Need a good electric guitar for a beginner.

[blackhole123]

I've been looking into starting to play the guitar but I don't know which one to buy. I don't want a super expensive one but I also don't want it to be a piece of crap.

 

Someone said that http://www.zzounds.com/item--SQU330800 was good but I want a second opinion before I go spend $280.

 

I'm open to all suggestions because I really am clueless when it comes to this.

[JesuBungle]

When you get into the range of $280, you can get a better guitar than a Squier. The company is a division of Fender. Fenders use better parts, better craftsmanship, and just all around sound better. Around that price I would look into getting a Mexican Stratocaster. They're about $350 new, but you can find some good deals once in a while.

[Royston]

The Squier is the standard when it comes to starter guitars, but personally I'd shop around for something second hand...I started on a Marlin, (strat copy) and the action was awful (the distance of the strings from the fret board) if you get good on something that's below average, you'll play like a legend when you get something more expensive.

 

The Squier is well built and will last, but you're paying alot for the fact they're built through Fender...if you go for a less well know make, you'll more than likely find they play and sound just as good, but are half the price. I play occasionally now on a friends Ibanez which was very reasonably priced, and is an absolute dream to play, especially if you're into manic solos et.c

 

So shop around, if you like the look of a strat then just google 'strat copies', and see what you can find.

[ParanoiA]

I've been looking into starting to play the guitar but I don't know which one to buy. I don't want a super expensive one but I also don't want it to be a piece of crap.

 

Someone said that http://www.zzounds.com/item--SQU330800 was good but I want a second opinion before I go spend $280.

 

I'm open to all suggestions because I really am clueless when it comes to this.

 

Ok, a couple of things to consider:

 

1) Do you have short fat fingers or skinny long fingers? If you have shorter fatter fingers (like mine), Ibanez is probably your animal - maybe Jackson but they're kind of expensive, so I'd stick with Ibanez - very reasonably priced. They're necks are skinnier, slimmer, easier to fret than fatter necks.

 

If you have longer fingers, then Fender, Ibanez, Epiphone - all good guitars. Fender is the standard typically for bluesy rock, light gain - more of a 70's sound, the fat neck and heavier body contribute a more robust tone.

 

Ibanez, ESP, Jackson are also good guitars and are more geared around heavier rock, metal - high gain pickups try to make up for the lighter weight and less overall tone. I'm more of a metal / acoustics kind of player and I love the modern tone of these guitars.

 

2) Whammy bar or Tremelo? Whammy bars are full range tremelos really and typically require a floating bridge design. These are fun for dive bombs and 80's guitar solo's but changing strings and tuning are huge pains in the ass. If you have no interest in "whammy bars" (pedals do this now anyway, and better - with zero tuning issues) then stick with a "fixed" bridge design. This is the mistake I made. With a floating bridge, you can't tune your guitar up or down to match a song you're trying to learn. With a fixed bridge, you can tune up and down and all around. Sounds backwards, but think about it and it will make sense.

 

Tremelo is the original. It's not a full range string stretch, just a mild bend used for a vibrato effect and other subtle things. Of course, this is available in virtually all effects pedals nowadays, so it's not entirely necessary unless you just want to learn the technique. Personally, I don't use it, but many players do.

 

 

 

The short skinney is...for a new player I'd recommend a fixed bridge Ibanez that's manufactured in Japan. Anything made in China is junk and should NOT be purchased. I'm serious. The guitar store next to my house had stacks of these Chinese made guitars and the guy told me that literally half of them didn't work right out of the box. Some guitar manufacturers have some of their line made in China, so always ask!

 

That's all I can think of for now. Be sure and let us know what you decided on.

[YT2095]

try here: http://www.peavey.com/products/browse.cfm/action/detail/item/105557/number/00489440/cat/43/Raptor+Series.cfm

this was my 1`st guitar (I still have it), it`s a nice instrument and fairly priced too.

[ParanoiA]

try here: http://www.peavey.com/products/browse.cfm/action/detail/item/105557/number/00489440/cat/43/Raptor+Series.cfm

this was my 1`st guitar (I still have it), it`s a nice instrument and fairly priced too.

