LF: Good Electric Guitar

im looking for an electric guitar, looking to spend about 200-300$.
I wanna get a gibson but for 300$ i dought i would.
Want a guitar with heavy pickup, play some old rock tunes

bumpo

bump

for the man!

You're probably not going to get anything in that price range unless you buy used. Nothing that decent, anyway...maybe a Sears special.

If you want a Gibson on a budget, I'd get an Epiphone. I own 3 Epis and I love them. My Epiphone doubleneck SG cost a fraction of what the Gibson would and the differences are minimal, mostly finish.

I'd check your local pawn shops and music stores before I head to Ebay or someplace like that. I'm sure that there are some good new guitars out there for $2-300, but I haven't had good experience with them. I always suggest buying the highest quality (not ALWAYS most expensive) guitar you can afford. You won't regret it down the road.

Originally Posted by slc95

You're probably not going to get anything in that price range unless you buy used. Nothing that decent, anyway...maybe a Sears special.

If you want a Gibson on a budget, I'd get an Epiphone. I own 3 Epis and I love them. My Epiphone doubleneck SG cost a fraction of what the Gibson would and the differences are minimal, mostly finish.

I'd check your local pawn shops and music stores before I head to Ebay or someplace like that. I'm sure that there are some good new guitars out there for $2-300, but I haven't had good experience with them. I always suggest buying the highest quality (not ALWAYS most expensive) guitar you can afford. You won't regret it down the road.

Can you suggest a good used guitar shop? I am in Toronto. Original poster is around GTA too.

whenever I'm in TO, I go to Long & McQuade, but I don't think they're the cheapest. Great selection, though. There's Ring Music, off of Spadina, can't remember the st., though. Harbour, maybe? There's also www.sticksandstrings.ca. They don't have a retail store, I don't think, but they deliver within GTA and KW. I'm sure there's lots more. I deal more with the stores in Eastern Ontario.

Guitars are not set up properly, or at all, when you try them in the shop. That's one reason to buy used - the thing has been played, the wood has settled and the owner(s) might have has the instrument set up by someone who knows what they are doing.

And - even "good" guitars differ from one to the next ... try it. Pick indentical guitars off the rack and play them for 10 minutes. Check the intonation, the action, buzzes and rattles and the general feel. Supposedly similar guitars can be wildly different.

I'd take my time - first prowl some pawnshops (not the best place for after market service) and music stores. Little shops will charge more, but give better service - they may offer to keep their eyes open, ane they will have time to spend working with you to find something which matches your physical chatrateristics ... I have short fingers ... playing style and budget. They may also offer to polish the frets, restring the guitar and set it up if you request. Then do some ebay and net research to see what base prices are - factor in cases (yes, you need one - new gig bags are $20 or so, used hard shell $50 - $80), decent guitar cables ($20 - $30).

Then start playing what you find. Take your time ... it's your money, your talent and your hands.

Owl

Originally Posted by slc95

You're probably not going to get anything in that price range unless you buy used. Nothing that decent, anyway...maybe a Sears special.

If you want a Gibson on a budget, I'd get an Epiphone. I own 3 Epis and I love them. My Epiphone doubleneck SG cost a fraction of what the Gibson would and the differences are minimal, mostly finish.

I'd check your local pawn shops and music stores before I head to Ebay or someplace like that. I'm sure that there are some good new guitars out there for $2-300, but I haven't had good experience with them. I always suggest buying the highest quality (not ALWAYS most expensive) guitar you can afford. You won't regret it down the road.

I completely dissagree with this statement. Just because something says Fender, Gibson or Les Paul doesn't make it "good" or "better" than something else. All those companies make all of their stuff by mass production, so you could pay $400 or you could pay $2000 and get a guitar that sounds/plays exactly the same.

What I suggest is go to your local music store (in Regina I go to BSharp and L&M) and ask if they have any factory seconds. For those who don't know, factory seconds are guitars that come with a blemish. Having a blemish generally knocks the price down by 1/2 and usually the blemish is hardly noticeable and doesn't affect the playability.

Example 1: I picked up a $1200 Takamine acoustic electric for $525 because of a wood discolouration.

Example 2: I picked up a Washburn J-9 Custom Hollowbody, retailing (at the time) for $1600, I payed $799. Blemish? A tiny pin sized puncture in the wood finish.

If you could get a factory second of a $500-$600 production guitar, you could probably get it for $250 or less. You don't nessassarily need a Fender or a big name either. Go to your local store and look at the cheaper guitars, ask about them, and play them all. Each one, even if they are the "same" will be different. Buy something that YOU like the sound of and that YOU like how it plays. Thats all I can really say. Take it or leave it, I've only been playing for 13 years

When I said high quality, I wasn't refering to finish quality. Action, quality of pickups, wiring (don't be affraid to ask the store salesperson if they can pop off the backplate so you can take a look at the wiring job), sharp frets, or lack thereof, etc. You will most likely have this guitar for a long time so no use for settling if you don't have to.

Bortman is right, though. Either way, you shouldn't buy a guitar JUST for the name. Sure, having a Gibson Les Paul Custom Black Beauty might earn you lots of bragging rights, but it won't make you a better player and it won't necessarily sound any better than an Epiphone or a Yamaha or a Peavey or anything in between. A friend of mine bought a Parker Night Fly a number of years back for some ridiculous price at the time. He bought it just for looks and because it was plastered all over the guitar mags. He absolutely hates the thing, as do I. It has to be one of the most difficult guitars to play. Very high action on it, good luck changing strings during a set, and no fret inlays, among other things.

Point is, if you have a budget, try to play all the guitars you can find within that budget and get the one that plays the best and sounds the best to you.

Thanks for the replies guys, since EE has dissapeared, I will hijack this thread

I will heed the above advice and try everything out, but I am leaning towards a yamaha PAC112J. Since its a catalog buy (about $250), I wont be able to play that very guitar. Just wondering whether its a good choice.

lol, i forgot to check up on this post, thank godness i did, thnx for all the infromation guys really apreciate and ill start my hunt this weekend.

A guy in our band teaches music and gets deals on entry level guitars. He brought in two of those Yamaha PAC112Js for his students - one was amazingly good and the other was ok. You really have to play them before you buy them ... Owl