Me and the lad have been learning since January and yesterday his music teacher gave him Smoke On The Water which sound ok on acoustic but would sound better plugged in.

Are these guitar and amp sets for about £250 any good or should I be looking at separates? Budget is £250.

I’ve seen some sets on ebay for about £110 but they look too cheap.

You don’t need to spend anywhere near your budget, unless you insist on buying new.

Yamaha Pacifica guitar for around £120 and an amp for under £50, both off eBay. You’ve then got £80 to spend on an fx pedal if you really want to.

This would be good value

Ta. I know absolutely nothing about them, so keep the advise coming.

second hand tele/strat copy (Squire etc) and a practice amp. Could be had for £150 tops.

Guitar for £110

Amp for £70

Or a smidge over that (£180) for brand new…

Whereabouts are you?

Do you have a relatively local music shop you can wander in to and try out a few of their budget or second hand guitars?

Spend as much as you can on the guitar so you have something that has been nicely finished, is well setup and plays nicely.
Don’t worry about fx – whatever amp you get will most likely have a clean and dirty channel – that’s more than enough for now.

If you stick at it, you will upgrade it all later anyway. N+1 takes on a whole new dimension … 😉

Yamaha is a good bet for getting something that will be of consistent good quality for a reasonable outlay.
The Yamaha “pack” is however not good value as the guitar model – 012 is the
bottom of the range and you can get a 112V or 112H for similar outlay and then get a cheap second hand amp – there are millions about and they are
almost worthless second hand.
Find a guitar shop and get some advice there – best done in person really
most shops have friendly staff .
The very best advice is to get a guitar that you want to pickup and play.
There are bargains to be found second hand if you feel reasonably confident about assessing a guitar for damage – lookout for Yamaha again as they are more consistent than almost any other make for build quality.

Just been in the local music shop on the way to swimming lessons. They will do me a Strat with practice amp and various other bits and bobs for £200. They let my lad have a go and he loved it!

Very tempting…

Those (Korean?) Strats are ok but it’d be better to buy a 10-15w practice amp second hand and spend a little more on a ‘better’ guitar. You’ll be more likely to want to pick it up and play it if it’s a nice thing to actually play, even not plugged in.

If you’re anywhere near the North East I’ve got a 15w practice amp you can have for nowt if you can collect it.

edit- just because you’re a relative beginner doesn’t mean you have to buy a cheap guitar, same as you wouldn’t buy a BSO for yourself if you were keen about cycling 😉

edit again- that Yamaha Pacifica 012 isn’t the best value, I had one and compared to my relatively cheap (£240 or so new) Epihone SG Pro it was awful.

can’t really go wrong with the yamaha up there ^^^^ though smoke will sound better with a pedal or two 😉

Sadly I’m not on the North East, but thanks for the offer.

Define “better” guitar. I’m all ears.

I’d want to buy the guitar new as i wouldn’t know what to look for regarding wear or damage on a used one.

I dunno, just spend more on the guitar and less on the amp if you’re on a tight-ish budget. Like buying a super-duper hardtail instead of a compromised FS sort of thing.

edit- recommend what you have-

http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/search.asp?brandname=&search=sg+400&x=0&y=0

The prices have gone up since, you guessed it, Brexit though. Anything in the £250-£300-ish bracket (for just the guitar) will be decent. Practice amps can be had for buttons second hand.

edit- Rawk!

http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/electric_guitars_detail.asp?stock=160922302400008

I’d also emphasize getting a nicer guitar and cheaper practice amp. In fact I almost always use my iPad and GarageBand when playing at home these days going through a wifi speaker. Sounds really good and you can have pretty accurate representations of some of the top quality pro amps.

The second hand ideas are good ones. You can get a so-so guitar new, but a much better one second hand for the same price – they don’t wear out as catastrophically in the same way as bikes… The best thing to do would be to take someone with you to look at them who knows what they’re doing. But check the nut, check the frets to see that they have no obvious ‘dimples’ in them. Check that the action is neither too high, nor so low that the strings buzz against the frets all the way up the fretboards (this isn’t critical, as it’s usually easy to sort, but you might be able to negotiate a lower price). Sight down the neck from the body end and look the the neck isn’t bent or screwy. Plug it in and check the volume and tone controls.

All of these things can be remedied (at least relatively) cheaply. Cheap practice amps are also the way forward, at least initially. But if you’ve got an iPhone or an iPad, as Roter Stern says, amp emulation is really very good and not expensive, even when you factor in something that lets you plug your guitar in and listen at the same time (google the iRig).

One of the benefits of buying from a good well known shop is that they will offer setups (possibly free with the guitar) which will make the guitar play much nicer – ensure the nut is cut right and the strings are low and buzz free. Even if you buy second hand it is worth getting a setup done.

If Manchester is anywhere near for you I’ve got a Marshall MG50 amp that I never use sat in storage. Give me a shout and it’s yours.

I live in Prestwich and I’ll take it off your hands gladly!

Do you know anyone who knows their guitars? If you do, then imho, 2nd hand is the way to go. I just got my son a lovely guitar (PRS SE 245) for not far off your budget.

Edit: does your teacher know you’re looking? They might have a contact with 2nd hand gear?

Nice one. E-mail is matt at brutalevents dot co dot uk. Get in touch and we’ll sort something out. Heading up to the Lakes this afternoon and won’t be back until Tuesday but after thatl I’ll be free to meet up.

