ingway

 Altough there are too many articles on the net about how to choose and where to buy electric guitars still it's a question for many young people who want to begin playing.

 Usually there are a few questions before you go for buying

• What kind of e.guitar or brand I should buy?
• How much will all cost with necessary gears?
• Where should I buy?

  How to decide what to buy

  First of all it depends on your likes.There are guitars especially produced for different genres of music.But keep in mind once you start to play believe me you will want to play everything possible with a guitar.So, my advice is to choose a versatile instrument that can manage most.

 So what is a versatile electric guitar?

 First of all guitars sound slightly different from each other. Because they're made of wood.Guitar bodies,necks and sometimes fingerboards are made from different kind of woods. What you should know about the sound is the harder the wood of the body and neck the brighter the sound,more trebles and clean sounds you have and vice versa.

 The bridge,nut and frets also effect sound but not too much. They have minor effects which some of them are not recognizable by ears.

 The second important thing for your sound is the pick-ups.  There are mainly 2 types of pick-ups out there.Single coil pick-ups and humbucker pick-ups.They usually look like as the below image shows

 Generally speaking, a single coil produce clean bright sounds whereas a humbucker produces a darker,bass sound.

  If you compare a Fender Stratocaster with 3 single coil pick-ups and a Gibson Les Paul with 2 humbuckers anyone will realize how the sound chracteristics are different.

 My opinion is if you aim to find your unique sound someday go for single-coils.Sure humbuckers have advantages like high output,darker and fuller sounds.But singles give you a clean sound which is very important.Because later you may shape this clean sound with amplifier or some effects in a wider variety than shaping a humbucker sound.

 I think with a clean sounding guitar it's easy to find different tones to play different genres.

 However if you cannot do without the dark sound of a humbucker, you may have it at the bridge position. At the end you have H-S-S pick-up combination which is the most versatile I think.

 By the time when you really realize your tastes, then you may go for special guitars made for special styles or your custom shop guitar.

 But beginning with a versatile instrument will make you realize a lot of different sounds so you may decide what's really there for you. 

 Don't just go and buy your favourite player's guitar. Because the sound you hear even it's a studio recording or live recording includes many effects from amps,effect boxes,racks,mixers etc.

Cost vs. quality

If you play electric guitar you'll also need an amplifier.It's also as important as guitar to make your sound.A perfect guitar with a poor amp will sound 100% poor.So you should estimate both costs.If you can afford 1000 $ for each it's a perfect start. But most of us aren't that lucky when we begin.

Most expensive guitars are expensive because of their high quality hardware,pickups and handmade final touches like fine levelling of the frets,nut etc.But as the most important thing is the wood go for a not perfect but a nice wood guitar.You may have it around 250-300 $.By the time you may upgrade some parts of your hardwarware and pickups if you need to.

About the amps, tube amps sure sound much better but they're expensive and heavy.First you may go for a small yet sufficient solid state amp.Today solid states offer a lot and some have really nice sounds.I don't recommend buying below 30W even for home/bedroom practises.Please keep in mind loudness is also a chracteristic of a sound.So for certain sounds you need to be louder ;)

 Where to buy?

For both guitar and amplifier,it's best to buy trying it at the shops.But today some wholesalers give us the option to buy from internet at lower prices.Well, buying these from the net can be a little gamble sometimes.If you decide to buy brand new guitar and amp it's safer.Anyway they may sound different to when arrived even before you tried the same products at the shops.So as long as you have an option to buy from music shops go for it.If not still go to a shop and try both the guitar and amplifier at the same time and then go home and order it on the net.I must add there are really bargains on e-bay but give enough attention to the listings and read all details.

Take care,

Ing