Good, cheap, beginners electric guitar?

Wolfe Tone

Hey guys, I've been meaning to learn for years but haven't got around to it, thats gonna change, gonna get one for my birthday or when I get some cash around christmas.

To tide me over till then I'm going to get a relations old acoustic, however in the past I have found that playing the type of music I don't like causes me to lose motivation. (a fear I have with the acoustic, I have an instruction book here and there is not one song in it which catches my imagination, folksy songs). However I'm going to crack on at that till I get an electric.

I'm a big heavy metal/hard rock fan so thats what I would want to play which necessitates an electric guitar.

I have no idea where to start though, or what to look for...

The aim would be to get something cheap enough, then down the line upgrade if I keep it up, which I mean to.

So can anyone recommend me a good, cheap beginners electric guitar? Not against going second hand at all, but as I said I don't know anything about guitars so I would be wary of getting ripped off.

steod

Think its been said many times here but if its cheap and decent electric guitar your looking to start with then yamaha pacifica is probably what your looking for. For the price new or second hand they are consistantly good quality and have a humbucking pick up which is important for rock/heavy metal tones as you say this is type of stuff you want to learn.

That being said you really need to go to your local music shop and pick up some guitars and see what feels best. Judge a guitar on its sound and the feel of it in your hands. Dont buy something because it might look cool.

While your at it take a look at this website http://www.justinguitar.com/ probably one of the best sites around for learning guitar and free too. Has a complete beginners course progressing onto more intermediate stuff.

Yakult

Yeah the yamaha pacifica would be the beginner's choice tbh.

It's also worth looking at Jack and Danny guitars.

http://www.musicstore.de/en_EN/IEP/Guitars/Guitars/Jack-and-Danny-LC300-BK-Black/art-GIT0015698-000

http://www.musicstore.de/en_EN/IEP/Guitars/Guitars/Jack-and-Danny-L310H-Black-Wilkinson-Pickups/art-GIT0013763-000

Have played 2 models so far, both really not what I was expecting.. It was the opposite!!
Really solid build and playability. Will be ordering a 7-string this xmas myself I'm that impressed with them.

Have you any amp? If not, factor is that too.You'd pick up something second handy easily and cheap.

Wolfe Tone

Cheers guys, I forgot to put up my budget, I could stretch to 350/400 max, that would be for the guitar and amp.

Yeah I did a bit of reading since I started the thread and the yamaha pacifica sounds like a good option, they retail around the 250 quid mark right? Lad I know recommended a "micro cube amp" which he says can be got for around a 100 quid.

The prices in the links you have up there look very appealing but I don't mind spending the extra few quid if the yamaha is a better option.

Hannibal

Wolfe Tone wrote: »

Cheers guys, I forgot to put up my budget, I could stretch to 350/400 max, that would be for the guitar and amp.

Yeah I did a bit of reading since I started the thread and the yamaha pacifica sounds like a good option, they retail around the 250 quid mark right? Lad I know recommended a "micro cube amp" which he says can be got for around a 100 quid.

The prices in the links you have up there look very appealing but I don't mind spending the extra few quid if the yamaha is a better option.

If you find anything online mo chara check this shop in Swords out http://themusicoutlet.ie/ the guy is sound and he price matches anything from Europe. I got a Takamine off him last year for €300 cheaper than what a shop on Capel Street was looking for it.
I learned on a Squire Strat, I never liked the style of it I much preferred the Les Paul and Epiphone Dot 335 which I later got. The Yamaha Pacific is very similar to the Strat in style and feel and it wasn't my bag personally. You could get an Epiphone Les Paul 100 for a little over 200 these days and it leaves a bit in the tank to get an amp, Waltons and the shop in Swords do them

Hayte

I never know how to respond to people new to guitar wanting to play high gain because well, high gain is mostly about how many EMG pickups you can cram between the neck and bridge + the amp.

Many techniques popularised by metal bands are also quite advanced, like sweep picking and artificial harmonics. To do those you need to be good at flat picking to begin with. I think one of the strong fundamentals of metal is unshakeable technique and as counter intuitive as it sounds, thats kind of something you develop without the distortion.

I would definitely avoid 7 strings because learning on those would make a 6 string guitar seem...weird? Correct me if I'm wrong though, cuz I'm an acoustic player in the main.

JHet

I'd recommend practising away on that acoustic for a while, get comfortable playing chords etc and get you technique. High gain stuff takes a lot of technique and there are lot more dynamics involved and consequently more modes to failure. You have to learn how to mute sh1t properly to get the sound right, but the prerequisite to that is being able to finger the chords correctly.

Playing on an old ****ty acoustic will do you the world of good. It will build up the callous's on you hands and will make introducing the other dynamics at play when you introduce amplification so much easier.

CianRyan

I'm a metal guy myself and 9 years in I still find myself getting all sorts of frustrated when I'm learning new styles. Metal's one of the most technically demanding styles of music to play so don't be put off when you can't learn the solo's in Domination and Cematery Gates.
If you're into metal you definitely want something with a hum bucker and a stiff, flat neck. For this, think Les Paul style guitars and maybe something from Ibanez's GIO range if it'll fall into budget.
The micro cube will be a great amp to start with, you won't do better metal tones at your price range.

Good luck and don't loose faith in yourself, guitar is a hard enough instrument to learn but when you get it, you'll love it!

FeedbackLive

If you haven't purchased yet i highly recommend the Yamaha ERG 121C. Its a step above the Pacifica but still a beginner guitar for very low money. I have one of these and i would swear by it. It is also modelled on a Strat. It has a humbucker in both the neck and bridge position with a single coil in the middle position. It has one volume pot and one tone pot and like the Pacifica also comes with a Tremelo. A very nice neck that is extremely comfortable to play and the guitar offers a great range of styles for playing.

Whatever you decide to get best of luck playing the guitar. Its great