ok, after some time messing around with my acoustic I’ve decided to get an electric to have some fun with rock songs (sweet child of mine, stairway to heaven, …), I’m going to play it through my PC (plenty of nice guitar amp simulators) and I am gravitating towards the strat type of guitars.
Budget is low-end ($300-$400 tops) but there are some good sales going on right now so that should be enough to get me something reasonable (a squier or possibly even a mexican made stratocaster): the problem, and here is my request for help, is that I have absolutely no clue about how to pick an electric guitar, and all the stories of huge variances between one and the other have me worried.
Of course I can figure out if the action is ok, if the neck is straight, if there are obvious mechanical issues, but given that it is usually played amplified/distorted/overdriven/… how am I supposed to figure out if it sounds ‘good’ or not? what should I be looking for? picking out my acoustic was a lot easier, also considering that I’m going to go for a sale-type guitar it’s not like I’ll be able to try several, not to mention that stores around here tend to try and make a sale as fast as possible with the least amount of help (to given you an idea I was in a store tonight and the salesperson was trying to tell me that I had to get that (floor model, scratched up) mexican strat because it’s now discontinued and in a few years it will be a rare collectible (sure), he didn’t even offer me to plug it in and try it out, he was expecting me to just go 'oooh, collectible? sure, ring in the sale!).
buy a guitar you have actually played. Never buy one in a box, always buy off the floor.
buy the guitar that sounds best acoustically; if it sounds pretty good by itself, odds are it will get better plugged in.
play as many guitars as you can before you buy.
don’t buy a new POS when you can get a good used guitar for the same dough.
If you don’t care all that much about fashion, or looking cool, and just want the best deal you can find, buy whatever isn’t hip at the moment. If Les Pauls are cool buy a strat. If Metal is dead, buy a tiger striped guitar with a whammy bar.
regarding (2), so I should be looking for a good ‘acoustic’ sound? I thought for some reason that a good ‘electric’ sound might be different (say, maybe you’d want an acoustic to sound ‘rounder’ while an electric maybe not as much).
regarding (4) I would totally prefer to get a used guitar, but there are so many snake-oil type people it’s not even funny: from the guy who’s trying to sell me an older mexican strat (when they had more quality issues) for $100 more than the store wants for a new one. To the guy that needs the money but would also accept a 7-string as a trade (?). To the guy selling a nice 1980s japanese strat for $699 (I mean, cmon, enough with the 99, and that’s overpriced anyways), etc. etc. etc. I tend to buy things 2nd hand, but I have to say that on average the guitar sellers appear to be a much worse lot than, say, computer equipment sellers.
“so I should be looking for a good ‘acoustic’ sound?”
Yes.
"I thought for some reason that a good ‘electric’ sound might be different (say, maybe you’d want an acoustic to sound ‘rounder’ while an electric maybe not as much). "
Nope. If it sounds good unplugged, odds are it will sound good plugged in. If you play a couple of “identical” guitars side by side, you will see what I mean.
"To the guy selling a nice 1980s japanese strat for $699 "
That’s not unreasonable. Many of the '80s Jap Strats were better than the US version, and are quite desireable.
Guitars aren’t bikes or computers. you can’t judge the worth of a guitar by saying “it’s a mexican Strat, 1983, therefore it’s worth X$.” A good guitar is worth more money than the exact same model that isn’t as good. There are $400 salsa casters that are better than $1500 US Strats, and you can find them if you look; on the used market, these guitars can and will sell for more money. This isn’t snake oil, but it can be confusing if you don’t know enough to be able to tell the difference.
Strats are tough, because there are certain years and models of import Strats that tend to be particularly good, and they appreciate tremendously on the used market, to the point that some used Strats can sell for twice the retail value of the current model only a few years after their release (eg, 80s Japanese Strats, particularly the vintage reissues.)
I would tend to agree with Fredly that for any given guitar model, the one that plays best unplugged will play the best plugged in.
Having said that, the tones and effects you can get out of one kind of guitar vs. another can differ quite a bit. A Strat with single coil pickups will play differently with distortion than a Les Paul with humbuckers. So it kind of depends on what you’re after. If you are mainly concerned with amplified sounds, you can get a thing called a pocket rock it for about $40 which is basically a battery powered amp with headphones that has some rudimentary effects. You can take that around to the shops and plug in and see what grabs you.
