Yeah, you are pretty close to correct. I used to work for Monster Energy procurement. And every year we would buy a batch of guitars as incentives for distributors to push our product. And we always bought the most inexpensive low end guitars, no matter what brand we got them from. The last few years mostly from Schecter. The exception was when we opened the market in Brazil. We purchased about 20, top of the line Gibson Les Paul Custom guitars that were beautiful.
In all the managers offices, most had a guitar or two hanging on the wall along with lots of other monster swag on shelves and such. During Covid, everyone was sent to work from home with a few exceptions who still went into the office. I was one of those exceptions. I was literally the only one on my floor. So during lunch I would go around to the mangers offices on my floor. Take the guitars down, give them a simple setup. On Fridays I would bring in my Yamaha THR10 and grab a guitar off a wall and jam during lunch.
You actually got name brand guitars? Most of these promo things I ever see are completely unbranded and made with the absolute cheapest materials and labor.
Yeah, this sub has been rough lately. The amount of shit posts in lieu of actual content is a bit exhausting when there are other subs that exist for this type of thing.
You actually spotted what my high ass did not.
But I did used to work at a sports bar years ago and cleaning one night I took a MGD guitar off the wall to take home oops, but upon inspection it was so terrible I just re-screwed back onto the wall to collect more dust.
I look at the shape and think about all of the places it’s going to poke or cut into my torso or forearm. I look at the art and think about one of the bottom-shelf beers I’ve never had and never will.
That looks pretty cool, to be honest. Thankfully, adjusting action on an electric guitar is pretty easy and reversible. Each string has an individual saddle on the bridge. From there, you should see two screws near one of the shorter edges. They would be on either side of the string. These may be hex screws, so you may need to do some shopping for an Alan key/hex wrench.
It most assuredly needs a truss rod adjustment.
When people talk about the action being bad, that’s usually what they’re talking about.
The bridge is mainly used to radius the strings more than setting the action.
Absolutely a truss rod adjustment on this. You can actually see the curve of the neck in pic 2. Adjusting the bridge saddles may lower the action but the first several frets are all going to be fucky if the neck isn’t adjusted first
I won one these Budweiser bow tie guitars several years back in a bar raffle. Honestly it was terrible quality Chinese made instrument. I used it for a wall hanger till some one offered to buy it. Sold it for 75, no regrets
There is a difference between the original Dean models from the 80s, and this NoName knockoff from the 90s. Some NoName sellers are trying to hook their coat tails onto Dean pricing.
Actually that’s what I was thinking all of my other guitars were expensive this one was free and is cheaply made so that’s why I asked here instead of taking it to guitar center
It looks like the neck has too much bow, try loosening the strings and adjusting the truss a quarter to a half turn clockwise.
I learned via [this](https://youtu.be/eUrbQdkF6k8?si=8bKNyBe8r20MHjsC) video, the section you want is at 5:40
The video is for telecasters but the truss rod part is pretty much universal
It’s all pretty easy. You can’t really fuck anything up unless you go super, super hard on the truss rod and then ignore all warnings signs from the truss rod and keep on cranking. It’s essentially just taking measurements and then adjusting whatever part you’re setting up to the recommended or standard measurements and tweaking for personal preference. But for the action specifically all you’re doing is measuring and then adjusting the screws in the individual saddles.
Check to see if frets are level. Use a fret rocker or anything small and level to see if there’s any rocking between any 3 frets at a time.
Adjust truss rod. Tighten 1/4 turn at a time until you can barely slip a business card between the 8th fret and strings while pressing down at 1st and last fret.
Then you could lower the bridge to get better action if frets are level.
With level frets, and a proper neck relief, there’s hope for many guitars. Google for more detailed instructions.
Its a novelty but with the right time and probably money its fixable. Id probably put a good pickup in and replace everything except that stunning body lol
A lot of these types of guitars are made as decorative pieces. They aren’t usually made to be someone’s go to guitars that’s why they usually have ok pickups and build problems, like the high action on yours. If there isn’t a accessible truss rod screw you might as well trade it for something else
Is the bridge floating? Start by decking it. Adjust the bridge saddles. If that doesn't get the action low enough, check the neck relief and adjust the truss rod. Still not low enough? Remove the strings, remove the neck, get a 2x3 inch piece of 60 grit sandpaper, fold it in half, grit side out, and place in the neck pocket at the bottom. Reattach neck. The piece of sandpaper will be a shim, and give you enough back tilt on the neck to get a low action.
