Bridgecraft GE3911R Strat Copy

No clue of the year on this thing, or where it was made. I'm going to guess overseas. It's your standard Strat copy: SSS, 21-fret maple neck with rosewood fretboard, tremolo, nice sunburst finish, crummy plastic tuners. Came with a cheap gig bag. Low score because there isn't really anything special about it.

Well, it sounds like a Strat. Really. Considering the price, you would think it's a noisy, microphonic mess... but I was surprised. The pickups sound very good. Running this straight into my Fender Super Champ XD, the guitar can get those glassy clean tones that most normal Strats can get. I was actually pretty surprised. The pickups are a little on the weak side, but the tone is there.

Here's where you can tell that I paid what I paid for this thing. The body is Basswood and is extremely light. Conversely, it's also incredibly easy to ding the finish.

The action was WAY high out of the box, and the wood seems pretty susceptible to the elements; not too long after purchase, the neck warped to the point where it's bowing severely and the tremolo claw screws slipped out slightly, causing the bridge to tilt forward from the string tension. I don't think it's possible to fix the tremolo claw, so I just shoved a wood block in the cavity. I rarely use the whammy bar anyway.

The tuning machines are crap. Plastic. There is no excuse for strings just completely slipping out of tune at random. Then again... this was a super-cheap guitar.

All things considered, I have played worse guitars that Guitar Center was trying to sell for $500. Still, could be better.

Now, having said all that I have said about this guitar, I wouldn't really depend on it at all. I have some mods planned: new neck, new tuners, maybe a new bridge. Probably going to re-wire the thing too. After that, it might be a decent player. As-is, with the horribly bowing neck and crummy tuners, it's not going anywhere beyond my apartment.

I have a good idea that this "company" is 150 child laborers and ten mercenaries carrying AK-47s.

Been playing 11 years. Have a Telecaster & a Japanese LP Junior copy, and have owned some cheap Epiphones, Strats, and Duo-Sonics in the past.

For $65 (that's right $65 DOLLARS) you can't find a better guitar. Read that sentence carefully. You ARE getting a $65 dollar guitar. It plays. It is functional. Is comparable to, say, a Squier Affinity Strat? No, it's not quite as good. But the thing still works.

Basically it's a great guitar for modding. And it's DIRT F!@$ING CHEAP. I wouldn't have one as my main guitar, but if your 8 year old is whining for a guitar and you're strapped for cash, head over to the flea market and pick one up. (That's where I found this one!)

I went onto eBay and I ended up buying this as my first guitar. It has lasted for about one and a half years now, and it sounds great. It came with 2 tone knobs and 1 vaolume knob, and the pickups are 'Strat style, but they don't sound like a 'Strat. I play Heavy Metal(hardcore, grindcore, Christiancore) and that is about it. It is still the only guitar I own, but it is pretty good.

This guitar is great for Metal and hard rock, and it even sounds good clean. With a Boss DS-1 Distortion pedal, it sounds like you could use it as a recording guitar. It can be pretty loud, or quiet, whatever you need.

If you play with alot of distortion(which i do), it sounds pretty good. But, if you play any higher than the 12th fret, it won't hold the note for that long, and it just buzzes out.

The strap buttons will jiggle and wiggle and unsrwew themselves, and after they fall out, they can't be fixed, only replaced. I put a new pickgaurd on it and it looks pretty cool, but now the tone and volume knobs wiggle around. I wouldn't use it for a gig, but I'm going to have to untill I get a new guitar.

I got this guitar off ebay thinking it would not even be playable but I was strangely captured by this guitar's unique sound. The body is made out of basswood (this is the main reason for it's sound), when you pick it up your immediately surprised by how light it is. Feels like it ways about 2 lbs.

Also, I would like to mention, even though the construction is not completely accurate, they definitely payed attention to a lot of little details in the construction of the guitar. The poles on the pickups are placed slightly different on each pickup to make sure they line up perfectly under the strings (due to how the strings come closer together from the bridge to the neck). Also, the strap buttons are the best ever, much more effective than normal fender or gibson strap buttons.

one complaint, the tremolo arm sits a little too high for my tastes (making it hard to play while you're holding the arm). so I just use another one from another strat copy that I have.

