OT: I need a little help from you guitar experts out there!

[journey062393]

I'm looking to purchase an electric guitar. I am sort of a beginner. I have "owned" my friend's brother's old guitar for about 10 years and have only really just messed around on it. It is older, has a poor amp with some partially blown out speakers, and just sounds terrible(although it might be me). I'm not looking to spend a ton of money here since i am a beginner but i'm thinking about some lessons or at least messing around with some online lessons or something. So I want something thats going to be pretty decent. Also, where is the best place to buy one(store,online etc. ) and what about an amp? Again, assume I know nothing about guitars when telling me the info! Thanks!

[conversationpc]

Epiphone makes some decent replications of Strats, Les Pauls, etc. They don't typically sound as good as the originals but, if you don't want to spend a lot of money right now, they might be worth your while.

[kbo]

Epiphone quality is hit and miss.. Bought my son a one the better EPI SG's and it has several issues. You can't go wrong with a low end Ibanez or ESP LTD. I've played a cheap LTD EC50 at a few shows and it sounds great and stays in tune.. You can pick up either for less than $200.00. As for amps I recommend a Line 6 Spider. They're good little amps loaded with effects and they're not expensive.

Shop at Guitar Center or SamAsh stores or online at www.musiciansfriend.com or www.guitarcenter.com

I've had great online experiences with both.

[T-Bone]

What is your price range for a guitar and amp? For beginners, it's always better to actually go to a store and test a few to see how they feel. Then write down what each model is and come home and google them to read reviews. Also, compare the stores price to one of an online vendor such as Musicians Friend, Music123 and even ebay

[journey062393]

Thanks so much everyone. You've all been very helpful. For whatever reason, every time I go see Neal play, I get inspired to pick the thing back up again. I'm hoping to stick with it this time.

[PowerChords]

Thanks so much everyone. You've all been very helpful. For whatever reason, every time I go see Neal play, I get inspired to pick the thing back up again. I'm hoping to stick with it this time.

I recently bought an amp called Micro Cube by Roland. Great little small amp. Great review.
Check this out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0qSf0mYO3R4

[FishinMagician]

I would def go with the roland mini cube for an amp. and for guitar the epiphone les paul custom is a good guitar around 500 new im sure they are alot cheaper used. but stay away from the mexican made fenders and the cheap epiphones like the SG for sure

[Aaron]

For a beginner guitar, ESP and Jackson both offer excellent bang for the buck if you're looking to get away from Les Paul and Strat style guitars. Going to the music store to try out the hardware was good advice in my mind. For an amp, I like Hughes and Kettner solid state hardware for starters. You can get into one of these "Edition Blue" amps for a little over $100. It all depends on what tone you like.

Good luck!

[Rip Rokken]

For whatever reason, every time I go see Neal play, I get inspired to pick the thing back up again. I'm hoping to stick with it this time.

Good for you. Me, every time I see someone like Neal play, I want to give up altogether...

[RSParker]

buy a mexican strat from fender 399.99, and a roland cube amp, 30 watt 249.99. you will not go wrong.

[Chevypv]

Go to www.rondomusic.com and buy and agile les paul copy. I own 2 and the quality starts off at epiphone and just goes higher. The lowest model is 199 and is easily comperable to a epiphone les paul. I love my agile LP's.. I even gig with them

[San Diego Gary]

For whatever reason, every time I go see Neal play, I get inspired to pick the thing back up again. I'm hoping to stick with it this time.

Good for you. Me. every time I see someone like Neal play, I want to give up altogether...

You beat me to it. Seeing someone like Neal play, (I just did last week), depresses me when it comes to my skill. lol.

[Rip Rokken]

buy a mexican strat from fender 399.99, and a roland cube amp, 30 watt 249.99. you will not go wrong.

I played for several years when I quit completely for a period of about 3 and sold the rest of my guitars, including my beloved black/white Fender '57 Reissue Strat with the Malmsteen HS-3 pickups. I took a trip to Chicago one year and went to a Guitar Center for the first time, and bought one of the very earliest Mexican Strats -- same color scheme, and I later replaced the pickups. I'm not sure if they changed things later, but at the time, all the parts were manufactured in American and it was only painted and assembled in Mexico. I love it and still have it over 12 years later.