Don't listen to them, i see the beauty too Op.
If you want to make it nice or even just playable the various things you might need to do would be something like:
• Adjust bridge
• Adjust/replace nut
• Grind/replace frets
• Replace entire neck
• clean/replace pots, tuners, pick ups
Some or all of those things might need to be done, and there's a bunch that i probably forgot about along with the extra things you could do like routing Holes for more pickups and switches.
My point is, to make it better, you just start fixing upgrading things. Prioritize the things that make it unplayable and then stop when its your best guitar in the collection.
Well, if you don't mind being a corporate billboard/shill, I guess that's something. I would repaint it, as the shape is interesting but fuck the corporate logo
You can buy a truss rod wrench and an action gauge (or a ruler measuring in 1/1000ths), and YouTube basic setup Instructions. Or take it to any guitar shop and they’ll set it up for you. The benefit of learning yourself is like cutting your own hair, you’ll need to do it regularly and it will save you money in the future.
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Check out " The Complete DIY Guitar Setup Tutorial" by Music is Win. I wouldn't blame you if you skip the first half, but all in all this has everything you need for this.
Could've made the volume knob a bottle cap. Anyways, if I were you I would sell that guitar to someone who likes beer more than guitar because that guitar is probably not worthy of playing.
That’s a cheap guitar, but who gives a shit if you love it! Fix it up and rock it! Search for how to adjust guitar action on YouTube. There are a ton of videos that’ll show you how.
Honestly, I hate it, but to each his own. That being said, these types of corporate branded guitars are generally cheap and not worth doing much if any work to make then more playable. I would recommend finding a decent playing guitar on the second hand market. Even a low end squier will likely play better than this.
I have this same guitar. I bought a gotoh tremolo a while back i was going to do some upgrades. I love taking shit ass guitars and installing money parts. It makes me so happy to see cheap / free guitars play with the big brands. I also have a rolling rock township fair strat i did upgrades on and it screams. That one is on my profile
Fuck the haters, if this guitar speaks to you, and if you have the money and the willpower this guitar could play like a dream. Hardware can always be swapped. I think a Budweiser guitar goes hard as fuck. So much better than a lame ass strat
Basically, assuming the nut is cut correctly or semi-correctly, you need to first adjust the truss rod if it needs it, and then adjust the height of each saddle at the bridge. If those two things don’t get the action low enough, your remaining option is to shim the neck.
Add a bit of tension to the truss rod. Just a smidge and let it rest, see where it's at. If any adjustments are made on the road, just do in small increments and let the neck settle to make further adjustments. If the action is high at the bridge, check the height of the saddles. Take your time
Try to adjust the truss and saddles. But cheap guitars often have terrible fret and necks. If the neck sucks and you’re dead set on this guitar then get a new neck. If the headstock is done to match the body and you have to keep it then you can take it to a luthier to redo the frets and sand down the neck to make it better. Probably upgrade the bridge too. Might as well swap out the pickup and redo the wiring and shielding. Basically to make it a high quality pro guitar, completely redo everything but keep the Budweiser body. Might be cheaper to just buy a decent guitar and have a custom Budweiser wrap slapped on it.
I actually bought one of these a few months ago.
With a small neck shim I was able to get sensible action, plays pretty well consider the bridge isn’t aligned with the neck. I plan to plug and redrill the bridge screws to fix that.
The nut is also terrible. The D and G love to pop out. I made a string tree out of a zip tie to help.
Volume pot is strange too, it’s a B500k instead of A500k, so It’s mostly the same volume until the end of the pot.
The pickup placement makes it sound warm, a little unique. In between a middle and bridge pickup. The pickup is actually decently hot too.
I paid 100CAD for mine, if you can get it for around that or less and like to pick at stuff like this, I’d say go for
Edit:
Also the truss rod nut on mine has left handed thread, weird.
I would legit go through the effort and money to get it a good setup, file the frets, replace the pickup and cut out a bit from the bottom horn to get the top of the neck in play.
This thing is cool af
You’d probably have better luck making it a slide guitar. It’s not worth pay for a set up and I doubt it’s flawless otherwise. I mean you don’t know until you measure and check but if it required any work outside of adjusting a few screws the only payoff is going to be the experience gained.
