I bought the same kind of fake Strat for $38.50 with free shipping!! Then I bought an assembled pickgaurd w/humbuckers for $17.00. This guitar is amazing!! Omg 🤘
I have the same exact one. I use it as a 'yard guitar' and gets treated roughly. Lays in the hot July sun, gets put through constant temperature changes......the neck is solid and straight. I am beyond impressed. I added Wilkinson tremolo/tuners, a prewired pickguard w/Alnico 5's and Graphtech nut. $90.00 later........pretty serious instrument.
I bought this guitar after watching your video. I'm an adult learner and it's perfect for what I needed- full scale, funtional, and cheap. I think it was $55 on ebay. I had a guitar friend swap out the strings and he raised a pick up that was set low. He also did some mild adjustments but nothing major. It stays in time for my beginner playing. Thanks for your content! Love the channel
@@stanhanley6004 yeah, i think in that case you better go with Glarry. I said that i'd pick a Teisco anytime, but only if i keep it stock, idk, i wouldn't mess around a 50 years old guitar, i might buy one Glarry too, because even here in Brazil where i live, it's still really cheap.
HELLO, THANKS FOR THE REVIEW ON THIS, I BOUGHT ONE, AND IT ACTUALLY WAS KIND OF IN TUNE OUT OF THE BOX, NOT BAD, I POLISHED THE FRETS, SANDED DOWN THE FINGER BOARD WITH 1000 GRIT PAPER, CONDITIONED THE FINGER BOARD, PUT NEW STRINGS ON, TIGHTENED ALL SCREWS ON IT, THE TUNERS ARE IMPORTANNT TO CHECK, SOMETIMES THEY ARE LOOSE, AND IT PLAYS REAL WELL, I WOULD GIG WITH THIS GUITAR ACTUALLY , ONCE I GET ALL THE BUGS OUT OF IT, FOR $ 60 BUCKS, YOU CAN'T GO WRONG, COUSIN FIGEL
Basswood is used for high end guitars to. Look at Satrianis guitar. And a Strat tremelo isn't supposed to be level. They're designed to have an 1/8" gap. So if anyone complains, they don't know what they're talking about. Oddly enough, most people in a blind study will pick ceramic pickups over alnico because they have more dynamics. Alnicos tend to be thinner and weaker. Maybe not these pickups but in the old Fender Standard Strats with the 2 bars.
For $60 that is a great deal! You can use it for a mod platform and have fun changing parts and trying out other bargain pickups. You can go on Ebay and get a kit with CTS pots, a real switch and pull back wiring for $25 and treble bleed for a couple bucks and see what a difference that would make? Have some fun learning about Fenders!
Mods are fun and you learn a lot on setup and repair. Makes more sense to learn on Cheap guitars than mess around with a expensive one and cause a expensive mistake.
The metal on the saddles was so thin the strings were caving them in. SO I started looking for a saddle replacement. I was looking mainly at Wilkinson for $20-30 There was nothing that fit the measurements on this guitar. Plus the neck on mine was so huge it was unplayable.
David Murray Holland my first guitar was a Peavey Raptor from 1997. It came in a starter pack, black with white pick guard. Wish I still had it so I could mod it.
Basswood is not low end wood, there are different grades of basswood but there is barely any sound difference between woods. Tonewood is not as important as electronics or hardware
It’s a great mod guitar better than most diy build kits. You could spend another $100 to $200 on all new parts... like pre-wired fully loaded Wilkinson pick guard, new locking tuners , output jack. New bridge and tremblock and have a guitar has nice has any strat on the market with your own guitar custom for you
I bought a $60 Strat style guitar (including shipping) off eBay a while back, and I was impressed as well. It says 'Danpur' on the headstock. It's not a great guitar (the electronics are trash, but the pickups aren't bad at all), but it is great for $60. With some work (fret level and dressing and setup) it is much better than the parade of $100 guitars I bought in the 90s. One weird thing about it is that it's Platane wood, and it's extremely light (I'd guess 4.5 pounds). The body is really resonant though and it's loud when unplugged and has great sustain. It is a good time for beginners, because you can get better cheap guitars than ever.
I bought one of these as my first guitar. When I opened it up, it didn't have that big hole in the middle for the groundwire but it did include a dead waterbug. I'm not sure how it managed to get inside. It was way about the same size as one of the knobs on the guitar and there was no hole big enough for it to crawl inside so it must have been in there when they put the pickguard on or maybe they included it on purpose to improve the tone. Are tone bugs a thing?
As big as the tone knob?! That's nasty shame on whoever built that guitar. Mine was full of literal chunks of wood that rattled that I had to vacuum out
I once had a customer bring me a Gibson Flying V for a setup, shielding and some wiring... As soon as I opened the control cavity a big black spider ran out and onto my workbench... Later, as I was moisturizing the super-dry rosewood fretboard with lemon oil a small unidentified white bug got out of the fretboard and also ran away...
as far as the "stiff" selector goes, I'd probably prefer that. The switch on my Bullet is loose enough that if you touch the thing it moves, meaning it is easy to accidentally switch it....
To relieve tension on the whammy Loosen the spring mount away from the body 1/4 turn on each side and check don't forget to tune it each time. You want the bridge to just sit on the body with the least amount of tension. Before replacing the pickups you tape off the housing with masking tape on the sides, you don't want the liquid to come out around the holes. seal the six holes from leaking with putty and turn the pickup upside down and pour urethane and hardener or resin and hardener and that will kill the noise to a good extent. I call this potting the pickup, but you have to wait until it's completely dry, say 3 days or more. Replace the 2 capacitors with name brand on the two tone controls 1uf
Are you sure about that? Here's one: Ibanez JS2480 with a basswood body: $2,799.99. Many players prefer basswood for its light weight and neutral tone.
It makes music!! That's 100% better than no music at all! If you're playing punk, just crank up the 100w Marshall and you'll be able to gig with this thang.
guitars falling out of tune is due to the nut or the bridge not the tuners, unless theyre like broken. bad tuners just make it hard to get it into tune. I personally never really had too much of a problem with cheap or mid level tuners, they just have a high ratio usually. if you lube the nut, recut/sand it, or replace it the tuning problems usually go away
Glarry really messed up by not sending you a bunch of the fruit shaped ukuleles. You are the king of reviewing goofy guitars (zuit suit comes to mind). Their sales would skyrocket if they had sent you the ukes!
