First electric guitar

Daebunz

Hey folks. I recently finished a beginner guitar class (using acoustic guitars), and learning to play is something I'd like to continue with. However, I want to move to electric instead of acoustic but I'm not really sure what I'm looking for other than a reasonable price and what I would like to sound like, which if I had to give examples would be classic rock/heavy metal like led zeppelin, foreigner, iron maiden, judas priest, and the like.

I'll probably go to local music stores and ask around, and maybe keep an eye on craigslist, but I wanted to know if you guys had any good ideas.

Jeedan

Yamahas arent bad. Neither are Squier despite the bad rep so long as you get Standard not the Affinity range which are junk.

More or less any humbucker equiped guitar wont sound all that different from one another, or at least, not a big enough difference to appreciate until you've played for a while and understand what you want.

Basicall all you want now is a cheap-ish guitar and a verstile amp to get to grips with the sounds you can make, then move up to real good stuff later. I'd recommend a roland cube or Vox valvetronix or something with built in modelling.

i n c u b u s

I'd recommend going to the music shop and trying out everything. Things you have to consider are the feel of the neck, price, brand, looks, comfort against the body, and sound when plugged in. Personally I never buy a guitar that I don't absolutely love the way it looks. I would also recommend that you try some of the guitars that may not be in your price range just to get a feel for what a quality instrument is like and compare it to the cheaper ones. If you want to dive head first into the electric genre then your going to need alot more than just the guitar. The starter pack give you everything you need but the quality is def not the best around, but then again beginners don't really mind do they? The most important thing I can tell you is that you pick out a guitar that feels great to YOU. I can't tell you have many people lose interest and give up just because of the crap quality of their first instrument which made it harder for them to play on. You shouldn't have to fight with your instrument to get the sound and feel you want out of it.

Dark_Side

I usually tell people to go for an Ibanez as their first guitar, the quality of their intro models is usually far above that of their competitors. One guy mentioned Fender Squires, but you have to be extremely careful with them, Fender has gotten worse and worse as they've moved production to cheaper and seedier places over the years. The Korean and Mexico made ones I've seen have been utter shit, though that may have changed, a lot of Asian factories have started to get much better at quality control. If you play an electric look for a couple of things: run your hand up and down the neck to feel if the frets stick out into your hand?, does it hold its tune for the entire time you play it?, does it buzz and make a lot of noise? Lastly starting at about the 12th fret, run up the neck trying each note on each string to look for dead notes, you'll know it when you hear it and if it has one move right on down the road.

Space Pickle

You should get an experienced friend to go with you and test drive the guitars for you, because beginners don't usually know what they're looking for in a guitar (although you have some experience so you might be able to judge for yourself). Failing that, just let the store guy give you the sales pitch.

It's not very good advice to tell someone Brand A is good, Brand B sucks. There are a lot of guitar manufacturers that make good quality instruments - this isn't the 1970s - and so you really need to try out the individual instruments..

i n c u b u s

I started with an epiphone sg as my first electric. It was the special model and even though the price was pretty cheap the instrument itself was crap. The pickups crapped out on me within a month but luckily it was still under full warranty so I upgraded to an epiphone g-400 after that. For an epiphone its pretty alright for a starter guitar, hell I still play it and its been banged up over the 4-5 years I've owned it so I have to give epiphone props for that. Basically what I'm trying to say here is that you get what you pay for most of the time. If you pay dirt cheap your probably gonna end up with a cheap guitar.

Daebunz

Thanks for the tips, guys. I'll have to go out one day and try out whatever I can.

Jimmy King

Try everything. Personally, I'm a fan of the Dean X (not the XM, which still only says X on the truss rod cover) series for beginner guitars. There have been some quality issues in the past with them, but I like mine, and from what I gather, the newer ones have much stricter QC standards. They come in a few different shapes, have pretty decent pickups given their price, and decent Grover tuners that have never given me any issues.

One thing to keep in mind is that your amp is going to have a bigger effect on your sound than the guitar will. For an amp I highly recommend one of the Peavey Vypyr amps for starting out. They've got a 30 watt one that runs about $200 and a 15 watt that is cheaper. I have heard nothing but good about these and am personally waiting for the 60 watt tube version to come in at my local guitar store after playing around on one of the 75 watt ones.

