singemonkey wrote:
I entirely disagree. When you're starting out, it's not how you sound that's important - you're not playing to eager fans. It's whether the guitar helps or hinders your playing. How many of us started out with a sub-standard guitar and realised that it had slowed down your development when you finally got a good one? I know it did me. Both on acoustic and electric, the el cheapo beginner's guitar can be a serious hindrance to learning to play.
You need a mid level guitar (or something like a Pacifica that's as good as a mid-level guitar at a beginner's price) to ensure that it plays well enough so that you don't blame yourself for your lack of progress when it's actually the guitar. There must be thousands and thousands of potential players who give up for this reason. Conversely, a good guitar helps you learn to play and inspires you to pick it up.
If I had R5K to spend on a beginner's kit, I'd spend at least R4K on a guitar - and potentially R5K. Anything left over I'd spend on any kind of thing that could amplify it.
Once you can play well, it's worth sounding good. Then, as you say, you can't go wrong with a cub - despite how cheap they are.
I think the truth is somewhere in the middle here.
I got the same advice when I got my first electric: don't bother with amp / effects etc.
Playing electric guitar is as much about understanding how the amp interacts with the guitar as actually playing the guitar. I think it's useful to have that awareness up front, when you're starting out. Certainly, you don't want to over-emphasize the effects side of things, but it's useful to hear how distortion, delay etc. impact what you're playing, or rather how you incorporate them into your playing.
I couldn't understand why I couldn't sound like Joe Satriani (not his playing, just his
sound) when I was fresh on the guitar. One day I plugged my old Aria into a cranked Laney amp on a plot somewhere during a jam, and "Whoa!" it sounded like magic. I was still playing what I was playing (not much) but what was there sounded so much more awesome. ?
I think a good teacher (or a dad who knows guitar) helps big time in that regard: the only point of reference I had was the music shop guy who said, "Play without effects when you're learning to play." I think a better teacher would have said, "Learn about effects, but don't use them as a cruch or emphasize them too much at first, until your technique is sound." or some crap like that.
On the other hand, considering you can get a decent Cube amp for R1k or so, I definitely agree on the 4k/1k split, or at least something close to that.
