/chinese guitar where you just got lucky and some chinese guy came into work and decided to do a really good job, rather than slaving away like he normally would at a yearly salary of $50 USD.

I've found the squier, epiphone and ibanez guitars to have pretty good QC in their low end guitar models.