Electric Guitar and other electric bits - help required

I dont know much about Pacifica guitars. I can tell you about buying them, as Ive had a few sprees.

the feel of the guitar is important. it should fit your body, not be overly heavy for you. have the sales clerk give you a strap.
next the neck should feel nice and smooth. the fret ends shouldnt feel sharp. Ive heald some that could saw wood.
since you play guitar try out a few chords and fingerings. your hand and fingers should hit the stuff cleanly or you should have to work hard to play what you know.

while UNPLUGGED still, listen and feel the vibration and sustain. it you can hear what you strum that's good. you should be able to feel the vibrations and they should last a bit.

if that is all working for you then plug it in. play clean first. dont get all effects wacky yet.
play chords and notes up and down the neck. they should all sound clean without buzzes or dead spots. hold the note and listen for the quality of the sound from start to the final decay.
move the selctor switch to turn on another pickup. hows the sound. ?

do he volume knobs and tone knobs move smoothly? do they make crackle noises. smooth is good. crackle isnt.

next start turnong the amp up. does the guitar still sound good?
is it hissing or humming or popping. if so, that isnt good.

pick out several guitars from differnt price ranges. get an expensive one. compare all of them. it is a good way to understand why some are expensive and some are not.

you should be getting close to a decision by now.

get a guitar that is better than you are. you will grow into it, you will enjoy playing a good well made ax more than a cheapie that never really feels right.

lastly, before you pull out your cash ask the dealer if the setup comes with the purchase. and is it garanteed for a year. that's pretty standard.

have fun. dont be afraid to ask questions. bring a friend.
best wishes on your buy.

post script: I love strats and teles. they are very versitile...well, the strat more than the tele.

If you can take at look at these. As for the sound just plug some headphones into your amp.
Squier '51 Vox AD-15VT Vox VR 30

I would add that you should have an amp to plug the headphones into. (The guitar's output jack alone won't "produce the juice.") Unless they're some kind of powered 'phones, with their own self-contained amplifier, 'phones are basically just speakers built into earmuffs. You need something to drive the speakers. Many (most?) of the low-wattage amps on the market today come with a headphone jack.
The advice you've gotten so far on "try before buy" is good, as were your own observations about how singlecoils and humbuckers differ from each other. (Making the famous "A/B comparison" like that is always a good move.)
I guess I can hold off from saying "get one of each." :wink:

Hi Rich
As you are in UK check out the Tanglewood guitars http://www.tanglewoodguitars.co.uk/home.asp
They have now a series of different types of electric gutairs that seems to be good and priceworthy.

I see Godin is listed on some of the UK sites, so you might be able to try one of these out
http://www.godinguitars.com/godinfreewayclassicp.htm
I tried one at the store and it's very nice, actually almost all of the Godin's I've picked up have been really nice.

It's been a long time since I've tried a Pacifica, but I remember it as a decent beginner's guitar. There are a couple of different levels made from different woods to check IIRC.

I would definately agree with buying some variant of the hss, shs pick-up combination for your first electric guitar. Unless you really know that you like only one sound, it just gives you more to play with.

As for the headphones I think you could get a cheap digital modelling unit to plug into. Might keep the cost down and you could look for a nice amp later.

Thanks all, some good advice/tips there - will I look a right spoon if I print this out, take it to the guitar shop and tick off the points in dogbites post as I work my way through the guitars? :lol:

To be clear, my (initial) plan was to buy a Korg Ampworks Guitar, a pair of headphones and various leads. And a guitar. Anyway, then plug the headphones into the Korg and just play - I believe that would work? If I want to inflict the noise I am making on others then I plan to plug a lead from the Korg into my home stereo, which I am told will work and will be plenty loud eough to upset my wife.

So far so good?

Now, about that guitar. I was most impressed with a T5 I saw once and liked the idea of having multiple guitars in one, er, guitar. I can't afford a T5. But I can afford a Variax Line 6 300. Well, if I increase my imaginary budget a little bit. The picture looks good, the guitar is nice and understated just like my Taylor acoustic and the website is fantastic. Now, I know a lot of T5 owners later sold them because they weren't as good as the original thing, but for someone like me I think it could be perfect. I don't have multiple quality guitars to compare the sound to, nor years of experience and I don't know what guitar sound I want. Maybe its citar? The Variax might be a good instrument for a newby like myself to figure out what I need to buy next.

Anyway, I've searched here for reviews and there aren't many from people who have actually played one (but there are plenty of people who wouldn't buy one anyway which kind of goes against all the 'play it first' advice thats usually given.....). I therefore plan to try one, as well as the Yamaha and Squire 51 and others assuming all are available and I hope to find one that floats my boat.

If anyone wishes to comment on this or the previous post please feel free.

I will let you all know how I get on.

Update here: https://www.guitarnoise.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=236712#236712