I've been teching myself how to play the acoustic guitar. I feel that I have learned most of what I can from books and DVDs so I am going to start taking rock lessons soon. I don't own an electric guitar or amp (I own a second-hand bass and an amp but that's different). I haven't really been paying attention to the best guitars for the price. Is Fender really the god of all guitars? I am told by everyone to buy a fender stratocoaster or a fat strat. I've read goo dreviews for Ibanez and Washburn guitars too. I can't really try out any guitar that I will buy because they are a lot cheaper online, so I want to save some $$$. I also want to get a decent guitar and amp so that when I get better at it, I won't have to buy all new gear. I'm willing to spend a reasonable amount but I don't want to get ripped off.

To all the guitar players: what's your experience with different gear and what should I pay attention for in my shopping for gear?

Thanks,

Reb

Fender is my favorite but can get expensive. If you are just learning then you might want to get a squire or a fender srat. I believe that the lowest price one is made in china but is Mexico but is still a fender. The squire is just the cheaper version still made by Fender but assembled in Malaysia.

How does one teach himself how to play the guitar? I have one and don't know how to play it.

The Les Paul is the best, no questions asked.

1) Don't buy..repeat DON'T BUY A SQUIER STRAT....

2) If you dont know squat about electric guitars...and you don't then get a starter pack. I did and it works great. Ibanez starter pack is a great deal and comes with a surprisingly good guitar and the amp is loud as heck.

3) Ibanez is good for shredding, so are Jacksons. Ibanez is favored by rock guitarists because of its feel and the fact it has signature models of some of the best guitarists alive.

4) Don't buy a guitar unless you try it out....me or anyone else can give you advice for days but go to a store, play and see what feels and sounds good. It is the safest way to get the guitar you like and avoid confusion.

5) Fender's are highly regarded but only for their upper series (American series). A squier strat is crap and so is the discounted "bullet" model. Mexican Strats aren't so bad either.

6) Amps: same thing...go and play. The biggest mistake you can make with musical instruments is buying solely by price. A crap guitar will not make you want to play and neither will a crap amp. Sit down and make a list of type of sounds you want fro myour guitar, the type of styles you want to emulate.

Line6's spider amp line is awesome for the price and the amps themselves are very versatile with sound. The amount of wattage will range depending of what type of make the amp is (tube amps are louder and more expensive even at low wattages and solid state amps are cheaper than tube amps even at high wattages).

If you ever plan to gig then get a 100watt or above. Line6 makes a 120 watt amp for $399...but again..go and play.

The Les Paul is the best, no questions asked.


Which make?..the knoeckoff by Epiphone's or the real deal.

If former than i've heard good things about em and if latter than she'd have to sell a kidney or two to afford one.

well if you plan on going on gig then the squire sucks. I thought that he was just learning, and the squire is good for begginers but is really bad. Les Pauls are soooo expensive but deffinetly the best. Marshall has good amps and so does Fender. Line 6 are pretty good but I have not used them that much.

The epiphones are not bad but are not the real deal. The John lennon Casino is one of my favorites from epiphone.

Les Pauls are soooo expensive but deffinetly the best.

If you want the beefy, chunky heavy metal sound of hambuckers or the sound of Slash form GNR

Marshall has good amps and so does Fender. Line 6 are pretty good but I have not used them that much.

Marshall makes good amps but they are like the Prada and Gucci of amps. So much of the price is based on image alone...same goes for Gibsons.

Ibanez makes sweet guitars for much cheaper....and so do many other companies. Most people quickly jump to Fender without exploring their other options...yes Fender is a guitar with personality of its own, yes it is versatile but there are other, cheaper alternatives.


oh and whatever you do ilikesalt..stay away from anything that mentions "Floyd rose system" on the bridge

I own a fender Jaguar from 69 I believe. It's me dads. But I must agree Marshall is the Gucci of amps. I can see it now louis vuitton amps and straps LOL.

