Looking for a Brand of Electric Guitar

First off, you have to play around with a whole bunch of guitars and figure out what features you need, that should help narrow the brand question considerably.

Humbuckers or single coils?
Tremolo or hardtail bridge?
Solid body or semi-hollow?
Big frets or smaller?

You don't have to be 100% on any of these decisions, and don't be afraid to try something that doesn't fit exactly into what you've decided, but don't make the mistake of choosing your guitar based on what it says on the headstock. It sounds so obvious, but that decal doesn't change what's under your fingers, so shoot for the features you need and the sound that speaks to you!

That said, here's some of the more common ones, brands that you're going to be able to find all over the place. All lines from all of these brands will contain winners, all will also contain duds.

Fender (and it's entry level guitars; Squier) - Makers of the Stratocaster, Telecaster, Jaguar, Mustang, etc.

Gibson (and it's entry level guitars; Epiphone) - Purveyors of the Les Paul, 335 and friends, the SG, etc.

Ibanez - Often associated with 80's shred guitars, though now sporting a very well regarded line of inexpensive semi-hollows.

Schecter - Typical guitar is a strat-style with humbuckers.

There are many more... try everything!

Oh yeah, and for what I recommend? I'd tell anyone to check out an Epiphone Les Paul Junior ($89) over the Squire Strats. I've had great experiences with the Epi's.

Style you want to play and price range would really help to narrow things down.

Undercat - thanks for the input.

RollnRock89,

I like to play mostly Blues also Bluegrass & Rock.
I plan to spend $500.00 to $900.00 (USD).

BS

Does that figure include your amp and/or any effects you'll want to use?

When you say bluegrass, do you truly mean... traditional bluegrass with the fingerpicking and the doe-see-doe and all that, or are you referring more to blues as in Eric Clapton, BB King, etc?

Undercat,

The dollar amount is for the guitar alone - what I consider as bluegrass is the fingerpicking guitar/banjo/ fiddle playing, down home boys on the porch type of music. Blues I like is the Eric Clapton/Muddy Waters/Howling Wolf/BB King Music.

BS

Well... B.B. King uses a gibson... but Clapton uses a strat and muddy waters used a tele. A les paul is better for a more throatier sound, while a strat has a glassier, bell-like sound.

Undercat,

The dollar amount is for the guitar alone - what I consider as bluegrass is the fingerpicking guitar/banjo/ fiddle playing, down home boys on the porch type of music. Blues I like is the Eric Clapton/Muddy Waters/Howling Wolf/BB King Music.

BS

Alrighty, just making sure you weren't accidentally interchanging the two, but I see you're knowledgeable enough not to blur that line.

Rock to bluegrass is a pretty huge range, you're definitely going to be looking for diversity... A Strat or Tele type guitar should put you in the range, the "thick" sound of humbuckers may be something you want so stay away from, depending on how you split your time between the two genres.

A Fat Strat may be something you want to look into. A Fat Strat is a Stratocaster with a humbucker in the bridge position, which is nice for rock, but also has the single coils in the neck and middle position, which would get you through your bluegrass. Getting a Fat Strat with a coil tap could be even better. A coil tap allows you to turn off one of the coils in your humbucker and have it sound like a single coil, which would help to get those really twangy sounds.

Hmm... lots of possibilities here, you'd be well advised to research the poo out of this to find one axe that's going to satisfy all your needs, and for 900, you could definitely get something that will do it. For 500, you could probably get the same thing used.

Bluegrass seems near impossible with humbuckers to me. Blues and rock can be played with pretty much every guitar you like, from the LP of BB, the strat of Clapton and the SG jimi sometimes used for Red House.

Still, if you think bluegrass will take up a considerable ammount of time I'd either go for a tele or strat. I guess strat would be nicer for rock/blues and a tele better for bluegrass, but both can handle these genres.

Thanks Undercat, Arjen, and Yoyo 286,

I will keep your input in mind. I located a shop that sells all the referenced guitars and plan to visit them this weekend.

Thanks again.

Bob

...to the strat of Clapton.

Just FYI: Most tone junkies consider Clapton's height of tone to be when he was using his 59 LP through the Marshall 30 watt in the Bluesbreakers era with John Mayall. I would say Jimi and SRV are better examples of truly great strat tone. Of course, just an opinion. 8)

Haha, guess we have different tastes then. I *much* prefer Clapton's strat-tone then his earlier sound (I prefer his bluesier work over his bluesrock as well), and I don't really like hendrix' tone at all. SRV's tone is perfect though. :D

Don't forget PRS who has a couple of nice guitars out for around $800.

Haha, guess we have different tastes then. I *much* prefer Clapton's strat-tone then his earlier sound (I prefer his bluesier work over his bluesrock as well), and I don't really like hendrix' tone at all. SRV's tone is perfect though. :D

Don't like... Jimi's... tone... can't quite get myself to process that... to each their own.

On those Bluesbreakers songs, Clapton virtually invented the concept of using the overdriven power stage as part of his essential sound, and he did it so well. It's inspiring, to me anyhow. :D