Good video. The fretwork is not a fluke. I bought one of these to see how much guitar you get for 60 bucks. The fretboard is the one saving grace. Mine was supposed to be the bright green natural finish. The green is so dark, it is almost black. You can barely see the wood grain. The tremolo is so cheap and unstable, I ended up removing the springs and blocking it with a dead 9-volt battery in the back, and wedged the spring bracket in front of it for the ground. So mine is a hard tail now. This greatly increased sustain, and I can't hardly knock it out of tune now. They say the body is basswood. It is definitely not. Basswood is actually an excellent wood for guitar bodies, quite dense, with a good sometimes nasty tone. SX guitars are a good example. This guitar body might weigh 2 pounds. It is made of balsa wood, which is similar to bamboo. It's too light to produce much tone or sustain. The pickups might have 3 or 4 windings in them. I had to adjust them as close to the strings as possible to get about half the volume my other guitars put out. And the strings that came on it were garbage, as were the accessories that came with it. The strings immediately started leaving something like pencil lead all over my fingers and the maple fretboard, and were new and dead at the same time. So it got a set of Ernie Ball Regular Slinky. Oddly though, after all of this, the guitar is delightful to play. I'm actually glad I bought it.
I have had a Glarry Tele. The bridge came off the minute I tried to tune it up. Both the pickguard and bridge had been drilled and redrilled so many times there was nothing I could do. These guitars work best as kindling unless you get real lucky.
A perfect Pete Townshend show closer, too. Play your final king-hell rocker of a song with this baby and then smash it into toothpicks. Buy 'em by the gross.
Great starter guitars for sure. The wood type doesn't matter at all and it can be modded. Hell, you could put a warmoth neck, loaded pickguard, etc and make it great. The point is for under a hundred bucks, it's an electric guitar.
I think it would be cool to do videos of you modding the guitar and see what you can make of it! See if you can get it up to Fender quality! I think it would make for some great videos, to show beginners what they can do to their cheap guitars as they get the money to do upgrades!👍😎🎸🎶
Got one coming. I have a set of HSS configured pickups laying around from an 80s Ibanez, and a Wilkinson bridge takeoff from who knows where. New pots for 8 bucks. New Pickguard 15 bucks New 5 way switch 15 bucks Wilkinson ez lock tuners 30 bucks Grafteck style low friction nut 5 bucks Do a proper set-up on the guitar and Shellac the neck - (Brad Paisley's favorite) 120 bucks all in and from all the reviews, it will put a Squire to shame and be Gigable. You could probably do it cheaper if you scoured sleazybay and craigslist.
HELLO, I BOUGHT 2 OF THESE THE WHITE STRAT AND THE SUNBURST STRAT, IT CAME PLAYABLE, I SET THEM UP, POLISHED THE FRETS, TWEEKED THE TRUSS ROD, TIGHTENED ALL OF THE HARDWARE NEW STRINGS ECT. FOR $60 BUCKS YOU CANT GO WRONG, IF YOU KNOW HOW TO WORK ON GUITARS, I LOVE THE UNFINISHED NECK, I DO NOT LIKE THE NITRO CELLULOSE FINISH ON MY LES PAUL, ROCK ON, COUSIN FIGEL
No disrespect basswood is a good tonewood and it has been used by many high-end makers with excellent results. It is a very light and fairly soft wood, and it's light in color, too, with minimal grain. Ibanez JEM70VSFG has American basswood body
I bought 4 of these Glarry guitars and for the price , i got a great buy. I am a Luthier and i do know alot about electric guitars , this strat that i bought is in really good conition no defects, you do need to change the pickups they are way to weak on the strat, now on the teles they are a lot better. some of them do need fret work and they all need intonation on them ,But for what you get for the price it"s a really good deal.
Hey Austin - just thought I would let you know that tonight I purchased a guitar, their warlock type, and a bass as well as one rectangular hard case from Glarry Music. Once I placed my order I then left them feedback and informed them that I watched your review and that review caused me to visit their site and purchase from them. I figured it would be very beneficial to you if I informed them of this information. Hopefully you will get more companies asking you to review their products!!
All the parts are machine made so once someone got hold of the specification data, they can keep making exact copies in terms of shape and matching. The same goes for pick-ups. The only remaining quality variance resides in the used materials and the finishing. Guitars that were designed to be easy to make in the first place, like Strats or Telecasters, can be well copied at rock bottom prices. It is a lot like ripping a CD and selling copies of it. The packaging may leave to be desired but the recording is the same.
Did Glarry send you that? If so they probably picked the best one out of a lot. The issue with buying cheapo guitars online is you never know what you're going to get.. sharp fret ends, unpolished frets, dead spots, poor setup, finish defects. Having the manufacterer send you a gem hides the quality control issue with cheapo guitars.
I am in total agreement with you...I made the mistake of buying one of these after watching the 4 or 5 videos that are out there right now....I spent well over an hours trying to set this up and it was not playable...after several emails they finally gave me a refund...they never sent me a return tag so I still have guitar....waiting to find out if they even want it back....if not it is going in the trash.
I upgraded the LaGrima clone I got with some eBay hotrail style humbuckers, changed it to a single tone and volume with upgraded pots and put a kill switch where the other tone knob was. Also, put some locking tuners and a lot better output jack. Sounds great and I have about $150 in it and I did the upgrades myself so that was cool to me.
If you want a good cheap guitar for modding and upgrading buy a MONOPRICE INDIO CALI. Usually $99 with free shipping on their site. I bought a second one today for $79 on sale. Telling up front the tuners suck! The pickups don't sound half bad. Neck is really nice which is what matters to me the most. Everything is easily upgradable. A MIM fender trem drops right in. BATHTUB cutout so you can put whatever pickup configuration you want.
These Glarry guitars are great mod platforms in my opinion. You'd be hard pressed to find a better body and neck for $60. I replaced the tuners, nut, electronics, output jack, switch and pickups, dressed the frets and fretboard and have a nice playing, nice sounding guitar. I can switch it back to the stock condition in 15 minutes if I ever decide to get rid of it but I'd never done any guitar modding before and this let me get my feet wet for almost no risk and very little cash outlay.
I think it's hard to beat! If the neck is as nice as you say, it's worth the $60 alone! It's a great platform to mod! Put on some new tuners, sand down the rosewood at the nut for clearance, and install a better nut. Get a set of pickups from GFS ( I got some clearance ones for a cheap guitar for under $20 that aren't too bad!)and put the cream covers and knobs on it. Upgrade the electronics and trem. All of this, if you do the work yourself, can be done pretty cheaply. When youre done, I Think you would have a great guitar. Sand off the name on the headstock and put your own logo. You can even tint the neck with some amber stain. It would be a fun project!👍😎🎸🎶
I ordered one of these after watching your video and the neck pocket wasn’t routed level on the body. Maybe a fluke? Contacted the company and they keep saying make bridge adjustment after sending them photos of the problem with the neck twisting in the body. So maybe they sent the RUclipsrs guitars that were quality checked. But different than what the viewers receive. I ordered another one to test that theory. It’s not a expensive guitar but they should still offer you something playable. I’ll keep ya posted.
