Starter electric guitar setup

Prophet

Prophet

Prophet

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My niece wants to start learning to play the electric guitar so for her 16th birthday I want to buy her an entry level guitar and amp.

Can anyone point me in the right direction please :)
 
I think Yamaha still do starter Stratocaster and Telecaster starter kits. They're about £100 for a guitar, soft carry case, strap and practice amp (nothing powerful, maybe 15w). Not sure if they offer the best value for money though.
 
jp_bl_68 said:
I think Yamaha still do starter Stratocaster and Telecaster starter kits. They're about £100 for a guitar, soft carry case, strap and practice amp (nothing powerful, maybe 15w). Not sure if they offer the best value for money though.
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You mean Fender, surely. They do the cheap Squier strat/tele guitars you're talking about.

Yamaha do the Pacifica range of guitars. Can probably get a 112 for about £160, at a guess, plus a bit more for an amp, case, etc. A lot of shops will do deals on that sort of thing, so you can probably get something for under £200.

Washburn do some good starter guitars too.

What's the budget? How serious is she? You can buy some guitars dirt cheap, but they'll fall to bits or she'll outgrow them if she's even halfway serious. If you want something decent, it's worth spending a bit more, provided she's going to make it worthwhile.
 
vonhelmet said:
You mean Fender, surely. They do the cheap Squier strat/tele guitars you're talking about.
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Yeah, that's what I meant. This sort of thing:

570895.jpg



Not a bad way to get started if you're on a budget.
 
whats your budget? and whats her taste in music? as that helps a lot when suggesting stuff.

personally id avoid the starter kits that are available at a lot of highstreet stores and head to a decent guitar shop and if its not a surprise present take her with you or atleast find out what style of guitar she likes and get her to hold and strum them as she will be able to tell which one feels right (just be warned if its Les Paul style get her a good wide strap as this will help a lot with the weight, id advise a decent leather strap anyway as they make it a lot more comfortable)

without sounding too sexist id personally look into a guitar with a 24.75" scale as these are generally easier to play for smaller hands and im just going by experience that most girls have smaller hands then men.

ill update when you place a budget but amp wise as a starter i dont think you would go wrong with looking into the Vox VT (best at clean and soft rock) /Roland Cube (limited experience but highly regarded as a great amp)/Peavey Vypyr (aimed at metal/heavy rock but not limited to it) series of amps as they all have multiple amp models and built in effects which as a beginner is great to get an experience with them without having to shell out £100's on pedals to try them out. they all also have a 15w version which are all available for <£100

And get her a good pair of headphones as there is nothing worse when trying to learn is being told to turn it down/off by your parents.
 
Dont write off a certain well known internet market place to look at before going for an instore starter pack combo. What with the recession and all you can pick up some absolute bargains at the moment second hand
 
+1 for the Roland Cube as the amp.

I started with a Squier Telecaster Custom Deluxe and still use it now it was that good of a beginners guitar.
 
GTanny said:
whats your budget? and whats her taste in music? as that helps a lot when suggesting stuff.

personally id avoid the starter kits that are available at a lot of highstreet stores and head to a decent guitar shop and if its not a surprise present take her with you or atleast find out what style of guitar she likes and get her to hold and strum them as she will be able to tell which one feels right (just be warned if its Les Paul style get her a good wide strap as this will help a lot with the weight, id advise a decent leather strap anyway as they make it a lot more comfortable)

without sounding too sexist id personally look into a guitar with a 24.75" scale as these are generally easier to play for smaller hands and im just going by experience that most girls have smaller hands then men.

ill update when you place a budget but amp wise as a starter i dont think you would go wrong with looking into the Vox VT (best at clean and soft rock) /Roland Cube (limited experience but highly regarded as a great amp)/Peavey Vypyr (aimed at metal/heavy rock but not limited to it) series of amps as they all have multiple amp models and built in effects which as a beginner is great to get an experience with them without having to shell out £100's on pedals to try them out. they all also have a 15w version which are all available for <£100

And get her a good pair of headphones as there is nothing worse when trying to learn is being told to turn it down/off by your parents.
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Budget would be around £300.

She's into rock music in a big way. Everything from ACDC and Airbourne to RATT and Wig Wam. He dad is a true old school rocker so it's rubbed off in a big way.


BunnyKillBot said:
Dont write off a certain well known internet market place to look at before going for an instore starter pack combo. What with the recession and all you can pick up some absolute bargains at the moment second hand
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I'd be happy to buy from there but wouldn't know what to buy. If you can throw me some examples :)
 
Personally I'd buy this guitar: http://www.musicstreet.co.uk/chapman-electric-guitar-including-mainland-europe-shipping-p-3771.html

And a Roland Microcube or similar amp.

It's a little bit over your budget, but the guitar you're getting is far better than anything in the price range. It's cheap enough to be a starter guitar, but good enough to be the only guitar you ever need really. Ebony fretboard, solid mahogany body, maple neck, bone nut, Grover tuners, Wilkinson trem. Believe me when I say you won't find a guitar with better specs for £300.

You can see the guitar in action here, on Chappers' youtube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/RobChappers

He recently got his own brand of guitars because Barnes and Mullins liked what he was doing on youtube so much. The ML1 is basically an affordable guitar with the highest quality parts that you can't change, i.e the body woods. The pickups are very cheap, so the idea is to find your own pickups you like and put them in - which will give you a high quality guitar with pickups to suit you (although the stock pickups aren't bad, I'm still using them in my ML1). It was a collaborative guitar design actually, Chappers posted polls on his forum and the forum members decided on what the guitar was going to look like and be made of.

Anyway, I love my ML1 and I like to let people know about it as much as possible because Chappers is an absolutely awesome dude who has made a fantastic guitar for the price. Well worth checking out.
 
Orange Peel said:
Budget would be around £300.

She's into rock music in a big way. Everything from ACDC and Airbourne to RATT and Wig Wam. He dad is a true old school rocker so it's rubbed off in a big way.
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Id reccomend the cube or vypyr, i personally chose the vypyr over the cube as its better at metal, you should be able to pick up a 15 for £70 or a 30 for £140 (dont just go for highest wattage, 15 is more then enough for practice, just a suggestion as the 30 has more effects due to it having stompboxes) giving you adequate for a decent guitar. for the music styles you definatly need a guitar with a humbucker so somthing like a LP/SG would be great, 'vintage' make some very nice copys that should be within your budget. but with the budget you have you definatly have enough quality to get her a kit that will last till she can play until she knows what she wants if it comes to gigging.

dont forget if your getting her the full package you will also need a lead, strap, plectrums, tuner, spare strings and things like a £2 string winder make things a lot easier and if shes not taking lessons there is a lot of good learning programs for pc that will help.
 
Just a thought, but learning to play guitar I bought a cheap acoustic that I practiced pretty hard on for about a year.

I then went and bought myself a respectable Ibanez for about £300 and a decent amp, bag when I knew I was going to commit.

I'm glad I started on acoustic as it makes electric seem so much easier to play when you make the change. I'm still very much a novice anyway :)

GTanny is pretty spot on with his advice though, I'd agree with not going for those cheap and nasty "Starter packs" for £100-150. It's good for a quick spend to see if you take to it and keep up practice but in reality they are so shoddy it's almost worth spending a bit more for something a bit nicer.
 
Orange Peel said:
Budget would be around £300.

She's into rock music in a big way. Everything from ACDC and Airbourne to RATT and Wig Wam. He dad is a true old school rocker so it's rubbed off in a big way.
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Into rock, you say? AC/DC?

Get her an Epiphone SG - basically Angus Young's guitar from Gibson's cheap line. It normally costs £259, but you can get it for £199 here which leaves you enough for a cheap amp and some accessories.
 
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I have been in Liverpool city center today and a shop there had Vintage SG's for £119 in cherry red, dark cherry red and black. I had a look at one and i have to say the quality looked fantastic.

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/14137-vintage-vs6-gloss-black.html


Roland cube 15watt practice amp

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/34077-roland-cube-15x-practice-amp.html


Zoom multi effects pedal/tuner

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/7464-zoom-g2-guitar-effects-pedal.html


This should be a good set up for a beginer, others will disagree of course but for 300 squid i think its a good set up
 
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