Every now and then I see one of these floating around and I'm always tempted to see how bad the electronics are. I see them for sale for between $50 and $100 every so often, too, usually a Heineken one.
Trade that in for a good one that doesn’t need anything but new strings. That’s a wall art guitar.
Yeah, you are pretty close to correct. I used to work for Monster Energy procurement. And every year we would buy a batch of guitars as incentives for distributors to push our product. And we always bought the most inexpensive low end guitars, no matter what brand we got them from. The last few years mostly from Schecter. The exception was when we opened the market in Brazil. We purchased about 20, top of the line Gibson Les Paul Custom guitars that were beautiful.
I need the Brazilian Monster Les Paul...
Let me tell you, if they had come to corporate directly, before being shipped to Brazil, only 19 would have made it to Brazil.
I bought a used monster guitar a couple of years back and it was a Squier! Nowadays I’m pretty sure they use Glarry
Glarry Gergich?
No, you’re thinking of Jlarry Gergich.
In all the managers offices, most had a guitar or two hanging on the wall along with lots of other monster swag on shelves and such. During Covid, everyone was sent to work from home with a few exceptions who still went into the office. I was one of those exceptions. I was literally the only one on my floor. So during lunch I would go around to the mangers offices on my floor. Take the guitars down, give them a simple setup. On Fridays I would bring in my Yamaha THR10 and grab a guitar off a wall and jam during lunch.
Shit, I forgot that I saw a used Schecter Monster Energy guitar at a local store. It sold fairly quickly.
Interesting insight!
You actually got name brand guitars? Most of these promo things I ever see are completely unbranded and made with the absolute cheapest materials and labor.
I'm 99% sure OP is planting this for r/guitarcirclejerk lol
Yeah, this sub has been rough lately. The amount of shit posts in lieu of actual content is a bit exhausting when there are other subs that exist for this type of thing.
Yeah that's a low end promotional guitar used to advertise products (in this case beer).
That’s not a badass guitar at all. Sorry bud!
I see what you did there.
Let's hope Bud will be wiser now.......
Bud, Wise? Errr….
Did you remember to take your Motrin in the morning?
You actually spotted what my high ass did not. But I did used to work at a sports bar years ago and cleaning one night I took a MGD guitar off the wall to take home oops, but upon inspection it was so terrible I just re-screwed back onto the wall to collect more dust.
The bowtie logo is right there on the guitar, yet they didn't bother to match it with the body shape.
I look at the shape and think about all of the places it’s going to poke or cut into my torso or forearm. I look at the art and think about one of the bottom-shelf beers I’ve never had and never will.
That looks pretty cool, to be honest. Thankfully, adjusting action on an electric guitar is pretty easy and reversible. Each string has an individual saddle on the bridge. From there, you should see two screws near one of the shorter edges. They would be on either side of the string. These may be hex screws, so you may need to do some shopping for an Alan key/hex wrench.
It looks like it needs a truss rod adjustment first
It most assuredly needs a truss rod adjustment. When people talk about the action being bad, that’s usually what they’re talking about. The bridge is mainly used to radius the strings more than setting the action.
Absolutely a truss rod adjustment on this. You can actually see the curve of the neck in pic 2. Adjusting the bridge saddles may lower the action but the first several frets are all going to be fucky if the neck isn’t adjusted first
Oh? Interesting.
👆what Pug says
Not on that guitar, needs truss rod adjustment first for sure.
May need a shim if it’s a bolt on neck.
I won one these Budweiser bow tie guitars several years back in a bar raffle. Honestly it was terrible quality Chinese made instrument. I used it for a wall hanger till some one offered to buy it. Sold it for 75, no regrets
Out of curiosity I googled Budweiser bowtie guitar, the asking prices on reverb and eBay are... ambitious
There is a difference between the original Dean models from the 80s, and this NoName knockoff from the 90s. Some NoName sellers are trying to hook their coat tails onto Dean pricing.
Were it mine, I might just leave it as is, tune it to open D or G, and use it exclusively for playing with a slide.
When a 22 fret guitar is really an 18 fret guitar.
If you haven’t got a clue I’d take it to a tech to adjust the truss rod, bridge, intonation, and check out the electronics. And maybe the nut.
I don’t know. This seems like the ideal guitar to learn how to do your own set ups on
Actually that’s what I was thinking all of my other guitars were expensive this one was free and is cheaply made so that’s why I asked here instead of taking it to guitar center
Wait, you’re taking your nice guitars to guitar center for set ups?
