$220 Amazon KGD Relic Strat Style Guitar, Full demo and Review
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- Опубліковано 9 лип 2024
- Hey friends! Latest acquisition is this HGD relic Strat from Amazon. I paid $220 and think it's a worthy contender and possibly the best budget candidate for modding that I've bought. Thanks for watching!
00:00 Brief playing, intro and thanks!
01:52 PLAYING (with unboxing PIP)
02:55 Cliff Notes summary
03:20 Tip to Toe!
03:20 Tip to Toe: Neck, tree, tuners
04:17 Tip to Toe: Fretboard , truss rod, dots/markers
05:23 Tip to Toe: Body, contours and cuts
06:01 Tip to Toe: Relic
07:02 Tip to Toe: Weight
07:12 Tip to Toe: Radius
07:49 Tip to Toe: Guts
08:02 Opinions on Pickups
08:25 Middle Pickup Predicament (with PLAYING)
10:32 Pots, Wiring and Switch
10:53 Bridge, Block and Tremolo setup
12:25 Strap buttons
12:34 My thoughts… Worth it?
14:50 Custom Shop as a verb
16:20 PLAYING
That’s the best looking relic job on a budget guitar I’ve ever seen. The guitar sounds good too, I’m not usually a fan of ceramic pickups on Strat’s but they sound really useable. It’s unfortunate that we can’t buy KGD or Fojill on Amazon here in the UK or from any other selling platform for that matter. Great demo and review. Very best wishes for your ongoing treatment and recovery.
Ceramics vs Alnico is just a big sales tactic to get you to spend more cash
Amazing what’s available for that price. Beautiful playing. Best wishes during your treatment and recovery.
As someone who used to be a “hater” of the relic thing, I realized my main gripe was just that they were so expensive and usually cost a lot more to do it, but budget guitars like these actually helped change my mind and I actually feel the opposite way now with affordable guitars. The more I play the more I appreciate a worn/smooth neck to play on. The Sire S7’s rounded shape got me hooked on necks that feel worn in and rounded edges
I don’t like owning a brand new guitar that someone beat the brakes off it and I have to pay.
@@bluwng I agree with that. So that’s why guitars like this, for $220 is different since you’re not paying extra for the relic. If it feels great and sounds great, I don’t care how it looks. Now if there was a normal version for $150 and a relic version for $200, I would probably pick the $150 _unless_ it felt and sounded better
It's more fun owning a guitar or in my case a Bass for so long that it happens naturally from years of practice and gigging .But with today's painting techniques and heavy clear coats this will never happen
@@ginopini6484 that’s a really good point. Some of my most used guitars are 20+ years old yet you can hardly even tell they’re that old with the exception of a couple bumps and divits. Finish is still good and neck certainly isn’t worn like the relic’d ones these days
@@danthegeetarman my oldest is a 78 Fender Jazz natural finish and it alligatored really cool and theirs a wear mark above the pickup where I rested my thumb but that's about it,that was my #1 for over 20yrs and it's played, but nothing like 6 inch wear marks down to the wood and chips and scratches like I play a gig and toss it in the back of a pick-up truck with no case.Anyhow I saw a nice relic telecaster in dirty white by Censtar for $200 that looks really cool
Wishing you the best. I just discovered your channel while searching opinions on this guitar , which strikes me as a great project platform. Thanks.
Praying for full recovery for you Roger. Thanks for the cool vids...The first one I saw was your vid on the Grote Hollow and I bought one! Still got a couple of things to finish with it. Thank you, get well!
Thank you for a brilliant review. I watched your Fojill review. I’m in the UK and Amazon UK don’t sell them. So I Googled it and found this KGD as the Fojill was out of stock. I’ve had mine for a couple of weeks now and totally agree with everything you said. The only difference being is because the trem claw was screwed in very tight mine has a hardtail feel to it and I’ve kept it that way, the feel and vibration through the body are great feedback whilst playing.
Relics… If people hate them, their choice, fine. Me, I like the look of old and nothing says old at a glance more than missing paint. Furthermore I’m 52 years old and quite gentle with my guitars, so it’s never going to happen naturally for me.
Thanks again for your videos, through you I’ve found a special member of my guitar family.
