Newbie player here, and let me say thank you for including some good old fashioned open chords in your review. To my still in training ears it appears the real places where the Fender shined was when you were bending and on slides. Plus there seemed to be a big sound difference when you really started to play hard, rocking out. BTW I'm stealing that little walk down you did. That walk down looks like a good finger stretching exercise for a new player like me. Plus it sounded cool. Again, thank you!
I agree The Fender custom shop pickuos sound brighter and the Glarry pickups sound a bit muted. I would love to see a new face-0ff without the ceramic pickups that come on the Glarry. I am probably too late I imagin the Glarry has been sent on to a new home.
Maybe $40 spent on a 3-pup set of alnico strat style pups would further close the tonal gap. The steel pole ceramic Glarry pups have a lower pitch tonal center and a poorer sounding distribution of higher harmonics. There's gotta be a cheap set of alnico pups to upgrade the Glarry GST.
I bought one of the Glarry Strats. The whammy bar didn't work right, I had to file down the sides of the slot to get similar clearance around the metal block ( I compared to my American Strat). Of course, whammy bars always knock your tuning out, and this didn't disappoint. I put a Zeroglide nut on, Dadarrio tuners,, and even a Tremset to try to help the whammy problem. It all helped a little. The neck is too narrow for me. It is like 42mm, whereas standard is 43mm, and you can feel it. The neck was chunky C if you like that. The electronics actually sound pretty good overall. But I had to really put some parts and labor in to get it to where it is now. I got a new pickguard blank and put a real Gibson P90 at the bridge, and correct harness. It was a learning project and fun, but frustrating. I don't like these Chinese guitars with such thin necks (nut width 41-42 mm). probably for kids. And the whammy problem drives one nuts. I might just put a hardtail bridge on and be done with it, or stuff a piece of wood in.
It’s amazing how such small differences can be so noticeable. These Glarry guitars can be a great template to practice modding on. I did what I could to this one and then donated it to a music therapy program in a retirement home nearby.
I just received a Glarry. To me, in the hands it “feels” like a really cheap guitar but with a little work it could be decent. It sounds much better than it feels.
Well worth the work! I picked up their thinline tele style guitar and it needed to have some fret work, a setup and a few tweaks. For a couple hours of work, I did the fixes and put a new bridge, bridge pickup and new tuners on and it's like night and day. Barely 200 bucks and a great end result to an enjoyable project. Good luck!
Both have ups and downs but I think they both hung pretty great head to head some parts glarry really out shined the fender same as the fender out shined the glarry I'm a Gibson les Paul fan my self but not saying l I would not own all 3
Did you put new strings on the Glarry? If not, it's part of the sound difference. Yeah the pickups aren't as hot as the Fender but even that can be fixed.
I’ve gotten to where I have been grabbing $100 guitars that have good neck and reworking everything including all electronics and hardware. Few hundred later, they play and sound very close if not better than my multi-thousand $ guitars for lest than $400 typically. Fun to work on too. I get better after each one. Up to 6 during this plague lockdown. Lol. Monoprice has some good base models to work with btw.
I've always loved modding guitars. You can see the purple Strat in the background of this video a few times. That one started as a '98 MIM I got back in high school for $200. A full set of Seymour Duncan pickups, coil taps on the bridge, phase switching, and a blender mod on the second tone control.
For the record, changing out pickups is easy. If you’re afraid to solder, grab a loaded pickguard and boom sounds instantly better (decent upgraded p/u’s aren’t always expensive either).
At this point, I'd go by whatever color or body style I like. Can't find a bad one. A $99 Squire loaned once; good action, stayed in tune, nice tone... Fine.
@@yaboidustin2447 Pickups and pots. Either 300k or 500k. The K output of pots are more important than pickups. I collect and modify Strats. I put 500k pots on stock cheap pickups and it improved the sound quality vastly. But yes I agree, the first thing I usually change is the pickups and go from there. I have many Strats of all different flavors lol. None of mine sound the same. I have 20 Strats 🎸
Cool video of course no comparison. But let's be honest the Glarry is amazing for the price point AND we all started on a "Glarry" level guitar. So in that case is flippin awesome!
I love glarry bridge pickup. The whole guitar has a resonance and a " ringing" or chiming tone.the neck pickup is super quacky. The Achilles heel of my glarry was that damn negative neck angle. Just changing the strings made a huge difference in sound.
All I can say is if I truly believed that, I wouldn't have shelled out for the Fender. Play them both acoustically and it's clear to see the faults of a cheap guitar.
With good pickups, you could make the Glarry sound nearly identical to the Fender. It looks good too. The difference comes in when you pick them up. Even between my Squier SE and Glarry you can tell the difference. The Squier feels like a semi-professional road worthy guitar. The Glarry feels like a toy. But for a mere $75 (I paid $65 for mine two years ago new with the correct Fender shaped headstock), it's a fun toy.
