Need some electric guitarist input.

allllec

allllec

allllec

Soldato
Joined
5 Aug 2006
Posts
4,261
Right, i have been playing guitar for a few months now. still learning but anyway. ive got a crapped out piece of junk guitar at the moment.. and now the connector for the amp is getting doggy, im sure i could probably fix it but i really cant be bummed for such a piece of dogs remain.

so a few questions,

for a begginer (if that makes any difference) is there anything wrong with getting a les paul style guitar becuase they look really nice. but the problem is ive only ever played ona gibson that cost like £700 in the shop so i dont know what a budget one is gonna be like..

now i realise im not gonna get anything great for <100 smackers but for the price what do people think of this

http://www.thomann.de/gb/harley_benton_hbl400bk.htm

(sorry if they count as competitor, but last i checked ocuk didnt sell guitars anyway lol)

any advice would be great.

thank you

alec
 
The problem there is that you can't sit and try it, I'd keep saving and go to a local shop to make sure you get something you like and enjoy playing. That said it may be a bargain I know nothing about the Harley Benton range.
 
Theres an old saying that you can't polish a turd but recently I've seen a mate transform 3 awful guitars into excellent axes.
One was my 79 Fender Strat but it did cost £250 because it needed a lot of new parts but the other two were my 72 year old Dads that he did for a tenner.
His Squire Strat was awful but now its ready to play on stage.

So the advice is - buy the Harley Benton and find somebody who can make it a lot more playable.
 
Those Harley Benton ones are a bit of a European thing - when I lived in Nice I tried a couple out in the shop and their Strat equivalent didn't sound as good as the Squier one I ended up with. (which to be fair sounds pretty good, although quite different to my mate's one)
 
Thanks people. i will carry on thinking about it.

anyway, thank you :-) will let you know what i decide to do. and if i do buy it or anything ill let you know how it turned out!

ta

alec
 
Just buy some tight leather trousers and some hairspray and watch your playing improve regardless of what you actually have in your hands. :cool:

I've never played one of those guitars but it probably does the job just fine: the irritating thing about awesome guitarists is that they sound... well, awesome regardless of what plank they're spanking.

I don't think buying guitars is the risk it used to be: it's pretty easy to pick up a budget guitar and have it play really well. The pickups may need changing eventually, but hey... I waited five years before stuffing some Dimarzio Evos into my old-school Pacifica.
 
The cheap Squires these days are great. I have an Affinty Telecaster and prefer it to my USA Fender Strat. The tone is not as nice, but it plays amazingly for a £120 guitar. You could pick up a second hand one for a little over half of that I guess.

EDIT - On Thomann they are £104!!! Although, you are still taking a risk not trying before hand, even more so with a cheap guitar.
 
Last edited:
banja said:
The cheap Squires these days are great. I have an Affinty Telecaster and prefer it to my USA Fender Strat. The tone is not as nice, but it plays amazingly for a £120 guitar. You could pick up a second hand one for a little over half of that I guess.
Click to expand...

We have a local Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute band and the guitarist has two SRV Strats standing behind him and they must have cost a fair bit.
However, his main axe of choice is a £30 Squire he bought from a second hand shop and sounds more like SRV than his SRV Strats do.
 
Im tempted i must admit - but this sounds really poor reason. but i just love the look and feel of a les paul style. ive decided i am going to buy it - throw some money in the bank tomorrow and hopefully have it by next week :-)
 
While I feel that it's very important to have something that feels great to play, you're not going to play something you hate the look of. Hope you get on with it.
 
yeah, well even if its sounds a tad naff as i said, looks lovely in my eye and feels lovely - and for £80 im not going to cry if i replace it in a few months :-)
 
well, after natwest wanted to charge me £18.50 for making a transfer in euros to germany they got told where they can shove it and i've had to cancel the order - looking on the old bay and stuff now :-) bidding stupidly low on some nice guitars - if i win. fantastic if not just gives me more time to save up for a nicer-er-er-er one :-)

ta

alec
 
Well - i orderd a fairly cheapish les paul styleee one of the bay. but its arrived safe and sound and despite it not being the bees knees all i can say is

"omg im in love"

10x more plesant to play than my old one. humbuckers sound infinatly better imo. love it to bits.

noticibly shorter kneck than my old guitar - but im not complaining. oh and a lot easier to string up aswell :-)

i was a bit put of at first, but i replaced the strings with my own stupidly slinkey (8-36's iirc) strings and its sounds so much better. just practising some muse on it now =]
 
nice one alec.

Like people of said, them cheapy squire ones are very good value and really not bad, not that i would no really, but my mate has had 2 and both been very good.

Have fun with the new one though.
 
allllec said:
Well - i orderd a fairly cheapish les paul styleee one of the bay. but its arrived safe and sound and despite it not being the bees knees all i can say is

"omg im in love"
Click to expand...


Let's see it then :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom