Dummy's Guide To Buying Electric Guitars ?

Electronics have fallen drastically in price. Just look at total stations.

But, the mechanics of a guitar is still important. Bridge height, bridge straight. Take somebody with you, that plays well, and understands getting good mechanics. And play it.

In other words, much of the same stuff is important. I prefer practicing on an acoustic, as you feel the sound, as well as hear it. With an electric, you have a SLIGHT delay from a plucked note, and when it makes it through the amp. A poor amp can make a good guitar sound bad.

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As far as electric guitars go, I have always liked Jackson and Fender. Of course, you can't go wrong with a Gibson Les Paul either. I prefer Ibanez when it comes to an electric bass. For a beginner, go with one of the low end of any of those brands. You will want to look into a distortion pedal and a decent small amp (I like Marshall but Fender makes a decent amp too) or you won't get that raw electric sound. Check some local pawn shops; they usually have some decent deals on guitars. Fender has a low end brand called Epiphone? I believe.

Guitars are like guns. They make cheap ones and they make good ones. I bought a few guitars as gifts based on others recommendations. I'm not a guitar player but according to my son, cheap guitars are much harder to play and even harder to learn to play because their mechanics just aren't built correctly. If your son is really serious about playing, find the neighborhood guitar guru and get him to help you find the right one. A reputable music store or guitar instructor might be willing to help. I'd avoid the "starter kits" that includes the guitar and amp in one box, these are usually junk. You might find a good deal in a pawn shop, but a real guitar player would rather sleep on the street than pawn his baby. Also over the last decade or so, the market has been flooded with cheap foreign knock-offs that look like good guitars but are really just more foreign junk.

> Guitars are like guns. They make cheap ones and they make good ones. I bought a few guitars as gifts based on others recommendations. I'm not a guitar player but according to my son, cheap guitars are much harder to play and even harder to learn to play because their mechanics just aren't built correctly. If your son is really serious about playing, find the neighborhood guitar guru and get him to help you find the right one. A reputable music store or guitar instructor might be willing to help. I'd avoid the "starter kits" that includes the guitar and amp in one box, these are usually junk. You might find a good deal in a pawn shop, but a real guitar player would rather sleep on the street than pawn his baby. Also over the last decade or so, the market has been flooded with cheap foreign knock-offs that look like good guitars but are really just more foreign junk.

I do play guitar and bass and I agree completely with the above semtiments. I would get him a Fender Stratocaster, the "Made in Mexico" (in guitar parlance it's abbreviated MIM) version, which is much better than the entry level Fender Squiers, and are in many instances are just as good of an instrument as the base American Made ones (there's standard and deluxe models), and MUCH less expensive. You can pick a used MIM Strat from Craigslists for $250 or less all day long.

Please follow the advice above and don't buy junk, it'll discourage him for sure. Once you buy him one, take it to a music store that has a luthier on staff and have them do a "set up" on it, which costs around $30. This will adjust the action (the height of the strings above the fretboard, which if too high will discourage his playing), the intonation, clean the fretboard, restring it with fresh strings (which will sometimes go out of tune initially until they are broke in) and generally get a good cleaning.

Thankx guys, thats all good words

I'm well aware of the "poor instrument trap" and am trying to avoid it.

Been thinking sticking with the known brands - so a Fender Mexico may well be the go - (although as a sax player I know to avoid Conn's made there). On that line are Cort guitars any good?

Anyway I'll let you know how we get on 🙂

Epiphones which are the cheaper Gibsons are a decent starter too. A guy that I work with played an Epiphone vs. a Gibson with the headstock covered and liked the Epiphone better than the more expensive Gibson.

Most electrics are strung with lighter gauge strings than acoustics, particularly if your son plays anything that tends toward bluegrass or some of the country styles. So when stringing an electric or even an acoustic with fairly light gauge strings, you can take most of the break-in time out of the strings by simply pulling up on them and pulling the slack out of the tuning pegs.

If it has a bridge like my old Gibson J series, you'll want to be certain to hold down on the bridge peg that holds the string in when you pull up on it. I don't think this is stretching the string but it pulls any slack out of the winding on the tuning pegs at the start instead of waiting for it to slowly give and go out of tune as a result.

Encourage him to find someone to play with who can challenge his abilities to grow and develop if he's gotten pretty decent on the acoustic. It's a life-long pursuit but can be a very satisfying one.