Update: I bought another one and it had the newer neck and was a thinner neck profile. And had the same routing problems the company did say I could return it after several emails and pictures explaining the problem. So I think all of the body’s have the same routing problem. So I’ll have to fix it myself and shim for proper neck relief. If I wasn’t experienced I wouldn’t recommend this guitar but if your someone who knows how to setup and modify and enjoy tinkering with it then it’s not a bad guitar. What do you expect for 50-60 bucks quality control lol.
My first guitar is a Fretmaster Strat (asian guitar) and my first amp is a Peavey Rage 158 I still have both of them and i actually use because i haven't found a guitar that comfortable
$60!!! If it plays OK, then what is to complain about?? $60 may buy you a decent pickup, compared to a complete guitar???? Looks like a bargain to me, clearly Trogly isn't used to Strats.
To be honest these guitars are a better quality than fifties and early 60s original strats due to advancement in manufacturing techniques. Believe it or not.
Dude, it's under $70 dollars. WTF! It's a functioning electric guitar. The word is "indented" no indented and as others have stated, basswood isn't by default an inferior wood.
The Glarry ST3 isn't meant to be a Fender Custom Shop killer. It's meant to be a Squier Bullet killer. If you're a Gibson Les Paul guy, you'll find an S-type or T-type guitar thinner-sounding than you're used to. (Or thinner-sounding than you'd like.) That is just how they sound. Trem bridges are known for causing tuning-stability issues. For Strats/S-types, Scott Grove of the RUclips channel Groovy Music Lessons recommends roller saddles, and I have found that they do indeed help on my Squier California Strat. (This little-known, now discontinued series is based on the SE Strats that came in turn-of-the-millennium Squier starter packs and are now prized among Squier fanciers. It was once sold in Asia and Latin America, and is apparently rare in the US. If you ever find one, it might be worth a video.)
That guitar is great, I'm going to buy a few of them and do just a few upgrades and gift them to some friend's kids. I build custom guitars and I could never build something that nice for that cheep, the wood alone costs more. Basswood is a great wood, it's very light and if you finish it properly it won't dent up. Great review.
Tune instability could be because of the strings touching the fretboard after the Nut, also plastic nut arent the best really. You rarelly need to change tuners to make your tuning stability better, unless they're outright broken. My strat copy was less than 100U$, and i had a lot of problems with tuning. I sent it for a set up, and i guarantee i never had trouble with tuning again. This is totally worth 60U$ on, if i was in america i would totally aquire some of these to mod on.
This looks very similar quality to a Squier Affinity strat. For half the price. Can't go wrong there. (Sorry, Fender) I have a Squier Affinity strat as well as a Mexican deluxe Fender Stratocaster and I enjoy tinkering with the old squier still. New players could save some money here for sure. 👍
Fair point. I've never played a guitar made of basswood, so I'm not sure. One thing I do like about the Squier is it's so light compared to the Fender, but that's the cheapest you may want to go with the wood.
@@devon-aire I played a Squier bullet (they have basswood bodies) and it sounded pretty good so theres nothing wrong with basswood but i would prefer a solid wood. I love my Affinity strat, cant believe how good it is and how little it costs. One of the best budget guitars.
A beginner guitarist will probably be happy with this guitar as it is. It looks good and if it plays fairly decent, that's all I wanted when I began to play guitar.
I've been playing guitar since 1979 . Right handed. Lately I want to learn left handed so i'm not spending a lot. This looks perfect. They got lefty's on e bay
If you really want to see if the neck has a finish, put a drop of water on the back of the headstock. If it beads up, there's a finish, if it soaks in, I'd rub some finishing oil on it and call it a day
Either my Dad received a bad one or they're sending out well built ones to be reviewed. The one my Dad received needed some work done. The nut action was too high, the nut had to be replaced because the one they use is made out of soft plastic. I installed a tusq nut in it and the playability improved. The truss rod nut was WAY down in the hole. I had to use a long hex key to get to it. The guitar was not set up and it had 10's on it. When we switched to 9's we couldnt intonate because the bridge was in the wrong spot. The saddle ended up so far forward on the bridge that the were sitting on top of the bridge screws. For 60 bucks you get what you pay for. If you want a knock around guitar that you wouldnt mind losing these are it but at least in my Dad's experience you couldnt gig with this guitar.
U should post some lessons of simple stuff. I liked that clean dreamy chord progression you did .picked with your fingers. Immune they and figure that one out
What kind of wood is the fretboard made of for real? Since some say it is not real rosewood. I want to know how to clean the fretboard and maintain it good. Also I want to know the basic simple way to treat the neck. Nice playing! It sounded pretty stratty kinda like 60's/70's music :) Then you threw in a little back scratch fever :) That's got decent tone, actually.
I think it should be mentioned that there are a bunch of us that prefer a flat finish neck, because it makes it less sticky with sweaty hands. I actually take a piece of 400 grit sandpaper to all my gloss finished necks. That fat neck has me interested, but I'd probably be better off investing that money into a set of Tex-Mex pickups for the cheap project strat I already have.
I purchase my 1st electric guitar 1974, I paid $65 for a Hondo SG shaped guitar, I wish my first guitar would have been half as nice as this Glarry ST3. Good Video Austin, thank you.
I had a Squire that looked just like that. I played it for a year and then let her go. It had a nice neck but not enough frets on the fret board. The electronics were cheap and the tuners barely keep the guitar in tune. Lesson here, buy the quality instrument and you will play better, learn faster and always have value on your investment.
Based on a $60 price tag, I have heard these guitars are well worth the money for a beginner or even maybe a project guitar. The review on the strap, let's face it, I don't think anyone watching this video would have thought about using that strap on stage. Giging musicians are well aware of what they need to have on their guitars to make sure they are secure. That could have been left unsaid. I don't mean to sound critical because I do watch this channel a lot. I just feel this time your viewers should have been given the benefit of the doubt regarding the strap. It's a $60 guitar with a free strap. That's really all the review it needs other than, how does it sound? For the money, it sounds just fine.
