Encore Unknown

While browsing thru this area, I think I can say what this particular model is. About 10 years ago, I bought at a local pawn shop here an Encore Electric Gtr that had a maple neck & frtbd, chintzy kluson type tuners, it simply said "Encore" on the Headstock where, say, "Fender" is. Anyway, it was a copy of Fender's Lead 1 & 2 style gtrs. Mine was like this:

Descriptions as above. Off style strat double cutaways, like those Fender leads. Mine had strat pickguard w/ 1 humbucker, stock. 1 vol. & 1 tone control. String thru body and non trem chrome bridge. Here's what I did. It was originally all black. I sanded the body down to it's natural wood finish, which I discovered was Plywood. Hmm....so, left it 'cause it was smooth from all the sanding and I didn't want to apply any stain or coating. Ditched the tone control, bought a Dimarzio S.D. pickup for cheap, grounded it, hooked it up to the volume and wha lah!! Then, realizing I didn't like the feel of the neck, took it in to a local shop here and traded straight up for another. I didn't like the feel of it. The shop had a neck that was Charvel style, it was actually a Series 10 neck they took off a Series 10 electric. Sanded that neck down to where it was SMOOTH, nice heel on the back, rosewood frtbd, shark fin style headstock fitted w/ grover copy pegs, pings I think. Slapped that series 10 neck on the encore body, and this axe was great. It worked for me 'cause at the time, I was into Jake E. Lee and Badlands, his group. And he had an axe similiar to what I did to mine. I outgrew it and sold for like $150, someone liked it. My trash was that guy's treasure. I bought a HOhner Strat few mths later after fixing the Encore. Anyway, I see where the Squier Bullet special has most of the same type of features that my Encore did. Just wanted to share, thanks.....

I liked the sound at the time; after getting the Hohner strat (st. special) I kept that encore for 1 yr. Then, outgrew it. It was a decent little stripped down axe. I'd pound on it. High treble sound is what I got out of it. Great w/ Distortion. Those Squier Bullets you can find at Guitar Ctr for $99.99 or Musician Friend for same price. If you like a bare bones guitar, no frills, get the Squier or mod one of these encores like I did. Hell, if I find one in a pawn shop here for under a benji, I'll get it again 'cause I have spare parts, such as a hum, ping pegs, etc...........

I slapped the neck on myself; adj. the action was cheesecake. The series10 neck had a killer adj. truss rod that was accurate, I got lucky. So, action was smooth and buttery. THAT'S what one wants to riff, strum, pick, etc....all other work was easy to adj. as well....

I played out w/ it, riffing and pounding and all. Did fine. For that cheap a guitar, shouldn't expect much, but it'll last.

No need...........

It was just my project guitar, for fun. People should try to branch out like that; it's fun. If I ever find it around here again, I'll pay for it again. Or, buy one of those Squiers. Anyway, thanks for letting me share.....

This guitar was probably made in some cheap country, it used to have a sticker on it saying where exactly but it came off. It looks sort of like a strat but the cutaways are quitae pointed makinf it look like some sort of ibanez. The body is very small. I think its a junior.

The sound is excellent for metal music. It has exactly the right tone I need. LAtely thought it has been sounding a bit rough. but i know this is expected of such a cheap guitar

In the factory the workers must have been slightly drunk because they put the bridge at a strange angle. It isn't meant to be like this but its about 1 or 2 degrees off being straight and this you notice quite easily on closer inspection. The key for the top string came off and was lost so now i have to use the key below it for the job, which is slowly becoming loose

Live playing this can stand. I used it to play in front of 500 people so call me crazy but it gets the job done which is the main thing. The weight of it enables me to play it using 1 arm holding it in the air and to spin around so i love to use it to play. I have a load of duck tape covering the bolt for the strap as it fell out. its solid thouigh and not moving and i suppose thats what you get for swinging your guitar round your head, still i did use strap locks but when the screw did come out it came out with stuff that looked like clay?!

I dont know about that

Even though it looks a bit crappy. it gets the job done

as above but what can you expect for a #39 guitar?

very clean, nice, sounds at least as good as a mates mexican strat, the sustain is great but on mine if you turn the tone up it is there. For #39 f**king excellent

not bad for second hand, some scratches. The paint work is a bit iffy and needs a lot of stickers to cover it.

The tone button fell off within 5 mins of buying it but slids back on so not a problem, no i wouldnt gig it but it is a very compact guitar and would travel with it. (My friend also brought one for about #30 with the sole intention of smashing it on stage, it took a lot and eventully he gave up after just 2 machine heads fell off and the body cracked slightly) It takes a lot of abuuse. The pickups may be unnameed but they are robust)

nope

If it was stolen I wouldnt make an effort to buy this exact one again but if there was one there that was cheap then I would buy it.