Importantly, though, understand that you are asking a lot for $300-400. A quality instrument is going to cost some money and is going to play very differently than a cookie cutter one.
Best of luck and have fun exploring. By far the most important thing is to find something that makes you want to play a lot.
I’m in agreement with all of the previous comments. You want to play it first, you want to buy used, and you want to play it un-plugged first. Even the cookie cutter guitars, strats, les pauls, etc, all have little differences (I’m playing with an '03 American strat). One guitar does not sound like another.
While it’s true that different pickup configurations produce different tones, you can probably get reasonably close to any sound you want from any guitar. For example, if I mess with my amp, I can get a pretty heavy sound from my strat. Certainly not with the sustain of '57 classic humbuckers, but pretty heavy none the less.
If it truely is your first electric, pick up something reasonably nice, and if you’re still looking for more guitar in another year or two, sell what you’ve got and invest in a nice instrument. But don’t get me wrong, you can go a long way with a $400 guitar, but if you play a handmade $5000 guitar, you know the difference immediately. For example, browse edromanguitars.com for some of the top end handmade stuff - Jet guitars for instance. Hmmm…beautiful guitars…
At that price range most new Strat copies will be the same. Try to get one with a 1 piece neck as I’ve heard that they now make them in 2 pc…they will never stay in tune.
I really didn’t realize buying a 2nd hand guitar would be so hard! I went today to check out one I saw on craigslist (very gorgeous ibanez sz520) and I am kinda disappointed: on email everything was supposed to be perfect: I get there and the low E string is basically laying on the neck from the 14-15th fret and up, totally stopped sound even open (guy says ‘I like my action low’), raise the bridge on the top side and eventually it (only) buzzes the bottom 6-8 frets or so, I start looking at the neck and it looks a bit off, I start asking the guy and he goes ‘oh yeah, the neck is not perfect but you can fix it with the truss rod’…
I mean, for a guitar that goes for 570 new he is asking 400 (all in CAD) so I’d expect it to be perfect, just like he said. Going to the stores isn’t really that much better either: they had a used yamaha aes 620 which looked nice but that had the volume pot for the neck pickup nearly completely busted (it didn’t turn at all when it was in the right position, you had to pull it nearly halfway out of the guitar body to get it to turn) and the store guy told me that that’s actually how it is because the neck pickup is much higher gain so they made the volume pot be difficult to turn so you don’t blow out your speaker by mistake (???)
Meh, I really don’t know what to do, I would really prefer not to buy new but it’s starting to look like that’s the only way. Mr $699 I was talking about above also had an ebay auction for the same guitar at the same time as the craigslist post (didn’t say anything on cl, I just noticed the same pics were on there) I email him about the guitar and in passing I say ‘good luck with your ebay auction’ and he comes back with ‘what makes you think I have an ebay auction going’? A little honesty would go a long way…
I have bought a few low end electrics , throw some fat strings on them most sound good. Watch for cheap hardware / machine heads . Save your bucks for a rig with Floyd rose tuning hardware on a good guitar .
For a cool sound , Look for a "Pandora’s Box " kind of a pre amp effects box ( I think there are 4 generations ) ,out of the 20 -30 tones 5 are good ones . Some of the cheap epiphones / fender Axes have one single coil pickup , They seem to give a true clean Rock sound compared to a humbuckers , that can be cut / switched to a single coil .
I second the " if it sounds good acoustic , It will sound good electric "
Sounds like it would be worth a trip down to Seattle - you will probably have better luck here.
Don’t you have any friends who play guitar and can help you look?
Too bad you aren’t looking for a bass guitar - I have about 30 of them, and could probably hook you up. I have a couple of guitars, but the ones I would want to sell are out of your price range (I think - will check…)
Just a side note; the guy who wrote about the 2 piece neck doesn’t know what he’s talking about (I have professionally built and repaired guitars for 25 years, btw.)
