Well, you finally took your decision to make those first steps to start your longtime dream — guitar lessons. Congratulations! This decision was tough. However, there is a list of things you need to know when your motivation has been activated.
First of all, you need to get a guitar. Yes, this is the very first thing you need to do, and moreover, you need to do it CORRECTLY. Maybe you already heard that it is crucial for a beginner to have a proper guitar. Everything now is fresh so we need to take good care of our fancy dream.
Almost everybody dreamed of being a musician one day. Maybe some of your friends dreamed to be a drummer or a pianist. Well, that’s great! But your dream of being a guitarist is far grander. The reason is that the guitar is the MOST desired instrument of all times around the world. It is a cool thing to do as the rock and roll world. To achieve this dream, you must know where you should start with. Of course, it is on your instrument. So let’s talk about this.
Top 5 Best Electric Guitars for Beginners
- Squier by Fender Bullet Strat Beginner Electric Guitar HSS – Black
- Epiphone Les Paul-100 Electric Guitar, Vintage Sunburst
- Yamaha Pacifica Series PAC012 Electric Guitar
- Dean Vendetta XM Electric Guitar – Natural
- Epiphone Les Paul Special II Plus Limited Edition Electric Guitar
Choosing the Right Electric Guitar for a Beginner
You need to know exactly what you want, so know what is right for you and what fits in your budget. Nowadays, there are so many guitars produced worldwide and maybe most of them are not as good as they claim to be. This article will help you get the best electric guitar in the market.
To choose the correct one, you may consider the following MAIN aspects of an electric guitar for beginners:
Playability
The sound is important enough, but when you are starting out, it’s all about playability. It is always a massive issue for the main drive force – motivation and enjoyment of playing. It should be considered as a vital part of the choosing process. Fender Strats are, for example, usually good ones when it comes to a tighter neck. It is easier for the left hand to navigate over the frets when you’ve got a smaller neck and fingerboard. So it’s essential to know how close are the strings to the neck, and how soft is the feeling of playing on this neck.
Sound
The main reason to buy a guitar for a beginner guitarist is the sound. The best sounding guitars do not always have the best playability but the music that it gives is the one that is essential. The materials used for the guitar affects the sound of it. Take into account the wood of the body, neck, the fingerboard, and the pickups. If you need a crystal funky clean sound or a distorted middle range rock sound or maybe you need a deep bass sound for your metal riffs, as well as sustained at a low tone, it will depend on the style and wood used.
The sound topic is another main subject, and we will post a separate article for this.
Shape
This factor is closely related to the sound. Of course, there are as many shapes as you can imagine, but there are always two main shapes to consider: cutaway and double cutaway. Especially, shapes are up to specific brands in the guitar industry. The main ones are Gibson, Fender, Ibanez, ESP, and others. Each of these brands offers a few flagman models, and these are the “templates” to follow when choosing a shape of your guitar. In short, it’s all about style, design, and comfort of holding it with your hands. You can track your idols’ ax shapes here; usually, this approach works just fine.
Price
Nothing much to say here. It all depends on your financial ability. Approximately, you need to spend 200-300 USD for your first guitar. But still, it varies.
Features and reliability
You may need a tremolo, specific electronics sound, color, tuners, etc. Consider them and put them on a list. It is worth.
1. Squier by Fender Bullet Strat
Eric Clapton, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Ritchie Blackmore, and Jimi Hendrix. These are the names behind the strat. And you should consider this little brother of the gentle giant Fender Stratocaster. It goes for everybody and any style. It is a compass for a young guitarist. The Bullet Strat is one of the favorite strat in its family members.