Great review. We need to get you up to speed on Po Folks guitars. You need to go slummin more often and get down in the gutters with the wanna B's. We have more fun for less! Now you need to do a BLIND play test and see if non Guitar regular folks can hear the difference in a 3K Gibson and a $100.00 special on the same amp and with talented player. That should be fun...
What do you expect for the money!! I have seen worse more expensive guitars for sale, like the idea of trade Tuesday go for it let’s see how far you get!!
These things are cheap junk. Crappy assembly, the cheapest sourced parts, and just crappy sounding. Support your local merchants and look for a decent used guitar.
A floating bridge is normal. It supposed to be off the body so you can go either way. Can tell you are a Gibson man. May be in your interest to learn about Fenders. Their are a lot of great vintage Strats out there in the resale market.
Those PCBs on the 5-way switch are not great long term. A Fender switch is a $10 upgrade and well worth it. Grover mini tuners are like $50, and now you've doubled the cost. Might as well get a Squier Affinity Strat for better pickups.
Tuners almost never affect tuning stability. Unless they're broken. I can't get over how many youtube people seem to think this. Even when they have a lot of backlash, it's not really a problem, as long as you tune UP to pitch, now down (I swear, this seems to be a forgotten "trick"). What is a problem is when strings aren't sufficiently wound on the posts. Or when strings are hanging up at the nut and/or string trees. A floating strat bridge is not at all unusual. But it isn't going to stay in tune regardless if the strings are hanging up. The guitar sounded anemic, particularly clean, which may be the recording quality. The pickups looked like generic Asian strat types, which usually aren't terrible, with the single ceramic bar magnet under steel slug polepieces in a plastic bobbin. Traditional Strat pickups don't really use a dedicated bobbin, nor separate magnet from polepieces. The sonic difference can be subtle to significant, but the reasons for the differences can be profoundly technical. Basswood is an inexpensive wood, but well respected for guitar use. And maple is also inexpensive wood. Easily sourced, strong, stable, which is why Gibson uses it on less expensive instruments. It's just cheap. Unless it's selected for figure like flame or birdseye. For decades, if a Fender neck had any nice figuring, it was pretty much just coincidence. Fancy figure adds nothing to quality or tonality. Just aesthetics. And price.
Most of the time tuning problems are down to poorly cut nuts as much as anything else. I love it when people blame strings that are sharp on tuners. Yeah, they have a ghost in them that increases tension...
Most Fender japan, Ibanez etc are made from Basswood. Even thousand euro Suhr guitars use basswood. One of my favourite strats made from well basswood. And they are all good. I guess you can get differenet grades of basswood just like any other lumber. Get some cheap alnico pickups from Aliexpress, Amazon and it'll start to sound what its emulating.
I bought the same kind of fake Strat for $38.50 with free shipping!! Then I bought an assembled pickgaurd w/humbuckers for $17.00. This guitar is amazing!! Omg 🤘
I have the same exact one. I use it as a 'yard guitar' and gets treated roughly. Lays in the hot July sun, gets put through constant temperature changes......the neck is solid and straight. I am beyond impressed. I added Wilkinson tremolo/tuners, a prewired pickguard w/Alnico 5's and Graphtech nut. $90.00 later........pretty serious instrument.
I bought this guitar after watching your video. I'm an adult learner and it's perfect for what I needed- full scale, funtional, and cheap. I think it was $55 on ebay. I had a guitar friend swap out the strings and he raised a pick up that was set low. He also did some mild adjustments but nothing major. It stays in time for my beginner playing.
Thanks for your content! Love the channel
Far better than any beginner's guitar from the 60's and 70's.
are you sure? Glarry seems pretty trashy imho, i'd choose Teisco anytime. (not hating on your comment tho)
@@joaopaul0500 yeah I'm choosing between a glarry and a Teisco as my mess around guitar. Glarries are so inexpensive it's tempting
@@stanhanley6004 yeah, i think in that case you better go with Glarry. I said that i'd pick a Teisco anytime, but only if i keep it stock, idk, i wouldn't mess around a 50 years old guitar, i might buy one Glarry too, because even here in Brazil where i live, it's still really cheap.
@@joaopaul0500 well I meant mess around and record. the teisco pickups sound cool right?
@@stanhanley6004 oh, sure they sound!
Untrue statement about Basswood. EVH guitars use Basswood even the 3K+ models.
I wondered about that. Seemed like most 'shred' guits used Basswood.
@Ben Dover but there's a reason why they don't make oak and pine bodied guits
Basswood still sucks. At least go for alder if you want something cheap. I still love me a nice piece of ash, though >.>
Some Fender vintage models used it and all Squiers accept the Affinity series use it.
@@Kylora2112 no Basswood simply doesn't suck
HELLO, THANKS FOR THE REVIEW ON THIS, I BOUGHT ONE, AND IT ACTUALLY WAS KIND OF IN TUNE OUT OF THE BOX, NOT BAD, I POLISHED THE FRETS, SANDED DOWN THE FINGER BOARD WITH 1000 GRIT PAPER, CONDITIONED THE FINGER BOARD, PUT NEW STRINGS ON, TIGHTENED ALL SCREWS ON IT, THE TUNERS ARE IMPORTANNT TO CHECK, SOMETIMES THEY ARE LOOSE, AND IT PLAYS REAL WELL, I WOULD GIG WITH THIS GUITAR ACTUALLY , ONCE I GET ALL THE BUGS OUT OF IT, FOR $ 60 BUCKS, YOU CAN'T GO WRONG, COUSIN FIGEL
Your caps looks on
You cappin bro?
Why are you shouting
@@therealdennisprager why are you not shouting?😂
Basswood is used for high end guitars to. Look at Satrianis guitar. And a Strat tremelo isn't supposed to be level. They're designed to have an 1/8" gap. So if anyone complains, they don't know what they're talking about. Oddly enough, most people in a blind study will pick ceramic pickups over alnico because they have more dynamics. Alnicos tend to be thinner and weaker. Maybe not these pickups but in the old Fender Standard Strats with the 2 bars.
You can check out Glarry Guitars on their website : shareasale.com/r.cfm?b=1312951&u=1985017&m=83754&urllink=&afftrack=
0:52 - How Much and for What
1:37 - Glarry Music Products
2:40 - Specs
6:07 - Playability
7:15 - Pickups Any Good?
8:00 - Toggle Switch
8:51 - The Knobs
9:53 - Trem Unit
11:06 - Grounding Surprise!
11:35 - Tuning Stability
13:00 - Final Thoughts
13:54 - Returns
14:54 - Clean Demo
16:49 - Spoopy Dirty Demo
18:45 - Build Quality
22:55 - Blacklight Test
23:23 - Strap Review
24:27 - Gig Bag Review
25:30 - TradeTuesday?
