How to Buy  Top Brand Guitar Cheap Review

How to buy top brand guitars cheaper than a dealer. Can this actually be true? You bet it can and I'll show you how here...

Buying Fender, Gibson, Ibanez and more guitars cheap - a review 2026

Can you really buy top brand guitars cheap?

Introduction and Preamble

Electric guitars over recent times have rocketed up to almost unbelievable prices, and even if you go to your friendly 'music store' and try to strike a fair price, it's unlikely to be what price you would want to pay. And things can be even worse, you go to the music store and have a really good look around and you notice that they have more used guitars than they have new? And it can be even worse, those used guitars including the free knocks and dings actually are for sale at a higher price than what they are worth!

Now come on, don't tell me you have never had that above situation happen to you? That price pressure really is everywhere worldwide and it seems no matter where you are in the world, if you want a top brand guitar of the premium brands like Fender, Ibanez, Gibson, Schechter, EVH, PRS, Epiphone or other makes it seems you're going to take out a mortgage and have to pay their price.

 But how can you 'beat the price' hikes? After all, music retailers tend to stick to those retail prices or somewhere very near. And for new guitars there may be a dark underbelly to that, but more on that later. So how would you like to buy a brand new guitar maybe even hundreds of $ dollars or £ pounds lower cost for what's basically the exact same thing sitting on that music store shelf?

A Guitar Body

Click the above image to see a view of the Fender Jeff Beck Signature body that I bought (I'll get in to the prices later) and as you can see its basically pristine and perfect. Even checking over the back of the guitar body just shows a totally perfect guitar body that is entirely complete except for the neck - it even included the Fender whammy bar! but did not include a case.

Yes there it is in all its glory - even that back does not have a mark on it - it's basically brand new and I guess that if you compared a body off a brand new Jeff Beck Signature guitar then you would see no difference whatsoever.  Honestly its all here as you can see, the body, even the neck plate and screws. Ha and the whammy hole for the bar is still factory fresh and still sealed with its silver sticky seal. I guess with the shipping to the UK that the price is increased a bit from the actual buy price, but if you live in the USA you're on to a winner for sure.

Now this is an Alder body and I can't easily tell if its one or two pieces, but I guess you could take a look on the Fender website and check the specifications of the Fender Jeff Beck Signature guitar and you'll know as much as I do. Its Model 011-9600 Fender part number I guess. And those pickups they say are NOT the standard Fender noiseless pickups but modified ones I'm told for Jeff Beck.

But I guess we should check it out a bit further right? Who knows, it could be a copy or counterfeit or... well you fill in the blanks on that. So let's take a closer look under the pick guard and BTW its an 11 screw pick guard.

.Those pickups were based on the Mark III noiseless pickups, but were modified specifically for this signature guitar to Jeff's exact needs. And hopefully you have heard Jeff Beck playing? Right?

There is nothing unique for the switch and the pots, and certainly no modified wiring or anything like that, but an image like this does conform that this guitar is entirely a genuine Fender Jeff Beck signature body and that was hopefully convincing that it really is.

Questions to Ask?

Well there are many questions that you could ask yourself about this guitar part for example:

•  Maybe I could buy 'Authorized' parts and complete one cheaper?
• I could buy the Fender pickups (£259.00 in the UK) and other bits to be 'the same'? Maybe cheaper?
• Sadly there is no alternative that will hold its price long term! So maybe those other ideas are for the birds...

I have to tell you I wanted to sell a Warmouth guitar to a Fender authorized music store - it had a genuine Fender neck etc. Fender genuine case, and basically all other Fender parts, and the dealer did not even want it on his premises! He would not even make me an offer? You might ask why? I could go in to it, but let's just say he was not interested and maybe you can come up with some idea about that. 

What will I save?

So, this body cost me about $670.00 and $80 to ship to the UK. Lets work that out to GBP today. Its currently $1.33 to the pound so the cost would be £576.00 plus the UK tax which Ill assume at 20% (yes really) totaling £691.00 in total.

The Jeff Beck guitar as I write is: £2579.00 including tax etc., but it does come with a case so lets say for the guitar it would be £2400.00

Take the £2400 minus the body = £1709.00 to beat to get a better deal than off the shelf.