I own an Ibanez x-series and the guitar is awesome. My only complaint is the Floyd Rose tremolo system. That system is the devil. This was my first guitar and I hated it for so long because changing the strings just sucked. Getting the tremolo unit to sit level with the guitar body was a nightmare also. I tightened and loosened those springs so many times.. Grrr. If you get one as a beginner, just find out what the best gauge of strings are for you and have a pro set the tension level and never change gauges.

Those are my complaints and really they are all just Noob complaints. The system doesn't bother me now at all, but at first it sucked.

I think Fender makes overpriced garbage.

Ibanez are good, and Epiphone can be good, although there are a number of Japanese brands which are surprisingly good as well.

And if you find a good Rickenbacker used... go for it!

For 'feel' and clarity of tone, you can't beat a nice US made Strat or Tele. Gibsons weigh a ton and humbuckers sound muddy unless turned up full.

For a guitar that doesn't suck, avoid anything by Fender. People buy them because of Hendrix...

I wish that I could suck on the guitar like mikey

I haven't played or heard a better sounding guitar than the Fender Strat that I own and everyone who has ever played it agrees.

If you want to play a great guitar and have it for life, buy a Strat. If you plan to go through a number of guitars, try them all. You'll eventually wind up with the Strat.

I think Fender makes overpriced garbage.
For a guitar that doesn't suck, avoid anything by Fender.
I agree, I have yet to use a one that could stay in tune for more than 10 minutes.
Getting the tremolo unit to sit level with the guitar body was a nightmare also. I tightened and loosened those springs so many times.. Grrr. If you get one as a beginner, just find out what the best gauge of strings are for you and have a pro set the tension level and never change gauges
Yup, that can really suck, good advice for a noob.
I'd suggest finding someone you already know that can play and get them to go with you when your ready to buy, I could have saved myself a huge headache if I had done that when buying my first electric guitar. As for which one, try them all till you find something that feels and sounds right for you.

Somewhere between the cheap particle board with Radio Shack electronics and a top of the line Gibson would be a good choice. Should be anywhere from $350-$500 for something that A. fits in the budget but B. not be a piece of crap but a good, solid product that, if you decide to become devoted to stick with it, you really shouldn't need to replace until you are good and ready and really just MUST HAVE THAT ONE .....

How does one teach himself how to play the guitar? I have one and don't know how to play it.That's a tough question. I actually did that in 1958, but it's difficult to put it into words.

I had spent many years fooling around with a two-octave xylophone that my parents bought me when I was eight. And I had a music teacher in fourth grade who taught us about the circle of keys and major and minor chords. As far as I know I was the only kid in the whole class that got it, but it was like a giant light bulb coming on. If there was a chorus or choir in school that I could get into I always did. I never really learned to read music in real time, but at least I could figure it out slowly.

I guess what I'm saying is that I'd had a powerful interest in music for as far back as I can remember, and that I sucked up any formal information about it that I came across. So when I picked up a guitar I knew how chords were formed and which ones went together in the same key, so all I had to do was find the right notes on the strings.

If you don't have this kind of background, you're going to need some books. You can get plenty of books that show you how to finger guitar chords, and others that go into the various styles of music and how to get them to come out of a guitar. I would personally also strongly recommend finding a very basic one on music theory. Understanding why you use three specific major chords and three specific minor chords as the basics in any given key, and knowing the more common modalities, will make it easier to understand what the guitar books are telling you to do.

This is going to be difficult at first. You'll have to play songs very slowly until your fingers develop the strength, precision, and synchronization to play at the proper speed.

You probably already know this, but you'll need to develop some pretty thick calluses on the tips of the fingers on your left hand that you use for "stopping" the strings against the fretboard. If you practice every day for at least an hour you'll build them up in a couple of months. But until they're there, it will hurt a bit. Don't overdo it, there's nothing to be gained by playing them raw. If it starts to hurt, play a little longer to encourage the callus growth, then stop for the day. Even if it's only been fifteen minutes. Eventually they'll be so thick that you can play for hours. What's most important is to play every single day so the skin is always stimulated to grow thicker. If you're serious about music, you'll want to do that anyway.