6-7 years ago I went off to buy a gibson and after playing with a bunch of different guitars I settled on a "cheap" Yamaha, plays good and sounds great and was only 300 (Canadian)..make for an excellent starter guitar.

Also have a Acoustic Yamaha that I got for less than 300 and it play real nice too.

I would add a caveat to the MIM Strats. They can be decent to good but it is important to have a knowledgeable person set up the action and check it out. A poorly set up guitar is murder to keep in tune and can get really frustrating.

You get what you pay for. I own 8 or 9 guitars (seriously, I lost count) and I play at least weekly gigs. A cheap guitar will only sound bad, be hard to play, and your boy will lose interest. There is a good metaphor for women here, but I won't go there. Stay away from any "Fender" that is not American or Mexican made. The MIM strats are good for the money. Stay away from Epiphone (before you go flaming, remember Epi isn't the same company it used to be). Low end Ibanez ($400 or less) are great...for firewood. Same goes for just about every other maker except Shecter. I have found even the entry-level Schecter guitars are set up properly, have great intonation and play very well.

> You get what you pay for. I own 8 or 9 guitars (seriously, I lost count) and I play at least weekly gigs. A cheap guitar will only sound bad, be hard to play, and your boy will lose interest. There is a good metaphor for women here, but I won't go there. Stay away from any "Fender" that is not American or Mexican made. The MIM strats are good for the money. Stay away from Epiphone (before you go flaming, remember Epi isn't the same company it used to be). Low end Ibanez ($400 or less) are great...for firewood. Same goes for just about every other maker except Shecter. I have found even the entry-level Schecter guitars are set up properly, have great intonation and play very well.

Andrew,

I agree 100% with every comment you made. Well said.

There are two basic styles of fretboards and this is the most important aspect to me. The more curved Fender Strat style and the Gibson flat fretboard. I can go back and forth from the Gibson Flying V to the Acoustic (Epiphone-but built way long ago)with ease even with the difference in string weights. I have a hard time picking up a Strat because for the very slight arch.

For the Gibson then one of the finest made, and lightest for young players is the SG series. It's a full guitar and Tony Iommi played one with Ozzie. No frills, but a good solid guitar built well. I favor the Flying V's or the Les Pauls but these will cost you a lot of money. I've seen SG's for under $500 with the double cut-aways.

On thing to think about. If you buy a cheap student guitar that is of inferior quality then you have some scrap lumber should he not decide to take a liking to it. If you spend more and get a quality guitar then you have an investment and will likely be able to get every penny back should he not like it.

Some basic things to check are string height and buzz. Is the string height consistent and do any of the frets produce a buzz when played (just a single note on all of them to tell, and all the way up the frets). Are the strings set very high? This is usually a sign of a warped or otherwise cheap neck design.

Intonation is harder to check and should probably be checked by a shop for you. An E note is not always an E note up the necks on some guitars.

And what does the tadpole favor as to music? Does he want to be a guitar hero or a blues legend? My flying V has super slinky strings that I can bend an octave while the ES 175 has heavier strings but the hollow body gives it a much better tone for blues or jazz. If he truly loves playing then likely in the course of his life he will own many guitars. I love my old Epiphone acoustic and play it most evenings on the porch or take it across the street to a nice garden around the lake at Cameron University. Very portable.

Like a survey, or a car, you get what you pay for. You can't drive a Yugo like a Ferrari. Well, you can but you'll end up in a ditch. 🙂

My Epi and whisky barrel on the porch.

Deral

Hmm,

Both epiphone and ibanez were on my 'worth looking at' list. Are they really that bad?

And your comment re flat or rounded fretboards is noted -I'll ask Josh if he has a preference.

Given his music heros are Hendrix, the Who and REM I'd say any blues influence is soon to be tinged with a heavy electric swamp 🙂

Cheers

Gibson and Fenders both have their fans. I prefer the flatter frets of the Gibson products because I also play acoustic. So my fingers do not have to change much from a Gibson to the classical guitar to play some Greensleeves. Different string weights but the same fretboards.

I have never owned a Epi electric but the very old acoustics are pretty much outstanding, or at least the one I have. But you were talking electrics.

Guitars are like cars. Some are made on better days and some are not with some brands. I've played some really crappy brands that were excellent. But I've been happy always with Gibson's or Fenders. Consitent. Just decided which type of fretboard you like.