Just fix it up. Why sell it for 20 dollars lol
The neck has a flat acrylic on it. Fooled me too until I hit it with sandpaper. Body is plywood and the wood grain is painted on
It is as you said, a perfect beginners instrument, the sound is not too bad and as you progress up the playing, you can upgrade. Great review.
I thought the shape of the headstock was trademarked by Fender? Most of the copies these days have funny shapes.
oh my god like i did that with the box on the one i have how di wha i think he is like some mind reader or something
I own a harley benton. Definitely superb for under 200
Riggatoni me too and this one looks almost identical, particularly the pcb switch, beefy neck and swirled plastic pickguard.
I own 6!
I really want one. Specifically the sc450 plus.
@@jordanmitchell380 i own a sc custom
@@jordanmitchell380 - do it. The SC450 Plus is amazing !!!
A good guitar player can made sound like an angel any guitar....
Bless you brother for those beautiful words that bring back jimi Hendrix feels.
That is true.
Your grammar made me have a seizure but the message is a good one nevertheless
For $60 that is a great deal! You can use it for a mod platform and have fun changing parts and trying out other bargain pickups. You can go on Ebay and get a kit with CTS pots, a real switch and pull back wiring for $25 and treble bleed for a couple bucks and see what a difference that would make? Have some fun learning about Fenders!
Mods are fun and you learn a lot on setup and repair. Makes more sense to learn on Cheap guitars than mess around with a expensive one and cause a expensive mistake.
Right. I got a peavey raptor from the 90s to do that HSH locking tuner roller nut and bridge thing. Lol garbage now but it plays
Actually the pots on the one I got were quiet and fine....had to change them when I installed single coil hot rail humbuckers....to 500k
The metal on the saddles was so thin the strings were caving them in. SO I started looking for a saddle replacement. I was looking mainly at Wilkinson for $20-30 There was nothing that fit the measurements on this guitar. Plus the neck on mine was so huge it was unplayable.
David Murray Holland my first guitar was a Peavey Raptor from 1997. It came in a starter pack, black with white pick guard. Wish I still had it so I could mod it.
I watched this at 1.25x and you still spoke really slow lol
Maybe most of the subs are learning english.
Speaks fine to me and I always speed peoples videos up
Bruh he sounds like ben Shapiro sped up 💀💀💀
Watch with captions. I can read faster than he speaks. I double tap the right of my screen every 2 seconds. Finished this vid in fukin 7 minutes
lmao! after reading this i set him to 1.5x and omg its kinda better
Basswood is not low end wood, there are different grades of basswood but there is barely any sound difference between woods. Tonewood is not as important as electronics or hardware
It’s a myth tone wood isn’t a thing
It’s a great mod guitar better than most diy build kits. You could spend another $100 to $200 on all new parts... like pre-wired fully loaded Wilkinson pick guard, new locking tuners , output jack. New bridge and tremblock and have a guitar has nice has any strat on the market with your own guitar custom for you
fun fact : at the bridge chamber, 珍珠 in Chinese means pearl, maybe it's for pickguard
Very cool! Thanks for sharing
I bought a $60 Strat style guitar (including shipping) off eBay a while back, and I was impressed as well. It says 'Danpur' on the headstock. It's not a great guitar (the electronics are trash, but the pickups aren't bad at all), but it is great for $60. With some work (fret level and dressing and setup) it is much better than the parade of $100 guitars I bought in the 90s. One weird thing about it is that it's Platane wood, and it's extremely light (I'd guess 4.5 pounds). The body is really resonant though and it's loud when unplugged and has great sustain. It is a good time for beginners, because you can get better cheap guitars than ever.
I bought one of these as my first guitar. When I opened it up, it didn't have that big hole in the middle for the groundwire but it did include a dead waterbug. I'm not sure how it managed to get inside. It was way about the same size as one of the knobs on the guitar and there was no hole big enough for it to crawl inside so it must have been in there when they put the pickguard on or maybe they included it on purpose to improve the tone. Are tone bugs a thing?
Man buying a guitar and getting a bug with it is a steal like imagine paying for a 600$ guitar and not getting the addition of a bug in the box
As big as the tone knob?! That's nasty shame on whoever built that guitar. Mine was full of literal chunks of wood that rattled that I had to vacuum out
@@stillshot2 Maybe, when they made yours, they'd run out of bugs?! hahaha
I once had a customer bring me a Gibson Flying V for a setup, shielding and some wiring...
As soon as I opened the control cavity a big black spider ran out and onto my workbench...
Later, as I was moisturizing the super-dry rosewood fretboard with lemon oil a small unidentified white bug got out of the fretboard and also ran away...
as far as the "stiff" selector goes, I'd probably prefer that. The switch on my Bullet is loose enough that if you touch the thing it moves, meaning it is easy to accidentally switch it....
To relieve tension on the whammy Loosen the spring mount away from the
body 1/4 turn on each side and check don't forget to tune it each time.
You want the bridge to just sit on the body with the least amount of
tension. Before replacing the pickups you tape off the housing with
masking tape on the sides, you don't want the liquid to come out around
the holes. seal the six holes from leaking with putty and turn the
pickup upside down and pour urethane and hardener or resin and hardener
and that will kill the noise to a good extent. I call this potting the
pickup, but you have to wait until it's completely dry, say 3 days or
more. Replace the 2 capacitors with name brand on the two tone controls 1uf
Basswood = wood used on every ermie ball/music man, like, EVER...
+ a metric shit ton of Ibanez Prestiges.
Don't forget jackson guitars too
:(
Does the wood affect the tone I’ve heard a lot conflicting opinions
John Lemon oh, we don’t even want to get into that argument.
Basswood is used on some high end instruments like Ibanez guitars.
Ibanez aren't high end
It's used on some Ernie Ball, EVH, and Suhr models too. Definitely not "entry level" instruments.
Are you sure about that? Here's one: Ibanez JS2480 with a basswood body: $2,799.99. Many players prefer basswood for its light weight and neutral tone.
Tonewood only makes a slight difference vs other components
@@DesertScorpionKSA well I know the make expensive guitars but i see them more as a starter brand because of their price
It makes music!! That's 100% better than no music at all! If you're playing punk, just crank up the 100w Marshall and you'll be able to gig with this thang.
