buying a guitar

[BUGGER�GHO�T]

I need help. I know jack shit about guitars. My friend is offering to teach me, but I need a guitar (electric). (we plan to be in a band)


I need a electric guitar, a good one. Plus it needs to look good. But also not too high in price ($599+). It doesn't need to includ the amp, I already got one in mind/got one.

And do you have sugjestions on cables? I'm 6'2" and I came upon alot of 5 foot cables on some sites which i'm definitly not getting.

Plus any additional stuff I would need? (I need a case for carrying I know)

Asking not for flames, only help.

Thanks in advance.

[Squeeky]

Your gonna pay $600 on a beginner guitar? Buy a cheap one $100-150 and work on that for a couple years until you get good. Then upgrade.

[BUGGER�GHO�T]

I'm buying one that I'm gona keep, and this money doesn't come up alot....for a young guy like me.

And the beginner guitars dont have that much stuff, well they come with like everything you need, but i just want the good looking/using guitar. All my other friends learned off from the bigs, thats the path i'm going to take.


Plus the beginners ones look like shit.

[Squeeky]

Who the fuck cares what they look like?

[NightWalker XI]

For a beginner like yourself there is not competition, look up Yamaha Pacifica

BEST.STARTER.GUITAR.EVaR

[Firefly]

MusiciansFriend.com

Or you can go to local music shops and find second-hand guitars that are great, AND cheap. I own five guitars (and two bass guitars), and three of them are pawn-shop specials. The best sounds I have ever gotten have come out of those pawn-shoppers.

Being 6-foot doesn't mean anything when you've got a five foot cord. Is your guitar at the top of your head? Nope, not unless you're doing some wacky 80's Hair Band playing style. Your guitar will be hanging around waist-area, so that's probably what, three feet? Plus you can also use the five-footer to go from your foot pedal to the amp. They sell cords that are longer than five feet, and if you can't find one, you can get two and splice them together *OR* get a simple extension plug adaptor that allows you to plug two cords together to make one longer cord.

The type of music you plan to play really determines what kind of equipment you get. If you're doing Moldy-Oldies and covers of 70s bar hits, you're not going to want an ESP 7-string. If you're doing punk, you're not going to want a Fender strat (which to me is a piece of shit). If you're doing hardcore or some "nu-metal" or whatever they call heavy metal these days, you don't want a hollow-body Gibson. That's the first thing I'd like to know... which means I'm offering to help.

By the way, I own a Gibson SG, an Epiphone Les Paul, an ESP Custom 7-string, A BC Rich Warlock, and a Gibson ES175 hollow-body. In case you're wondering.

[xuur]

Fender standard Strat. got mine for under 300 and I'll put it against any guitar out there for that price. since you're just starting, its pretty unlikely you'll notice a ton of difference between a std strat and some custom Les Paul you pay 10x for. go on the cheap for now, grab a few FX pedals and a crybaby and have at her.....erm...it.

you wanna customize it, cover it with bumper stickers.

[Firefly]

I think the Strat sounds like flabby anus, but it's a good starter guitar. You can dress up ANY sound with the right foot pedals. Distortion, chorus, wah-pedal, and sometimes even a separate distortion pedal. But in the end, I'd take on your Fender Strat with my pawn-shop Memphis Melodymaker that I got for $50, armed with a pick, my tube amp, and a cheap Shred-ped.

It's not necessarily the guitar sound either- the more crap you tack on, the more different sound you're going to get. Any craptacular guitar player can sound like a pro with a crap guitar, an FX board and some pedals and a quality amp.

Like the 80s bands. Living proof that no-talent prettyboys wearing sissy makeup and carrying label-bought/label-paid-for instruments can get plenty of na-na.

[Mr1337Duck]

A pretty nice guitar... get one like mine. The 1986 Strat I ordered arrived, I get to play it when Christmas rolls around. It's black with a black pick guard. And that thing is beautiful, I've snuck a look at it. I started looking for a guitar kinda like what the guitarist in POD had in the sleeping awake video.

[xuur]

the Strat sounds like flabby anus

LOL cute. Never heard one myself (the flabby anus part) but I think alot depends on what sound you're after and the style you use.

Straight up, no FX, a Strat is a nice electric blues box. simple, decent tone. action could use some work out of the box but still..not terrible.

yeah, you can get some that sound great for speed metal but suck at anything less or get ones that sound great played easy but blow when pushed.

a matter of taste I suppose.

check your local pawn shops. decent guitars can be found there, but do your homework to know worth before shopping...as pawns often rip the unsuspecting.

[Squick]

I can vouch for MusiciansFriend.com... I bought a high end pro audio amp from them, and the tech support is absolutely amazing... One of the techs actually had the same amp and was able to help me out almost instantly.

As for electrics I recommend Epiphone for a beginner guitar. You are looking at less then $200 most likely for a nice one; and don't forget that Epiphone is made by Gibson, so they are very good quality, I have had mine for about eight years now, and even with heavy play I have only had to swap strings, everything else has held up like a champ.

Squick

[Mr1337Duck]

My old acoustic, 1987 I think, maybe older, was an epiphone classic. Can someone clear this up for me? My friend says there's three types of guitars, acoustic, classic, and electric. I say just acoustic and electric, classics have a hollowed out body, and the fact that they have wider necks doesn't stop them from being acoustic.


Who's right here?

[Squick]

As far as I learned Mr1337, the difference is actually in the strings... The classical guitar uses plastic-based strings for the top three.

[Paingiver]

fender strats and teles are definatley really sweet . I have a dark blue fender squire telecaster. Squire versions of fenders are alot cheaper than the real versions and they don't sound that bad. im in the same position as you bugger, im trying to start a band myself with some of my friends we got lead guitarist(me ) , a bass( my friend Jack), a rythm guitar(my friend Jim), and a drummer,( my friend Alex). So far we've been doing pretty well, we just can think of a good name for our band , if anyone knows any good band names please post

[Andok]

I registered to this board just so I could reply to this post:

Bugger, the type of guitar you want will be very dependent on your music style and your individual taste. If you are old enough, you should visit some local clubs that host live bands. When you find a band that has a guitar sound that you like, ask the guitarist what kind of setup he has. Most musicians will be happy to tell more than you would ever want to know about their rig.

When buying a guitar, the more expensive guitars don�t necessarily sound better. In fact, you�ll find that some of the best tones come from guitars that cost around $400. Also, I wouldn�t recommend that you buy a used guitar unless you have someone with you that knows his shit about guitars. Like Firefly said, you can find some very good guitars in pawn shops, but I also see lots of pawn shop guitars that are overpriced or have fucked up necks. Finally, don�t stress too much about finding the perfect guitar for your first purchase - most musicians go through several guitars before they find one they want to keep, so it is highly unlikely that you will stick with your first guitar.

As a blind recommendation, I suggest that you try a Fender Telecaster. It may not suit you, but it is a good starting point in your search. Also, buy a hard-shell case!!! Never ever carry your precious instrument in one of those crappy gig-bags. Trust me on this :-) You�ll also want to pick up a tuner.

By the way, here�s the setup I normally use at our shows: a slightly modified Fender P-Bass and an AMPEG SVT Classic head with an 8x10 cabinet.