Dazed and confused - my first electric

TheFourthDimension

[after reading singemonkey's stickied post it looks like the Yamaha Pacifica is the one for me - love the brand, have a classical from the company and have owned and loved several of their bikes]

I'm looking to get a beginner electric guitar and honestly have no idea. I won't go over R3500.00 for the first one. I've been reading as much as possible to try to figure out which one to get and what a reasonable price is to pay for what I'm looking at.

I'm pretty keen to play blues-derived rock stuff but honestly, for the first guitar, it's going to get a lot of mileage across genres.

So far I've noticed:
- some don't keep their tuning
- some have lousy pickups
- there are things called humbuckers
- others called coil something or others
- hollow bodies
- shallow hollow bodies
- solid bodies
- you can change the pickups, humbuckers, coils, some have two, some one, some a combination (but only some guitars allow these to be changed)
- some are extremely modular and allow much to be changed while others are difficult to change

Tokais are apparently good value for money. Some say the Vintages are too. Some say the Squiers are a waste of money but then others say they're great value for money. I get the impression that people look down on the Ibanezes a bit and apparently that's due to pickups - which can be changed. Bear in mind the price range I'm looking at - these are not the top of the range in any of the brands.

So I've looked at all the guitars on the GFSA classifieds and all of those on Gumtree too plus a few on Ultimate-guitar.com (but for my price range I don't think it's worth importing anything due to shipping costs).

There is this Squier Bullet on the GFSA classifieds: http://www.guitarforum.co.za/index.php?action=classifieds;sa=view;id=2499 for R1200.00
There's this Vintage on Gumtree: http://www.guitarforum.co.za/index.php?action=classifieds;sa=view;id=2499 for R2500.00
This Vintage VHE100 on GFSA: http://www.guitarforum.co.za/index.php?action=classifieds;sa=view;id=2498 for R1800.00
This Ibanez NDM-1 on GFSA: http://www.guitarforum.co.za/index.php?action=classifieds;sa=view;id=2444 for R2650.00
And this Ibanez Gio on Gumtree: http://www.gumtree.co.za/cp-musical-instruments-in-northern-pretoria/electric-guitar-475811866 for R1500.00

Would any of those be worth looking at or should I prepare to spend more and get something entirely different?
Your help will be greatly appreciated.

IceCreamMan

Coynegfsa ( i think thats his nick) selling a korean made epiphone too which is within yr budget so add that to yr list.

Buy 2nd hand for the best deals is the way to go....anyoe of those on yr list are cool and rmember u will need an amp at some point too.

Am sure u will receive more opinions though ?. Ppl like discussing this topic

Good luck with whatever u choose...yamaha make good instruments and bikes so mebbe wait til somethin pops up in the classifieds ,gumtree etc

Chabenda

Well Senhor FourthDimension, let me put my 2 centavos in:

What type of music do you want to play?

If you are into heavy rock, metal, etc you will be happier with a guitar fitted with humbuckers (you can generally identify them by their width -double that of a single coil). In my opinion, humbuckers have a rather fat rhythm sound and are prone to distorting at lower amplifier volumes.

If you are more into clean rhythm sounds then you would be better off with single coils. You can still get some good distorted sounds using pedals or switching channels on your amp.

I don't think that there are any quality issues with the guitars that you noted at this stage of your 'career'. Rather buy one of these cheaper models, use it, if you find that it does not have the characteristics that you are looking for, move it on. You will go through quite a few and the experience will be necessary before you trade your car in on a 'keeper'

It's a good idea to deal with forum members, they're a good bunch and you shouldn't get ripped off.

Good luck and enjoy!

8)

Chocklit_Thunda

There's that aria II pro for 1000 bucks in the gumtree post. Not th best but it comes with an amp too! Here's what I'd do with 3500, look at the aria and amp, and then with the remaining 2500 I'd get a higher end 2nd hander ?
Look for second hand corts, ibanez, epi's and other stuff because usually you can get a higher up model for the same price as a store bought lower end model.
If you're looking at 3500 a Tokai may be a better investment for you or as mentioned before, Coyne's Epi.

AlanRatcliffe

Chocklit_Thunda wrote: There's that aria II pro for 1000 bucks in the gumtree post. Not th best but it comes with an amp too!

Actually, that looks like a TA series hollowbody, which I have fond memories of. I have no idea how the modern versions stack up, but if it's even remotely like the old TA-100 I had, it's a great bargain indeed.

