Any advice on picking an electric guitar?

Post Reply New Topic

Do not buy the brand is likely the most logical place you'll want to think about here. Buy what speaks to you on your level right now, something comfortable, pick your battleaxe! When you find that guitar, the one that is truly you then pay any price for it but never tell anyone including yourself how much it costs. Every guitar has a price, but your first one doesn't. I've grown very close to mine, it a Michael Kelly Custom with a custom inlayed fretboard and custom body inlays.
Everything else is original to their design, and you can buy a patriot premium for about 300$ with the same humbuckers that zakk wylde uses. Very powerful yet smooth in tone, it sounds like a dream on any Marshall, Blackstar, or Orange amp. It is built exactly like a Zakk Wylde Custom Which runs around $2,695.00$.
Like I said, don't put a price on your battle axe because price doesn't mean anything, especially if you can't even play yet. I would go with an acoustic guitar, because you need to learn fundamentals. I don't have an electric acoustic guitar myself, but I would advise investing in one over an electric if you can make the nose.
If nose is an issue, then buy an electric and find some place to play quietly; so that you can listen to the notes you're playing (I'd like to solve the question; is it the word irony?)
Sometimes you just want to jam out, so having an electric guitar over an acoustic can be good if you have headphones and just want to pretend you're playing Paganini's 1st Caprice on your guitar. Its also a great time to experiment with being silly, and maybe making new sounds. You'll do this alot when your start collecting pedals, and amps. Its an addiction.

Its a bit late now but I was going to recommend buying a fender squire, for the price they're really solid guitars

If you can pick up the electric and it sounds good acoustically, than it'll really sound good plugged in. If the guitar feels right in your hands than go with it. Don't buy one based on appearance, let the sound do the talking.

My very first guitar was a Squier 51 (precursor to the Fender Bullet, I think) and having played for going on a decade now, I'm starting to miss that guitar. It had a thin, long Strat style body, with a C shape neck and Tele head. It was a good guitar.



I've never rated (lower end) Peavey guitars myself, but that seems a good starter pack. Humbuckers for rocking out are a must. A lot of people see the Les Paul as the classic rock guitar, but I'll tell you this, 3 of the 4 guitarists in my family own SGs, and only 1 a Les Paul (though one of the SG owners has just bought a single cutaway Gretsch). When it's time to upgrade, and if you still want rock, get a thick solid body, and maybe even Humbucker neck, no middle pickups. Or if you're going down the alternative route, Jackson do some alright starter guitars, just swap out the bridge pickup with a Seymour-Duncan ceramic.

My advice is to get something cheap. You may not even like playing guitar, and have to sell it. Fenders are great, but so is their pricetag. Learn basic chords and how to tune the guitar. Then explore. Play along with music. Look at what the big guys are doing and try to pick up some techniques.

Later on, if you feel like going ahead, you can also connect your guitar through Reason Balance (software+hardware) and use your computer to tune and be the amp, comes with a pile of effects so you. An amp is just an amp and unless you paid a bit more for it, you have to buy effect separately with cables and powersupplies. In the video below, he is using an analog guitar through a mike, but there are interfaces for electric guitar as well.



Best thing in this day and age is that you can now be a one man band with a repeater/loopstation like the Boss RC3series.