It is VERY nice to know that something like this exists. Thank you Trogly!!
guitars falling out of tune is due to the nut or the bridge not the tuners, unless theyre like broken. bad tuners just make it hard to get it into tune. I personally never really had too much of a problem with cheap or mid level tuners, they just have a high ratio usually. if you lube the nut, recut/sand it, or replace it the tuning problems usually go away
oh to ad to that, the string trees also add some friction that causes tuning issues
Glarry really messed up by not sending you a bunch of the fruit shaped ukuleles. You are the king of reviewing goofy guitars (zuit suit comes to mind). Their sales would skyrocket if they had sent you the ukes!
Good video. The fretwork is not a fluke. I bought one of these to see how much guitar you get for 60 bucks. The fretboard is the one saving grace. Mine was supposed to be the bright green natural finish. The green is so dark, it is almost black. You can barely see the wood grain. The tremolo is so cheap and unstable, I ended up removing the springs and blocking it with a dead 9-volt battery in the back, and wedged the spring bracket in front of it for the ground. So mine is a hard tail now. This greatly increased sustain, and I can't hardly knock it out of tune now. They say the body is basswood. It is definitely not. Basswood is actually an excellent wood for guitar bodies, quite dense, with a good sometimes nasty tone. SX guitars are a good example. This guitar body might weigh 2 pounds. It is made of balsa wood, which is similar to bamboo. It's too light to produce much tone or sustain. The pickups might have 3 or 4 windings in them. I had to adjust them as close to the strings as possible to get about half the volume my other guitars put out. And the strings that came on it were garbage, as were the accessories that came with it. The strings immediately started leaving something like pencil lead all over my fingers and the maple fretboard, and were new and dead at the same time. So it got a set of Ernie Ball Regular Slinky. Oddly though, after all of this, the guitar is delightful to play. I'm actually glad I bought it.
I have had a Glarry Tele. The bridge came off the minute I tried to tune it up. Both the pickguard and bridge had been drilled and redrilled so many times there was nothing I could do. These guitars work best as kindling unless you get real lucky.
A perfect Pete Townshend show closer, too. Play your final king-hell rocker of a song with this baby and then smash it into toothpicks. Buy 'em by the gross.
Black Oak Arkansas used to do that with Venturas in the '70s.
Yeah, the only downer is Pete used to do it with SGs lol
Shout out to the cheap strat gang
Just sand off the logo and no one will know the difference.
Beat on it with three chords and the truth.
Let’s goooo
@@musicadynamica fuck yea lmao
We here f#^kin shiz up
Great starter guitars for sure. The wood type doesn't matter at all and it can be modded. Hell, you could put a warmoth neck, loaded pickguard, etc and make it great. The point is for under a hundred bucks, it's an electric guitar.
You said, "I'm wackin' it pretty good."😂😂
I think it would be cool to do videos of you modding the guitar and see what you can make of it! See if you can get it up to Fender quality! I think it would make for some great videos, to show beginners what they can do to their cheap guitars as they get the money to do upgrades!👍😎🎸🎶
Got one coming.
I have a set of HSS configured pickups laying around from an 80s Ibanez, and a Wilkinson bridge takeoff from who knows where.
New pots for 8 bucks.
New Pickguard 15 bucks
New 5 way switch 15 bucks
Wilkinson ez lock tuners 30 bucks
Grafteck style low friction nut 5 bucks
Do a proper set-up on the guitar and Shellac the neck - (Brad Paisley's favorite)
120 bucks all in and from all the reviews, it will put a Squire to shame and be Gigable.
You could probably do it cheaper if you scoured sleazybay and craigslist.
it wouldn't take much now days to get it up-to Fender specs
Basswood is used on a lot of guitars, most metal players I know prefer basswood. :)
HELLO, I BOUGHT 2 OF THESE THE WHITE STRAT AND THE SUNBURST STRAT, IT CAME PLAYABLE, I SET THEM UP, POLISHED THE FRETS, TWEEKED THE TRUSS ROD, TIGHTENED ALL OF THE HARDWARE NEW STRINGS ECT. FOR $60 BUCKS YOU CANT GO WRONG, IF YOU KNOW HOW TO WORK ON GUITARS, I LOVE THE UNFINISHED NECK, I DO NOT LIKE THE NITRO CELLULOSE FINISH ON MY LES PAUL, ROCK ON, COUSIN FIGEL
When i read your comment i thought you said “ Twerked the truss rod “ lol.
It has been interesting watching your production values develop over the last couple of years.
Your friend in tone, Norman Mozley
No disrespect basswood is a good tonewood and it has been used by many high-end makers with excellent results. It is a very light and fairly soft wood, and it's light in color, too, with minimal grain. Ibanez JEM70VSFG has American basswood body
I bought 4 of these Glarry guitars and for the price , i got a great buy. I am a Luthier and i do know alot about electric guitars , this strat that i bought is in really good conition no defects, you do need to change the pickups they are way to weak on the strat, now on the teles they are a lot better. some of them do need fret work and they all need intonation on them ,But for what you get for the price it"s a really good deal.
A good finish in fire wood look really nice
Hey Austin - just thought I would let you know that tonight I purchased a guitar, their warlock type, and a bass as well as one rectangular hard case from Glarry Music. Once I placed my order I then left them feedback and informed them that I watched your review and that review caused me to visit their site and purchase from them. I figured it would be very beneficial to you if I informed them of this information. Hopefully you will get more companies asking you to review their products!!
Thanks, Ron! I hope you enjoy them and are able to customize them up really cool
All the parts are machine made so once someone got hold of the specification data, they can keep making exact copies in terms of shape and matching. The same goes for pick-ups. The only remaining quality variance resides in the used materials and the finishing.
Guitars that were designed to be easy to make in the first place, like Strats or Telecasters, can be well copied at rock bottom prices. It is a lot like ripping a CD and selling copies of it. The packaging may leave to be desired but the recording is the same.
Did Glarry send you that? If so they probably picked the best one out of a lot. The issue with buying cheapo guitars online is you never know what you're going to get.. sharp fret ends, unpolished frets, dead spots, poor setup, finish defects. Having the manufacterer send you a gem hides the quality control issue with cheapo guitars.
Agreed ... I'm more interested in the unpacking videos made by everyday guys.
I am in total agreement with you...I made the mistake of buying one of these after watching the 4 or 5 videos that are out there right now....I spent well over an hours trying to set this up and it was not playable...after several emails they finally gave me a refund...they never sent me a return tag so I still have guitar....waiting to find out if they even want it back....if not it is going in the trash.
I upgraded the LaGrima clone I got with some eBay hotrail style humbuckers, changed it to a single tone and volume with upgraded pots and put a kill switch where the other tone knob was. Also, put some locking tuners and a lot better output jack. Sounds great and I have about $150 in it and I did the upgrades myself so that was cool to me.
