[Josh]

Bringing up Yamaha in Donnie's thread, I was reminded of how many cool and "interesting" guitars Yamaha has done, including the RBX/RGX series, the AES series, the various unique signature guitars, and their solid basses, all at an excellent price point and with dependable build quality. They're not afraid to step outside the box, yet their more traditional designs are conservative enough to appeal to the most staid of guitarists, and the "Silent" range of instruments (of which the cello in my avatar is one) are unique, well-designed, and sound fantastic. Yet, no one ever thinks of them!

Another cool guitar company (now long gone sadly) is Daion, a Japanese "boutique" maker from the 80s. I got to play a Powermark XX-B bass and had I not gotten my Dingwall, I would own it right now. Solid construction, comfortable asymmetrical neck carves, custom brass hardware and knobs, incredible attention to detail, slim carved body, and excellent sound and playability.

Who else can you think of?

 

[eleven59]

Godin comes to mind as being very solid instruments with some really unique features, and they've really expanded their line the last few years.

 

[1]

I don't know if underrated is the right word, but I love my Brian Moore that I got from Donholio, and I'd never even heard of them before I bought it from him. :lol:

 

[darren]

Yamaha definitely get overlooked a lot, because often people's only experience with them are the horrible starter guitars that the market is flooded with. Even the good Yamaha dealers often don't carry much of their better stuff. Their bad stuff is pretty bad, but their good stuff is excellent.

Godin stuff is really well made, but man, i wish they'd get some more progressive-looking designs, or at least tweak the proportions on the couple they've got that are close. Most of their stuff just looks really "meh" but usually plays and sounds great.

I think Peavey makes some good stuff as well, but similar to Yamaha in that their bad stuff is less than stellar, but their higher-end stuff is great, though some of it suffers from Godin-esque awkwardness in the design.

 

[eleven59]

^ :agreed:

 

[KEWB]

My first "real" musical instrument (as in, not including the recorders we played in elementary school and stuff like that) was a used Yamaha trombone. Had a couple minor dents and scratches, which is to be expected, but it played well and lasted me a good long time.

 

[brian]

I have an old school RGX 621 from Yamaha - it's been thru hell in the past 15 years, survived a two story drop and being repeatedly thrown across a stage. Still sounds good - i wish i could snag another one, but they always come up when i have no money.

 

[jacksonplayer]

G&L and Heritage are quietly carrying on the true legacies of Fender and Gibson.

 

[eleven59]

G&L and Heritage are quietly carrying on the true legacies of Fender and Gibson.

I almost mentioned both of them, but they both get so much respect on this forum I forgot they're relatively underrated overall :lol:

 

[Josh]

Also, EBMM makes more than just the JP7 :lol:

Pretty much every one I've played (guitar or bass) has sounded and felt great.

 

[eleven59]

Also, EBMM has many more awesome guitars than just the JP7 :lol:

:lol: It's true. Their basses get lots of respect and are widely used, but most people forget their guitars, other than the JP.

 

[Randy]

Washburn, IMO

 

[Hungoverstin]

washburn is in the same category as Peavey and Yamaha in that they have a lot of shitty cheap stuff out there, but the good stuff is incredible. Th Nuno I played felt and sounded godly.

I'm gonna throw in Laguna here. I've only ever played one, but it played and sounded really nice for the money. Kind of like what the modern Strat should be.

 

[darren]

Wirelessly posted (Dethphone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPod; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_3 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7E18 Safari/528.16)

I once played a thinline single-cutaway semi-hollow Washburn and it was nothing short of incredible. It had a Bigsby and BFTS and sounded full and warm and twangy.

 

[343]

Tokai makes fan-freaking-tastic les paul and strat copies


I played that Yamaha RGX in the shop for a bit. It needed a set up and the stock pups were kind of meh but it played pretty nice

 

[bulletbass man]

Godin has some pretty great stuff out there. Really love those guitars.

My only problem with EBMM is that a lot of the guitars other than the JP7 have a pretty narrow nut if I remember correctly so it makes my hand cramp when I play them on the lower frets. Still fantastically built instruments.

As far as Washburn I'd buy my friends XB925 anyday for the right price. A great Bass right there.

Cort is a pretty underrated company in my mind. They do put out some bad products but their mid level stuff is actually pretty well made. I have a few friends with some really kick ass cort guitars.

 

[Drew]

I'll also toss Alvarez and Seagull out there - almost without fail their acoustics play and sound like they should cost MUCH more than they do.

 

[Mike]

Zion. They're easily the equal of companies like Anderson and Tyler. Not cheap, but I have yet to play a "bad" one of their guitars.

 

[noodles]

Hamer. Like Mike said about Zion, I have yet to play a bad USA Hamer. I've wanted a Hamer Korina V for the longest time.

 

[Elysian]

I had a Yamaha RGX 620S back in the day. Had a proprietary Yamaha made Floyd style trem, 24 frets, 2 hums, mahogany body, rosewood board. Neck was a little thick, but it played really phenomenally. I bought it at Guitar Center for $80, did some repair work to it, and flipped it for $200. Wish I didn't sell it, it really was an awesome guitar, but I needed the money.