If you want a guitar that sounds like a strat do not get this guitar (duh). If you want something that sounds cool and unique than this is a cheap and fun option. The sound on this guitar reminds me a lot of the cheap guitars of yesteryear. On the neck position it sounds a lot like a Danelectro U1, and on the bridge position it sounds a lot like jack white's Airline (throw a Big Muff pedal in there to nail that white stripes sound). The sound overall is very mid-rangey and probably comparable to other guitars with basswood bodies (like those classic Ibanez guitars that metal dudes play).

Action is not the best in the world, I have played strat copies that are better (johnson) but it's still probably better than a lot of squires. The paint job is fine. What you can't tell in the picture online is that the edges of the guitar aren't as rounded off as a real strat it's more tele style. Which again, I think just gives it it's own unique style.

will this guitar withstand live playing? Who cares! at this price you can go ahead and smash it and get a new one.

dunno.

Like I said before if you are looking for something that sounds like a strat you will be disappointed. If you already have a nice strat or are just looking for a cool sounding guitar, this is cheap option.

Also be aware of the scam the eBay dudes are pulling. Yes, it is listed as $19.99 but the shipping ends up being about $55. Obviously what they're doing is the guitar costs $55 and you are just bidding on the shipping. Luckily for us, they have absolutely flooded ebay with these things so you can safely bid and you will always win.

COME WITH EVERY THING A BIGGINER OR AN OLD PRO NEEDS! There are several optins available, including a tiger stripe if you want (overboard I say). This is what I got for my $35: transparent red 21 fret stat copy with an S/S/S configuration, fully adjustable tremolo bridge, fully adjustible truss rod, rosewood fret board, 5 way switch, bone nut, gippy strap locks, and 2 tone knobs and 1 volume knob. It also came with a nice adjustible strap, extra high E string, 2 different hex wrenches (for bridge and truss rod), tremolo(whammy) bar, pick(crappy), 3ft cable, and a plastic canvace gig bag with one about 15x11 pocket. Passive elctronics. Made in Mexico or China I think. Medium Jumbo frets(smooth), unpolished but sanded maple neck(great buy), and 3 ply pickguard.

I play blues, blues rock, hard rock, grunge, numetal, and pretty much anything else in between. Guitar can achive a great delta blues/ texas blues tone, then go to middle position and you can get a great clen alternative tone (nirvana, incubus, etc), and the bridge position is a little too week for my taste (i would replace that with a rail pickup, like a Dimarzio Tone Zone). A effects or distortion and there is a plethera of tona at your fingertips, very nice guitar and comes the way it is with a load of great tone.

Finish is perfect and contour is great for sitting or standing. It came with the action allmost perfect for lite strings like ernie ball super slinky lites or regulars, but since I like a hearty tone I use Ernie Ball 10-52's or Skinny Bottom Heavy Top. This give low strings of 12 scale strings, and the highs of 10s, great, everybody uses them, Kurt Cobain(Nirvana) to Adam Jones(TOOL). So when I switched it to my prefered strings it had a too high action and horrible intonation, I lowered the action and adjusted intonation in a matter of a half hour and it played smooth and like a charm. Now the grain in the fretboard is medium so you can feel it very much at first. If you use lemon oil or olive oil on the board, rub it in the fret board and wipe it of let it soakin for abot 4 hours or over nite, and vuala the board plays like a charm. Over all you should do this anyway with a rosewood or ebony fretboard, so do so before you place on your new strings every time. Beside those issues it's a jewel.

