[Closed] Guitar advice (please)

Why not go into a shop and try a few and see what takes your fancy?

Good point mac (and i intend to), I just worry that they'll see someone clueless and try to sell me what they have. I'd like an idea of what I want before hand if possible.

You can play anything on a Strat.

It would be possible to pick up a nice MIM Stratocaster on fleabay for around your budget and its would be more versatile (and lighter) than a Les Paul

I'll watch this thread with interest, I've wanted to learn guitar for a while. I've got 4music on in the background, they're counting down the top 20 Foo Fighter singles and thought to myself that i should get round to learning!

try a few shops, you may get lucky with something a bit "better" second hand. As for new epiphone les pauls would be fine as a starter guitar or something from Yamaha in the same price range would be equally good.

guitar threads are always good as they nudge me to spin my chair round and get one down off the wall to get some practice in (though not so much on sunday evenings as a marshall stack to be quiet loud 😳 ).

a proper usa les paul is about 1800 quid. a proper usa strat is about 1200 quid. i would go and try a few guitars in the shop, and there is no need to blow more than 300 odd quid. but dont get a 80 quid shitter, as it will be horrid to play.

apparently the "Vintage" brand of Gibson copies are quite good too. an SG would be lighter than a Les Paul.

I'd recently been looking at Washburn WIN series as a lighter, more sculpted version of a Les Paul, but hey, I'm a drummer, I have no need for any more guitars (and yes, I know it's like bikes - optimal number of guitars is n+1, where n is the number you already have)

In that price Range the Squire Classic vibe are by far the best in class. When Telecaster hunting I played a dozen around various shops ranging from £200 to £1000 I ended up with the £200 CV Tele. It wasn't as good as the 1k ones but it wasn't £800 worse and it was better than all the others.

Thanks chaps. So, is the popular thought that a strat would be best suited?
Weight isn't a massive issue really (unless it makes it harder to learn).

Vintage are great guitars for the money, I'd definitely consider one of those if I were you. All of the ones I've played have been great.

I don't really like strats much, they're a bit ordinary and I've never really got on with bridge singlecoils, unless they're p90s or teles! Strats are just a bit too "ordinary" for me. I've been pretty impressed with the Squier Vintage Modified - I have one of the P Basses and it resonates so well. You can feel it vibrating through your body when you play it acoustically 😀

I'm quite out of date now as far the budget brands go but Vintage used to be absolutely superb at the price. Epiphone by comparison could be pretty nasty- my brother has an Epi LP Standard and though the woodwork and finishing were decent, the electronics were horrible. I ended up just replacing it all for him, it was such a waste of a nice guitar. But word was that was going to improve.

And I'd second Mickyfinn's comment on the Squier Classics, they're fantastic value, genuinely nice guitars. The Vintage Modifieds are similiarly good. Love the Tele Custom.

it certainly makes it harder to play an hour set on stage under hot stage lighting conditions.

Try a few. See which ones you like the look of, the feel of, the sound of. take a guitar playing mate with you to the shop. Don't forget you'll also need a guitar amp and probably, eventually, one or more FX pedals (unless the amp has built in FX).
otherwise you may as well buy an acoustic.

Oh aye... I've got a wee crap practice amp somewhere which you'd be welcome to, can't remember whereabouts you are... Probably not worth posting but if you're ever anywhere near Edinburgh I'd happilly offload it 😉 It's one of the wee 10W starter things you get in guitar packs (labelled up BC Rich in this case but they're all basically the same, ie, crap but better than nothing)

Wouldn't worry about weight unless you're small, my LP weighs in quite heavy even for an LP and it's not a problem for gigging. Lots of people think weight adds to the tone and sustain. I have no idea whether it's true or not.

Oh and the most important thing to invest in after the initial guitar purchase is a good tuner.

Thanks for the very generous offer northwind, alas I'm bristol based so collection is not an option.
I don't think I'll be gigging any time soon am as I said, I'm not a small chap.
Oh and what's a tuner?
What do you think of these?
http://www.gak.co.uk/en/vintage-v100afd-paradise-flamed-amber/53965

http://www.gak.co.uk/en/vintage-v100it-flamed-iced-tea/17936

If you are really set on a budget electric, I'd be concentrating more on what amp I want rather than the guitar. The guitars themselves show little difference in sound between expensive ones and cheap ones conpared to an amp. I bought a £70 orange crush off the internet and it sounded awful, really muddy and dull. I'd et a cheap les paul or SG copy and spend everything else on the amp.

Lastly....good luck and stick at it!