So chuck your budget at a nicer guitar for the kid.

Nice.

In that case, get the Yamaha 112!

If we’re doing bike analogies, it’s a quality frame, with very decent wheels and finishing kit.
Very versatile too.

The cheaper Squiers can be a bit variable, and the materials and construction methods are compromised to a certain extent.

The Yams are proper guitars and seem to last very well.

@durhambiker that’s really kind. May you have a puncture and fret-buzz free life!

It’s not getting used, as I do all my playing through amp sims these days. I’d rather a keen kid ended up with a nicer guitar and put it to use!

If you go really cheap then a Telecaster is easier to set up than a Strat unless you block the trem mechanism. I bought a really cheap Thomann Tele (80e) initially for spares, and liked the neck so much I’ve worked on it and it’s become one of my most played guitars.

A modelling amp means you won’t need pedals. A second-hand Mustang II or III V2 is another favourite.

As above Squiers can be variable but the “classic vibe” Squiers are excellent. When you see a Squier neck on a historic telecaster in the hands of one of the best US country players you know they aren’t second best.

The excitement of wandering the secondhand guitar shops as a teenager should not be underestimated. Granted, he’ll get booted out for playing Smoke on the Water or Stairway, but being able to choose his own guitar from a budget may give him a much bigger kick than just picking up what a crowd of opinions recommend. He’ll see his guitar hanging from the hook and just know that’s the one he wants to play…

I went back to the guitar shop after being offered Matt’s Amp and said I just need a guitar now.

30 minutes later and I’ve got a Washburn WIN14 for £50. Second hand, but tuned and warrantied.

I put all this down to karma because yesterday I helped Barbara over the road unload some bags of compost from her car and carried them to her shed.

Result, or you could call it a win! Eh? Eh? See what I did there? No?

Badumtish

definitely don’t get a floating tremolo at that price.

btw I’d recommend buying an electric guitar and audio interface(I’ve got a focusrite 2i4, but the 2i2 will do fine), so you can plug it into a computer(attached to speakers or a hifi(go as high or low as you want quality wise there, your choice)). Will allow multitrack recording (google reaper, but you might get a free copy of something cut down with an audio interface). An amp can come down the road if you ever need one. You probably won’t with the above set up.

You’ll need some kind of amp sim to get realistic sounds though, I’ve got amplitube, but there are others.

not the cheapest route to go down, but worth it, if interested in recording and home studios. This is something more you build.

You can get an amp that will work as an audio interface btw, check of blacktar ID:Core amps. i’ve got the 10, decent enough, but you get a better amp for the money more you spend. But it does work as an audio interface. Worth considering if you are looking at amps.

My setup is Tascam AI plus reaper & ableton, with NI guitar rig and amplitube. Also check out ninjam/jamtaba vst for online jamming. Need to do a separate post about that actually.

Need to do a separate post about that actually.

Dead right. I have no idea what you have just said.

Have you tried it out in front of the mirror yet?
🙂

We need pictures.

#multipurposedoddyface

Have you tried it out in front of the mirror yet?

Hell Yes!

It is all very exciting. My lad said that he wants it in his bedroom tonight so he can look at it. No chance. It is mine.

Bit OT but I find AmpliTube a bit of a con. I paid for what I thought was the full version but you get all these pop ups all the time telling you that for that feature it’s an extra five euros for that feature it’s an extra five euros and it was quite expensive in the first place IIRC.

View post on imgur.com

£115 Squier Strat compares pretty well to a Fender Custom shop Strat at about x 30 the price
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FuHoEBoAoTM&t=951s[/video]

The same guys thought the Squier classic vibe Tele was the more expensive Fender in a blindfold test. The test would have paused for a retune the second they’d hit the Squier trem bar hard. I’ve got a MIM Strat and avoid more than a flutter. Two bolts good.

Choosing a custom shop is unfair on current Fender Strats, they should have compared a modern Strat with a maple compound neck and some Duncan splitable stack pickups – then they’d have felt and heard a significant difference.

speaking of amp sims, just been looking at whats out there these days, I just found this (it’s better than the amplitube i just mentioned)

https://www.scuffhamamps.com/product/s-gear

on the 14 day trial the now, but its superb i have to say, think i’ll buy it.

btw regards to a guitar, tbh, at your price you are just looking for something functional, stays in tune and isn’t a bastard to play, plenty options.

tbh, i’d see if you could get a loan of someones electric guitar/amp(you must know someone with something kicking about) for 6 months and save up your money for something better.

after the 6 month period, you know if you are going to stick at it, so it’s then worth ivesting more money in, and secondly even if you don’t you’ll have a pot of cash for soemthing else.

Edukator – Reformed Troll

The same guys thought the Squier classic vibe Tele was the more expensive Fender in a blindfold test. The test would have paused for a retune the second they’d hit the Squier trem bar hard.

The tremelo it doesn’t have? 😆 I know you meant strat, but, it’s still false- the squier standard has a 2-bolt, the classic vibe gets a 6-screw because it’s supposed to have, well, a classic vibe- same as the american vintage 65. Nothing really to do with price. (I don’t think there’s a squier model today with a floyd but there has been in the past)

Agree the custom shop comparison was unfair- but in the exact way your post is 😉