Dark_Side

Space Pickle wrote: »

...

It's not very good advice to tell someone Brand A is good, Brand B sucks. There are a lot of guitar manufacturers that make good quality instruments - this isn't the 1970s - and so you really need to try out the individual instruments..

While you definitely should try out each instrument, there are a few manufacturers whom sell sub standard quality intro instruments by name recognition alone, Fender being the absolute worst. I've also noticed the build quality on Gibson's stuff has taken a bit of a nose dive as well, namely their Studio Les Pauls.

Shawnasee

All sound advice but let me second the Roland Cube as your amp of choice. It has great effects and will give you the sounds you mentioned.

Ibanez are good guitars all around in my experience but definitely stop by your local guitar shop or music store and play a bunch. And play them all through the same amp. Gives you a good idea of the sound you like most.

Good luck and post some pics!

Typhoid Manny

the thing to remember about cheap guitars is that they're not all automatically bad; when you buy an expensive guitar you're paying for a) good electronics and hardware, and b) quality control. two gibson les pauls are more likely to be pretty similar than two squiers, but a squier can play as well as an american-made fender if you find the right one. so really it's just a matter of playing everything available to you and finding something you like, and i would recommend never buying an instrument before you've played it

joshofalltrades

Rondo Music.

Go to music stores and play on all kinds of different guitars. Find the style you like. Note the exorbitant price tag on guitars that stay in tune longer than 15 minutes.

Then go to Rondo Music, find an Agile that's just like it for about 1/4 the price, with maybe one or two easily fixable quirks.

Seriously, I got an Agile PRS knockoff after my $1500 Fat Strat for about $350. The pickups were kinda meh but I just replaced them later for another $200 when I had the extra cash. I also installed a killswitch and it's a pretty boss guitar now. For about 1/3 of the price of my Strat (which I love, don't get me wrong).

If something is wrong with the guitar when you get it, Kurt will cover your shipping back to him and send you another. You really can't beat Agiles for the price.

EDIT: I was wrong about my little black beauty, she was only $250. So... $455 total including all modifications, and less than 1/3 the price of my beloved strat.

jeddy lee

I reccomend going to your local store and check out what guitars you like, (I would always reccomend a standard mexican/japanese stratocaster as the most versitile guitar your going to ever use) and deciding on a guitar, then see if they will match the price of musician's friend, which is usually one or two hundred dollars cheaper per instrument, and the store usually will match the MF price + cost of shipping to your area.

For example, here is a great guitar I'd reccomend buying. Or if you want slightly cheaper, a lot of people have mentioned the squires which are good too. Bear in mind, I would advise you to not play any guitar that you havn't played first, go to the store, test it, ask the attendent about it, explore your options, just make sure that they'll match the MF price, as they 95% likely will because they do not want to lose your business.

Khavall

Also recommending the music store.

My current electric was $450 at a music store and keeps up just as well with anything else I've played. If I replace anything it'll be the pots, but going to a music store if often the best choice. If there are multiple stores in town, go to them all and try things out.

Pheezer

Dark_Side wrote: »

Space Pickle wrote: »

...

It's not very good advice to tell someone Brand A is good, Brand B sucks. There are a lot of guitar manufacturers that make good quality instruments - this isn't the 1970s - and so you really need to try out the individual instruments..

While you definitely should try out each instrument, there are a few manufacturers whom sell sub standard quality intro instruments by name recognition alone, Fender being the absolute worst. I've also noticed the build quality on Gibson's stuff has taken a bit of a nose dive as well, namely their Studio Les Pauls.

This is very true. I will also say that Sqier deserves every single shitty thing ever said about their build quality. They have no quality control, it is all over the map. If you know what you are looking for and you know a few things about guitar construction, you can pick out a great one and get an awesome price on it. But it'll still warp over time because it's not going to be single piece construction on the body anyhow.

The best deals I've seen lately on entry level gear have all been Peavey. For the love of everything that rocks, go try out the new Peaveys, especially the HP Signature series and the Predator series. You are highly unlikely to find a comparable instrument new off the rack at a better price.

I'd also second trying out Ibanez, and will tell you that Yamaha makes some very fine instruments as well.