THEY HAVE REALLY IMPROVED THE FIT AND FINISH. MY GST IS GREAT IN THAT RESEPECT
If you want a good cheap guitar for modding and upgrading buy a MONOPRICE INDIO CALI. Usually $99 with free shipping on their site. I bought a second one today for $79 on sale. Telling up front the tuners suck! The pickups don't sound half bad. Neck is really nice which is what matters to me the most. Everything is easily upgradable. A MIM fender trem drops right in. BATHTUB cutout so you can put whatever pickup configuration you want.
I would like my pickguard medium well, please
Fake Fender Friday
I should've thought of that haha
These Glarry guitars are great mod platforms in my opinion. You'd be hard pressed to find a better body and neck for $60. I replaced the tuners, nut, electronics, output jack, switch and pickups, dressed the frets and fretboard and have a nice playing, nice sounding guitar. I can switch it back to the stock condition in 15 minutes if I ever decide to get rid of it but I'd never done any guitar modding before and this let me get my feet wet for almost no risk and very little cash outlay.
26:15 theres your answer...
I think it's hard to beat! If the neck is as nice as you say, it's worth the $60 alone! It's a great platform to mod! Put on some new tuners, sand down the rosewood at the nut for clearance, and install a better nut. Get a set of pickups from GFS ( I got some clearance ones for a cheap guitar for under $20 that aren't too bad!)and put the cream covers and knobs on it. Upgrade the electronics and trem. All of this, if you do the work yourself, can be done pretty cheaply. When youre done, I Think you would have a great guitar. Sand off the name on the headstock and put your own logo. You can even tint the neck with some amber stain. It would be a fun project!👍😎🎸🎶
I ordered one of these after watching your video and the neck pocket wasn’t routed level on the body. Maybe a fluke? Contacted the company and they keep saying make bridge adjustment after sending them photos of the problem with the neck twisting in the body. So maybe they sent the RUclipsrs guitars that were quality checked. But different than what the viewers receive. I ordered another one to test that theory. It’s not a expensive guitar but they should still offer you something playable. I’ll keep ya posted.
Update: I bought another one and it had the newer neck and was a thinner neck profile. And had the same routing problems the company did say I could return it after several emails and pictures explaining the problem. So I think all of the body’s have the same routing problem. So I’ll have to fix it myself and shim for proper neck relief. If I wasn’t experienced I wouldn’t recommend this guitar but if your someone who knows how to setup and modify and enjoy tinkering with it then it’s not a bad guitar. What do you expect for 50-60 bucks quality control lol.
My first guitar is a Fretmaster Strat (asian guitar) and my first amp is a Peavey Rage 158
I still have both of them and i actually use because i haven't found a guitar that comfortable
Glarry instruments are an excellent bang for the buck. Great mod platform for sure.
$60!!! If it plays OK, then what is to complain about?? $60 may buy you a decent pickup, compared to a complete guitar???? Looks like a bargain to me, clearly Trogly isn't used to Strats.
To be honest these guitars are a better quality than fifties and early 60s original strats due to advancement in manufacturing techniques. Believe it or not.
Dude, it's under $70 dollars. WTF! It's a functioning electric guitar. The word is "indented" no indented and as others have stated, basswood isn't by default an inferior wood.
The Glarry ST3 isn't meant to be a Fender Custom Shop killer. It's meant to be a Squier Bullet killer.
If you're a Gibson Les Paul guy, you'll find an S-type or T-type guitar thinner-sounding than you're used to. (Or thinner-sounding than you'd like.) That is just how they sound.
Trem bridges are known for causing tuning-stability issues. For Strats/S-types, Scott Grove of the RUclips channel Groovy Music Lessons recommends roller saddles, and I have found that they do indeed help on my Squier California Strat.
(This little-known, now discontinued series is based on the SE Strats that came in turn-of-the-millennium Squier starter packs and are now prized among Squier fanciers. It was once sold in Asia and Latin America, and is apparently rare in the US. If you ever find one, it might be worth a video.)
Basswood is not cheap wood, that's a common misconception
That guitar is great, I'm going to buy a few of them and do just a few upgrades and gift them to some friend's kids. I build custom guitars and I could never build something that nice for that cheep, the wood alone costs more. Basswood is a great wood, it's very light and if you finish it properly it won't dent up. Great review.
Tune instability could be because of the strings touching the fretboard after the Nut, also plastic nut arent the best really. You rarelly need to change tuners to make your tuning stability better, unless they're outright broken. My strat copy was less than 100U$, and i had a lot of problems with tuning. I sent it for a set up, and i guarantee i never had trouble with tuning again.
This is totally worth 60U$ on, if i was in america i would totally aquire some of these to mod on.
The tuners suck! But will hold if you stretch them a ton....will seat.....tons of play in them
This looks very similar quality to a Squier Affinity strat. For half the price. Can't go wrong there. (Sorry, Fender) I have a Squier Affinity strat as well as a Mexican deluxe Fender Stratocaster and I enjoy tinkering with the old squier still. New players could save some money here for sure. 👍
The affinity is way better. One word. Alder.
Fair point. I've never played a guitar made of basswood, so I'm not sure. One thing I do like about the Squier is it's so light compared to the Fender, but that's the cheapest you may want to go with the wood.
@@devon-aire I played a Squier bullet (they have basswood bodies) and it sounded pretty good so theres nothing wrong with basswood but i would prefer a solid wood. I love my Affinity strat, cant believe how good it is and how little it costs. One of the best budget guitars.
@@j_freed kek. To each their own, i find the neck on the affinity to be pretty comfortable.
Woo. I didn’t expect to hear Over And Over out of all songs😂
wish they still had that headstock.
Me too
Just got one, unplayable out of the box but a couple of hours fettling and we got a keeper
....
A beginner guitarist will probably be happy with this guitar
as it is. It looks good and if it plays fairly decent, that's all I wanted when I began to play guitar.
Cheap strat copies are great for modifying or just a beater guitar. Let the amp do the work.