 

That is a perfect beginner guitar, as long as you don't have short, fat fingers. I mean, you can still play it and all, but it's just that much more difficult to learn and stick with.

[blackhole123]

Well I do kind of have short fingers. Is it possible to buy everything seperately and still keep it close to $300 while getting everything a package would give me?

 

And yes I would go for sound over looks but I still want it too look cool

 

If I pay $200 for the guitar itself would I still have enough money for the amp, tuner etc? Could you recommend me a reasonable Ibanez?

[ParanoiA]

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Ibanez-ISJ20-Jumpstart-Pack?sku=512497

 

Check that one out. The reviews sound good and I think it's a good looking guitar as well. The main features are the skinnier neck design, making it a little more reasonable for us shorter fingered people to fret and get good spread for chords. It's a fixed bridge, so it will be easy to change strings and no nightmares with floating bridge tuning problems. It doesn't show the amp in the picture, but the description says it comes with one. I think it's similar to the one I got with my electric acoustic - it's decent.

 

Keep in mind, as the saying goes, you get what you pay for. I totally understand spending minimal money on a guitar as a beginner. Just remember that anything in the price range you're looking for, is going to be the cheapest of everything - and it might even be made in China. But hey, that's fine when you're just starting out. I started out on a 50 dollar epiphone from a pawn shop and it worked just fine for discovering how to play guitar. A year later I bought a sweet Ibanez for 5 or 6 hundred bucks and it felt like a dream.

 

Good luck!

[YT2095]

actualy, if you were smart you`de buy yourself a lead and jack into your PC sound card, there`s your AMP and you can apply any FX to it you like

[ParanoiA]

actualy, if you were smart you`de buy yourself a lead and jack into your PC sound card, there`s your AMP and you can apply any FX to it you like

 

Good point. That would leave a 300 dollar guitar investment, rather than just 200. Although, consider that these amps are 20 dollar throw away things, so it's not like it's really making an impression on the price. Plus, can you cart your computer around if you want to jam at a friend's house or something?

[YT2095]

yeah, that`s the only real drawback sadly

[Royston]

actualy, if you were smart you`de buy yourself a lead and jack into your PC sound card, there`s your AMP and you can apply any FX to it you like

 

Indeed, plus if you get a sequencing package e.g cubase (but I'd personally avoid cubase like the plague) you can add drums, bass et.c to play along to. I have an M-audio delta with 8 outs and 2 ins going into a mackie mixer, so I can just plug the guitar into the mixer, and add external and internal fx so I have a huge canvas for different sounds. If you take YT's suggestion I recommend the Ohm Boyz Predatohm for distortion, it has a nice range from fuzz to very dirty distortion and even has feedback, plus a filter.

 

The friend who's Ibanez I play sometimes, just has a multi fx going into his stereo, and it sounds incredible...most new fx pedals have amp emulators so you can get (for instance) the classic sound of a Marshall stack for a fraction of the price. Die hard guitarists probably won't agree it sounds exactly the same, but it's a good option.

[ParanoiA]

Whatever you do, reject anything to do with ProTools. That's an exclusive software/hardware base. You have to have their hardware to use the software. Somehow they've managed to dupe and swindle most studios into using this platform.

 

Whereas Cakewalk, Cubase and others are more universal in their approach. You can use virtually any soundcard with the software so all of your parts are competitively priced and developed.

 

That's interesting Snail, we have the same setup. I use a mackie mixer into my Delta as well. Although, I don't have a good FX solution yet. I've been using Cakewalk fx and my cheapo digitech pedal.

[Royston]

That's interesting Snail, we have the same setup. I use a mackie mixer into my Delta as well. Although, I don't have a good FX solution yet. I've been using Cakewalk fx and my cheapo digitech pedal.

