Buying new guitar, need help

The 60th anniversary strats are nice for about $360 on up. A Epiphone valve standard will cost about $300, Its a 15 watt class A-B tube amp. ( I have the 5 watt EVH and its loud)--the dog

I agree.
a strat would be an excellent first guitar. I find them very playable and you have the versitility of a five way switch.

Ive heard good things about Epi amps. 15 watts would be good for house playing.

Wow... we really need a "buying my first guitar, what do you think?" forum. It would make it easier for first time buyers to find information as well, since they could browse the existing threads.

Pamparius, you have 150+ posts here, you really don't know anything about guitars? Do you mean electric? Are you a base player?

A MIM strat would be ok, but it depends on your music interests as well as what you find appealing. You could get a very nice Schecter and a very nice Fender Blues Deluxe for under a grand. You could also look at an entry-level USA guitar for $500 - 600. Both Gibson and Fender have new guitars that start around $600 - 700. Used could be had for $400 or so. There are a ton of guitars priced at $300 - 600. Some possible brands:

Epiphone
ESP
Fender
Schecter
BC Rich
Hamer (import)

While everyone here loves the Epi Tube amps, I tend to think that a tube amp might be a little complicated for a beginner. Why not pick up a very nice solid state amp for $150, a solid FX-board for $200, and a very nice guitar for $600? That would be my suggestion.

If you don't know anything about buying a guitar, then it sounds like you are brand new to the instrument. If so, welcome aboard!

The Strat suggested is a very nice guitar for a beginner. Just so there is no confusion, they are suggesting a Mexican Strat, meaning it was manufactured in Fender's factory in Mexico. An American Strat (made in California) would start at about $600, new. That is for a USA entry level Strat, called the Highway 1 series. The American Standard Strats atart at over $900. The Mexican Strats are close (if not just as good) as their American cousins. In fact, I think the Mexican Strat is better than the Highway 1 (just my opinion). Just wanted to clear that up before you go to a store to look at Strats and the salesman tells you the guitar costs $1,000!

If you have a friend or acquaintance who plays guitar, take them with you. I don't play golf, but if I wanted to start, I would take a knowledgeable friend with me to help me pick out my gear. If you are planning to find a local teacher, they will often accompany you to the store (as long as you pay them to do so). By taking someone with you, the odds of you getting stuck with a lousy guitar goes down considerably.

Another, even cheaper suggestion is to buy a Squier Stratocaster guitar, by Fender. These are made in Asia somewhere (I think). It was my first guitar and I got a pretty good one. I still have it and pull it out once in a while. They run about half the cost of a Mexican Strat and are good beginner level guitars.

Take a look at the VOX Valvetronix amps. I have the 30 watt version and I love the fact that it "models" (can sound like) 9 or 20 different amps. They are fairly reasonable - I think mine was around $250.

I agree.
a strat would be an excellent first guitar. I find them very playable and you have the versitility of a five way switch.

Ive heard good things about Epi amps. 15 watts would be good for house playing.

I have a 5 watt epi amp and it can keep up with a drummer. The 15 watt should be ok for small club gigs :D Thad have a 5 watt amp with a 10" speaker with effects and reverb for $230 (epi valve spacial) Another $70 will get you 15 watts and a 12" speaker :wink:

how about the new Fender amp that plays along with you?
http://www.fender.com/products/search.php?partno=2350000000

should go nice with a Strat

and don't forget the Agiles from Rondo Music?

Wow thanks for all the replies :)

I know something about playing the guitar, dali, but nothing about buying them :shock: (I have one which my father got me 10 years ago, started playing last year)
And I dont know that many who play guitar, and that's why it's so nice to have guitarnoise!
I'll check out the strat, it looks to be exactly what I wanted.

Once again, thanks 8)

Pamp

Pamparius

Looking at your avatar, you must be an AC/DC fan. I would go for that sound if that's your favorite band.

Start with a pretty good Marshall amp:

Marshall AVT50

The Marshall AVT50 is a "hybrid" amp. The preamp section is tube, but the power section is solid-state. This will get you very close to the true tube amp sound Angus uses, but being solid-state you will be able to get a "cranked" tone at low volumes. But this amp is 50 watts, so you can easily play a gig with it too. It has a 12" speaker, I personally wouldn't go under that, just doesn't sound like a big amp with a 10" or 8" speaker IMHO.

And while you cannot afford a Gibson SG like Angus's, Epiphone who is owned by Gibson has very affordable models that will also get you very close in tone and playability.

Epiphone G-400 SG

I am completely guessing on all this. But if you are into the tone of AC/DC, this will get you real close. And you should have enough left to buy a pedal or two too. :wink:

What about some of the digital modelling stuff? I have a Line 6 amp which can digitally model pretty much any other amp sound you want. It may not be quite as cool as an old battered tube amp, but if you are just looking for an amp to play with at home or maybe jam with friends it could be a very good and versatile option. Not that it couldn't handle a proper gig by any means. They really went to work modelling these amps - it's much better than the older modelling attempts which sounded like shite. They even borrowed actual vintage amps from various musicians and let their engineers go to town on them to figure them out.

My mate who is a professional muso just picked up one of the Line 6 effects units to run through his Fender tube amp and he rates it pretty highly.

It may not be what you are after but I would recommend checking out their amps and the POD unit as well. I don't know what they go for in the States but judging from what mine cost here it should fit your budget.

Wow - the autoedit function changed the word i had in there to 'poop'.........funny.

I have a PRS Santana SE and I always recommend them on these threads because they get overlooked. It's a Korean made PRS guitar, will run you $400-500, it sounds great and it's indestructable.

Godin and Schecter guitars are in that price range. Both are very nice (comperable to an Amer Strat).

I have a PodXT Live!. It's pretty cool, but too complex (for a newbie like me). The problem being that I was (and still am) too new to really know how to tweak all the things it can do. So...

I finally took forrok's (and others') advice, and tried just an amp with a couple equalizers. Very cool, and lots of tone available. So...

To echo others' advice (in other posts), try various guitars (again I'll plug Godin), get a decent tube amp, an eq (or two).

But ultimately, go with your ears. Try everything, or have others play it for you.

check out agile guitars from http://www.rondomusic.net . Read all about them here http://www.agileguitarforum.com (not associated with rondo music). They are great inexpensive guitars, but mail order only. This makes it a little hard to play them before you buy. You got great advice up above. I have heard good things about the Line 6 amps. I have a Behringer V-Amp which is a multieffects pedal similiar to the Line 6 PODS. I have had good luck with it and it has a lot of tones. It is 1/3 the cost of a POD. If you have someone who can help you out, check out craigslist.com in your area as there are a lot of good used deals out there. In our area someone is selling a used 1x12 50 watt line 6 amp for I believe $100. I was in GC today and checked out the Schectar guitars and they seem to be a lot of guitar for the money also, very nice indeed.

If I had it to do over again, and you have to buy something fairly soon (GAS) on the amp, I would go with a small 15 watt practice amp and maybe a v-amp. Then I would save the rest of the money and start playing a lot of different tube amps and buy what you really want there. I went solid state first and now I am really wanting a tube amp, I like the tone a lot better. Wish I wouldn't have bought such an expensive solid state amp. Good luck.

Now I've written down all the great tips, and next week I'm gonna go to Prague to try out the things.
By the way: what do you guys think about buying guitars/amps over ebay?