Contemporary Music Instruction and Mentoring

  Selecting an Electric Guitar


A good instrument is extremely important for developing finger dexterity and proper technique on the guitar.  Unfortunately, many of the guitars that families have in their homes are unsuitable for learning guitar.  I cannot overstress the importance of having an appropriate instrument.

If you are considering an electric guitar purchase, please talk to me before you do so.  There is a wide variety of quality in each price range.  Let me help you find a quality instrument in your price range.

THE THREE CLASSIC TYPES OF ELECTRIC GUITARS

There are three classic styles of electric guitar that play and sound very different from each other: the Fender Stratocaster, the Fender Telecaster, and the Gibson Les Paul. 


In classic rock, Stratocasters and Les Pauls are the most popular.  The Stratocaster (above) has three single coil pickups that give it a bright, clean sound (think Brian Adams).  It is used extensively for early rock & roll and for rhythm guitar, but a few artists (e.g. Eric Clapton) also use it for lead.  It has a long, wide neck with a small radius that many players find comfortable.  And it has a whammy bar to bend the pitch.  It features a sculpted, thin body that is comfortable and light.


The Les Paul (above) has two humbucker (twin coil) pickups that give it a big, fat, rich, full sound (think Journey).  The Les Paul is used extensively for 70s and 80s classic rock and is excellent for lead guitar.  The Les Paul has a slightly shorter and narrower neck that make string bends and hammering during solos much easier.  Although its thick, solid body is heavy, it provides incredible tone and sustain, and many players find it a joy to play.

In country, the Telecaster (below) has traditionally been dominant, because its two single coil pickups give it a twangy sound. 



To hear the difference, link to this John Fogerty concert video from 1998.  He plays all three during this concert.  (46:15-47:20 is Stratocaster; 38:39-39:06 and 1:10:50-1:12:00 is Les Paul; 27:15-28:15 and 37:10-37:28 is Telecaster.)

If you pursue electric guitar, someday you may want to own a real Fender or Gibson, or both.  They sell for about $2,000-3,000 for the hand-made-in-the-USA models. 

Fender's quality went down during the years CBS owned them (1965-1985) but their USA models are good quality now.  Fender also has a factory in Mexico that makes guitars that sell for about half the price of the USA models.  The quality of the Mexican Fenders is not quite as consistent as the USA made ones, but some of them are quite good.  I own a Mexican Fender Jazz bass, and one of my friends owns a Mexican Fender Stratocaster, and both of those instruments are excellent.

For a long time, Gibson quality was pretty good, but be warned: Gibson quality has taken a huge nosedive in the last decade.  Most new Gibson Les Paul's these days have paint problems, fret problems, cracked binding, broken nuts, and all sorts of other problems.  So be VERY VERY careful when looking at new Gibsons.  A much better option for a new USA-made Les Paul style guitar in that price range would be to shop for a Heritage H-150 (below).  These are made by former employees of Gibson who were laid off in 1985 when Gibson shut down the factory and moved to a different location to cut costs.  A few of them bought the old factory and started making their own guitars, using the original guitar-making equipment and techniques, and they are kicking Gibson's butt on both quality and price.


Additionally, both Fender and Gibson own subsidiary brands that produce low end models of their guitars (Squier for Fender, and Epiphone for Gibson).  These brands are usually made somewhere in Asia, and sell for much lower prices, but they are still good quality beginner/intermediate level instruments.  (In fact, Epiphone guitars reportedly have far fewer quality control problems than Gibson does!)

There are many other styles of electric guitars, including some very wild designs and some very beautiful designs, but the vast majority of electric guitars sound and play similarly to the three classic guitars above.

OTHER BRANDS OF ELECTRIC GUITARS

In addition to Fender and Gibson, there many other brands of good quality electric guitars.  A few of the better ones are listed below:

PRS is an excellent brand that offers high quality guitars in a wide price range.  The PRS Core line competes directly with Fender and Gibson, and the PRS S2 line is at a lower price point and still very good quality.  The Core and S2 lines are both made in the USA.  But the PRS line that has the highest value is PRS SE line which is made in Indonesia.  The quality control and build quality are excellent, and the price is very reasonable.  They are beautiful and they play great.

Schecter's USA-made and Indonesian/Vietnamese/Chinese made guitars are okay, but their guitars made in South Korea are an excellent value, with a perfect balance between quality, features, hardware, and price.  For a great deal on a high quality guitar, consider Schecter.

Ernie Ball Music Man guitars are interesting.  Their headstock is a much better design than either Fender or Gibson, with tuning pins lined up for the strings to have a short, straight pull through the nut without bends or string trees.  If you want a whammy bar, Music Man's tremolo system stays in tune better than any other.  They make a lot of artist signature guitars with fascinating designs and features.  If you spend the money for their USA models you'll end up with an insanely beautiful lifetime guitar.  Music Man's budget line is called Sterling, and it is a very good guitar at a good price point.

