[Gear] Adventures of a Newbie and Ammoon
Hello everyone. Up front disclaimer - I am very new to the world of electric guitars, having purchased a Fender Squier Affinity Stratocaster with 15w Amp package in February. Doing the self teaching thing, as this is solely to have a more constructive use of my time that sitting in front of the computer playing games and having nothing to show for the time spent.
Having played the strat-style for these 4 months or so, I decided I wanted to see what the Les Paul style was like. Plus, I wanted to get something I could not worry about messing around with, in that I knew the Affinity was a “decent beginner guitar” and I didn’t want to learn wiring changes, etc. on it. I considered buying a kit but since I’m not big into those kinds of projects and figured I couldn’t replicate the finish from any half-decent factory, I tossed that idea pretty quickly. In the end, I bought a $100.00 Ammoon branded LP Style guitar from ebay. Here’s a couple pictures, one of which also shows my Affinity.
I couldn’t find much about the Ammoon brand online, so I thought sharing my beginner’s view on this $100.00 experience thus far (have only had the guitar for about a week).
It looks nice, but out of the box you need to be prepared to put in the work to make it sound even like a guitar and not cats fighting. Also, be prepared for the guitar to arrive in less than pristine condition as there is very little concern shown in packing the box. On mine, the toggle switch had actually punched through the box lid, because there was no packing or styrofoam that filled the space to prevent it. Thankfully, other than the switch being a little loose in whatever position it’s in, it still works.
I tuned it up to make sure the electronics all worked, which is where I discovered the first issue that I’ll probably have to learn to work on - when turning either of the two tone knobs, there is so much humming noise that you don’t even want to use them. Both of them do this, but only when the selector switch is engaged for the specific pickup. If the tone knobs are supposed to do anything when in the middle position, they don’t.
Closer inspection of the guitar showed the truss rod cover was missing the bottom screw (top one was in place). Removing the cover revealed why - the slot for the truss rod is either carved out too far OR the truss rod cover was placed wrong, because there isn’t wood for the bottom screw to bite into! I’m going to look into it further, but I will either leave the cover off, reposition it so that a new screw will actually serve a purpose OR just leave it and figure out some way to disguise that bottom hole. The truss rod seemed to be functional however and conveniently uses the same size allen wrench as the Affinity does.
Further examination showed the two tone knobs were not at all in line. Both of them are at least 10 degrees off of true so that they rotate at a tilt. It’s not the plastic knobs, but the stems coming up from the pots, so most certainly the pots are installed weird. I haven’t taken the knobs off to look yet. I also am not a fan of the amber/gold color, so I’m thinking that if I’m going to replace the pots, I’ll probably just get new knobs too. Here's a couple shots of the wiring for a look-see:
I started to play with some alternate tunings when the next “gotcha” showed up - the high E string popped off when trying to loosen it. Then, B string went. I already expected to change the strings that came on the guitar, just not so soon. Setting about loosening the strings ended up with the G string breaking too, so I got a towel and wire cutters, put the towel over the neck to control the tension pop and cut the remaining 3 strings. It was then when I discovered the nut came right out of the slot as if it wasn’t even glued in. I’d watched enough videos of guitar repair in the last few months and saw nut replacements, so I’ll just glue it back in, right? NOPE, the nut DIDN’T EVEN FIT in the nut slot - it rode up on the side towards the tuners, such that no matter what I tried, you could see light between the bottom of the nut and the slot where things didn’t line up. So, add a new nut to the needed upgrades - not that I’m disappointed anyway, the corners of this plastic nut were left WAY pointy and sharp and the thing doesn’t file or sand down worth a darn.
The TL:DR of the post - you can buy a $100.00 guitar, but expect to put in some effort and work to fix problems. That requirement may or may not be worth spending the extra $150-$200 to get a decent guitar. For me, I’m confident that I’m able to address these various issues myself and learn in the process. If it turns out I’m wrong and create such a mess that it’s going to take more than I’m willing to spend to fix it, then I’ve at least got something that I can hang on my wall as decor, because from a distance it looks darn nice.
Posted Jul 21, 2017, 10:29 PM UTC · edited