I give a nine, the bridge it comes with is better than any of the fenders, great tremolo, and the springs are tight enough to ensure that it doesnt detune every ten seconds(detuning typical of strats). The switching is seamless no "drop out" when switching, allowing a quick pickup change during a chord ou solo etc. The wood is solid, yet light, doesnt dent easy. The only negative would be that the tuners aren't all that great and the intonation isn't the best when you first get it, both can easily repared, the intonation can be fixed uusing hex wrenches on bridge, saddles, and truss rod. Over all you can fix most issues in under a half hour. Deffinatly useable at any size venue or gig and makes a great main axe or backup, could last forever under proper treatment.

The company, Bridgecraft, doesnt have any contact info, but I haven't had any problems.

This is a fantastic guitar for the money. As long as you know how to set a guitar up, you should be fine. I'm a straticaster lover for life and I bought this guitar so I could create a project for a crapy guitar that I'd switch pickups on it and have a road ready guitar I would be less worried abot. Now that I have it I like the pickups and the transparent paint job I got is spectacular, so I am more afraid that this one's gonna show blemishes than my custom real strat. Solid body, light, but not crapy basswood. I highly recomend anyone new or old purchace it. Plays like a $350 strat for a tenth of the price. Pictures are available of it if you e-mail me, I am still blown away that this is a competition to my Custom Strat and JagStang, great guitar.

GE3912R strat copy with just a "B" on the headstock written in a fancy script font. A very cheap strat copy with more squared edges not rounded like a tradtional strat shape. There is an actual wedge shape cut out of the solid wood body instead of a nicely rounded ergonomic contour where you forearm rests against the guitar. Unfinished neck, high action, usable tuners, strap, bag, allen wrench, 1/4 inch cord, pick and a extra string low E. It's lightweight and looks cheap. Sort of a kids toy/ beginner guitar crossover.

I just wanted a cheap strat copy to mess around with some blues/ swing on a intermediate hobby level. My son has a Vox pathfinder amp I'm using and a Danelectro PB&J delay. The sound of this guitar is usable in a couple on the pickup positions. The neck pickup is Hot and will take a bit of time getting used to. The next position and the middle pickup are more usable for blues with a decent low end tone that isn't muddy. Bridge pickup is far too bright for my needs.
High string height out of the box but with a few adjustments I was able to find a height I could live with. Not super low though as fret buzz does happen as others have mentioned.

The finsh on mine is silver and I can see scratches under the clearcoat. It's not a nice classy silver it looks cheap. I'll get rid of the standard 3 ply white pickguard and replace it with tortoise shell. I dressed up the plain headstock with a couple of decals that matched the insignia that was on the guitar. I found the unfinished neck to look and feel too dry. I gave it a couple of coats of clear highgloss stain to bring out the grain and give it a more finished look and feel.

Time will tell but I don't expect much for the price I paid.

Drop shipped, nobody to contact

It is what it is,
I read in the the reviews that other Bridgecraft owners were saying that "considering the price it was a decent playable guitar". So I bid on one through The Fret Shop on ebay. Starting bid of 24.99 so I placed a bid for that amount and was usually outbid within 24hrs. I have always suspected colusion for this type of ebay selling. I'd place another lowball bid for the another one and would be outbid again. I tried this a few times and was very surprised to see I had actually won the ebay auction for this guitar. $24.99 Though the seller did not actully list this as a Bridgecraft it was written on the headstock of the guitars in his ebay ad. The ad showed a typical strat shape copy but what I received was not. My guitar was packed and labeled as a GE3912R I'm not sure this is a fair review for the GE3911R but for anyone else out there thinking of getting one of these from The Fret Shop I'd recommend you try to find another source.
If you pay 10 dollars for a diamond ring chances are you've getting a diamond ring thats worth 10 bucks.

This guitar has a beautiful paintjob and hasn't chipped off the 9 months I've had it. The neck is nice and comfortable to play on and nice small frets. It has 21 frets and doesn't flaw any bit. It also has the classic strat's 4 knobs and a 5 way pick up switch.

I mainly play hard rock music(Zeppelin, System of a down, Guns N' Roses, Pink Floyd, etc.) and it has a nice crunchy tone to it. It gives off nice pinch harmonics and will give off a quiet tone for songs like Stairway to heaven.