Here are some specs:
- ‘C’ shaped satin finished neck, 21 medium jumbo frets and modern 9.5 fingerboard radius
- Three single coils pickups, two tone controls, master volume and the five-way pickup selector switch
- Chrome Synchronized Tremolo indicative of the Stratocaster
- Adjustable truss rod and adjustable saddles of the chrome Synchronized Tremolo
- Polyurethane gloss finish
The Squier by Fender Bullet Strat with tremolo is an affordable and practical electric guitar designed for anyone’s budget. Moreover, it has many of the ingredients that have propelled the Stratocaster to be one of the most iconic guitars ever made. This Squier is a perfect choice for a first guitar no matter who you are or what style of music you want to learn. Welcome to the Fender family!
2. Epiphone Les Paul 100
Les Paul Gibson is always the first. This model is the first electric robust body guitar prototype which is still number one nn most of the charts. And this fact is underlined by guitar players like Jimmy Page, Slash, Randy Rhoads, Zakk Wylde, Joe Perry, Garry Moore and many others.
Epiphone Les Paul 100 Specs:
- 700T Humbucker pickups
- Rosewood fretboard
- Mahogany body and Maple top
- 24.75″ inch scale
The Epiphone Les Paul 100 is the electric guitar you will want if you’re starting to get serious about your music. The mahogany body with maple top delivers classic solid, heavy tone while the bolt-on mahogany neck and rosewood fingerboard are easy to play. It features 700T/650R open-coil humbucker pickups and chrome hardware. In brief, the Epiphone Les Paul 100 guitar features classic Les Paul design and tone.
3. Yamaha Pacifica Series PAC012
For a long time, the Pacifica has been rewarded for best value inexpensive electric guitar. It is a versatile guitar for heavy riffs and jazz styles at the same time. It is suitable for beginners and intermediate guitar players, too.
Specs:
- Agathis Body
- Maple Bolt-On Neck
- Sonokeling Fingerboard
- Vintage Tremolo
- 5 Position Switch
As a solid body electric guitar, the Pacifica looks more like Fender Strat, but it is the right choice between Les Pauls and Stratocaster. Because of the pickup concept, it follows the middle range tonal zone.
It is a perfect and a stylish choice. It will serve you well for a long time.
4. Dean Vendetta XM Electric Guitar – Natural
Dean Vendetta XM is always related firstly to hard rock and heavy metal instrument. However, it brings versatility and dominant input to any style. Therefore, having humbuckers gives its tone a massive, very distinctive and clear sound result to your power chords. From the other side, it has a sweet, soft and clean blend especially when you switch to both pickups.
Specs:
- Wizard III 3-piece Maple neck
- Mahogany body
- Rosewood fretboard w/White dot inlay
- Jumbo frets
- Fixed bridge
- Quantum pickups
- Cosmo black hardware
This XM model has a mahogany body and a Wizard III neck shape that offers maximum comfort and speed. Its fingerboard is rosewood with 24 jumbo frets for more significant note bends, and it also comes with dual Vendetta INF pickups that are wired to a 5-way switch for a variety of coil combinations and sounds. Moreover, a fixed bridge and Cosmo black hardware complete the list of hard-rock’ appointments. It has a Wizard III Maple neck: Vendetta’s thin, flat, and fast, yet strong and sturdy. Wizard neck offers unlimited playability for demanding players and features a two-octave 24-fret fretboard for the wide tonal range. The Quantum pickups provide an accelerated bass response for exceptionally fast-tracking of high-speed staccato riffing with crushing mid-range and precise high-end articulation.
5. Epiphone G-400 Pro Electric Guitar
Epiphone G-400 Pro Electric Guitar with Coil-Splitting is one of the most original designs in rock style. The body is made up of Mahogany and the fretboard is made from Rosewood which gives a lightweight and balance. Primarily, it’s humbuckers in the neck and bridge positions helps players achieve more style in a tonal palette. Besides, its features coil-tapping both pickups volume control, also push and pull, makes it flexible in performance.
