welcome back to the channel and welcome to the third video in our little mini series where i take a look at five of my favorite guitars in a certain price tier so we already did high-end guitars if you missed that i will link to it above then we moved on and i did my five favorite under a thousand dollars and today we're doing my five favorite under 500. now we're certainly spoiled for choice when it comes to high quality guitars under 500 there's just so many to choose from but i'll try to whittle it down to five of my favorite from different categories modern guitarist traditional guitars you know humbuckers single coils that kind of thing and if i can find accurate pricing i will put it on the screen so you know exactly what these guitars cost at this moment and link to them in the video description below if you want to check out more specs on the guitars alright let's jump in and check out the first guitar all right you guys let's kick things off with the high performance category in this category well i'm already cheating i've got two picks we've got the ibanez s series and the ibanez rg series now i've got to say one thing about ibanez before we go on they have an astonishing array of models under 500 so if there's a specific look of a guitar you want whether it's a big body uh a gem you know the s series the rg series there is just an insane amount of options from ibanez under 500. and you know my experience is they're all quite good and if you look at the ratings they all get very high rating so you know if you're looking for something specific don't discount ibanez they make some great lower end or entry-level guitars and here are two my favorites so we've got the s series and the hallmark of the s series is of course the output jack is on the front face of the guitar all the the horns and the body are softened compared to the rg so a little bit more rounded look and of course the s series has humbucker single single which again gives a little bit you know different vibe and tone so this one i'll throw the current pricing up on the screen looks like this one's about 400 uh just a beautiful guitar the s series is probably my favorite series from ibanez uh absolutely awesome guitars now if you want like the iconic ibanez experience well maybe something like this rg would fit the bill the pricing on this one is about 500 so it's like right under that you know 500 threshold but you get just an insanely beautiful burst finish you get you know uh a locking system so you know bending up bending down locking nut so for 500 as i mentioned in the individual review man you get that full ibanez experience without spending a ton of money so those are my first two picks the s series for about 400 and the rg for about five both amazing guitars um [Music] well guitar number two is from our single coil category and this is unsurprisingly dominated by squire like ibanez when we look at the squire models under 500 well there's just so many to choose from which is great for consumers you know strats teles jazz masters and beyond single coils uh you know telecasters with humbuckers there's just so many to choose from but out of them all my favorite or ultimate choice is the classic vibe stratocaster and when i'm thinking about you know what are my favorite guitars are under 500 i always have to think about well does it represent the high-end guitar you know does this give the player a true experience of what it's like to play on a stratocaster and when it comes to the classic vibe series absolutely yes same thing with that ibanez you know i've played on the premiums and on the prestige and on the lower end ones and yes you know that 500 rg gives you the ibanez core experience well just like that the classic vibe gives you the core fender stratocaster experience but for a fraction of the price so i'll put the current price on the screen there for you guys i think it's somewhere over 400 bucks but yeah so that's why it's my pick because you can pick up a classic vibe and feel like well not feel like you're missing anything you know from you know a mexican or an american it still gives the player that core experience which is why i love this guitar well here's my third pick for favorite guitars under 500 and this is kind of my dark horse or unconventional pick and here it is yeah this is the gretch junior jet what a cool little guitar these things retail for 2.99 so basically 300 and have great reviews they give you all that gretch kind of quirkiness and fun out of a guitar that doesn't cost a lot of money and if you want the version with the p90 in the neck well that's going to run you 350 but the basic version here 299 or if you want to go to the jet club uh with the classic kind of like gretch silver sparkle finish white aesthetic really beautiful guitar that one runs you a little bit more as well but still well under five hundred dollars so yeah that's my pick just fun guitars at the end of it you know and and you get the the filtertron pickups just one volume one tone three-way switch so just a basic rocker but just has such a great and cool groove uh you guys probably know if you've been watching this channel for you know a few years you've seen the dual jet on this channel the 618 anniversary model those high-end gretch guitars so cool well this again kind of captures the essence of those guitars kind of boiled down into a much more affordable package you know this one even has like the little thumbnail uh marker inlays and stuff like that those fred inlays of course yeah the filtertron pickups and uh yeah pretty cool finish on this one as well so that's my pick for you know sort of an unconventional pick um you know amongst the others yeah these little gretch guitars so much fun [Laughter] [Applause] [Music] guitar number four on my favorite guitars under five 500 comes from the humbucking category and again there's so many great humbucking equipped guitars under 500 but had to go with the epiphone les paul as i mentioned an absolute legend and the company epiphone has such a rich history going back into the 1800s they were making instruments before gibson but of course gibson acquired epiphone which means we get actual you know proper les paul dimensions in terms of the body shape and construction um and as i've mentioned you know these guitars under 500 are just getting better and better every single year but i gotta say the epiphone factory has been making excellent guitars for decades longer than some of these other brands who have stepped up their game but these epiphones yeah they've just been good for so long this is an older model i picked up for 300 bucks but when we look at some of the newer models available for under 500 well we get you know les paul classics les paul studios uh some of those muse series which are pretty fun you know you heritage cherry you know vintage kind of uh finishes zebra coil pickups you know there's a lot to choose from for under 500 bucks so i mean can't go wrong with a les paul they've got a great reputation great tone great sustain and of course a classic look so that's what makes the epiphone les paul make my list of favorite guitars under 500. so my high performance pick went to the ibanez rg single coils went to classic vibe wild card pick went to the gretch and the humbuckers went to the apophone les paul and the final category is well best value what's the best value guitar under 500 well this next guitar pretty much dominates all others in respect to that and that guitar is the sterling cutlass yes this guitar retails for 4.99 and the spec list is pretty insane number one you get locking tuners and you get a roasted maple neck these are features that you know you just won't find on other guitars in that price range uh locking tuners alone you know for a 500 guitar is absolutely awesome uh plays like a dream you know it just handles wonderfully you can you can get it in humbucker single single as well which is probably what i would choose if you're going for a cutlass go for the hss that way you can just slam it in position one and get a little bit more grunt you get the music man style trim system which does hold tune two point trim you know simplified just one volume one tone five-way switch and off you go you know contoured heel joint as well so the list of specs on this little cutlass is just amazing so this is hands down my pick for the best value it's right at 500 as i mentioned but it has specs and features of guitars you know pretty much twice the price and you know sterling and music man are just an established brand that have been making awesome instruments for again years and [Music] so those are my top picks for favorite guitars under 500 bucks if there's any others that i didn't mention well drop them in the comment section below i'd like to know what your favorite guitar is under 500 bucks if it's different than my list or if you just have you know run into a really cool guitar that's less than 500 bucks drop it down there i'm sure lots of people would like to read that as well other than that all the information on the guitars all my information will be in the video description below you can check it out there and if you haven't subscribed to the channel be sure to do so we got lots of great video content lined up for you guys other than that have yourself a great day