 

Sweet ! (sorry for going off topic) I've got two external rack fx Lexicon and a Behringer, plus loads of VST plug in FX, mainly Ohm Boyz cause they're awesome. Sadly I just havn't gotten away from using cubase vs 5.1 I know it inside and out, but it just doesn't compare to the more recent sequencers. I'm getting Ableton soon, so I can mess around with seperate tracks I've recorded through cubase to compensate for the lack of twiddling you can do with cubase.

 

A friend of mine uses Reaktor and he's had some of the instruments he's designed made available to the public, I'll ask him about that tonight if he's on msn.

 

I'm not too familiar with cakewalk, can you use VST plug ins, also do you root

your fx from your pc into your mixer (which I can't remember how to do that, but I can find out)...or do you record and add fx on afterwards or just use your digitech pedal for your guitar ?

 

Which Mackie do you have, I've got VLZ1604...it's lush. Sorry for bombarding you with questions.

[ParanoiA]

I'm not too familiar with cakewalk' date=' can you use VST plug ins, also do you root

your fx from your pc into your mixer (which I can't remember how to do that, but I can find out)...or do you record and add fx on afterwards or just use your digitech pedal for your guitar ?

 

Which Mackie do you have, I've got VLZ1604...it's lush.[/quote']

 

(Also sorry for going off topic...it's a "gear" thing...)

 

I've got the baby Mackie - 1202 VLZ Micro. I just came off a bad purchase of a powered mixer w/ effects and decided I needed to quit trying to get the "all in one" gear. The routing options are endless, with two effects loops and 3 band EQ and L/R Pan on each channel - not to mention quiet. I love this mixer. I just looked up yours - sweet! I wish I could afford that one.

 

And yes you can use VST and Dx plugins in Cakewalk. I have a couple that I use as softsynths for loading my soundfonts.

 

For commodity effects like reverb or chorus I just record and then add the FX afterwards - they're realtime and non-destructive so you can disable them, change them, scrap them whatever and you still have your original dry recording.

 

For crazy effects, anything goes. I might route signals into my pedal then out to the mixer, apply more FX in Cakewalk...whatever gets the job done.

 

My only complaint, so far anyway, is that I can't hear the realtime FX in Cakewalk while I'm playing. You only hear the FX when you playback your recording. So, if you're doing some kind of solo or something where you are depending on the sound of the FX as a cue, you can't do it. I don't know if this is a Cakewalk limitation or a software/hardware limitation. I haven't pursued it much.

 

I would LOVE to root my fx from my CPU to my mixer. I have no idea how to do that, other than to route to my CPU as an effects loop. But then I wouldn't be able to record the sound.

 

I use an electronic drum kit for percussion - yamaha DTXplorer, which really helps for the "feel" of real drums. My wife also appreciates the volume control when I'm recording at 3 AM...

[Royston]

I would LOVE to root my fx from my CPU to my mixer. I have no idea how to do that, other than to route to my CPU as an effects loop. But then I wouldn't be able to record the sound.

 

If I can, I'll try and get hold of my mate tonight and ask him how you do it...but I'll definitely have an answer soon. I'm not entirely sure he knows cakewalk to well either, but I know for sure you can root pc fx into the mixer for some packages, either way I'll let you know as soon as I can.

[Royston]

Paranoia, here's what my mate said...there's loads of ways you can do it, but this should help.

 

 

fx send return prolly best way

 

send to computer audio in> set the input in the host as audion in>load vst FX >audio out to mixer fx return' date=' works best if theres more than one input or output on the s\card

 

depends on the host aswell, but delta should be fine...... he could bus it to the computer and have a seperate track for fx return, rather than use the send return ports[/quote']

[ParanoiA]

Paranoia, here's what my mate said...there's loads of ways you can do it, but this should help.

 

Cool, thanks Snail! I'll try that tonight. This could open up some serious possibilities...

[Royston]

Cool, thanks Snail! I'll try that tonight. This could open up some serious possibilities...

 

No worries, glad I could help...if you get into any problems either send me a pm or start a thread, again apologies to blackhole123 for going off topic.

[Rocket Man]

http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/July97/guitar.ltb.html

try this one..