I always tell guitar students to check their calluses at the end of three months. If they're still not very thick, that means they haven't been playing often enough and long enough, which means that they're not really as interested in the instrument as they thought they were. (Or that they simply don't have enough time to take on a time-intensive new interest.) If you don't practice every day you're not going to learn the instrument very quickly anyway.

When you've got good calluses on your left hand, then you can try playing bass guitar. Then you'll start all over building calluses on your right hand. :)

Good luck and have fun!

I had a squire strat, and it was ok to learn on; but that's about it.

I currently have a nice no-name guitar I picked up from a pawn shop, so I can't tell you buy one of those, because I don't know the name!

I have, however, become much more impressed with the ibanez low-end guitars and basses lately; their quality has REALLY improved over the past decade, IMO.

Other than that, you could always get an in-hole pickup for your acoustic guitar - that'd give you an amp connection for now, until you find an electric that you really like. With the right peddle, you can get quite a chruchy sound from an acoustic.
edit:spelling

One piece of advice I haven't seen here yet is some I got from an old blues guitarist I knew in San Jose.

"It doesn't matter if you own a Fender, a Gibson, a Gretsch, a Yamaha, or whatever. If you don't know how to play, you're gonna suck on all of them."

He then went on to take my single pick-up Kay, plugged into a smallish Spectra amp, and made that five dollar dinged up scrap-heap refugee cry a river.

I wouldn't go for a high-end system right off the bat if I were you (unless you've got more money than you know what to do with, in which case I want to be your best friend...). Ignore brand names and just try out a few heaters at some local music shops until you find one that feels right. I had the pleasure of playing on a 1958 Gibson Les Paul, a very well-tempered instrument, but I still like my old Kay. To get the sound I want, I kick the pedal effects, and we rock out quite nicely.

"It doesn't matter if you own a Fender, a Gibson, a Gretsch, a Yamaha, or whatever. If you don't know how to play, you're gonna suck on all of them."



That is very well true but if someone new and not very knowledgble about electric guitars ends up getting a totally wrong guitar that can hinder their learning and kill their desire to play all together.

Learning an instrument is about discipline but it is also eqaully about gratification....no learning can be had if the instrument becomes a chore rather than a goal that is fun and rewarding to achieve.

My acoustic guitar is of a no name brand and for a long while I didn't play it because it was very rigid and extremely hard to play near the top frets....I gave it up for a few months untill I went to Sam Ash and played other acoustics....those guitars were so sweet and had a crisp tone so I decided to change my strings on my acoustic and was in love all over again. I was even inspired enough to learn barre chords on the acoustic...which we all know are a bitch to learn or even get right.

I agree with Sarge. A great player who knows his way around a fretboard, who has exeperienced fingers, can make any guitar sound good. Whether the intonation is off or if the neck is bowed or whatever, he can work around those flaws and make it sound good. A beginner, on the other hand, needs a solid piece with good intonation, a straight neck and the ability to remain in tune after many hours of playing. Otherwise, he'll get frustrated with the crappy sound and think he's not making any progress and give up. Practice would be a chore, spending more time tuning and futzing that actually playing.

Exactly my point with Ignore brand names and just try out a few heaters at some local music shops until you find one that feels right.

I just didn't word it very well.

I went to the store and tried out a few. It's hard to tell which ones are better because I am new at playing the guitar. I do know my way around the fretboard (or at least the first four strings) because I am a bassist. I can tell that the Fender Precision basses sound and feel the best. The mid-range Ibanez ones feel good too for the price.

I tried out the new Fender Strats that my school bought. They feel OK but as I said earlier, it's hard to tell.

I was surfing around guitar sites and ebay. i'm looking at the possibility of building one. I would get a nice, solid body, a not-too-thick not-too-thin neck. Then I would have to buy pickups and a humbucker or two. I have never taken apart a guitar but I think I can figure it out.

Next time I go into the city, I will look at a couple of pawn shops and check out their guitars. The stuff at the music store is so expensive. I don't understand why guitars cost so much.