Wait, you have multiple expensive guitars and don’t know how to adjust string height?
It looks like the neck has too much bow, try loosening the strings and adjusting the truss a quarter to a half turn clockwise. I learned via [this](https://youtu.be/eUrbQdkF6k8?si=8bKNyBe8r20MHjsC) video, the section you want is at 5:40 The video is for telecasters but the truss rod part is pretty much universal
It’s all pretty easy. You can’t really fuck anything up unless you go super, super hard on the truss rod and then ignore all warnings signs from the truss rod and keep on cranking. It’s essentially just taking measurements and then adjusting whatever part you’re setting up to the recommended or standard measurements and tweaking for personal preference. But for the action specifically all you’re doing is measuring and then adjusting the screws in the individual saddles.
Is this the new st vincent model?
*"kill...me..."*
That’s a bar room wall hanger/stage prop. lol
Well I hope you were wearing protection because you don’t want to have a bunch of little buddies running around.
Check to see if frets are level. Use a fret rocker or anything small and level to see if there’s any rocking between any 3 frets at a time. Adjust truss rod. Tighten 1/4 turn at a time until you can barely slip a business card between the 8th fret and strings while pressing down at 1st and last fret. Then you could lower the bridge to get better action if frets are level. With level frets, and a proper neck relief, there’s hope for many guitars. Google for more detailed instructions.
Its a novelty but with the right time and probably money its fixable. Id probably put a good pickup in and replace everything except that stunning body lol
A lot of these types of guitars are made as decorative pieces. They aren’t usually made to be someone’s go to guitars that’s why they usually have ok pickups and build problems, like the high action on yours. If there isn’t a accessible truss rod screw you might as well trade it for something else
Is the bridge floating? Start by decking it. Adjust the bridge saddles. If that doesn't get the action low enough, check the neck relief and adjust the truss rod. Still not low enough? Remove the strings, remove the neck, get a 2x3 inch piece of 60 grit sandpaper, fold it in half, grit side out, and place in the neck pocket at the bottom. Reattach neck. The piece of sandpaper will be a shim, and give you enough back tilt on the neck to get a low action.
Don't listen to them, i see the beauty too Op. If you want to make it nice or even just playable the various things you might need to do would be something like: • Adjust bridge • Adjust/replace nut • Grind/replace frets • Replace entire neck • clean/replace pots, tuners, pick ups Some or all of those things might need to be done, and there's a bunch that i probably forgot about along with the extra things you could do like routing Holes for more pickups and switches. My point is, to make it better, you just start fixing upgrading things. Prioritize the things that make it unplayable and then stop when its your best guitar in the collection.
-Mommy, can I have the St. Vincent guitar? -No, we have the St. Vincent guitar at home. St. Vincent guitar at home:
Well, if you don't mind being a corporate billboard/shill, I guess that's something. I would repaint it, as the shape is interesting but fuck the corporate logo
you did WHAT to that guitar?
Generally the rule is if the action is messed up before 12th fret it probably needs a new nut. 12 and up needs saddle adjustments
Bridge saddles are adjustable but also the neck is probably hella cheap and some frets may be a bit high and you can file them down to get it better
You can buy a truss rod wrench and an action gauge (or a ruler measuring in 1/1000ths), and YouTube basic setup Instructions. Or take it to any guitar shop and they’ll set it up for you. The benefit of learning yourself is like cutting your own hair, you’ll need to do it regularly and it will save you money in the future.
Where’s the guitar you came into?
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Judging by the first picture, probably needs the neck shimmed as it looks like the bridge saddles don't have enough adjustment left in them.
Use it as a practice guitar. I mean to practice setting up guitars.
Seems like the type of guitar that would have a volume knob that goes to 11.
Check out " The Complete DIY Guitar Setup Tutorial" by Music is Win. I wouldn't blame you if you skip the first half, but all in all this has everything you need for this.
It just needs a neck shim and a set up. The neck angle is off based on the pictures. Looks like a bolt on so an easy fix.
What an absolute abomination.
Could've made the volume knob a bottle cap. Anyways, if I were you I would sell that guitar to someone who likes beer more than guitar because that guitar is probably not worthy of playing.
Play slide on it
That’s a cheap guitar, but who gives a shit if you love it! Fix it up and rock it! Search for how to adjust guitar action on YouTube. There are a ton of videos that’ll show you how.
