Best Electric Guitar for Beginners

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  yuuki on 21/06/2015 - 19:45

  +1

  Just did a similar post on this on another thread; so I'm going to copy chunks of it here. Post may be a bit long, but a guitarist of ten years over here so bear with me.

  Will begin by saying - stay away from the Aldi/generic Chinese guitars that you see advertised for $100 new. Going to be blatantly honest here - simply rubbish quality; with the biggest issue being poorly leveled frets causing buzz all over the place or rocket high action rendering the guitar hard to play - often causing one to lose interest in the instrument.

  Is this $300 inclusive of the guitar, amp and other essential accessories? Or just the guitar itself? Either way - stay second hand. Much better bang for your buck. Instruments are several times more expensive when new and highly depreciate in value once resold. Highly advise against purchasing new as you'll get a better quality instrument. Quality here is much more important than the instrument being "new" and terms like "warranty" are simply irrelevant in this field unlike general consumer products.

  Things you will need, is the guitar itself (obviously); an amp of some sort and a lead/cable. You SHOULD also pick up a tuner, a spare set of strings and a bag to keep your guitar safe from nasty nicks.

  As for the guitar, you can very often pick up a used Schecter or LTD for $200-300. Absolutely excellent guitars for the money. Can alternatively run with a used Ibanez S or RG series which are in the same price bracket. These three brands manufacture excellent guitars for the money. Would not suggest going down the Squier or Epiphone route like many others will; as from years of experience; have found the quality of work performed on the entry level Schecters/LTD/Ibanez superior to that of the more well regarded beginner brands.

  As far as the amp is concerned, you have two routes. You can go down the modeling amp route or the digital modeler route. Modeling amps such as the Roland Cube 15XL can be had for $50-100 second hand; as good as a tone you're going to get for that kind of money. Can also use headphones for quiet practice. Even better is a digital modeler such as the Boss ME25 (have seen the ME75 go this low) for around $100 - highly portable (will fit in a backpack) and you can also use headphones. No speakers however; so will have to be plugged into a set of normal speakers. A third option if you own an iPad could be an app based amp; which typically blow the entry level modelers out of the water. Despite owning a rack based system (an Axe-FX II for those interested), still constantly use Positive Grid's Bias application for simple practice at home. Sounds great - feels great to play especially considering it's less than 1/200th of my rack system.

  I see that you're in VIC. If you'd like to private message me; I'd be more than happy to shoot you links to all the budget-friendly yet excellent playing guitars around the area that pop up - as I am very active on music trading/selling/buying sites. Would also be happy to explain some of the guitar-technical stuff that I've mentioned in the post.

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  Cave Fire on 21/06/2015 - 21:13

  Beat me to it… Just would like add that JB Hi Fi has four different LTD guitars models brand new from $241 to $333. I bought the entry level bass in this range and was impressed with the build quality. If you are going to buy secondhand, you will need to know how to check a guitar out properly, there's a few videos on youtube regarding this. With the tax year ending, it may be a good idea to check prices at your local music shop. They may also be able to include things like getting the guitar setup as part of the deal (eg. new strings, lowering string height and setting intonation). Some shops also have secondhand instruments available as well.

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  GnarlyKnuckles on 22/06/2015 - 01:52

  I'm a seasoned guitarist, and I'd be interested to hear the opinions of others on this contention:

  I reckon the best guitar for a novice, is the one that stays in tune the best.

  A reasonably low/uniform 'action' is also very important for a novice, because if it's too high they will not be able to fret the notes properly, and that will make playing chords (cleanly) very hard for them. But the fact is, a newbie guitarist (unless they're already accomplished on a different instrument/have a 'good ear' already) will not even know which string is out of tune when they play a chord and it sounds 'off'.

  So for my money, the best guitar for a novice would be one with pretty decent quality tuning pegs/ a 'good head' on it (and for once, I'm not actually trying to be vulgar/ I'm attempting to make a serious point here). I thought I'd mention this because it is kinda 'in harmony' with the advice from someone else above… I've picked up (literally 'picked them up', not 'bought') some really cheap acoustics out there and initially marveled at how straight their necks were, and how decent the action was at the lower end of the neck (the only place newbies will be for the first year or two), given the price they were selling for. The reason for the cheap price usually became immediately obvious when I tuned them up and actually played them. Bad quality tuning pegs/their associated mountings etc.

  I should add here that I know about 'wearing in' new strings etc., and I'm not referring to those types of effects; I'm talking about crap quality tuning pegs/heads that 'slip', are not 'finished' properly, cannot be smoothly turned (etc.).

  There is an unfortunately widespread misconception out there that if a kid wants to learn a new instrument, the logical thing to do is to get them a crap (really cheap) one, then if they persevere with that/ show enthusiasm and/or talent, eventually get them a decent one. This is a completely flawed construct in reality, because a crap instrument is really frustrating to try and learn on, even for a kid with a reasonable amount of raw talent. And it goes the other way too… even for a kid with average talent, if they have a great instrument to learn on initially, it can be such an encouraging experience that they then persevere with it.