I even like some Peavey guitars. Some played pretty good but not all of them.

PRS...Yes. I wish I could afford one. (Paul Reed Smith)...Those may not play any better but they have such oustanding wood.

Deral

You gotta consider style of music as well. What does the boy like, and what is he going to play? If he plays grunge, metal or hard rock he doesn't want a Strat or most other single coil guitars. They just don't have the gain. If he is playing blues, light rock, Americana etc. then a strat/tele or other single coil is the best choice (although you can get some awesome blues tones on a Les Paul or SG - just check out Derek Trucks). If he is playing in his church group, then the BC Rich Warlock is probably not the best guitar either.

My favorite guitar in my current arsenal is my Fender VG Strat. It is a standard MIA strat, with an additional Roland modeling pickup that with a turn of the knob gives me humbucker, tele, acoustic and 12-string models. It also has alternate tunings. I play a lot of Open G stuff with the tele model and you would not know I am playing a strat.

You have received some great advice here that's for sure. Deral and Glenn have given you some of the best insights into the process. I might add that the action on the Gibsons is a lot different from most Fenders, mainly because the strings set a little closer to the neck/fretboard.
The biggest concern is the neck itself, everything else can be repaired or replaced. If you look down the neck and it is noticeably bowed, I would move on. Next step is to try every note at every position along the fretboard, if any buzz or is just dead when plucked, then you have a small problem that can most likely be adjusted by a setup with any luthier at any music store for 20 to 30 bucks as mentioned above.
For the young player I recommend DEAN guitars. They are well built, American made and have a wide spectrum of designs to appeal to the younger player. Some of the higher end guitars are expensive, but that holds true for any brand.
For an amp for a young man, try a Pignose. They are small but have all the nuances of a big amp and the sound. The price is 100 or less and they can't be turned up so loud that they drive you from your home. Marshall has a good 10 watt practice amp that is pretty good, too for around 130 or so.

my 2 and a half cents.

L

> You have received some great advice here that's for sure. Deral and Glenn have given you some of the best insights into the process. I might add that the action on the Gibsons is a lot different from most Fenders, mainly because the strings set a little closer to the neck/fretboard.
> The biggest concern is the neck itself, everything else can be repaired or replaced. If you look down the neck and it is noticeably bowed, I would move on. Next step is to try every note at every position along the fretboard, if any buzz or is just dead when plucked, then you have a small problem that can most likely be adjusted by a setup with any luthier at any music store for 20 to 30 bucks as mentioned above.
> For the young player I recommend DEAN guitars. They are well built, American made and have a wide spectrum of designs to appeal to the younger player. Some of the higher end guitars are expensive, but that holds true for any brand.
> For an amp for a young man, try a Pignose. They are small but have all the nuances of a big amp and the sound. The price is 100 or less and they can't be turned up so loud that they drive you from your home. Marshall has a good 10 watt practice amp that is pretty good, too for around 130 or so.
>
> my 2 and a half cents.
>
> L

Well, the height of the strings (action as I called in my first reply above) can be high or low, it's not dependent on the manufacturer. Gibsons aren't lower than Fenders or vice-versa. They all come from the factory with a crappy set-up. THe playability of any guitar depends on getting a set-up (as I said earlier) done on it once you buy it. A well-trained luthier will know how to set-up any guitar you buy, and will be able to make it pleasing to play for your son.

As far as Deral's point about the fretboard radius, your son won't really have a preference for either one until he actually has played guitar for awhile.

If one of his heroes is Hendrix, then get him a strat like Hendrix's from Woodstock. I've got a MIM creme colored one with maple fretboard and it screams!

Essesntially, the two kinds of pickups discussed above (single coils like a Fender strat, and humbuckers like a Gibson SG or Les Paul) with yield two different voicings/tones. The single coils with cut through like a knife, be more trebly, whereas the humbuckers are more bassy, and have a more earthy tone.

Josh has been playing acoustic for more than five years now 🙂 and he's not too bad - to my ears at least 🙂

He says he would prefer a flat fredboard - like his acoustic. I've looked at Gisbon, but they will be out of our price range I fear.

Thankx for the info about pickups - I had been wondering about the differences Strat vs Tele, other than the obvious shape.

We are off today to a good local rockshop for an initial look around...