The action was perfect for me, it played nice power chords. But it did have a bit of buzzing, I slapped on heavy gauge strings and I'm going to find out how to rasie the action and it'll be fine after. The pick ups were set perfectly and all work great. The bridge is in good condition and hasn't done any damage yet.

Never gig without a back up
I have not have any expierence gigging, but soon enough I will. This guitar is a reliable guitar and I would never thinking of it dying on me. The hardware will last a while. It's put together nicely. The strap buttons came loose a few times but it was all good since I fixed them up.

Haha, it's too cheap. If you break it, just buy another!

This was my second guitar and I love it since my first guitar was really bad. I've been playing for about 13 months now. And if it got lost or something, yes I would buy another. This guitar is great and the guitar for me.

Finish : Colorful. However, not without some very small imperfections
But, consider the price.
The body is a very lightweight basswood. Not a laminate body.
The same body thickness of a Fender Squier Strat.
The neck has a standard, 21-fret fretboard. Fretwires are nicely dressed.
Pickups : Polepieces are correctly spce for their position.
Love the sound of these single coils. More bass fequency response
than a standard Fender pickup. ( And, Iv'e used Fender Custom Shop
pickups).

As 've said earlir, the pickups sound great. Properly spaced polepieces.
They are a little quieter that a standard single coil pickup.
I play with a Crate amp. These should sound fine with any moderately sized amp.

The action and tonality seemed to be setup out of the box.
The selector switch is not noisy.
This a very playable guitar. A comfortable C contoured neck.
Sealed, die cast tuners don't seem to have any tuning probles.

This guitar might withstand long-term live playing. I don't do this.
Would certinly be a good backup guitar.
The total quality fo this guitar is no worse than a Fender Squier.
And, I prefer playing the Bridgecraft.

I really doubt that there is any customer support for this guitar.
The retailer might offer a warranty.
Considering the cost of the guitar,
I don't have any complaints.

I have been playing since the late 60s. I have many Strats and
and various other guitars.
If the guitar was lost or stolen, I might replace it with
another Bridgecraft.

I personally think this guitar has a great sound for the price.
It has NO NOISE what so ever. I was very impressed with that alone. I play a lot of classic Rock and Country. The sound was Great for this.

I had to set the guitar up for myself, was not set at all from the factory. HOWEVER, NO GUITAR DOES! I have always had to set my guitars up to suit me.
The guitar had no flaws, and was a Beauty.

I would not use it on a GIG without a Backup.
However, the guitar stays in tune nicely.
I just prefer to stay with my old reliable on a GIG.

I personally have dealt directly with Bridgecraft.
Some of the sales reps are good people, and are willing to help. However there are others that are a pain in the BUTT.

overall, dollar for dollar, this is as good, or better than most of the strat knock-offs I have played.

Classic style 70's/80's strat
The standard strat features with basswood body white 3 ply pickgrd
3 highly responsive single coils all putting out at ABOUT 6 k ohms
sealed die cast tuners

The tones are nice and bassy with a nicely defined treble. Mid tones are smooth and vocal like. Pretty impressive for being a basswood strat, one of my favorite tone woods. It can get on the verge of muddy but this is easily countered by adjusting the pickups. Harmonics give great squeal too. You can get a nice watery, bubbly tone out of it. It sounds hollow without actually losing any spectrum of the bass, mid or treble tones.
A very sweet tone..it's a nice stratocaster at a very nice price.

Like any good stratocaster, it covers any style of music and even though these are single coils, they deliver metal tones and impressively raunchy harmonics.
You can play both metal lead and rhythm in the bridge position.

Impressively quiet single coils as well. If you aren't running any monitors/tele's or aren't too close to a source of 60 cycle hum, they're as quiet as a mouse.