Epiphone always leads in manufacturing guitar because of their fantastic hardware. They choose the high-quality materials in manufacturing, hence, it brings the perfect and long-lasting performance to loyalty guitarists. Uniquely, Epiphone has also left-handed models. They touch every soul of a musician. Not only unique in style, but the color is also another reason why guitarists become slay this model. The Cherry Red brings a charming look for any performance.
Specs:
- Body shape: Double cutaway
- Scale length: 24.75″
- Fret size: Jumbo
Best Electric Guitar and Amp Packages for Kids
The greatest joy in the world is to see your kid happy, isn’t that correct? Well, nowadays a lot of children dreamed of being rock stars, and yes, this might be their parent’s dream before. Also, there is nothing greater than seeing your child smiling after having a six-string fella as a present. No matter how long your child will play, it is worth every penny to fulfill their dream to be one of those big bad uncles from the poster of the street.
Fortunately, there are amazing guitars for kids with the correct sizes and colors for them. And there are also packages which are a better option if your kid wants an electric guitar and amp. Besides, some of the best ones are an exact copy of the great Fender and Gibson together with a mini-Marshall amp or similar. Also, you could think about an electric guitar with a built-in speaker which is a very trending and cool instrument lately.
Best Electric Guitar Types and Brands – Find the right fit for you.
Finding the best beginner electric guitar is not always an easy job. You have to know what is trending and some history about the most celebrated brands on the market. Do you need to be Eric Clapton with a Fender-type guitar or a Slash with a Gibson? Well, this video will help you out to get a little deeper into the sweet rock guitar knowledge for beginners.
Best Beginner Electric Guitar Under 200
If you have a money, but you need to use it for the car repair yet you desperately want to buy an electric guitar, which will be your priority? Why not both? Yes, you can! Buying an affordable guitar is the answer. And now, you can start with an electric guitar under $200 offers to test the spot. Yes, it is a smart decision because you can still find a quality instrument. There are plenty of them in this price range. Well, you won’t need a perfect wood and electronics because they will look like the real ones, sound close to them and make you feel like a guy who plays guitar. And that’s important. You will be able to learn some chords on them, scales and even try to play in a band with it. On the whole, there are no useless guitars. There are guitars that are not used properly.
Best Electric Guitar Under 500
Guitars within the price range of 200-500 bucks are the most mysterious instruments of all. You never know how much quality you will find in the instrument. It’s all about luck and experience. For example, Fender has many options here (Squier by Fender), and also Gibson offers their Epiphone version. You can count on a very high-quality instrument when you buy an Epiphone guitar. They are the smallest brother of Gibson, and they are built for those who are like you that needs an entry-level guitar for a kick start!
If you have saved enough money for your most important investments and you need a little better than the cheaper, go for this price range! You will be happy to find out later that the instrument will be reliable for a longer time than what you’ve expected.
Best Electric Guitar Under 1000
Well, these guitars are suitable for a beginner! You could even step on the semi-professional level here and buy this price range. Moreover, trying Gretsch, for example (this is a semi-acoustic guitar with a Bigsby tremolo!), you will be amazed. Also, here you can find even a version of a Fender Strat (Mexican Strats could fit in the price under $1000). And yes, Gibson SG or Les Paul Studio, they are all great too. You will rock and roll with these! It’s worth to put some efforts to find a real masterpiece which will serve you for many years and maybe even serve your kids.
Conclusion
To sum it all, you need the perfect guitar FOR YOU. This is a necessary condition: a personalized instrument works better than ANY high priced electric guitar on the way. It may fit your visual expectation, but not be as playable as needed. And it may meet your SOUND expectation, but not be that reliable as it should be for the money you spend.
A very good and the precious thing to remember is to have an EXPERT with you and not just to rely on him, but TRY the guitar before you buy it.
It’s worth ALL the effort, trust me. You will feel in paradise if you find the right fit for you.
Playing on a guitar is the best feeling in the world, and you will prove it to yourself once you find your “princess.”
Please be aware of addiction! It might happen to everybody!