Without meaning to sound patronising, a tuner does just that - lets you tune your guitar 😛 Something like this - http://www.gak.co.uk/en/korg-pitchblack-chromatic-tuner-%28black-chrome/19372

Oh and lessons are really valuable when you're first starting out. I know a few guitarists who are self taught/learnt from books and tabs and you can tell those who have only played alone and those who have learnt from playing with others!

If you've got an Xbox 360 or a decent PC, get Rocksmith! It's kind of like Guitar Hero, except you play with a real guitar - it starts you off just playing the key notes, and adds more as you improve until you're playing the song properly.

It's also got lots of technique lessons and exercises (and an inbuilt tuner, so you're always in the correct tuning for the song you're about to play). Only downside is the lack of metal on the song list.

It's not a substitute for lessons with an actual human being, but it's a nice addition to the learning materials,

As a guitarist of 12-13 years I found Rocksmith impossible to play well without actually knowing how to play the song in the first place 😆

Vintage are decent for that kind of money as said. My pick for a starter guitar would probably be a Yamaha Pacifica, the 112 range are great for £199, spend the rest of your budget on lessons. If you want to spend a bit more, Ibanez make nice axes for £300 or so upwards, the ART series are pretty nice for the money, bit more of a 'metal' sound.

Try them out though, when you first start you need to want to play, so get something you like above all else.

Vintage Strat (and I say that as a Les Paul man). Lovely guitars, I could use a Strat type guitar in my collection and keep toying with one!

Son maybe selling his Fender Deluxe Super Strat if you are interested?

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The squire Jmascius jazzmaster is a fantastic piece of kit, buy one of those then in 10 years time you'll be able to sell it for what. You paid for it new or more.

In nigh on 30 years of guitar dabbling I've never once played a start that gave me the wow buzz.
Tele's and Les Paul's are proper mans guitars. Starts are (Geoff Beck excepted) middle age wannabe safe guitars.

Therefore based on this forums demographics you need a Strat 🙂

I've been buying Squier japan e series strats like theyre going out of fashion this year. amazing quality 250-350 quids

HS anyone any experience of cort guitars? They seem highly rated. The CR250 has caught my eye.

Right then

Epihone do a nice one called a special 2. It's a great guitar for a beginner, easy to like. well made, sounds nice. For Strats I'd go for squire, 2nd hand standards are about £250. Get a small amp (I use a Roland 15W )

In lots of ways leccy is harder, you need to be quite careful to play one well (any idiot can play 5ths 8) )

Find a teacher. Bet you buy an acoustic 😆

Hey that's a lovely strat! 🙂

30 years guitar dabbling - geoff beck mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm okay then 🙄

Thanks all. I've looked at the special ii emsz. Opinions seem to be that there are better value options though.

Find a teacher. Bet you buy an acoustic

I have also heard/read very good things about the Yamaha Pacifica 112 as a beginner guitar, I would defiantly give one a try. Something like [url= http://www.andertons.co.uk/solid-body-electric-guitars/pid13391/cid671/yamaha-pacifica-112v-black.asp ]Yamaha Pacifica 112[/url]

One thing to bear in mind about les Paul's (although you sound very keen on one!), is that they have a shorter scale (neck) length than a strat/most other guitars, so as you have big hands you might feel a bit cramped in the higher frets - probably not a problem for the first little while when learning, but could make things more difficult when you start improving.

As lots of people have said, I would recommend trying before you buy. If you can make a day trip to Guildford, in my experience, the guys at Andertons are great and they have a big range so you should be able to compare a few different guitars there.

The other thing I would really recommend, if you can stretch another £20 - 40, is getting the guitar set up by a proper Luither (I know a great one near reading). It made a huge difference to the 'playability' of my guitars (gibson les paul, fender deluxe strat) and I think would probably make a bigger difference to a 'budget' model which may not have been set up very well at the factory.

Bristol based? Get yourself along to Electic Ladyland in Old Market. He won't try and sell you a guitar and looks a bit nuts, but he's one of the nicest blokes I know!

Treble Rock (Clifton) is good and won't sell you a duffer. Rikkaxe in town is to be avoided at all costs - the guy's an absolute tool. Drum Bank (Gloucester Road) is good, but I've never bought anything from them. Reverb or whatever they're called in the centre will sell you the latest flavour of the month.

I would avoid new budget guitars (vintage, cort etc) and get a used Tokai or Epiphone and take it to be set up, which should cost no more than £100. If you're getting a les Paul (or copy) make sure it has a solid top and a set neck. Don't be swayed by pretty flame maple tops that are super thin and do nothing to the tone.