I also probably wouldn’t recommend a Floyd Rose equipped guitar in your price range; you probably won’t get good value on a $400 guitar with a $200 bridge…
a coworker of mine (reasonably good friend) plays the guitar, but I don’t want to impose too much: if it was going at a store and picking one up it’d be no biggie, but having him come with me at folks that sell their 2nd hand stuff would be a bit much… I think I have narrowed down the type of guitar I am interested in (HH, and both the ibanez sz520 and the yamaha aes 620 sounded pretty good to me) and I guess it’s just a matter of waiting it out, checking craigslist and hopefully at some point some good deals will pop up, in the meantime I’ll keep playing my acoustic since I need the practice anyways
And yeah, bass guitars seem a lot easier to find (unlike (good) bass players) also drummers can be scarce, that’s probably why I never had trouble finding bands when I was gigging some years back
My next guitar would be like the one below , It seems once you get past the look of a cool guitar . You find these funky Gibson knock offs are the best sounding rigs . Watch the next MTV - concert video of top players they end up with this type ( the link is the high end $900 -2K GIBSONS )
I have seen some in the 200 - $400 range . But the paragraph long link wont post correctly.
Hey Marco, have you seen the Fender Standard (made in Mexico) HSS Strat - about $400 US, gives you both humbucker and single coil options. Don’t have firsthand experience with the model, but I’ve found that the Mexican Tele’s have been great bang for the buck instruments.
Another option: disregrard all the very valid advice about playing for before buying and get a cheap Chinese Jay Turser guitar - there’s a model called the JT-SLIMMER that is a HSH Strat-type and it goes for $160 US. Decent body/neck, cheap hardware, shitty pickups but at the price you can afford to replace things you dont like and still stay under budget. I bought one of their Tele knockoffs for $200 shipped, put about $150 into new pickups, and now it’s replaced my Les Paul as my number 1 guitar.
" My next guitar would be like the one below , It seems once you get past the look of a cool guitar . You find these funky gibson knock offs are the best sounding rigs . Watch the next MTV - concert video of top players they end up with this type. I have seen some in the 200 - $400 range .
Hey Marco, have you seen the Fender Standard (made in Mexico) HSS Strat - about $400 US,
actually the local stores had a sale for Boxing Day and sold the mexi strats for $299 (Canadian, real strats, not squires), unfortunately, though 99% of them was SSS and there was only one HH (no HSS) which didn’t sound that great (par for the course for mexi strats from what I hear)
.
I guess it depends on what you’re comparing it to. Compared to other guitars available at the price I think they would hold up very well. You can argue that in the $300-400 range no guitar is going to be “great”, but there are plenty that are playable.
In the end, if you find something that plays comfortably and stays in tune, that’s all that really matters. I wouldn’t agonize too much about the acoustic sound of a low end electric since the major limitation to your tone is going to come from your software/computer speakers that you’re playing through.
I wouldn’t agonize too much about the acoustic sound of a low end electric
actually I have to say I was really surprised by the ibanez sz520s I listened to, even unplugged they sounded really really really nice (must also be because of the neck-through construction).
You can’t really go wrong with a Mexi (Jap if you can find one) Strat or Tele. To get the real value, find a REALLY good repair/tune guy and sit down with him for an hour. A 5-minute saddle adjust isn’t going to work…you’ll need the frets files, saddle/bridge work and some other stuff depending how you play. That will run ya $100 or so. The super-ho price on the Mexi’s is $249 and you can get that deal through GC if you track down a the top Pro Audio sales guy (the only guys that really make money and can make a deal at GC).
Yes, the Ibanez’s around your price range will sound “good”, but IMO I’d go with the Fender for: replacement parts, solid neck joint, never goes out of style.
Not sure why you would want to run it through your computer…are you doing any recording? A Fender Blues JR. is a incredible sounding cheap amp…
Artist - Me
(Ripped off the ideal from a fellow bassist in SD)
Lakland 55-94 CS (Added db buffer to the preamp) Trans White Mary Kay/Maple
3 over-dubs
ProTools HD - Avalon U5 Compressor - All direct/no effects
well, yes, the sx520 goes for around 550 new here, definitely a bit more pricey, however 2nd hand they are broadly comparable (max $100 difference)
You can’t really go wrong with a Mexi
not sure if I agree, I was trying it out at the store unplugged and it sounded like a cardboard box (as opposed to the ibanez, and even the yamaha, that actually sounded like guitars)
replacement parts, solid neck joint,
advantage of the ibanez is that it’s neck-through, no neck joint to worry about. Also godins’ (that are around the same price bracket) workmanship is WAY better than the mexi strats I saw.
Not sure why you would want to run it through your computer…
#1 I already have a computer #2 I’m not interested in gigging, just playing on my own #3 I have cubase, I can hack the keyboards a bit and I can record my drums, so I can have fun making my own 1-man band #4 something like this