Rather impressive for the cost. The action needed set but you can get it pretty close without fretting out or buzzing. The finish makes it look like a more expensive instrument than it is. By simply showing the wood grain rather than hiding it with some colored plastic paint, it gives the guitar a classy look. It's also cool to watch the bass wood darken in grain since this instrument was so freshly built. I doubt it's still curing but just naturally agin. This is the nature of basswood, a wood who's fibers are rather large and fluffy. Which is why it's nice and light weight too, feels like a good draft could sweep it into the air.
The hardware is solid but I suspect the bridge won't last too long if you use it frequently. These old school classic strat trems rarely do unless you spend the bucks for one. The saddle shape and design make it a bit difficult to get the action as low as it should be as well. They are the design that dip down just behind where the string sets over top of them. This type of saddle is inferior. The uniform ones are MUCH better.

NEVER GIG WITHOUT A BACKUP!
I would trust it not to crap out on me. The people wiring these should be given a metal! I would expect the hardware and electronics to last long term but if you're going to use that trem bar a lot, I think you will eventually deteriorate the bridge.

It's a lighter body and neck but it should hold up

Great guitar for the money. Won't exactly rival a Jackson, Fender or Ibanez but at the same time it can definitely hold it's own against those guitars.
Only improvement it could use is the better bridge saddles or maybe even one of those 2 point trems but for this money that's gotta be asking too much I am certain.
I would buy this guitar again without hesitation. At this cost you might as well pick up a few of them if you know how to do some basic work to your instruments. This is the ultiamte student priced guitar that a teach could properly set up/mod then sell to students for easily $150. It's a life long keeper so for this kinda money it's actually foolish not to get one for your own use or otherwise.

Standard Strat copy, SSS, vintage trem, sealed tuners, basswood body, maple neck, rosewood fretboard. Came with a Gigbag, strap, really large pick, extra e string, trussrod & trem wrenches.

surprisingly, it sounds like a strat. bright but not harsh, nice bottom end, near perfect strat tone in middle pup position. suits my not so clean blues style well. nice distinct sounding chords, lead notes sound sharp & bright with that spanky, glassy single coil sound. I'm playing this through a fender g-dec and a seymour duncan 84-40 60 watt tube combo. basically, on amp settings where a humbucker equipped guitar (like a les paul)would produce a medium dist. sound, this guitar will produce a lighter distortion, just under the radar like a strat should. output level was higher than a lot of strats i've played. excellent sustain. I like this guitar for cleaner sounds, up to santana-ish distortion levels. i'd never use this for heavy distortion, I prefer the sound of humbuckers and a hard tail for that kind of stuff.

this guitar took quite a bit of setup to suit my tastes, the action was set way too high for me, when i lowered it to a reasonable level, there was a lot of frett buzz and i couldn't intonate it properly at that point. a 1/4 turn of the truss rod fixed all that up. pickups were very high, causing that hollow, bottley kind of tone. after setting those to low for neck & middle, and medium for the bridge, it sounds surprisngly like a strat!
Finish is a cool transparent purple, it had one very minor flaw on the back of the body. everything fits together well.
This guitar is extremely light, like 5-6 lbs total. it is very well balanced, making it comfortable to play. i was very surprised at the tone and sustain of this thing considering the light weight. string alignement was dead on. shockingly, the tuners are smooth & stay in tune.
I wouldn't recommend playing this guitar straight out of the box, but after setting it up and putting some fresh strings on it, it's a keeper.

i would use this as a backup for gig purposes, i suppose. the finish & hardware is better than i was expecting, particularly the tuners. i would replace the strap buttons with strap locks for any gigging guitar.

oh please, it's so cheap you'd just buy another if it broke.

I've been playing for 25 years, and did audio qc for an amp company for 10 years. IMO these are great times to be a player. if you know how to set up a guitar properly, there are amazing values coming over from asia nowadays. i've owned (and own) many guitars, at one time i had a seventies american fender strat, and while that guitar felt (a lot) more solid and played well, this axe actually is much less noisy and sounds more like i expect a strat to sound! i've spent a lot more on a lot less, that's for sure.