If you don't know much about guitars, I would buy from eBay without speaking to anyone. Get yourself to Electric Ladyland and speak to Steve. Make sure you set aside a good hour or two though!

Very observant Steven 😀
That Yamaha looks a bit too van Halen for me. Maybe I'm vain but its like a bike. When I look at it, I should want to use it, like my Santa Cruz!

I think the cort cr250 in trans black has captured my heart!
Justin, what do you think of heron music?

Hey that's a lovely strat!

yes it is 😉 , he's moved onto a ibanez now.

Was a good guy last time I went there. Not a massive range of stuff, but won't give you any bullshit.

Haha Do Rikkaxe still have that buzzer to let you in?

Do you have a point plumber?
So I've been playing for quite some time and I think Geoff Beck actually makes a Strat sound interesting unlike the usual, rea, knopfler, yngwie, Blackmore types 😉

I think he's making a point that you're spelling Jeff Beck's name wrong, and that anyone who had been playing 30 years might not make the mistake.

But of course, I could be wrong 🙂

Who the ***k is jeff beck? 😀
It's all music. It's all good.

Oh, sorry. thanks for the offer but that strat doesn't do it for me.

Auto correct 🙂

Might get a cheap PRS SE One in your budget. Try before you buy though.

Local guitar teacher would likely advise if you took a couple of lessons. Maybe even just for a pint.

My daughter has a cort guitar. It's a z series z42 les Paul alike twin humbuckers with a coil tab. Means it can sound like a les Paul or strat. It sounds, plays and looks great. You can pick them up for about 200.
Cort make guitars for many very well known makers including ibanez and sheckter.
Speak with Richard a Richards guitars he will point you in the right direction.

Guitars are worse than bikes for the last thing friday special. Sit somewhere quiet with chosen potential guitar purchase and play each string at each fret with an even force - checking for dead spots on the neck, odd vibrations, variations in action (the distance between string and fretboard). Learn a chord before shopping and move this up and down the neck to make sure it's comfortable. If you intend standing to play the guitar check it's comfortable on a strap - a badly balanced guitar, no matter how good it plays, is really annoying.

Red ones go fastest.

What sort of music will you be playing op?

Some good suggestions so far. I'd add Jackson and ibanez though to your considerations, both do cheaper guitars that are well built.
Whatever you buy, you may want to have a set up done on the guitar which should cost <£30 and will improve how the guitar feels.

Hi wrecker
I'm in bristol too. A mate who lives near me sells lots of guitars on ebay (username bristolguitars). He turns his stock over quite frequently so if he doesn't have anything suitable now its worth checking back. It also might be worth contacting him anyway, as he'll have stuff that's not listed, and is a decent chap who will not give the hard sell.
I'll be selling a guitar soon as well. It's probably not an ideal first guitar but you're welcome to have a look anyway. It's 1978 Japanese made "Lincoln" just like the one on this page. http://www.jedistar.com/jedistar_vintage_guitar_dating_l1.htm
If you're buying new as others have said you can't go wrong with yamaha or ibanez. They are easy to play and well made. Pickups etc can always be upgraded, on your 1st guitar its all about a nice neck and fretboard, good action (helped by a decent bridge) and as somebody above said, a guitar that is well balanced when standing up which many are not

Lots of good advice as usual.

Wrecker, don't worry about going to a shop not knowing anything, a decent place will give you great advice, and there are loads of really great shops. Remember we all have to start somewhere. Go without saying, careful if you buy of the net, my dad recently tried to buy a particular ibanez 12 string from GAK ( normally very very good) but had to send both the guitars they sent him back, as they were both wrong, now dad knows guitars, but if you don't know anything...

Guitars are funny things really, I was looking for a leccy I liked for ages and was certain I didn't want a strat, then in a corner of a shop was this second hand Squire, and well, it's by far the nicest Ive played, and I tried loads trust me!!!

Have fun!!

Thanks Peter, I'll keep an eye on the ebay account.
I'm wanting to play strokes, white stripes, foo fighters, that type of thing.
I haven't seen a yamaha which I like yet, so they may be out. The ibanez art range looks OK though.

This is getting the juices flowing;
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I wouldn't get too hung up on the looks if I were you. I paid £275 for a quite beaten up sg2000 in 1980 bright crimson (yuk!). I still own it and to this day it's the finest guitar I've ever played. The colour has grown on me since but It still wouldn't be a colour of choice.

