[Ballard]

I don't know much of anything yet, so I wanted to ask this from someone who has the experience I don't. What is the best set-up a newbie can get for a relatively low price? Now, I realize that the answer to this question is mostly opinion, and redundant as it may seem, "relatively low price" is relative, so I'll try to elaborate.

I have around $600-700 to spend on the entire set-up (not just the guitar). I think the Strat is a beautiful guitar, and many people have told me that it's a nice guitar to start out with. However, it's the Corona Lite of musical instruments. Everyone has one.

I was originally going to get a Fender 48th Street Stratocaster and a Fender G-DEC Amplifier. The 48th Street Strat is a nice twist on the original, and the amp is small and has a ton of effects and distortion options - just right for my matchbox-sized room.

Does anyone have any suggestions? What worked for you when you first started out?

Thanks,
Ballard

[Kirk Lorange]

Hi Ballard, welcome.

It sounds to me like you might be better off starting out on an acoustic. Why do you want to go straight to an electric?

[Ballard]

Actually, I do practice on an acoustic guitar (my friend's, 'till I get my own). I'm just confused about what to buy when I'm ready for an electric.

[Ultimate Garage Band]

The kind of music you'll want to play on it the most will determine what's best for you. Identify bands or players who's songs you want to learn. When you know what they play, that'll give you a better idea of what guitar to get.

Essentially, there's 2 camps w/some sub groups; single coils, ala the Strat and Tele and humbuckers, ala the Les Paul, PRS, etc. You can get Strats w/humbuckers and you can get Les Pauls w/single coils, but a different type of single coil than a Strat pickup. A Strat and Tele sound the way they do because:

1. The scale length is 25.5" and requires more tension to tune than a shorter scale w/the same gauge string.

2. The single coil pickups.

3. Where the single coil pickups are placed under the strings.

4. Construction materials/methods; typically the necks are maple and bolted to the alder bodies.

Les Pauls/SG's sound the way they do because:

1. The scale length is 24.75" meaning the strings are not under as much tension.

2. The humbucker pickups.

3. Where the humbucker pickups are placed under the strings.

4. Construction materials/methods; typically the necks are mahogany and glued or 'set' into a mahogany body and often with a maple cap/top surface.

The more you move away from a clean tone the less any of these factors is apparent. Ultimately, w/pedals, amps, and processors you can make any guitar sound like anything BUT a guitar.

For the sake of this discussion, I'm not going to cover active electronics.

[8LU3]

i agree with kirk, get a nice acoustic, if you want an acoustic electric with an amp, which means lower quality guitar

[Ballard]

That's the problem. I like everything from folk rock to metal and in between.

I'll name "a few" favorite bands and let you decide:


Phantom Planet, the Vines, the Smiths, Every Move A Picture, Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Beatles, ABBA, the Ramones, Naked Riot, the Sellouts, Turn Left At Greenland, AC\DC, the White Stripes, System of a Down, Amped, Less Than Normal, Metallica, Alkaline Trio, Dream Theater, Bad Religion, Allister, Bloodhound Gang, the Bloody Irish Boys, Weezer, Scissor Sisters, Green Day, the Who, Bob Dylan, Jimi Hendrix, Paul Harlan, Spencer Tullis, Nirvana, Rise Against, James Blunt, Ben Folds, Billy Joel, Keren Ann, Kaddisfly, Almost Aces, Pink Floyd, Queen, the Doors, Led Zeppelin, Grateful Dead, Fenix Tx, Denver Harbor, Dredg, Coheed and Cambria, Circa Survive, Styx, Ace of Base, Interpol, the Eagles, Muse, the Kooks, Metric, the Fray, the Strokes, Franz Ferdinand, Bloc Party, Bad Religion, Eels, Alice Cooper, KISS, Allister, Metallica, Judas Priest, Iron and Wine, Keren Ann, the Killers, Cursive, Stars

I copied this straight from my Facebook profile, so some of these are irrelevant, and some of these are local indie bands. I just don't feel like weeding them out.

Also, the coil/humbucker/how a guitar is built in general thing confuses me. Could you please dumb it down?

[WernHalen]

Here is my two cents... The best option like Kirk said would be to buy an accoustic, especially if you are only learning to play for now. If you have your friends accoustic on a more permanent basis then its fine to get an electric. Eventually you'll own a couple of guitars especially if I know guitarists... Just look at the "show your gear forum"...

If you are intent on getting a electric guitar then a fender strat would probably be the best guitar for the job. It will allow you to approach the most of the bands sounds with just the one guitar. If you are looking at models get a HSS strat. It gives you the option to switch between humbucker and single coil pickups wich allows even more versatility. This would just mean that you would have the option to get even closer to the sound of more of the bands you listed.

