Electric Guitar Advice

stopandstare

Hi all,

I already play acoustic and want to move on to Electric Guitar... The only catch is - I know absolutley nothing about Electric Guitars !

My style would be Dire Straits, Clapton, blues, folk etc... also my budget is around €400.

Could anyone give me some advice on good value & quality guitars out there. I live in Cork but am willing to travel to anywere in Ireland to get a decent guitar! Also helpful would be if someone could recommend a particularly good guitar store or salesperson - my experience todate has not been good - sneering young fellas more interested in showing off than actually helping a girl to buy a guitar!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!
Sns

NoQuarter

Well you definitly need a strat!

check http://www.thomann.de

Sergio

Definitely a fender stratocaster if you can get one for that price to begin with.Once you improve over time you might want sonething different than a fender or something more up market.im not a fender player myself as im not a big fan but there fine if your abeginner.
I wouldnt buy from any shop in cork as there rip off merchants.Try thomann.de like the other guy said as there prices are much better.ive bought from them before and had no problems.

Colin

rcaz

If you're really willing to go around the country for a guitar, you could try X-Music at the Redcow in Dublin. You could actually try out the guitar, and they're pretty price-competitive with the likes of Thomann. You could maybe get a Mexican Fender for that money, which would be a savage guitar if it's your first electric!

Johnny Storm

Second-hand is usually the best value. Try this link (board's sister site):
http://www.adverts.ie/showcat.php?cat=16&stype=1&si=strat
and they're generally open to reasonable offers.

rgjmce

Buy a mexi fender strat, no copy strat can come close to it

Alanstrainor

rgjmce wrote: »

Buy a mexi fender strat, no copy strat can come close to it

Us Bacchus Owners will beg to differ. :p

stopandstare

Wow... great advice so far! I was only looking at the Les Paul types because of the styling and had completely discounted the Stratocasters - For some reason I had it in my head that they were only for hard core rockers!

I agree about Cork stores - huge prices and extremely poor service - thats just what I experienced in there - never mind the stories I heard from others!

Anyway - am going to take yer advice and head up to Xmusic next week and test drive a few Fenders - that is if I can find it lol - Country gal goes to the city!

Thanks a million again for the great advice!
Sns

seachto7

I think there's a used mexican tele in Limerick on adverts.ie. Can't go wrong with one of those..

munkydanny

Hail to the strat.. :pac:

Quattroste

rgjmce wrote: »

Buy a mexi fender strat, no copy strat can come close to it

:pac::D:D:pac::D

Eeehhhhhh No. Tokai, Bacchus, Patrick Eggle, Fernandes, Burny, Fender JP.

rgjmce

Quattroste wrote: »

:pac::D:D:pac::D

Eeehhhhhh No. Tokai, Bacchus, Patrick Eggle, Fernandes, Burny, Fender JP.

Yeah and your point is.

A mexi is only about 5/10% less good as a american strat and all the rest are about 20/30%

Johnny Storm

In fairness the OP said her budget was about 400 yoyos and she knows "nothing about electric guitars" so she's looking for some helpful advice.

Quattroste

rgjmce wrote: »

Yeah and your point is.

A mexi is only about 5/10% less good as a american strat and all the rest are about 20/30%

Can you provide the information that got you to these figures?

In my opinion, and I have had a Fender Strat, the Bacchus equivalent(which I have) and the Tokai equivalent(which I have played) are better.

For €400 euro a Mexi Strat is possibly a good buy. You will pick up a Tokai for that but not in Ireland. OP, take a trip to X-Music, and play as many guitars as you can. For what you mentioned music wise, the Strat or indeed a Tele would be the way to go. But there are many other brands that have single coil pickups that will provide similar sounds. The LP has humbuckers which are generally for the more rockier styles.

spoonbadger

rgjmce wrote: »

Yeah and your point is.

A mexi is only about 5/10% less good as a american strat and all the rest are about 20/30%

My brother owns a mex strat.

I own an MIA strat.

After much comparison and experience i can say that there is more than 10% in the difference.Do you own either?. And what orifice did you pull the 20/30% thing out of?. You can get MIJ clones for less than the price of a HWY1 fender that will be better than any american!!.

Just goes to show that 90% of the time statistics are wrong all of the time.

For the OP, you're best bet is probably a mexican fender stratocaster. That's probably the best strat you'll get in that price range for the least hassle. Bacchus/Tokai strats are better, but are hard to come by.

Alanstrainor

Just to throw a spanner in the works. Definitely Check out the squier classic vibe series. Fantastic guitars, andd can be bought for ~€240 from the uk delivered. Beats standard mexi strats any day. I even bought one myself, and i'm still amazed the guitar itself only cost me 250 delivered. Forget the mentality that fender is the only "good" brand, there are plenty others out there far out doing Fender. And although squier is a subsidiary of Fender, their recent classic vibe series are really amazing considering the cash.
EDIT: Oh and does your budget include an amp? or is it 400 just for the guitar?

spoonbadger

Alanstrainor wrote: »

Just to throw a spanner in the works. Definitely Check out the squier classic vibe series. Fantastic guitars, andd can be bought for ~€240 from the uk delivered. Beats standard mexi strats any day. I even bought one myself, and i'm still amazed the guitar itself only cost me 250 delivered. Forget the mentality that fender is the only "good" brand, there are plenty others out there far out doing Fender. And although squier is a subsidiary of Fender, their recent classic vibe series are really amazing considering the cash.
EDIT: Oh and does your budget include an amp? or is it 400 just for the guitar?

The classic vibe squiers are excellent guitars indeed!. And great value too!.

But i wouldnt say they're better than a mexi strat, not in my experience anyway. The most obvious difference is in the pickups/electronics imo.

azlanazha

BUY a fender strat! Mexican 2nd hand could fetch 400eu. It has brilliant tone just for your style of music.. I just cant get over fender strat!!!