Hi, I’m in the UK too and interested in buying a KGD, would you mind sharing your link to the seller you bought your KGD from. Many thanks
Hey Rog, I'm new to your channel, subscribed! Love all the reviews (including amp tone philosophy), and playing, always super tasty and in tune! I had been eyeing this exact guitar on Amazon, watched your video and nabbed one, same color before they ran out of that run. I finished off the relic including hardware and parts, bought a shiny standard 6 screw Guyker bent saddle bridge with the big block for 17 bucks and it fit perfectly in fact better that the one in it, so that was my only added investment. Relic'd all that. I found the pick guard was too close to the bridge plate, so I trimmed the guard to give it clearance, then my usual ritual to get it to stay in tune with a floating trem setup. I cut the headstock into a slightly shrunk "F" style, added a damaged decal I had laying around and relic'd the headstock. The fret leveling was already just perfect, nothing needed! I think I'll keep those pickups a while though they sound great despite being ceramic, they are nicely wax potted. Like another commenter my pots were actually the small size, but work great. I love relic guitars, do a lot of relic work. Relics have been around a long time, I knew guys doing it well in the 90's and before, for me anyway, playing one is super comfortable and less intimidating, don't have to worry about scratching your shiny new guitar. I bought this KGD really primarily for it's looks! But it's just a great guitar, lightweight, and very resonant with that mahogany body. Wow. Thanks' again for the great demo, and good luck with your treatment, I've had several cancer issues including throat cancer, so I've been through all that chemo, IMRT radiation, etc. I know it's not a lot of fun, and I wish you a great recovery! Can't wait to see your update!
Thanks for the video and rooting for you as you battle 🙏🙏💪
That looks gorgeous, sounds beautiful too. Thanks and wishing you the best of health.
Thanks for your review- as always, very much enjoy hearing you play! I got this guitar and agree with your comments. I was very pleasantly surprised with the overall quality of this instrument-at this price point it is truly a bargain. Very glad I bought it. Thanks again for your reviews and I'm wishing you all the best....
I love relics - the seafoam green over sunburst looks superb IMHO. Nice review, thank you.
That is pretty darned sweet! I just bought the Green Grass relic tele because of your thorough strat review. I hope to get the strat you reviewed here as soon as it becomes available again.
Great video. Thanks for posting.
Fight on brother! Just wanted you to know how much I look forward to your honest and entertaining reviews. I'll give my lucky rabbit's foot a rub and hope you'll be better soon.
First, I wish you the best with your health issues. And thank you for the awesome demo and review. I love the look of the guitar (except for the headstock)....and it sounds awesome as you play it. The clean tone at 2 minutes was delicious.
That looks fantastic especially at this price Its unbelievable ! I really hope you feel better ! Fantastic playing!
First, great playing as usual, always my favorite part of your videos. Second, I love the look of that guitar, great color combo. Third, hang in there man, you can beat this!!
I just got one of these and it is way better than it should be, for $230. The relic job is pretty good. Of course not Fender Custom Shop good, but it looks and feels really good. The tuners seem solid and hold tune pretty well. The pickups actually sound pretty good (Squire Classic Vibe type sounds). The frets are very rounded and decently polished, although they are a bit short for my taste. Knob and switches are solid. Punches way above it's weight.
I see relic as art.
Just wanted to say thanks, guys like you make this inexpensive guitar journey a lot of fun!
That headstock looks almost Sire-like... almost. I guess I've become spoiled, I'm waiting for a $200 Tele with a 14" or flatter radius rosewood (or any dark wood) dot neck fingerboard in a good pale yellow, string through with individual saddles with a black pickguard. Not too picky, am I... LOL. Oh, and just a touch over 7lbs would be nice too.
I had done headstock reshaping on several of the initial Indio Teles when they were string through and $109 on Amazon. Used a coping saw and WEN portable oscillating sander on the reshaping. I'm pretty good at it now :)
I have butchered a few but I honestly enjoy the process of "tweaking" these inexpensive guitars plus I'm getting slightly better at it.
Thanks for the video. Get well soon, bro
I'd been eyeing these on Amazon for a couple weeks, waiting for another video opinion to pop up & convince me to jump on this guitar, and saw yours show up, so thanks for the detailed video. Great playing. Praying for your health journey. I'm headed for a biopsy myself next week, and since I'm not sure what lies ahead, I was hoping to have a project to work on, so this guitar will allow for that; mine arrives today. Eager to hear of any mods you do; I'm looking to put some Bootstrap Vintage Pro pups in this.