I'd like you to spend some time on comparing fit and finish, stability, weight etc. Is the Glarry a good candidate for upgrades? I play a Custom Shop Strat but also have a Custom Vintage Squier that cost me $250, upgraded hardware and pickups and at church thru my Marshall they sound the same to everyone but me lol its
Not really. If I were in the market for a guitar to hot rod, I'd go for something a little better than this Glarry. It's alright for $75, but to throw a bunch of money into upgrades I think would just be a waste.
The volume on the Fender is clearly louder. But this isn't the guitars. I have both a Fender and a Glarry, and the Glarry's ceramic pick-ups are clearly louder than the Fenders alnico's.
not bad, but the pickups are a definite weak spot. can't tell what the difference in feel is, but I assume it is noticeable. A good first guitar vs. a dream guitar.
The pickups are obviously making a huge difference between them. The Fender Custom Shop pickups are so much nicer sounding, the Glarry ones lack definition and have a ton more low end. Honestly, if you weren’t shooting them out the Glarry is just fine sounding and is a pretty nice looking guitar for the money, but put them back to back and I agree you’re getting a way nicer sounding instrument with the Fender.
I now own 6 Glarry guitars. I change electronic s and tuners, and they look and sound great
Newbie player here, and let me say thank you for including some good old fashioned open chords in your review. To my still in training ears it appears the real places where the Fender shined was when you were bending and on slides. Plus there seemed to be a big sound difference when you really started to play hard, rocking out. BTW I'm stealing that little walk down you did. That walk down looks like a good finger stretching exercise for a new player like me. Plus it sounded cool. Again, thank you!
Thanks for producing this awesome video! Loved it‼️😎🔥🎸
the fender doesnt sound like a 4000 dollar guitar, and the glarry doesnt sound like a 75 dollar guitar.
perfect way to put it
Perfect way to put it
Sounds like the Glarry just needs some better pickups. I'm a fan of the Glarry Telecasters, which I mod the crap out of. Thanks, great video.
I agree The Fender custom shop pickuos sound brighter and the Glarry pickups sound a bit muted. I would love to see a new face-0ff without the ceramic pickups that come on the Glarry. I am probably too late I imagin the Glarry has been sent on to a new home.
Maybe $40 spent on a 3-pup set of alnico strat style pups would further close the tonal gap. The steel pole ceramic Glarry pups have a lower pitch tonal center and a poorer sounding distribution of higher harmonics. There's gotta be a cheap set of alnico pups to upgrade the Glarry GST.
I bought one of the Glarry Strats. The whammy bar didn't work right, I had to file down the sides of the slot to get similar clearance around the metal block ( I compared to my American Strat). Of course, whammy bars always knock your tuning out, and this didn't disappoint. I put a Zeroglide nut on, Dadarrio tuners,, and even a Tremset to try to help the whammy problem. It all helped a little. The neck is too narrow for me. It is like 42mm, whereas standard is 43mm, and you can feel it. The neck was chunky C if you like that. The electronics actually sound pretty good overall. But I had to really put some parts and labor in to get it to where it is now. I got a new pickguard blank and put a real Gibson P90 at the bridge, and correct harness. It was a learning project and fun, but frustrating. I don't like these Chinese guitars with such thin necks (nut width 41-42 mm). probably for kids. And the whammy problem drives one nuts. I might just put a hardtail bridge on and be done with it, or stuff a piece of wood in.
It’s amazing how such small differences can be so noticeable. These Glarry guitars can be a great template to practice modding on. I did what I could to this one and then donated it to a music therapy program in a retirement home nearby.
@@AlexPriceMusician I might do that. Thanks
I like the sounds of both guitars, but for different reasons. That Glarry seems to be one heck of a guitar... for $75.
For the price of 1 Fender you get 53 Glarry’s :-)
I just received a Glarry. To me, in the hands it “feels” like a really cheap guitar but with a little work it could be decent. It sounds much better than it feels.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts! Good to hear
Well worth the work! I picked up their thinline tele style guitar and it needed to have some fret work, a setup and a few tweaks. For a couple hours of work, I did the fixes and put a new bridge, bridge pickup and new tuners on and it's like night and day. Barely 200 bucks and a great end result to an enjoyable project. Good luck!
Hi, do you think that both guitars have the same measurements, long and wide etc?
I’d say they were pretty similar. I don’t have the Glarry anymore. I donated it to a music therapy program.
Both have ups and downs but I think they both hung pretty great head to head some parts glarry really out shined the fender same as the fender out shined the glarry I'm a Gibson les Paul fan my self but not saying l I would not own all 3
Did you put new strings on the Glarry? If not, it's part of the sound difference. Yeah the pickups aren't as hot as the Fender but even that can be fixed.
