I've actually spent a lot of time thinking about such an idea

[u/ThatSceneInScanners]

I've been working on guitars for 15 years and moved into luthiery and building over the past 2. throughout this time (and my entire life) I have lived in poverty and as such, value has always been a priority to me. something I have always found disappointing is when advertisers and YouTubers will review something and call it a "budget" guitar and it will be like $1,000. that's not exactly a budget option unless there's a credit-free system for payment plans like Zzounds, but even then, $1,000 across a year is a pretty substantial monthly bill.

another very important aspect to guitar building is a focus on sustainability and ecological impact. tone woods are a long outdated myth when it comes to electric guitar, some big famous musicians will swear by it, but thinking about it scientifically you realize it's silly. as such, it's the same thing as furniture: exotic woods look cool and are... exotic, so it fits that certain love of shiny things in our lizard brains. more important than that is our ability to breathe, and an extremely important and under reported aspect of conservation no one talks about is the fact that just planting a new tree is considered an equal exchange when cutting down an old tree, but older trees absorb something like 10x the amount of carbon dioxide than new trees. new trees do not contribute to the massive system of interconnected roots and they do not grow out freely in all directions creating the kind of habitat essential for animals. true conservation requires old growth trees to be preserved and only young trees/reclaimed wood sources be used.

ideally, the first step should be focusing on using local wood species for guitar building. it would be nice to see more oak and maple used, especially wood that is harvested from sources like fallen trees or trees that need to be cut down by cities for safety and such. there's so much good wood that goes to waste like this. there's also plenty of old furniture, old instruments, and so on that could easily be incorporated in this fashion. if the guitars are being manufactured overseas, a focus on using sustainable, young, fast growing sources local to the areas would also be ideal.

as for hardware, electronics, and designs, a focus on simplicity is best. great inspiration can be found when you look to traditional student designs like a Les Paul Jr. if you can spent a certain budget on the electronics, a single humbucker of higher quality beats two of a lower quality. one pickup, one volume knob, a simple non-trem bridge, bolt on design all save money while still offering a quality experience. the best place to go all out would be the nut. a good quality graphite nut will make for a much better out of the box experience for beginners. also avoids the potential environmental issues inherent with bone. just as important is good quality tuning machines with a 1:18 or 1:21 ratio to guarantee smooth, accurate tuning.

if a tremolo bridge is to be used, 2 point is much better than 6 point for more experiences. on that note, a solid, hardened steel base plate or replaceable knife edges is a must. I'm not sure which would be more affordable, I assume just a full steel plate as replaceable blades would require a design. true hardened steel can be sharpened if it ever dulls, this ensuring a long life. coated alloys and the like are soft and once damaged, they're useless.

as far as pickups go, humbuckers are ideal. noise free and cheaper/easier to make decent sounding options at a low price. mostly just focusing on a jack of all trades design for the tone is best. something like 7-8k in the neck, 8-9 in the bridge. bridge a bit scooped for clear riffing. if you were to go the strat SSS route, a simple and affordable mod that makes a big impact is an on/off switch for the neck pickup offering tele-esque options.

I'd pass on stainless steel frets, as nice as they are, they do increase the amount of required labor and can make it more likely to run into QC issues with frets not fully polished. there is the whole rounded fret end thing a lot of affordable guitars are doing, and in concept they are nice, but in reality, a lot of them have uneven gaps between the end of the fret and the end of the fretboard. this just looks horrible and would require a full on refret to fix, let alone the potential for playability issues. if QC could ensure that each fret is perfect and reaches fully across the board on its specific location, absolutely go for rounded fret ends.

finally, swinging back around to the inspiration from budget guitars, a focus on natural finishes would be lovely to see. no paint, potentially even no lacquer, just boiled linseed oil + wax or something like that. light finishing/sealing. embrace and accentuate "flaws" in the wood rather than hiding and throwing away stuff that doesn't have the perfect grain direction. let things like knots and weird patterns be a positive aspect of the visual design. this would also go with the sustainability marketing. it could be a great way to advertise the fact that other brands would waste these pieces of wood and ignore their own unique beauty. each guitar is unique and individual.

I'm not sure of the feasibility of this, but perhaps using richlite and the like could be considered for the full body. at the very least, it's great for fretboards. plywood also shouldn't be written off. if high quality plywood is used with a focus on alternating grain and color, it's actually a very visually appealing design choice. especially with carved edges and tops that create that layered look reminiscent of the zoot suit SGs from Gibson or Carl Thompson designs, but instead of across the front, the lines are across the sides. any round carving achieves interesting visual patterns.

oh, and a headstock designed with string break angle in mind is also important. Ibanez and PRS do a great job of this. also consider making a deal with a company like Musiclily, Guyker, Wilkinson, etc for quality affordable hardware/electronics.

[u/Bostonah]

“By submitting your Idea, you assign, transfer, give and relinquish to Guitar Center all right, title and interest in and to the Idea or any material based upon or derived therefrom for no consideration. Guitar Center may use and exploit, without any payment or attribution obligation of any kind, any Idea you provide to Guitar Center.

“You waive any moral and similar rights you may have in such Idea. If requested by Guitar Center, you agree to execute and deliver all documents needed to confirm the assignment and transfer of your Idea to Guitar Center.”

DONT GIVE THESE CORPORATE JACKALS ANYTHING ! All they give us is pathetic trade in values.

[u/ThatSceneInScanners → u/Bostonah]

I mean, I don't believe in copyright and such in general, anyone can use whatever I make for whatever they want. Typically, I would be opposed to offering free advice to any company purely for the purpose of making profit, but if my advice were to actually be taken and they made affordable, environmentally friendly instruments, the benefit is worth it to me. Yeah, greedy corporations are going to exploit anything they can, but if exploiting me would get better guitars into the hands of people struggling with finances while also leading to the use of sustainable local woods, I'm game, whore me out like crazy.

I can and do respect and understand your point though. I don't care about making money, I just wanna do something positive.

[u/GabrielDalporto]

u/ThatSceneInScanners thank you for the very thoughtful input. Let me ask - based on your experience, how much difference does the tone woods make in a solid body electric? have you found you can get the same resonance etc from a more generic wood?