You dont need an amplifier you could get yourself an amp and effects modelling board. Something like the Tonelab SE, Boss GT8, Digitech GNX4, line6 PodXT live or something similar. These will allow you to play with ear phones while giving great tone. This will allow you to play at any time of day or night and nobody will complain about the noise... the units can also be hooked up directly into a PA system, so you dont really need a amp. It also gives you a bunch of FX in the units so you dont have to sit with a pure amp sound till you have saved up to buy some fx pedal... If you are intent on buying a amplifier for your guitar, which is best in the end for tone I believe anyway, then...

You will have to consider what you intend getting form it. Great tone, get a tube amplifier 5, 10 15 Watts should be more than enough for a beginner especially when you want to play at home. Otherwise you could get a solid state amplifier, it gives good sound, but not as Good as the tube amplifier. It costs less to maintain and it is a lot lighter to lugg around...

Best bet is to go to a store and experiment with a few setups..

[krissovo]

I had a similar bugdet and for that I got a cheap Squire strat starter pack with amp etc, its cheap and chearfull and coupled up with my zoom G2.1 effects unit I can get all the sounds I need from it.

I also bought a Fender electro acoustic GA43SE that has great reveiws (just look at musicians friend reveiws all over 9) and does play like it is twice the price.

With a similar set up you have the best of both worlds, learn to play and start saving for that special axe that costs mega bucks

[powe6563]

Applause by Ovation makes a great acoustic/electric with an abs-plastic roundback for reletively cheap ($175-$325). I've found that most full body acous/elec don't sound great with distortion and other effects, but the roundback design does. It's a happy medium IMO because you get a pretty decent sound acoustically (just not as deep and resinating as a full body) and you can plug in and thrash out w/o loosing too much sound quality. As far as amps go, I agree that a line 6 pod would be a great budget investment or you can get a line 6 spider II 15 model amp with built in effects for well under $200. I have the 15 and it sounds great. You wouldn't expect such a big sound from a small amp but believe me, you can wake the neighbors with it.

[guttertrashsingalong]

money

[USGold]

funny thing about guitars-turns out to be a terribly expensive hobby--you get one and want more--you get more and you want better-you get amps and you find an excuse(reason) to buy bigger/better--you get add ons like effects and you want more---once hooked your like a junkie--gotta get new/better/brighter fixes.beware guitar obsession can ruin marriages--cause disputes-invoke jealousy-and in the end costs fortunes in dollars--ask my friend RockerBob about this life long quest and what it costs to support this "habit".

[metalkour]

go to a store that lets you try guitars electric and acoustic and pic one that feels right.

[tsiratiug]

Originally Posted by metalkour

go to a store that lets you try guitars electric and acoustic and pic one that feels right.

Amen to that. Just pick the one 'you' like. You will either love it and keep it forever as the original member of your collection or you'll have a better understanding of what you like and don't like in a guitar for the next one... and the next one... and the next one...

Just be sure to pick something that feels good in your hands.

[bluesguy]

Before you go and spend some $s on a guitar go read this article I posted on my website, http://www.jcdisciples.org/guitar/howtobuy.html . I think that might help you out.

As for the bands that influence you, I would suggest that while it might make immediate sense to get an electric guitar (since that is the guitar sound you hear in their songs) you may be disappointed in what happens when you go to play those songs by yourself on an electric guitar.

I have a beautiful Fender Tex-Mex Stratocaster. It was the first real guitar I ever bought. I love listening to electric blues - especially Texas style blues (Stevie Ray Vaughan, Jimmie Vaughan, T-Bone Walker, Albert Collins, Anson Funderburg, etc). I hardly play it because I just don't have the opportunity to play it. It sounds 'boring' when I play it by itself.

On the other hand my Takamine EAN-15 (an acoustic/electric) gets played a lot. I can learn the same songs and them on my acoustic and they sound goood .

Someone did mention G.A.S. already - Guitar Acquistion Syndrome. While not a fatal disease for guitarist it is an expensive disease to treat. In my time I have owned six guitars - classical guitar (sold), Yamaha acoustic (sold), Delta-King (sold), Fender Tex Mex Strat (own), Takamine EAN-15 (own) and a Jay Turser Resophonic (own). Why we guitarist buy guitars all the time I .

[737blues]

Originally Posted by bluesguy

Someone did mention G.A.S. already - Guitar Acquistion Syndrome. While not a fatal disease for guitarist it is an expensive disease to treat.

It only becomes fatal when your wife discovers how much your guitars really cost.