This was my first electric guitar ever. The guitar was made in Korea around 1980 or ?81. Pawn shops rarely carry new instruments, but I remember this guitar coming in a strapped and sealed cardboard box and having a very new appearance and smell. If I remember correctly, there was even some manufacturer?s literature along with it. I don?t remember the model number, but it had a small mahogany body that was shaped like a cross between a small Strat and a Fender Jaguar. The bolt-on neck was also made of mahogany, but it was full-sized. The entire instrument was stained cherry red, and had a two-tone red and black sunburst finish. Many Encore owners complain about poor finishes on these guitars, but mine had about the nicest finish of anything in the store? truly immaculate. It had a substantial chrome-plated tailpiece that had about the most efficient string attachment method of any guitar I?ve seen since, and the bridge was made of stamped metal, supported by threaded lugs and disk-shaped adjusters. All of the electrical hardware was screwed to a 2-layer black & white plastic pickguard, which included a huge single-coil pickup, a tone knob and volume knob, and an output jack. The pickup was screwed to the outside face of the pickguard and was not height adjustable. The neck had a Strat-type headstock, but the fretboard was a separate piece of rosewood which was thicker than a Fender fretboard. The inlays were mother-of-pearl dots. The tuning keys were all a one-piece, six-in-line assembly with exposed worm gears and sprockets and lots of fancy engraving. As I didn?t have much money, the man at the pawn shop suggested I buy a headphone amplifier before getting an actual amp, which I did. It was made by a company called Cortez, and could be plugged directly into the guitar jack, or hooked to a stereo in passive mode like and normal set of headphone speakers. Later I wound up getting a small 10-watt combo amp.

As this was my first guitar, I thought the simple fact that sound came out of it was magical in itself. But when friends would come over with theirs, I realized just how weak and flat my sound was. The pickup also had some microphonic tendencies when played through a more powerful amp, say, 50 watts and higher. At the time I bought this guitar, I was really into raunchy rock and roll like Humble Pie and the Faces, and I also liked old Foreigner, Boston and AC/DC. Naturally, I was annoyed that I couldn?t get this guitar to duplicate those kinds of sounds.

I didn?t know any better at first, but within a few months after having played my friends? guitars, I realized all the things that were lacking in this guitar; the action and playability was very stiff, and the neck felt like a tree trunk in my small hands. Also, the instrument was impossible to keep perfectly in tune. It was a beautiful guitar to look at, nonetheless, and this---coupled with its ridiculously low price---was the main reason I bought it. Too bad the sound didn?t measure up to the finish! One neat feature of this Encore model was that it had a fret about 1/8? below the nut, which was in constant contact with the open strings. This probably gave the open strings better tone and vibration than if they?d come straight off the molded plastic nut.

What this Encore lacked in sound, it made up for in durability. I must have unbolted the neck twenty or more times so I could smuggle it to school in my gym bag, and it kept on playing. When I started learning how to build my own instruments---initially out of layers of plywood---I used the neck from this guitar. All in all, the Encore neck was attached to three different homemade guitar bodies, and it even survived the headstock?s being sawn off and replaced with a 3 left-3 right plywood peghead!

This guitar, like all Encores, was a good guitar for someone between the ages of 10 and 13 to start learning on. After the age of thirteen, when a young beginner starts forming his musical prejudices (i.e., starts liking particular bands and music styles), a more versatile and substantial instrument than the Encore would be appropriate. I started playing at the age of 14, and really should have gotten an Aria Pro or Lotus instead. My playing probably would have gotten better more quickly.

This guitar has 1 humbucking pickup near the bridge 1 volume and 1 tone knob which fell off. The body of the guitar is probably made of maple and looks sort of like an ibanez jem. Tghe fret board is rosewood with 21 frets.

This guitar belongs to my school and i usually play it through a 30 watt laney amp with my zoom gfx-707 which sounds good by the way. This guitar is probably the worst guitar for sound it has no sustanain and no matter how much you turn the tone knob it does not increase the tone

This guitar came with a union jack flag painted on the front which i liked and as i was new there was no faults in the paintwork. This guitar is a b@stard to keep in tune know matter how many times i try it will not stay in tune. This problem was because the screws holding the machineheads were loose so the problem was quickly rectified.

This guitar will not withstand live playing it would fall to bits after 5 minuites of on stage work. The strap buttons are too small for regular sized straps so the guitar has fallen of the strap a couple of times. I would never consider taking this guitar to a gig never mind as a backup.

havent delt with them nor do i want to there are to many problems with the guitar

The over all rating of this guitar is it is s*ite