A couple differences of note on mine, which I received today: 1) smaller pots- not the larger like yours, as noted by the comparative size of the green capacitor - still seem to be 500k pots, measuring a bit lower in the high 400s 2) ceramic pickups read: bridge=5.59kOhm, mid=5.36k, neck=4.50k 3) no real red tone in the burst, more of a dark brown. Can't believe how fast these sold out, and how fast mine got here. Looking forward to working on this!
Hey Rog! Always fun to see you, man! Quick question... what's your signal chain? The sound is amazing! Really pleasing. The paint job on this is actually done really well. Thanks for the share! And the cool AI voice over!! 😻🙏
Appreciate it! It varies a bit, but for most YT vids I'm direct in to an Apollo 8p (inst input). I usually use the Helix Native plugin. On this vid I used the Grammatico GSG model - so kinda a Dumble style amp I guess. Spring verb in Helix and sometimes a room verb plugin of some kind.
@@MusicNerdStuff Thank you for the quick reply! Maybe do a vid highlighting this kind of thing in the future? Especially things like drive/reverb/delay settings, any compression, and so on. I for one would dearly appreciate it. Thanks again!!
@@Sammywhat this one is kinda along those lines... I usually build a patch out when I do one of these vids, so not gonna be exactly the same, but... ya know... ua-cam.com/video/QMemxid3zho/v-deo.htmlsi=E1ZTTrFt2aIzSm8_
Keep on the fight ❤ you be in my prayers once again ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ review like always your points of views and that guitar playing are 👍👍 until next one my friend
上次我去买的时候，我发现他们没有绿色了，买了一个我喜欢的 Tele，我刚看到绿色有货，又买了一个 Start，我希望它能像 Tele 一样好用。感谢您提供关于这把遗物吉他的视频！
I know how you feel. I had a total laryngectomy 3 years ago. Keep fighting!
'
Wow, what a surprisingly decent relic job. On my phone screen anyway. Green ones are all gone! Sunburst would do. Thanks man
These Amazon guitars are getting crazy. A couple months ago a bought a west creek double cut jr. It all the specs you want on that type of guitar, and it came set up better then my Gibsons are out of the box. All I had to do is switch the pick ups and electronics in it and it sounds and plays just as good as my usual made guitars.
Awesome ❤
We will keep you in prayer man. Subbed.
Sounds fricken phenominal. I’m weirdly starting to love ceramic strata pups, something about that round smooth top end is “the sound” for me
hekk yaa brother!
sounds sweeet!
i still have my king brand offset tele just like the one in your review!
took me just about a year finding that bugger! i popped in better pups and replaced the 3way switch...sounds wayyy better than stock!
16:19 I could listen to an album of that. Great playing.
Wow, you guys across the pond get some great looking budget guitars off of eBay and Amazon! Sadly they seem unavailable on those platforms here in the uk. 😢
I’d loved to have gotten hold of a couple to use as base platforms for guitars builds myself.
Sending much love, hugs and prayers to you personally man. Stay strong 💪
Regards,
Dazza. 🇬🇧
Hello, I wanted to ask you which amplifier you tried it with and if it has any effect, like reverb or something like that, both this one and the Slick SL57 (in a video from about 7 years ago). Thank you, your reviews are very good!
If you mod the guitar can you check if the sunburst continues at the bottom and back? It would be cool to reveal more of the two tone color.
It Looks Really Good. The Cool Metalic Green over Sunburst Is a nice Quality Relic look. The Guitar does not Look Cheep - except little stuff like the trem Block. and a bit odd shape headstock -but not bad. SS rounded Frets and Looks Roasted , Smooth heal plate area. Very Well done. , Mahogony body. It's a Good Base for Moding and works as it is. Glad you did the review I was windering about it. I do wonder if a standard Music Lilly Pick Guard Or Other aftermarket Strat PG would fit w/ mimimal triming -- Do you know yet?
Not 100% yet, but I’ll definitely be answering in the mod video as I’ve already got a couple candidate guards lined up.
@@MusicNerdStuff Thanks, nice job w/ the review . -- My favorite Guitars are these Solid 8 of 10 Afforable Guitars that have a good Playable fretboard and smooth frets because all the Bones are good - I would put a brass block in this and a graff teck nut and generic hot rails in bridge and neck. so HSH, Music lilly tuners. $80.00 - $100. bucks.