TheFourthDimension

Wow, you guys are awesome! Thank you for all the great assistance.
And now I have a confession to make.
Sadly, I am not the most patient human being. I think impulsive is the right word. I ended up racing out of the house and down to Music Mate in Fourways where Brandon placed a Yamaha Pacifica 112 in my hands followed shortly by an Ibanez Gio. I bought the Ibanez - I cannot explain why but I have a soft spot for them. They're just so pretty! It has a humbucker (two pickup thingy) and two single coils and it makes, in my humblest of humble opinions, an awesome sound. I got a hard case with it and Rock Smith so I'd have something to do with it besides twanging uncontrollably and without direction.
I want to get a decent amp so I'm not allowing myself to be impulsive with that purchase (must...fight...the force) so for now I'm connecting to my Xbox via Rock Smith and playing through the hi-fi speakers. Not the best sound and there's a quarter second lag in the sound but I'm playing and amplifying all my mistakes and that's all that matters to me right now before I become Jimi Hendrix reincarnated. Or just really crap but with volume ?
The whole setup, with a couple of plectrums, the guitar, the case, and Rock Smith, cost me about R3500.00, which was right in my budget. And I have a 1 year warranty on the guitar. Being inexperienced and not knowing what I'm looking at that's fairly important to me. I didn't want something going wrong and it ends up costing me an extra grand for new pickups or something.
Justifications aside, I love the guitar, I love the sound, I'm so flipping happy to be playing!
Thank you again for all your great responses, I really appreciate them.

coynegfsa

IceCreamMan wrote: Coynegfsa ( i think thats his nick) selling a korean made epiphone too which is within yr budget so add that to yr list.

Buy 2nd hand for the best deals is the way to go....anyoe of those on yr list are cool and rmember u will need an amp at some point too.

Am sure u will receive more opinions though ?. Ppl like discussing this topic

Good luck with whatever u choose...yamaha make good instruments and bikes so mebbe wait til somethin pops up in the classifieds ,gumtree etc

Only saw this now - thanks for the mention. ?

Ibanez Gio's can be cool guitars and if you like the feel of a guitar you can be sure you bought something good. ?

scotty

Great success! I have always been curious about Rocksmith, I have played it once and I had a lot of fun. Been interested on how easy it is to "move away" from Rocksmith, ie. can you play the songs with your eyes closed eventually. Would love to hear your thoughts. If I spent less time playing guitar hero and more time playing proper guitar a few years back things would be a different story right now ?

Congrats on your gear purchase, I bought an iRig a while ago, can also recommend that if you have an i-Something device. Got it on BidOrBuy for R250, may be a good alternative if you don't have cash for any amp right away and you want something that does not bind you to the TV.

Codex7

@4thdimension, as long as you are happy, who is to argue? ?

w.r.t Rocksmith, I must confess that I also play it. And I ENJOY it! I use it as a "living/moving/interactive TAB". TAB by itself is good - and I find that I memorise songs pretty well from TAB, but Rocksmith is nice, as you get more of a feeling of the rhythm/timing that make me prefer learning a song with Rocksmith - and now I just gave all the traditionalists a heart attack!! ? ?

I must however confess that it feels like you have to make the effort to memorise it when playing in Rocksmith. It seems like learning from printed TAB easier sticks in your head than from Rocksmith, but I think it is just lazyness - you have to also make a real effort to memorise the song when playing Rocksmith, it is easy to be "lazy" and just learn to sight read, but don't! Make the active effort to memorise the song. I find then I get somewhere - I can then switch off Rocksmith and only play through my amp and get something that does not sound too horrible. Rocksmith also steers you in this direction though - once you 100% a song, you can play the song in "Master Mode", where there is NO notes being displayed, just the stage and crowd, and you have to play the song from memory.

The training "games" are also fun and get you to practice scales etc. which I find useful. Practicing scales can be a bit mundane, Rocksmith makes it a bit more fun, so you can practice for longer. And anything that makes me want to practice for longer must surely be a good thing. ?

Here's a tip though, if you have the PC or XBOX versions of Rocksmith, you can download "Custom songs" from Smithyanvil (Google it). There are LOTS of songs that are available already with new ones being added every day. From AC/DC, Metallica, GnR, Muse, Black Keys and the list goes on and on.

BUT - also play and train guitar outside of RS. It is NOT a one stop guitar tutor IMHO. It does not teach any theorry for example. So use it for what it is, but dont ONLY use it on your guitar playing journey.

PS: Take advice from whence it comes ? - I am still very much a noob, so take any of my advice with a big wallop of caution and suspicion! ?

scotty

Cool, thanks for the RockSmith advice. I heard that the store is expanding nicely.

I'm sold. Now to find it at an affordable price somewhere for the Xbox.

Codex7

scotty wrote: Cool, thanks for the RockSmith advice. I heard that the store is expanding nicely.

I'm sold. Now to find it at an affordable price somewhere for the Xbox.

When I was looking for my PS3 version, the cheapest was Takealot.com and you get free shipping.