Things to look for and avoid in a cheap electric guitar

[Mornats]

I had a go of a few tele's at my mate's house last night. He's modified a Harley Benton telecaster body and changed it to a 12 string (he popped a Gibson-style neck on it and added a floating bridge for the additional 6 strings). It's based on this one: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_bentonhbt1500tbk_egitarre.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_bentonhbt1500tbk_egitarre.htm[/url] which I really like the look of and it sounds all jingle-jangly. It's a bugger to keep in tune though. Very tempted for £80 as the build quality was sound. Except of course that the one they have in stock now has humbuckers rather than single coil. But, I now know what I want, can get something fairly cheap and you've all been great with your help as always. I'll let you know what I get and will pop a track up on soundcloud sometime to show it off.

[Mornats]

Got one of these incoming: [url="http://www.thomann.de/gb/danelectro_1959_reissue_double_cutaway_wh.htm"]http://www.thomann.de/gb/danelectro_1959_reissue_double_cutaway_wh.htm[/url]. Can't wait!

[Ancient Mariner]

I think you made the right choice.

12 string electrics should not have tuning stability problems, though they will take a while to settle to pitch when first strung. I've seen some interesting conversions to 12 string, with a second set of machine heads added at 90 degrees to the first and inserted into the edge of the headstock.

[Mornats]

Well I got my guitar and I love it. It's got that really nice jangly sound and just sounds lovely. I knocked up a very quick demo of it. Excuse the guitar playing on it, I'm still finding my feet with a six string: [url="http://soundcloud.com/mornats/danelectro-59-sound-sample"]http://soundcloud.com/mornats/danelectro-59-sound-sample[/url]

[Ancient Mariner]

Sounds good - glad you like it and it all worked out in the end.