D'Angelico specializes in hollow body archtop guitars.  They make some really interesting guitar shapes with fun color combinations and nice features.

Yamaha and Ibanez are both excellent main-stream manufacturers that offer a full line of various styles of electric guitars with good quality and reasonable prices.

RECOMMENDED FOR BEGINNERS

For beginners, my personal recommendation is a Les Paul style guitar.  To me, the Les Paul seems like a better beginner instrument than the Fender styles because of its smaller size, shorter neck, and easier action.  And they sound really nice.  A bonus is, if you get one with the "coil cut" (a.k.a "coil split" or "coil tap") option, it can also sound very much like a Fender Stratocaster at the flick of a switch.  There are only two downsides of the Les Paul style; they are heavy, and you have to be careful to not let it slide or fall onto the floor.  The bent back headstock can break right off if that happens.  So keep it away from young siblings and don't ever prop it up against a wall!

In my opinion, the Epiphone Les Pauls are great beginner guitars at competitive prices, and they come set up decently so they play well right out of the box.  You do pay a small premium for the name "Les Paul" on the headstock, but they are still a good value.

I believe the best quality-to-price ratio for Les Paul style guitars comes from two online guitar retailers that have their own house brands.  They order good quality Les Paul clones directly from the factories, avoiding the expenses of middle men, marketing, and retail stores.


The best bargain is the Xaviere XV-500 and XV-510 (above).  These guitars look stunning and have a great sound with excellent pickups, and they sell for an unbelievably low price!  You can't go wrong with this guitar.  My band's lead guitar player has one of these and loves it so much that much of the time he plays it rather than his vintage 1964 Gibson!  If I were to make a recommendation for a low priced electric guitar for most beginning students, these would be it.  These guitars come with all the features you want: single cutaway design, premium solid mahogany body and neck, beautiful flamed or quilted maple top, black walnut fretboard with 12" radius, nickel silver medium jumbo frets, GFS humbucker pickups, Les Paul style pickup selector switch and volume and tone knobs, heavy duty chrome tailpiece and bridge, 14:1 sealed tuning machines, 8.0-8.5lbs (most Les Pauls are about 9.5lbs), nice white binding, and an absolutely gorgeous color selection (just a few of the colors are in the photo below).  One of the features that makes the Xaviere XV so good for a first guitar is that it comes with coil cut switches that can switch from a Les Paul sound to a Stratocaster-ish sound! 



The only bad things about Xaviere guitars is they do not come set up well, and they come with garbage strings on them.  That's two of the ways they save on cost.  But that is fine, because I recommend that you always take your new guitar to a luthier for good strings and a set up, anyway.  Xaviere guitars are made in China and are ONLY sold at guitarfetish.com.  The price is under $300!!!  At different times they have different colors in stock.  So if you see one you like, buy it quick because that color may be out of stock tomorrow and it may take several months to get it back in stock.
     
The other electric guitar I recommend for beginners (and experts too!) is another excellent Les Paul clone: is the Agile AL series.  They are made in South Korea and the quality is excellent.  My favorite Agile is their top of the line AL-3200MCC (above), which has all of the features of the Xaviere but with a very strong "neck through" design, with a compound radius fretboard that is super comfortable to play.  It even has a full binding and real mother-of-pearl and abalone inlays.  This is the electric guitar that I personally own and perform with, and I love it!  In many ways, it is better than an American made Gibson Les Paul, but it sells for under $600!  (Below is a photo of mine with aftermarket knobs and the pick guard removed.)  In my opinion, the features and quality difference of this guitar over the Xaviere XV is well worth the extra cost if you can afford it.


Agile is ONLY sold at rondomusic.com (scroll down the page to near the bottom and you'll find the AL-3200MCC models)

Unfortunately, COVID messed up Rondo's supply chain, and it has taken them a long time to recover.  For a couple of years the AL-3200MCC was not available at all, and even now they sometimes only have a few colors in stock.  Sadly, some of the colors they offer are... ummm... let's just say I'm not a fan.  The good looking colors sell out quickly, so if you ever see one on their web site in a color you want, my recommendation is to buy it immediately!  Like Xaviere, Agile guitars need a set up, so you will need to take it to a luthier and have the action set up.

If you prefer the sound and feel of a Stratocaster or Telecaster style guitar, both Xaviere and Agile also offer Strat and Tele clones.  They sell for about the same prices as the Les Paul clones.  All of them are excellent bargains.

Both guitarfetish.com and rondomusic.com offer deluxe hardshell cases for Les Paul style guitars.  The best thing to do is order a case at the same time as the guitar, and then they will ship the guitar inside the case, providing extra protection for the guitar during shipping.