Guitar advice

Chevens

Chevens

Chevens

Soldato
Joined
27 Oct 2003
Posts
2,958
Location
Belfast N.I
I'm looking for some advice on electric guitars in the £300 - £600 price range. I have had a cheapo electric guitar for some time. I can pick over scales pretty well now but the guitar has a poor sound, this puts me off practicing and I end up going back to my piano :P My goal is to get a nice guitar and really put in the hours and rock out a little more.

I'd like an all rounder but a key requirement would be a clean sound for soloing. I like the look of the ibanez JS100 range but its a little expensive and I am not educated enough in the world of guitars to know if its a lemon with satriani's name on!

Any advice much appreciated
 
What amp do you have? I was convinced my cheap Strat clone was a horrendous, muddy sounding guitar until I threw out my generic practice amp plugged it into a little Marshall Valvestate. Now it sounds great!
 
A lot of tone comes from an amp. But a lot of things affect tone. The biggest sound change will come from a good quality amplifier.


If you can learn to sound good on a cheapo guitar (like I did), you won't find it too difficult to sound damn good with a nice amp and a fair guitar.


Check out ebay for some old Epiphones, Ibanez, 90s/00s


Just to let you know, if you find yourself an Ibanez from the 80s, 90s, or 00s for about 400, you could be onto something. I got myself an RG550 on Monday. Good lord it's a dream. I'm running a fairly good amp with it too though, a Laney VC50.


Don't bother with signature guitars yet, it's a load of customised overpriced malarkey (that looks great, but still).

Read up at some guitarists' forums and websites and see what they shout about. It's how I came to get my guitar, although I'd love a Telecaster or LP.

You can find used gems for fair prices, just read up on the guitar's reviews and judge its condition for yourself. A lot of new guitars seem to lack certain features or lack some quality control at the mid range price level.

If you care for soloing then a slightly thinner than usual neck may suit you but in a lot of cases it's not a big deal (unless you are intent on playing fast)

And lastly, best bet would be to go to an instrument store and try some guitars out, ask questions about features and decide for yourself which features you like on a guitar.
 
Your amp is more important if you're concerned about sound. I would say it's 80% amp, 10% guitar and 10% technique.
 
Jump on the bay NOW, Blackstar HT-5 current bid at £165, 8 minutes left :p

Seriously, that's a bargain for the amp.
 
Garee said:
Your amp is more important if you're concerned about sound. I would say it's 80% amp, 10% guitar and 10% technique.
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sorry mate but id have to disagree , yeah a good amp will make a big difference but the guitar will make the biggest , the material its made from, the pick ups theres were you get the best sound
 
Garee said:
Your amp is more important if you're concerned about sound.
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I agree. A lot of the time even a cheap guitar can get get tone if run through a good amp.

*I disagree with your percentages though and would said more like 80% technique!:p

As for a £300-600 guitar, a mexican fender is probably a good shout, depending on the type of tone your going for.
 
Personally I'd spend you money on the guitar first, rather than a amp. Finding a guitar you love will help your playing with or without an amp.

I'd highly recommend having a play of a PRS SE. If you go with a non-signature model they're fairly cheap, and can be had second hand for around £250, most importantly they make a great sound (with or without an amp*)

I'd also consider getting an acoustic, obviously that depends on what music interests you but they're great for just pick-up and play. Personally I'd recommend Yamaha electro-acoustics, however there are loads of great choices out there.

akakjs

* obviously an amp is better :D
 
I currently have an epiphone SG, i love it to bits but might not be quite what you're after, one of my mates has several ibanez and they all feel great to play, probably get one myself as my next instrument.
Also +1 for the mexican fender, although you should probably go and have a play in a shop and see for yourself.
Out of curiosity how long have you been playing/had first instrument?
 
Cobster said:
sorry mate but id have to disagree , yeah a good amp will make a big difference but the guitar will make the biggest , the material its made from, the pick ups theres were you get the best sound
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I'd have to disagree with you.

A £2000+ guitar on a crap amp will sound like crap. A £500 guitar on a £2000+ amp will sound great.

The amplifier has the biggest singular effect on tone. Your fingers and the technique you use also has a huge effect. Give someone who's only been playing a few months a high end rig and they won't sound that good. Give someone who's been playing 10+ years a crap setup and they'll sound pretty damn good.

Case in point.

But, of course, the quality of the guitar and its do electronics matter a great deal too.
 
sponge999 said:
How about an Epiphone les Paul? Brilliant guitar.

You will need a decent amp if you want good sound aswell though dude.
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I disagree. Software amp modellers have come a long, long way in the past decade, and give you total tone flexibility without needing a shed and lots of pedal purchases. I did away with my Mesa amp years ago and now i exclusively play through Amplitube 2, not even Amplitube 3, on my laptop, hooked up to my 5.1 lounge speaker system.

Get the best guitar you can and get amplitube :)
 
Cheap guitars sound crap in a 1968 plexi or a 5 watt practice amp, you need a bit of both especially for cleaner/purer sounds.

Get a small valve amp with a decent sized speaker cab and enough space to make a bit of noise (i.e. your piano without soft pedal engaged). Something like a Marshall Class 5 if your a marshall man or a small super champ xD and so on. Then get a nice OD pedal to push it (like the Fulltone OCD/Fulldrive/Boss SD1 and so on).

Stick with more basic valve circuits, amps with "effects" typically feel a bit harsh/unresponsive (like a digital piano (really cheap digital ones are like the non-touchsensitive ones, the expensive digital amps are like expensive digital pianos, close to the real thing, but still a long way off).

For guitars, play lots in a shop. Every single one is different. there are rubbish custom shop les pauls and awesome ones. there are awesome squiers and rubbishier ones. listen out for the ones that ring out clearly and truly even when not plugged in. Play open chords - they should ring like a piano, single notes should be bell like and loud even unplugged. A quick test is to play the b string when it's on the wall, eventually you'll hear good eggs and bad eggs.

So to summarise: Spend £300 on an amp with a 10"/12" speaker - all valve (super champ xD, class 5 etc.). Spend £80 on a very nice OD pedal (like the versatile fulldrive 2 for example). Spend the rest on the very best ringing/acoustically sounding guitar you can. Because the end result is thats what your amplfying. One other thing, most cheap guitars sound good with teh tone+volume on 10, but sound rubbish with them lower, find a replacement wiring harness if you want a super dynamic sounding guitar where you can roll tone/volume around a lot. Thats what I'd do for a very versatille set-up thats quiet enough to practice with, loud enough to play with other acoustic instruments, covers enough tonal bases and let you develop as a player.
 
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