I can buy a Jeff Beck neck today from the same supply for just £569.00 plus about £59.00 shipping totaling £628.00 and the tax on that makes the total £753.60. Totaling the price of the guitar in total is £691.00 (body) +753.60 (neck)  totals £1444.00 complete. So I think that taken away from our current priced Fender I will be £ 955.00 BETTER OFF than buying one off the shelf in the UK.

You might find that you may be better or worse off depending on where in the world you live, but in my case nearly £1000 cheaper than from Fender dealers says a lot... and I have even accounted for the case!

How Exactly is it Done Tony?

OK well its all pretty simple... and you might not believe me but those parts came from https://www.ebay.com/str/thestratosphere 

So how do they do it? My guess is that they obtain guitars from one source or another (all genuine stuff), and the 'split' the guitars in to parts. But they also split them in to complete bodies and necks too. So I am able to go along to that company and buy the body or the neck - or even both if I wanted to and save a small fortune compared the UK cost to me.

Some might say 'Its too hard I can't do it'? or something like that, but to be honest fitting a neck on to the body from all Fender parts is simple.

I have to tell you that I have only ever bought parts from that company, and always paid what you would pay. Ha it's likely they don't even know I mention them! And I'm not just saying that. You won't find reviewers of Fender gear telling you how to get a lower cost Fender guitar (or for that matter any of those other brands I mentioned - they sell all of those), and as far as Fender dealers go, to be honest, I have never bought a Fender guitar from an authorized music store except for just once 20 years ago and been happy with the price.

This article is not sponsored in any way whatsoever and I honestly don't make money from it and have not been 'told' what to say either - its entirely a genuine how to.

Always Question Pricing

You might remember (or not) about Fender (FMIC) being pursued by the UK's CMA* (a government body that ensures no price fixing) for basically making prices of their equipment be all the same price... or something very similar to that. The CMA (I believe) fined Fender around $12M for that little episode. Fender later went back to the CMA, did something about it and the fine I believe was reduced to $2M for some reason. Nevertheless, they were not alone, it seems that Casio and other were also found guilty of breaching the law too and also were fined.

* The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is a non-ministerial government department in the United Kingdom responsible for ensuring competitive markets and tackling unfair business practices. It was formed in 2014 by merging the Competition Commission and the Office of Fair Trading, following the Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Act 2013. The CMA also has consumer protection responsibilities and, since late 2024, also oversees digital markets under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA). This organization has a great deal of power and they do investigate many business aspects.

Who knows exactly what went on, but those fines were not pence, and being very frank, who knows what goes on today? Certainly there is no way of telling by the regular customer like me and you. You should ALWAYS question pricing and if it is the 'same' everywhere then you can report it to the CMA yourself I believe.

Honestly, I hope that this short overview of how you really can obtain that guitar you always wanted for a lower cost than otherwise it might have been could help you. I have no axe to grind with anyone, but if you are happy to pay the higher price then good luck to you. Me? I prefer to get the very same thing for a better price - after all they would be both Fender instruments in my opinion. Or whatever other brand you want to check you should because that company sells many brands and with costs today honestly I recommend you try it.

I do recommend The Stratosphere on eBay and I have bought many parts from them over the years that have all been fine. In fact I've never had a single bad part from them.

The Body And Service Score?

I have to say that this body, the guitar neck I later bought from them and the service were all nigh on perfect - even the shipping was reasonable compared to many other companies I have bought from over the years so it has to be a score for everything of:

10/10

And they deserve it.

Thanks for visiting the website and for reading this article (no not me!) and I trust that it helps someone to maybe get the guitar of their dreams just a little better priced than the main stream routes we all sometimes take. I am currently completing 21 reviews for 2026 approximately by May/June - they take up to a week for just one of the larger inside and out reviews and so I thank you for coming to my website and trusting my reviews - they are all there to help others. And it's so hard work for me... but I do enjoy doing it all. I have focused on YouTube for years, but it's time I updated my website that still gets thousands of visitors every month. Thank you all.

Links:

The Video Review (in more depth)

The Built Fender Jeff Beck Guitar Video Review 

My YouTube Channel 

Thanks. 

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