The james burton tele upgrade is bass wood $1700.00
Put a cheap guitar in a great guitar players hands like Stitz and any guitar sounds amazing....it's all in the hands
Lemon oil on the fretboard, Tru-oil on the neck. There actually was grain in that plain maple lol
Great review
I've been playing guitar since 1979 . Right handed. Lately I want to learn left handed so i'm not spending a lot. This looks perfect. They got lefty's on e bay
Honest opinion. You get what you pay for. Thanks
If I homebuilt an SG would you review it? ;)
If you really want to see if the neck has a finish, put a drop of water on the back of the headstock. If it beads up, there's a finish, if it soaks in, I'd rub some finishing oil on it and call it a day
Either my Dad received a bad one or they're sending out well built ones to be reviewed. The one my Dad received needed some work done. The nut action was too high, the nut had to be replaced because the one they use is made out of soft plastic. I installed a tusq nut in it and the playability improved. The truss rod nut was WAY down in the hole. I had to use a long hex key to get to it. The guitar was not set up and it had 10's on it. When we switched to 9's we couldnt intonate because the bridge was in the wrong spot. The saddle ended up so far forward on the bridge that the were sitting on top of the bridge screws. For 60 bucks you get what you pay for. If you want a knock around guitar that you wouldnt mind losing these are it but at least in my Dad's experience you couldnt gig with this guitar.
U should post some lessons of simple stuff. I liked that clean dreamy chord progression you did .picked with your fingers. Immune they and figure that one out
What kind of wood is the fretboard made of for real? Since some say it is not real rosewood. I want to know how to clean the fretboard and maintain it good. Also I want to know the basic simple way to treat the neck. Nice playing! It sounded pretty stratty kinda like 60's/70's music :) Then you threw in a little back scratch fever :) That's got decent tone, actually.
Definitely has the Strat sound. I've noticed some Strat ceramic pickups sound really authentic. Like a 50s Surf guitar sound.
I think it should be mentioned that there are a bunch of us that prefer a flat finish neck, because it makes it less sticky with sweaty hands. I actually take a piece of 400 grit sandpaper to all my gloss finished necks. That fat neck has me interested, but I'd probably be better off investing that money into a set of Tex-Mex pickups for the cheap project strat I already have.
I love my glarry guitars. I have several. I just change out the tuners and pick ups and I have a great guitar
The more you review Glarrys the more I want to get a GP. I believe you gave it 7 out of 10 for a starter. The GJazz looks intriguing, also.
i like the fact that he said "on this one" everytime like they work that one more than the others before sending it lol
sometimes a brand will make sure to send a good one to a reviewer.
Thanks the demo. Is that noisy with hum? Did it come electronically grounded or have to do grounding ? Thanks
Love the Trogly show
I purchase my 1st electric guitar 1974, I paid $65 for a Hondo SG shaped guitar, I wish my first guitar would have been half as nice as this Glarry ST3.
Good Video Austin, thank you.
I had a Squire that looked just like that. I played it for a year and then let her go. It had a nice neck but not enough frets on the fret board. The electronics were cheap and the tuners barely keep the guitar in tune.
Lesson here, buy the quality instrument and you will play better, learn faster and always have value on your investment.
Based on a $60 price tag, I have heard these guitars are well worth the money for a beginner or even maybe a project guitar. The review on the strap, let's face it, I don't think anyone watching this video would have thought about using that strap on stage. Giging musicians are well aware of what they need to have on their guitars to make sure they are secure. That could have been left unsaid. I don't mean to sound critical because I do watch this channel a lot. I just feel this time your viewers should have been given the benefit of the doubt regarding the strap. It's a $60 guitar with a free strap. That's really all the review it needs other than, how does it sound? For the money, it sounds just fine.
Great review. We need to get you up to speed on Po Folks guitars. You need to go slummin more often and get down in the gutters with the wanna B's. We have more fun for less! Now you need to do a BLIND play test and see if non Guitar regular folks can hear the difference in a 3K Gibson and a $100.00 special on the same amp and with talented player. That should be fun...
this guitar with ibanez ts mini without eq sound will good!because this guitar sound thin but ts mini sound fat will make good balance.
Love the videos
What do you expect for the money!! I have seen worse more expensive guitars for sale, like the idea of trade Tuesday go for it let’s see how far you get!!
When you find these kind of guitars you realise how much popular guitar companies are ripping you off
fender told them to change the headstock
If you don't feel like buying something made by Americans, then don't do it. Shut up.
These things are cheap junk. Crappy assembly, the cheapest sourced parts, and just crappy sounding. Support your local merchants and look for a decent used guitar.
A floating bridge is normal. It supposed to be off the body so you can go either way. Can tell you are a Gibson man. May be in your interest to learn about Fenders. Their are a lot of great vintage Strats out there in the resale market.
Cheap and cheerful! It's a great value starter guitar.
Thanks for the review.
John Petrucci Musicman Signature that goes for $2730. With a basswood body.
I was just looking to buy a new beginning guitar (I'm not that good)
Those PCBs on the 5-way switch are not great long term. A Fender switch is a $10 upgrade and well worth it. Grover mini tuners are like $50, and now you've doubled the cost. Might as well get a Squier Affinity Strat for better pickups.
It definitely has its own sound, i like the neck position
What did you think about the strings ? good video , Thanks.
Tuners almost never affect tuning stability. Unless they're broken. I can't get over how many youtube people seem to think this. Even when they have a lot of backlash, it's not really a problem, as long as you tune UP to pitch, now down (I swear, this seems to be a forgotten "trick"). What is a problem is when strings aren't sufficiently wound on the posts. Or when strings are hanging up at the nut and/or string trees. A floating strat bridge is not at all unusual. But it isn't going to stay in tune regardless if the strings are hanging up. The guitar sounded anemic, particularly clean, which may be the recording quality. The pickups looked like generic Asian strat types, which usually aren't terrible, with the single ceramic bar magnet under steel slug polepieces in a plastic bobbin. Traditional Strat pickups don't really use a dedicated bobbin, nor separate magnet from polepieces. The sonic difference can be subtle to significant, but the reasons for the differences can be profoundly technical. Basswood is an inexpensive wood, but well respected for guitar use. And maple is also inexpensive wood. Easily sourced, strong, stable, which is why Gibson uses it on less expensive instruments. It's just cheap. Unless it's selected for figure like flame or birdseye. For decades, if a Fender neck had any nice figuring, it was pretty much just coincidence. Fancy figure adds nothing to quality or tonality. Just aesthetics. And price.
Most of the time tuning problems are down to poorly cut nuts as much as anything else. I love it when people blame strings that are sharp on tuners. Yeah, they have a ghost in them that increases tension...
Most Fender japan, Ibanez etc are made from Basswood. Even thousand euro Suhr guitars use basswood. One of my favourite strats made from well basswood. And they are all good. I guess you can get differenet grades of basswood just like any other lumber. Get some cheap alnico pickups from Aliexpress, Amazon and it'll start to sound what its emulating.