Hi - After many years of wishing I could just magically be able to do it, I've finally decided it's time to learn to play guitar. Around 18 months ago someone bought me an electric strat-style guitar so this week I hit youtube fairly intensively and got the truss rod adjusted, the action set, the pickup heights set, etc etc. After all that (and bear in mind I can play at most 5 chords, 6 if you gimme a minute to get the F) it sounds.... ok'ish.
It's really rather noisy (not the good noise, the bad noise) with the volume / gain turned up, and awfully 'twangy' sounding. Furthermore I've found that I have a couple of high spots on some higher frets (same note across multiple frets), and one of the bridge pickup height adjustment screws doesn't - half the pickup appears to be floating. To be fair a bit of research indicates that it's a £70 guitar - I'm not fussed about price but thats just to indicate the components probably arn't top notch. Don't misunderstand - it actually doesn't sound half bad if I get the knobs in the right place but I'd like to know that as I learn I can make it sound good, rather than be hampered by equipment from the get go. I'm sticking it through a Vox Amplug2 AC30 or my PC running Guitar Rig 5 (it came with an amp - that just appears to be a box that only makes a 'brrrrrpppppppt' noise).
So, the question. I need to spend some money but I'm not willing to splurge. Should I level the frets, put some decent (budget) pickups in (Ironstone? Wilkinson?), add some shielding, maybe change the pots and caps, or should I just go get a new guitar? The latter option would ideally be something like the Epiphone Les Paul Special II - only £140 but with excellent reviews and apparently a great starter. If I can make my cheapy-strat into something I'll enjoy playing I'll do the work (assuming I don't arse it up) but I don't want to buy pickups, a crowning file, pots etc only to find it still sounds like crap no matter how much I improve. However, I don't want to blow more money than necessary on something that I may well give up on in 2 months.
Sorry this is a bit long but I really would value the opinion of folks who actually know what they are talking about!
Thanks - Lee.