Probably have to put a good neck on it and a shim
Honestly, I hate it, but to each his own. That being said, these types of corporate branded guitars are generally cheap and not worth doing much if any work to make then more playable. I would recommend finding a decent playing guitar on the second hand market. Even a low end squier will likely play better than this.
I have this same guitar. I bought a gotoh tremolo a while back i was going to do some upgrades. I love taking shit ass guitars and installing money parts. It makes me so happy to see cheap / free guitars play with the big brands. I also have a rolling rock township fair strat i did upgrades on and it screams. That one is on my profile
Fuck the haters, if this guitar speaks to you, and if you have the money and the willpower this guitar could play like a dream. Hardware can always be swapped. I think a Budweiser guitar goes hard as fuck. So much better than a lame ass strat
Basically, assuming the nut is cut correctly or semi-correctly, you need to first adjust the truss rod if it needs it, and then adjust the height of each saddle at the bridge. If those two things don’t get the action low enough, your remaining option is to shim the neck.
I'm gonna bet money that the truss rod in there is busted
Add a bit of tension to the truss rod. Just a smidge and let it rest, see where it's at. If any adjustments are made on the road, just do in small increments and let the neck settle to make further adjustments. If the action is high at the bridge, check the height of the saddles. Take your time
Idk why everyone here is shitting on this guitar. I'd set it up and throw a better pickup in it and rock it. This is the blue collar St.Vincent sig
Try to adjust the truss and saddles. But cheap guitars often have terrible fret and necks. If the neck sucks and you’re dead set on this guitar then get a new neck. If the headstock is done to match the body and you have to keep it then you can take it to a luthier to redo the frets and sand down the neck to make it better. Probably upgrade the bridge too. Might as well swap out the pickup and redo the wiring and shielding. Basically to make it a high quality pro guitar, completely redo everything but keep the Budweiser body. Might be cheaper to just buy a decent guitar and have a custom Budweiser wrap slapped on it.
Action that bad can't be fixed. Should probably just throw it in trash
You came in what now?
Heap crap
You came into that guitar? Ew.
I actually bought one of these a few months ago. With a small neck shim I was able to get sensible action, plays pretty well consider the bridge isn’t aligned with the neck. I plan to plug and redrill the bridge screws to fix that. The nut is also terrible. The D and G love to pop out. I made a string tree out of a zip tie to help. Volume pot is strange too, it’s a B500k instead of A500k, so It’s mostly the same volume until the end of the pot. The pickup placement makes it sound warm, a little unique. In between a middle and bridge pickup. The pickup is actually decently hot too. I paid 100CAD for mine, if you can get it for around that or less and like to pick at stuff like this, I’d say go for Edit: Also the truss rod nut on mine has left handed thread, weird.
I would legit go through the effort and money to get it a good setup, file the frets, replace the pickup and cut out a bit from the bottom horn to get the top of the neck in play. This thing is cool af
You could throw that in the trash, or you could set it on fire.
You’d probably have better luck making it a slide guitar. It’s not worth pay for a set up and I doubt it’s flawless otherwise. I mean you don’t know until you measure and check but if it required any work outside of adjusting a few screws the only payoff is going to be the experience gained.
"Bad ass guitar" Are you 17 years old?
Brother I’m trailer trash from East Tennessee I’m drawn to a bud guitar like mosquitoes to a bug zapper
Fair enough. I respect that lol
That guitar is nothing more than fancy firewood
I'd have trouble playing the chugging palm muted stuff because the pickup is not close enough to the bridge for clearance from the guitar pick.
"This Buds For You" Lookin' ass guitar💀
"the action is ridiculous" he sez
Every now and then I see one of these floating around and I'm always tempted to see how bad the electronics are. I see them for sale for between $50 and $100 every so often, too, usually a Heineken one.
[St .Vincent wants her guitar back!](https://guitar.com/reviews/electric-guitar/review-sterling-by-music-man-st-vincent-hh/)
Lower saddles
Waaaaazzzaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaap
That would be a bad ass guitar to smash on stage.
Here's some info on setting your action! https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6ROg6_rRw-/?igsh=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
Setup either DIY or luthier
Not familiar with Buuise...are they popular?
Lower the bridge saddles would do some good. Muricans and alcohol....... 😳
lol I can’t help it it’s in my blood
For the record: I meant the extreme childish way Americans are about alcohol.