Hard to believe this Guitar is only $220 for what they're giving you!🤘
I bought one based on your review! I couldn't resist and I'm a custom shop Strat owner along with a 65 Reissue. Neither is reliced and I'm curious about the instrument.... Best regards and get healthy!
Make sure you let us know how it is! I’m “Custom Shopping” mine now and very stoked so far.
What amp are you using?
I don’t care for a new guitar that has been made to look worn. If the guitar is worn with age that’s ok but I’m not buying a new guitar that’s made to be ‘old’. That’s just my preference and I know a lot of people don’t look at it that way. Also, I don’t understand putting a bunch of upgrades on that off brand guitar when you could get a Fender Strat body and go from there. I suppose you are intrigued by the challenge of making that particular guitar 🎸 better. I get that. I’ll be looking to see how it turns out. 👍☮️🌞🎸🎵
I don't mind relic guitars, and really like a couple examples. My only complaint is that it has inflated the price on used guitars with chips and dents on them. I've seen some stupid pricing on used guitars with "natural relic finish".
How much better would you say a Fender vintera ll 60’s Stratocaster compared to your KDG strat…and what would you say is a better quality the Fogill or the KGD?
No doubt the hardware on the Fender is objectively of a higher quality all around than either the KGD or Fojill. When it comes to the body/neck though, it’s MUCH less clear. They’re different; materials, cuts & geometry. So if a certain spec speaks to you, that would be the tipping point, all else being equal. BUT…all else is definitely not equal, monetarily speaking. IMO, purely in terms of bang for buck, both the budget guitars get much higher marks than pretty much any Fender. Of course, they’re not gonna hold their value like a Fender. And they’re not the same geometry exactly as a “vintage” spec Fender. (Worth noting there are several Fenders with 12” radius, including the EJ model.) But if this is 100% for me to play and not an “investment,” I’ll gladly buy the KGD and mod it out to my tastes (I’m doing exactly that!). I think the KGD gets a hair up on the Fojill for the contours, fretwork and this specific paint job. But, Fwiw, I’m keeping the Fojill, too, and modding as a Nashville Tele layout.
Great looking, great sounding. I would never have guessed in a million years that was a $230 guitar.
The tele's on the Amazon KGD site look pretty good too. I'd likely order one of each,... if only they delivered to Canada.
Heal up my new friend.
#FuckCancer
14:39 I'd take a non-relic'd neck over a poorly or overly relic'd neck.
Not a fan of relics myself but it makes more sense to me on cheaper guitars. I wouldn’t pay a grand or two to have a guitar that looks like it’s been run over by a truck. 😂
KGD vs Fojill which do you prefer.
Tough call. If the “Tele” vs “Strat” styling/features didn’t factor in, and I wasn’t gonna mod….hmmm…this KGD might win by a hair. The contouring and fretwork (again, on this particular guitar) give it a little edge for me. But either way (and even at $199 for the Fojill now) I really think they’re both a great value and very playable instruments.
@@MusicNerdStuff thanks. How big are the frets on the KGD, I feel jumbo frets will be the next evolution for S style guitars.
Awesome beautiful playing, great sounding guitar, hope you get cured and, Cancer free God bless 🎸 ❤ 🔥
I have a naturally worn KGD from the fifties …
Joking aside. Get well soon.
Like the guitar prefer a non relic. Wishing you full recovery.
Yet you'd have to go all the way up to an Ultra Luxe Strat to have ss frets.
Very good point.
Sorry but unless the ceramic pickup is a Dimarzio Super Distortion, I’m afraid that’s going to be a dealbreaker 😮
The magnet doesn’t determine the frequency response. Feel free to do whatever you want.
Yall can waste your money on that finish if you want. I buy a new guitar, i dont want it to look like someone dragged it down the road a mile or two. To each their own. Otherwise not bad. Ill be glad when this fad (relic) goes away. It should be earned not faked.
If I buy it, it’s because I want those contours for that price. I could care less about relics for cosmetics.
But I will take a Relic’d neck any day because they feel amazing.
“It should be earned not faked” someone takes themselves a bit too serious.
@@mikaelmachado4344
Yeah, that quote has a bit too much self-righteousness for discussing the aesthetics of a guitar.
Man you must be a blues master, really shredding it goddamn you’re so cool. I’m jealous of everything about you.
Not into reliced guitars myself, but I have to say at least the relic job looks believable. Most inexpensive relic jobs look terrible.