best and worst guitars

laoch na mona

just wondering what do ye consider to be the best and worst types of guitars
(I'm thinking about buying an electric just wondering what peoples thoughts are)

I also want to know what would be considered the best acoustic.I have a burswood and I consider it quite good

JonathanAnon

Hands down a Yamaha Pacifica 112 is the best bang for the buck guitar.. Yamaha's acoustic guitars are not bad either.. Have a look on adverts.ie ..

Carraig Fhearghais

Really it comes down to budget as to what would be the 'best' in the chosen price range.

for the low cost the Fender Squire series (a few years ago anyway, don't know if they have changed) always had a superb neck & fingerboard & were used by many pro musos (admittedly they would normally upgrade the pickups, but the 'feel' & 'playability' were excellent for the price).

Tokai ('strat' & 'les paul' versions especially) as well as the low cost Yamaha solid bodies were generally well made & good quality without any upgrading required.

darrenw5094

Tokai Les Paul Standard LS92 made in Japan....fab LP's.

Hayte

Once you get above a certain pricepoint to weed out the hackjobs then all guitars are more or less fit for purpose. That pricepoint isn't that high either - €300 will usually get you something that is solidly built, holds tuning well, intonates properly and consistently, doesn't have dagger frets etc.

What about purpose then? Thats really up to you and the only way you'll know what you want and what you don't, is to buy a cheap guitar, play it for a couple of years and get a feel for it yourself.

Things like neck shape/size and body shape/size/weight preference can be quite malleable. I used to play electric and acoustics with really narrow necks so when I picked up a 1.75" flat necked Taylor I didn't like it at first. After a couple of years of playing that, I find the narrow string spacing on my old acoustic quite difficult to deal with. With time and practice these are things you can adjust to.

The only thing I cant tolerate in a guitar (at any price) is unstable tuning and poor intonation. I've gone through alot of low cost hackjobs over the years and none of them held tuning well.

There are some costly exceptions like a Jaguar which holds tuning well if set up correctly and if you keep it in the same tuning but if you don't do either then its a total nightmare. The bridge mechanism is kind of elaborate and its not exactly easy to find the right balance that gives spot on intonation at the desired string height, without some of the strings slipping off the saddles or rattling against the frets. In general, avoid all floating bridge systems unless you know how to set up these types of guitars yourself.

Oh, and one last thing. Price can give you a messed up idea of what constitutes a good guitar or a "better" guitar. I think these terms are almost meaningless because alot of what makes a guitar good to me is personal. Except when it comes to fundamentals like tuning stability. Its a piece of junk if it can't holding tuning properly.

laoch na mona

thanks for the advice
what would be brands to avoid

Hayte

Its not really about brands. You should try out a bunch of guitars you can afford and see which ones have strong fundamentals + sound and style that you like.

Its hard to know what to recommend if you don't post your budget, what kind of music you like to play and what guitars you think look cool.

laoch na mona

Hayte wrote: »

Its hard to know what to recommend if you don't post your budget, what kind of music you like to play and what guitars you think look cool.

I like rock and meta, punk a bit of everything really
fairly low price range about 300 maybe

quicklickpaddy

Once you get above a certain pricepoint to weed out the hackjobs then all guitars are more or less fit for purpose. That pricepoint isn't that high either - €300 will usually get you something that is solidly built, holds tuning well, intonates properly and consistently, doesn't have dagger frets etc.

I have a Squire Strat that I picked up for €60 but it's one of my most played guitars. There's a picture of it in the Post Your Gear thread. Ignore the price, whatever sounds/feels good for you just go for it. And, if it feels good but doesn't sound the Mae West you can always upgrade parts. I put in some nice pickups and changed some of the hardware (like the pots and the pickup switch) and she's a beasht now. All in all cost me less than 400 with a bit of shopping around and I wouldn't sell it for double that. So, just try as many guitars as you can and try see what feels right!