Electric guitar advice

DJ_Martin

DJ_Martin

DJ_Martin

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Alright, response on this thread kind of has to be fast as I am probably buying tomorrow morning, I wasn't going to make this thread for that reason but I thought it wouldn't hurt.

Anyway, my dad decided today that he would buy me a new electric guitar as a reward for my GCSE results as in the last couple of weeks I have really been putting a lot of time into learning to play. I'm current using a "Bluerock starter pack" electric guitar which was £100 for guitar, amp and bag which is alright. The main problem is the intonation? I think. Basically although it is tuned the higher notes just sound wrong. Attempting to play sweet child o mine sounds awful to be honest despite the fact I am playing on the correct frets.

Anyway, he originally said he would pay about £150 for guitar although he is probably going to go up to £200. I could also probably add £100 myself although I don't really want to spend all my money on it. Going to music shop tomorrow as my dad is working all week after tomorrow and will be busy and doesn't know when we could go again.

Main problem is a have no idea what to look for/get. I am a fan of the look of the Gibson Les Pauls but obviously these are out of my price range. Are the epiphones good? I suppose I will have a play in the shop but I am not that good yet, I'm just getting it now as it was offered to me.

Tbh I am lost looking at all of the different brands and names. Don't really know what to look for at all. What makes a £15000 fender strat better than a £150 squier strat. I realise that it will sound better but what do I look for which makes it better?
 
PermaBanned said:
Did you ever get your guitar set up?
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No, are you saying it would be better to try and get the most out of my current guitar rather than buy another? I didn't even know what getting a guitar set up was until today.

Actually my dad said that it was set up when I first got it over a year ago. Does it need to be done regularly?
 
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Well that's generally how you sort out problems with intonation, that said i've not done mine (First Act ME579) yet either, but i can live with it for the minute...

For a new guitar I think a lot of people would recommend a cheap Yamaha Pacifica, but that might not be that much of an upgrade over what you already have. Might allow you to get a new amp as well though. Other than that:

http://www.musicradar.com/tuition/guitars/13-kick-ass-electric-guitars-under-200-242309/1

Plus i've heard good things about the Squier Tele Custom II for just a little more, maybe the same if you look around.
 
Thanks for that link, it has kind of just given me a lot more options, I'm hoping the guys at the shop can be helpful with choosing what to go for (just through advice). I was looking at the squier telecasters for a while and looking at reviews, it looks to be pretty good.
I am fond of the. "buy nice, don't buy twice" approach so if paying a bit extra will get me something of better quality then I am not opposed to it. Still don't know how any of them feel to play so I suppose I will just have to wait and see. Yamaha Pacifica did cross my mind but I felt like getting something a little different. It doesn't look special to me which matters, at least for me.
 
The Epiphones are pretty good for their price, you could look at an Epiphone studio Les Paul, I had a quick look and they are going for around £225-250.

The studio versions are mostly the same build quality as the standards but with no extra thrills as far as the finish and outward appearance is concerned - i've got a Gibson studio version and it's my favourite guitar.

£225 for a LP style guitar with a set-neck isn't bad at all, just depends how it plays and sounds - getting it proffesionally setup is a must (could cost an extra £50 or so but worth it) - after having mine for a few years and getting this done it was like playing a new guitar as I didn't have it setup when I initially bought it.
 
Went to a smaller guitar shop and the guy there wasn't too helpful, I explained that I didn't really know what to go for and he just said yeah well have a look around and walked away. Didn't recognise any makes either apart from one squier so I left. Going to a bigger one.

Thinking about the tanglewood TSB 67, decent reviews, set neck and looks great. Apparently this shop has three in stock
 
That Tanglewood looks nice, i've got a very old Tanglewood Semi kicking about and they are a good brand, based in the UK as well.
 
Well I have made a purchase :D

Budget kind of went out of the window, the guy really recommended the tanglewood and gave a demo in different amps and talked about how much we would have to spend to get something noticeably better than it. Then he talked me into an amp. It's a line6 spider IV which he said was the best cheap one they had. Hard to know when I don't know too much but I am playing it now and it is amazing. Can't stop playing and I have to sort out stuff for a car boot for tomorrow :mad:
 
Cool glad to hear you got something good, keep practicing! I like all the line 6 products i've played with - I got an m13 pedal board that i'm still having fun with, would quite like one of their practice amps but would have to let go of my Vox to make room for it.
 
i would look into getting your guitar sorted before buying another one.

