This is a post about picking electric guitars for beginners. You would normally get an electric guitar if you are thinking about playing more rock, metal, blues or electric guitar pop.
Here is your shopping checklist for what to look out for and what to avoid.
Handed: You can get left or right handed guitars depending on which hand you use.
Recommended price range: $300 to $600.
Any cheaper than $300 the guitar may not be the best quality. The components may be of poor quality, the neck may warp, strings may be hard to keep in tune. I did own a good $150 Kay Les Paul copy guitar. It was okay for the money but when I bought a more expensive guitar I did notice the jump up in quality and sound.
Over $600 is too much to invest in your first guitar until you know you are going to continue playing. You would want to think about playing professionally to invest more than $600. You can get a great electric guitar for $500 which could do you for the rest of your life.
Style and colour: What ever colour and style you want. You have probably looked at your favourite guitarist and imagined playing their guitar.
Electric Guitar Hardware
Bridge: A fixed bridge is better than a tremolo unit or whammy bar for the beginner. You won’t use the whammy bar until you playing for at least a year or more. At the start it be hard for you tune your guitar with a tremolo unit and it will go out of tune easier. If you are getting one with a unit, get a floating Floyd Rose unit. They are very good and you can easily fix it in place till you learn how to use it. The best first choice is to get a fixed bridge.
Pickups: Your guitar should have at least two pickups. A neck and a bridge pickup. This will give you different sounds for rhythm and lead guitar playing. If you are playing rock or metal a humbucker pickup will you a fuller sound. A single coil pickup is used for a lighter sound like in blues. Whether it is a humbucker or a single coil pickup, guitar effects can be used later on to change the sound as well. A guitar with two or three pickups (third one in the middle) but guitar with one pickup is no good.
Machineheads: These are the guitar tuners on the headstock of the guitar neck. Try and get ones with enclosed gears (ones you can’t see the gear cog). They are better mechanically. It really is a marker of better quality in an electric guitar.
Guitar Neck: It doesn’t matter about what material the neck on electric guitars for beginners is made off. It will be made of some hardwood such ebony, rosewood or maple. Different types of woods give different sounds, tones and sustain qualities.
Until you are playing a few years and have identified your sound you will not care what kind of wood it is. Also you will only use the first 12 frets at the start. So don’t worry about getting a guitar with 27 frets. 22 or 24 frets will do you for a beginner guitar and maybe quite a bit longer. Personally I haven’t actively used above the 17 th fret.
There quite a few good electric guitars for beginners. The two best known electric guitars have a budget model available. The Fender Stratocaster has a cheaper model in the Squier brand name. Ephiphone have the cheaper copy of the Gibson Les Paul. Both of these are good for blues, pop, rock and metal. The Fender Telecaster is better known for country music. Other brands for rock are Ibanez, Jackson, ESP or the Yamaha Pacifica range. B C Rich is quite popular for metal and thrash.
Short checklist for electric guitars for beginners:Price: $300 to $600.
Bridge type: Fixed (or Floyd Rose which is fixable).
Pickups: 2 minimum. Avoid 1 pickup guitars.
Choose single coil (blues) or humbucker (rock) pickups depending on type of music you will play.
Neck: 22 frets min.
Machineheads: Enclosed, cogs not visible.
The main thing is to buy your first guitar and get playing it. With practice you can learn to play it. So get go ahead pick one and buy your first electric guitars for beginners.