Both were strung up with a new set of 11 gauge D’Addario XL nickels.
I’ve gotten to where I have been grabbing $100 guitars that have good neck and reworking everything including all electronics and hardware. Few hundred later, they play and sound very close if not better than my multi-thousand $ guitars for lest than $400 typically. Fun to work on too. I get better after each one. Up to 6 during this plague lockdown. Lol. Monoprice has some good base models to work with btw.
I've always loved modding guitars. You can see the purple Strat in the background of this video a few times. That one started as a '98 MIM I got back in high school for $200. A full set of Seymour Duncan pickups, coil taps on the bridge, phase switching, and a blender mod on the second tone control.
For the record, changing out pickups is easy. If you’re afraid to solder, grab a loaded pickguard and boom sounds instantly better (decent upgraded p/u’s aren’t always expensive either).
At this point, I'd go by whatever color or body style I like. Can't find a bad one. A $99 Squire loaned once; good action, stayed in tune, nice tone... Fine.
I've played some Squires that weren't bad at all!
In the sound comparison, the Fender is much too expensive !!
For $75.00 the difference is that fender needs to improve way more for the cost.
Couple hundred bucks in some high end pickups and voila, the Glarry beats the 4K Fender.
The fender sounded more alive to me. brighter. the glarry sounded muffled or like the tone was turned way down.
Nothing a pickup change can't solve
@@yaboidustin2447 Pickups and pots. Either 300k or 500k. The K output of pots are more important than pickups. I collect and modify Strats. I put 500k pots on stock cheap pickups and it improved the sound quality vastly. But yes I agree, the first thing I usually change is the pickups and go from there. I have many Strats of all different flavors lol. None of mine sound the same. I have 20 Strats 🎸
Cool video of course no comparison. But let's be honest the Glarry is amazing for the price point AND we all started on a "Glarry" level guitar. So in that case is flippin awesome!
Thanks for your thoughts!
People always think louder means better. Just turn up the volume on the glarry and instantly sound like a $4000 guitar
I love glarry bridge pickup. The whole guitar has a resonance and a " ringing" or chiming tone.the neck pickup is super quacky. The Achilles heel of my glarry was that damn negative neck angle. Just changing the strings made a huge difference in sound.
With better or new pickups put in the Glarry ,it will sound as good as the 4000 over priced Fender.
Decent pickups will be worth more than the guitar
All I can say is if I truly believed that, I wouldn't have shelled out for the Fender. Play them both acoustically and it's clear to see the faults of a cheap guitar.
@@AlexPriceMusician would you make a video describing these differences?
With good pickups, you could make the Glarry sound nearly identical to the Fender. It looks good too. The difference comes in when you pick them up. Even between my Squier SE and Glarry you can tell the difference. The Squier feels like a semi-professional road worthy guitar. The Glarry feels like a toy. But for a mere $75 (I paid $65 for mine two years ago new with the correct Fender shaped headstock), it's a fun toy.
Swap the pickups out of the glarry, give it a full setup / fret dressing, no one will tell the difference
I'd like you to spend some time on comparing fit and finish, stability, weight etc. Is the Glarry a good candidate for upgrades? I play a Custom Shop Strat but also have a Custom Vintage Squier that cost me $250, upgraded hardware and pickups and at church thru my Marshall they sound the same to everyone but me lol its
Not really. If I were in the market for a guitar to hot rod, I'd go for something a little better than this Glarry. It's alright for $75, but to throw a bunch of money into upgrades I think would just be a waste.
Sawtooth Strats are better than a Glarry Strat. I have 2 Glarry Strats and 4 Sawtooth Strats. Sawtooth Strats are way superior.
That didn't sound too bad!
Thanks Gaetano !
Other brands run, not walk away when GLARRY comes to town!!
All you need to do is install some inexpensive Wilkinson pickups and the glarry will rock.
The volume on the Fender is clearly louder.
But this isn't the guitars.
I have both a Fender and a Glarry, and the Glarry's ceramic pick-ups are clearly louder than the Fenders alnico's.
Tbh, no comparison. That Poblano is hot.
not bad, but the pickups are a definite weak spot. can't tell what the difference in feel is, but I assume it is noticeable. A good first guitar vs. a dream guitar.
For sure. It would've been great to hear the Glarry with a decent set of pickups. I could tell that was a fault.
The pickups are obviously making a huge difference between them. The Fender Custom Shop pickups are so much nicer sounding, the Glarry ones lack definition and have a ton more low end. Honestly, if you weren’t shooting them out the Glarry is just fine sounding and is a pretty nice looking guitar for the money, but put them back to back and I agree you’re getting a way nicer sounding instrument with the Fender.
Thanks for your thoughts Mike! I appreciate it.
I miss seeing you on the slopes. Fantastic Video. HMU, id love to compare tones amps and pedals. Check out my channel.