Electric Guitars Buying Guide
Welcome back to the Beginner Guitar Lessons blog! Here are some tips for you if you are planning to buy your first electric guitar:
Each manufacturer has its own tones. Fender electric guitars for example have ‘twangy’ and brighter tones compared to Gibson guitars. Most of country music players prefer Fender Telecaster due to this sound characteristic, although others genre of music such as blues and rock also use Fender guitars a lot.
Pick-ups play an important role to the guitar output. Single coils found in Fender electric guitars are responsible for the bright-twangy tone. They also create ‘hum’ (I don’t like it but some great guitarists took advantage of it and purposely made the hum as a part of their music). On the other hand Humbucker coils found in Gibson electric guitars give warmer, louder and darker tones without ‘hum’. Don’t worry if you like the bright and twangy tones but don’t want the ‘hum’ because such coils are available now.
Guitar necks: Do you prefer ‘Set-in Neck’, ‘Bolt-on Neck’ or ‘Neck through Body’? Set-in neck means the guitar neck is connected to the body by means of glue. Bolt-on Neck use bolts or wooden screws to connect the two parts together. Neck through body doesn’t involve glue or bolts at all because the whole guitar is made from one piece solid wood.
Some well known manufactures such as Fender and Gibson produce premium guitars but they also sell budget guitars. For beginners who like Fender electric guitars they can always find Squier guitars and for those who like Gibson guitars but can’t afford one they may consider Epiphone. I like Gibson but the price doesn’t meet my budget so I decided to buy an Epiphone. If you ask me whether it has the same quality as Gibson then my answer is definitely no but it has a Gibson ‘feel’ with very good playability and good intonation. For me this is enough because the price is much lower than Gibson guitars.
What if you don’t like any of the above budget guitars but you still want to buy Fender-like or Gibson-like electric guitars? Don’t worry because being legends Fender and Gibson have a lot of followers in the industry. The Fender Stratocaster and Gibson Les Paul guitars for example have been standard models for other guitar manufacturers. My suggestion is find your playing style first and then set your budget. If you like hard rock or metal then you have to consider a Stratocaster-like guitar. Don’t go for Gibson because to my knowledge they don’t have whammy bars ……… The next step is choosing one that has good playability and intonation. Some people said these budget guitars could turn into good guitars by upgrading the pick-ups only.
To Your Guitar Success,
-TJ-
Beginner Guitar Lessons Admin
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