Be picky, try out absolutely everything, but do not shop based on appearance and brand alone. Playability, then appearance, and then brand.

Also, if you have a reputable local instrument shop that deals in second hand gear, strongly consider it. You can save a lot of money and get a much better guitar this way, but make sure the shop is reputable and stands behind what it sells. If you'd been playing for a while and knew how to check out a guitar properly I'd tell you that you'd be a fool to buy anything new unless it was custom made, but that's not really the case here and anyhow, you're not really in need of anything fancy.

Don't get suckered into any big brand hype though, and visit different shops! You'll find that different stores will carry different brands in a lot of cases. You don't want to skimp on the testing phase and plus guitar shopping is awesome.

joshofalltrades

Pheezer wrote: »

This is very true. I will also say that Sqier deserves every single shitty thing ever said about their build quality. They have no quality control, it is all over the map. If you know what you are looking for and you know a few things about guitar construction, you can pick out a great one and get an awesome price on it. But it'll still warp over time because it's not going to be single piece construction on the body anyhow.

You should read and re-read this paragraph. Squier is utter shite. The most consistent thing I've found with their instruments is that the frets cut your hand as it slides up and down the neck.

kharvelan

Dark_Side wrote: »

I usually tell people to go for an Ibanez as their first guitar, the quality of their intro models is usually far above that of their competitors. One guy mentioned Fender Squires, but you have to be extremely careful with them, Fender has gotten worse and worse as they've moved production to cheaper and seedier places over the years. The Korean and Mexico made ones I've seen have been utter shit, though that may have changed, a lot of Asian factories have started to get much better at quality control. If you play an electric look for a couple of things: run your hand up and down the neck to feel if the frets stick out into your hand?, does it hold its tune for the entire time you play it?, does it buzz and make a lot of noise? Lastly starting at about the 12th fret, run up the neck trying each note on each string to look for dead notes, you'll know it when you hear it and if it has one move right on down the road.

I second ibanez.

Don't get a floyd rose, go with a non-whammy model (i prefer the gibson style bridges for new players), get humbuckers and try and get a 'wizard 2' neck if you can afford a model with one.

They are easy on the hands and easy to practice on.

Honestly 90% of your sound comes from your fingers, eddie van halen sounds like eddie van halen on a telecaster.

So get an ibanez, play with that for a while, once you get comfortable and want to branch out, then look at spending some dough on a decent guitar. Oh yeah, and if your gonna get an amp, I say the roland microcube or the vox 15 watters are pretty versatile and decent for the price.

Khavall

Oh also for brand I recommend Hagstrom.

Not very well-known, and they may be a little outside your price for a beginner($500-ish), but I will swear by my Hag up against any other guitar on the market. Zappa also was a huge Hag fan, and I can see why.

Shawnasee

kharvelan wrote: »

Dark_Side wrote: »

I usually tell people to go for an Ibanez as their first guitar, the quality of their intro models is usually far above that of their competitors. One guy mentioned Fender Squires, but you have to be extremely careful with them, Fender has gotten worse and worse as they've moved production to cheaper and seedier places over the years. The Korean and Mexico made ones I've seen have been utter shit, though that may have changed, a lot of Asian factories have started to get much better at quality control. If you play an electric look for a couple of things: run your hand up and down the neck to feel if the frets stick out into your hand?, does it hold its tune for the entire time you play it?, does it buzz and make a lot of noise? Lastly starting at about the 12th fret, run up the neck trying each note on each string to look for dead notes, you'll know it when you hear it and if it has one move right on down the road.

I second ibanez.

Don't get a floyd rose, go with a non-whammy model (i prefer the gibson style bridges for new players), get humbuckers and try and get a 'wizard 2' neck if you can afford a model with one.

They are easy on the hands and easy to practice on.

Honestly 90% of your sound comes from your fingers, eddie van halen sounds like eddie van halen on a telecaster.

So get an ibanez, play with that for a while, once you get comfortable and want to branch out, then look at spending some dough on a decent guitar. Oh yeah, and if your gonna get an amp, I say the roland microcube or the vox 15 watters are pretty versatile and decent for the price.

The Roland Microcube is awesome but has no bass to it. Again, though, it is awesome. I took mine to Iraq and I love it.