[i]wanting to play strokes, white stripes, foo fighters, that type of thing.[/i]

Sorry to sound a bit dull, but you need to learn how to play, not how to play "a" bit of music 😉

The world is full of blokes who can play the intro to smoke on the water 😉

Be a bit more adventurous

Sorry to sound a bit dull, but you need to learn how to play, not how to play "a" bit of music

Whoa. Matey ^^^ up there asked me what type of music I wanted to play!
I'm not going to learn to play or practice jazz, when I hate it am I?

I wouldn't get too hung up on the looks if I were you.

emsz - get that crackle sorted yet?
Let him play what he wants 😉

I struggle with long sentences
Basically just buy whatever you think looks nice.
I imagine many of the responses above are the equivalent of people listing their favourite bikes, saying you should try lots of bikes, and saying you should go on skills courses if you'd asked "I've never ridden a bike, what one should I get?".
When the answer really should be along the lines of just get one, anyone one, and have some fun.

Crackle sorted, needed new selector gubbins.

Wrecker, sorry, but don't limit yourself to just "rock" you know? Guitar is a lovely instrument

Wrecker, sorry, but don't limit yourself to just "rock" you know? Guitar is a lovely instrument

Indeed, forget limiting yourself to rock, do it properly and limit yourself to FULL ON METAL!

As a guitarist of 12-13 years I found Rocksmith impossible to play well without actually knowing how to play the song in the first place

I also came to the realisation that Sting wrote really, really creepy songs.

Mr Toast mocks me because the first thing I did was download the Megadeth DLC, and I shun 90% of the tracklist.

Its fair to assume that whatever guitar the OP gets it will be sitting in the corner unused within 3 months so in that respect get the prettiest/cheapest

Plum

Its fair to assume that whatever guitar the OP gets it will be sitting in the corner unused within 3 months

Bit mean. 👿

it's what happens to a lot of people who start playing though, wrecker.

I just found the rocksmith layout weird. Keep expecting it to look like tab but it doesn't properly so it just confused me 😆

I just found the rocksmith layout weird. Keep expecting it to look like tab but it doesn't properly so it just confused me

Good to hear emsz

I just found the rocksmith layout weird. Keep expecting it to look like tab but it doesn't properly so it just confused me

I did as well (as I'm so used to tab), but there's a feature in the options to flip the layout it so it's like tab. Became much easier after that!

Oh yeah I remember we changed the settings actually and it helped a bit. Like with Guitar Hero though, I still find it easier and more rewarding to play it properly 😆 I guess I can see how it might help with getting timing etc for beginners, but I'd still rather use Guitar Pro or something.

That cort is the same as the Ibanez art series. So buy whatever you can get cheapest.

That cort is the same as the Ibanez art series.

I went through the same thing a couple of years ago. I first bought an old 2nd hand Yam Pacifica, which I still have but had the pickups and all the electrics upgraded a while ago as when I wanted to upgrade (sound familiar??) I couldn't find anything for a few hundred quid which sounded better. Went through the Vintage LP stage too - got rid, nice but very heavy. I also have a handmade Telecaster which I bought for £80 on ebay, and a cheap semi acoustic Ibanez. Yes, guitars are like bikes!
I bought a really nice little Kustom Contender combi amp which now sits on top of a 1X12 cab - I agree with whoever said to spend a bit on an amp.
Lessons - I had a few to get the basics in place, and then went to [url= http://www.justinguitar.com/ ]Justin[/url] for more tips.
I can play a few known riffs, but most of the time I just noodle away for a while playing whatever notes sound good together 🙂
Enjoy!

Update; I know I said that I didn't want a strat.
The popular view was that a strat would be best for me to start with (with a SSH config). I got myself one of these;
[img] [/img]
I know, it's not really a strat but it's a similar type thing. Excited.
Thanks for the advice

Oh that does look quite nice!

Got to say, cheap guitars have come a long way since I was starting out in the mid 80's! I recall plywood Squires (awful) and second hand 70's Aria Pros.... Very nearly got a Yamaha SG, and gutted I didn't as they are rather spendy now! And I missed out on a Rosewood Telecaster too.... curses!

emsz is right...

I did the same thing this time last year. Picked up a cheap Epiphone Les Paul Special(I) on ebay. It is a heavy guitar, but everyone who has tried it says it plays really nicely. Pick ups are a bit muddy, but, hell, it was cheap enough not to worry if I didn't like / couldn't play...

Wouldn't bother spending 200+ on the guitar, maybe 200 incl amp. Fender Mustang I is 90 odd quid, again, has worked well for my learning.

Ohh, and I found the whole "go to a shop" idea very intimidating. Easy to say when you can play a bit - shit advice (IMHO) if you're a proper newby learner