Anyway, I'm not set on any particular brand yet but I want a guitar that will meet my needs when I become good at it. I can learn any instrument in a shorter period of time than most people, so I expect to be good at the electric guitar.

The stuff at the music store is so expensive. I don't understand why guitars cost so much.



Depends where they are built and on the brand.

Fenders built in Japan are cheap, ones from mexico are decent and a starter to mid level guitar, ones from America are the best. The ones built in America are put together by Fender's top lutherists and are tested well....they range from $500 - $4500.

Same with Ibanez, Peavey etc etc.

Guitars aren't that expensive, go to sam ash, they usually have really good deals on Ibanez guitars.

I play bass as well, both the electric and upright variety. Most bass players I know claim that transitioning from horizontal to vertical is difficult, but I had no problem with it. My electric bass is a Cahuenga and my upright was a Kay. (Couldn't bring it with me here so I gave it to a local mariachi band. Their guitarron player was so happy I thought he was going to start humping it...).

Building your own would probably be the best way to make sure you get exactly what you want. Of course, we'll want to see it when you're done with it. :)

I played the cello for a while. I got used to the vertical horizontal thing pretty quickly.

When one of my pickups broke, I tried to replace it.... it was quite funny considering that I am not a Guitar Technician. Anyway, the pickup is too close to the strings to it will pick up the slightest buzzing sound. I'm starting to think that maybe building my own guitar might not be that greatest idea. The mid-range Ibanez guitars are well priced and feel good. I'm probably going to buy one of those.

How does one teach himself how to play the guitar? I have one and don't know how to play it.

you teach yourself when you love it. just sit down with it and start pressing notes on the fingerboard. press one on one string with your index finger while stretching your pinky finger out to press another string and listen to way notes sound together. find patterns. be relaxed. persistance is an incredible teacher. no one need have talent or ability starting out in any art form, only desire and patience. were all artists and musician by the very ground nature of our being.

godin electric guitars are a pretty good deal, manuel rodriguez luthiers make great affordable to spendy custom classic guitars. i have one of the latter designated rodriguez' and its the joy of my life.

How does one teach himself how to play the guitar? I have one and don't know how to play it.

By reading stuff on the internet. You can also find tabs of whatever song you are willing to play. Sometimes they suck though, but mostly they're ok.
Only take lessons if you suck by nature, otherwise they will only prevent you from learning quickly.
Don't learn scales to construct songs or whatever, it is überlame, it has to come naturally. Maybe for chord construction. I can read notes, but I don't know any scale theory stuff. I hate it when music gets turned into a mathematical game. Ok, it is nothing more than that, but a human wants to put his soul in whatever he does, and in my case that is impossible when the magic is ripped away.

Since I posted this thread, I bought a nice Fender knock off Stratocoaster. I've greatly improved. I also bought all brand new gear for my bass (Warick standard, 100w bass amp). I'm no longer in the dilemma of having to buy a new guitar. I'm well set up for at least the next few years. I can even play in clubs with my bass gear. I'm practicing every day and trying to improve as much as I can.

Buy what suits you. I found out that Ibanez starter pack to be the best. Whole lotta of good stuff for a pretty good price.

A little secret I read

The same way there isn't much difference between a $40 Old Navy jacket and a $240 Banana Republic jacket there isn't much difference between a $400 guitar and a $1700 guitar.

Ofcourse there is a lot of difference between a $400 Ibanez and a $3500 Gibson but not much between a $600 Ibanez and a $1400 Ibanez. A $600 American Fender will sound good with good skill as a $4500 American Start.

It really depends on what you want to spend.

I would suggest a Fender Squier kit for starters.

It really depends on what you want to spend.

I would suggest a Fender Squier kit for starters.

I wouldn't

Much better off with an Ibanez starter kit or a Peavey starter kit.

Besides, she has already made her choice.

I got a nice Jay Turser knowck off. It plays just as well as the Fender Standard Strats. It cost a bit more than the starter guitars (because it's a guitar for beginners and experts alike). I'm happy with my purchase. I'm especially happy with my new bass and amp. I'm above the beginner level in guitar now. I might start some lessons after Christmas...