But if you want to i would say take a look at
http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/electric_guitars_detail.asp?stock=04041518314418

Very good beginner guitar, reliable i still have mine now bought it almost 6 years ago it still works i have played endless hours on it. Pretty impressive for the price in my opinion aswell..

or you can look into a nice squier Strat another great beginner guitar for pretty much the same reasons as the epiphone.
http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/electric_guitars_detail.asp?stock=10010615151829
 
ran_out said:
Cool glad to hear you got something good, keep practicing! I like all the line 6 products i've played with - I got an m13 pedal board that i'm still having fun with, would quite like one of their practice amps but would have to let go of my Vox to make room for it.
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hmm, I am really liking the Clean amp model + Chorus flange and the crunch amp models at the moment. Really loving the guitar. I had a few hours where I was playing what I already knew and hearing it with the new guitar and amp made me sound like a rock god to myself but now I have decided to learn something new, I have been brought down to earth. Guitar can't do all the work :p

Skepticx said:
I would look into getting your guitar sorted before buying another one.

But if you want to i would say take a look at
http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/electric_guitars_detail.asp?stock=04041518314418

Very good beginner guitar, reliable i still have mine now bought it almost 6 years ago it still works i have played endless hours on it. Pretty impressive for the price in my opinion aswell..

or you can look into a nice squier Strat another great beginner guitar for pretty much the same reasons as the epiphone.
http://www.guitarguitar.co.uk/electric_guitars_detail.asp?stock=10010615151829
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I asked them about my old guitar and they said it really wasn't worth bothering with. They said it would cost £45 to set it up but even then it was not a good guitar and as soon as you know you may put some time into it, buying something better is advised.They talked about some of the lower end sub £200 guitars which would be decent starters but upon playing this guitar I kept going back to it, tried out about 5 different ones.


I don't know whether this is just the strings or if it is consistent with the makes but all of the fender styles seemed to have strings that were pulled tighter and harder to bend the notes. I just preferred the feel of playing this one and it was easily the best looking in my opinion.


I realise I probably look completely clueless from this thread (and I am) but I am enjoying my guitar now. It is difficult trying to teach myself through just learning songs as I keep choosing songs that are probably way above my level. Any suggestions for stuff to learn? I can now play Sweet child o mine and stairway to heaven at basically full speed. They are probably the most difficult songs I can play so maybe a step up from there? I tried to learn paradise city today but found it a lot harder to go between the single notes and the chords of paradise city than the faster single notes of Sweet child o mine. :( Been struggling away at it for about an hour now, feel like I am getting no where but gonna stick at it.
 
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DJmartin said:
Attempting to play sweet child o mine sounds awful to be honest despite the fact I am playing on the correct frets.
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This may be the wrong question but are you in the correct tuning i.e. half a step down for Sweet Child. In regards to the guitar and amp you have I would say that you ended up with a pretty good set, I would have said look at an Epi Les Paul but what you have seems really nice. My advice is just to keep on practising, Paradise City is a bit of an odd song, I don't really know what makes it that little bit more difficult but I struggle during the solos on it too.

My suggestions would be things like Night train, its easy and sonds fairly convinicing, it also covers a fairly wide range of stuff so it is good general practice too. (I assume you like GnR) A song called "Mississippi Queen" is also really fun and fairly easy. If you have ever heard of The Darkness then "I believe in a thing called love" is also good for a skilled beginner.

I agree with you about Fenders being harder to bend notes on, allthough they could have just been using narrow gauge and high tension strings. However my esquire strat is definitely harder to bend notes on than my LP.

Overall message is practise, practise, practise and then you will be able to play "Freebird" without breaking a sweat. :)
 
I can bend notes on my strat all day long and i can ring more tone out of at my strat than i can on my prs or jackson. its possible the 9.5 radius makes it a little harder than the flatter lp neck.
 
I use a 7.25in Radius Neck with vintage (super skinny and super low) frets and have no problems, you just have to get used to needing high action (due to radius) and pressing down enough (due to terrible frets!) The key is practice!
 
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