[Rip Rokken]

For whatever reason, every time I go see Neal play, I get inspired to pick the thing back up again. I'm hoping to stick with it this time.

Good for you. Me. every time I see someone like Neal play, I want to give up altogether...

You beat me to it. Seeing someone like Neal play, (I just did last week), depresses me when it comes to my skill. lol.

No doubt... My fingers and brain just aren't capable of doing that stuff, so it literally reminds me of what a limited player I am. But there are so many different styles, that is only one type of skill. I just always wanted to be a shredder...

[strangegrey]

+1 on the rondo music suggestion. While they aren't les pauls, they're not half bad guitars for the money.

I would also look very hard into what kind of music you want to play. If it's AOR/Hard Rock...stay away from strat and/or tele copies. The pickups on those guitars are more designed for blues, country, classic rock. If you want to sound like Neal Schon, almost ALL of his classic sounds/tones, are from humbucker loaded guitars (i.e. Les Pauls)....Lights is one of the few records with an "identifiable" strat tone....but for years, the guy played Lights on a Les Paul anyway. Bringing out a strat to play Lights is only a recent thing.

So to that end, give us a list of your favorite guitarists...we can probably steer you in the right direction, as far as a guitar is concerned....


Also, I can't speak enough about the diversity of the Line6 products. I've got a Pod X3 which is just a phenominal piece of equipment....but you can get a POD v2 (which has some great tones in it as well) for probably less than 90 bucks. The great thing about these things is that it's all headphone based....but you can plug it into your stereo and play along with records.....

...then when you get better, you can buy a real amp, and bypass the 'practice amp'...which most of us guitarists started playing on. Practice amps, in my humble opinion, are useless pieces of shit with no place in guitar musical equipment (now that PODs and Digitechs all have these phenominal amp modelling technologies).

[Ehwmatt]

+1 on the rondo music suggestion. While they aren't les pauls, they're not half bad guitars for the money.

I would also look very hard into what kind of music you want to play. If it's AOR/Hard Rock...stay away from strat and/or tele copies. The pickups on those guitars are more designed for blues, country, classic rock. If you want to sound like Neal Schon, almost ALL of his classic sounds/tones, are from humbucker loaded guitars (i.e. Les Pauls)....Lights is one of the few records with an "identifiable" strat tone....but for years, the guy played Lights on a Les Paul anyway. Bringing out a strat to play Lights is only a recent thing.

So to that end, give us a list of your favorite guitarists...we can probably steer you in the right direction, as far as a guitar is concerned....


Also, I can't speak enough about the diversity of the Line6 products. I've got a Pod X3 which is just a phenominal piece of equipment....but you can get a POD v2 (which has some great tones in it as well) for probably less than 90 bucks. The great thing about these things is that it's all headphone based....but you can plug it into your stereo and play along with records.....

...then when you get better, you can buy a real amp, and bypass the 'practice amp'...which most of us guitarists started playing on. Practice amps, in my humble opinion, are useless pieces of shit with no place in guitar musical equipment (now that PODs and Digitechs all have these phenominal amp modelling technologies).

Don't forget Neal's excellent single coil tone on I'll Be Allright Without You... mmmm

[strangegrey]

Don't forget Neal's excellent single coil tone on I'll Be Allright Without You... mmmm

I dunno if that's single coil. It might be a low-output humbucker wired in parallel with alot of compression on it. Hard to tell. That's why I said "identifiable" strat tone.

Neal fucked around with alot of sims and wiring mods....In fact, his domenget Les Paul has a some type of capacitor filter network, where he can make a humbucker sound very single coil-like. I know for a fact that Lights (and most of the first album) was recorded with a strat....but whether that strat had a humbucker in it at recording, is anyone's guess....but Lights is undoubtedly a single coil tone.

As far as I'll be Alright Without You....he might have gotten into some of his weird wiring shite by 86 or so....so it might not be single coil....who knows.

But hardly worth arguing over....if it sounds crisp enough to be single coil to your ears, go with it man!

[T-Bone]

Some of Neals guitars have coil taps and possibly phase switching.

1. Series-In Phase This is the standard humbucker wiring. Maximum power output with strong bass and smooth attack. (hum canceling)
2. Single Coil (South) Just the South coil of the pickup alone. Good traditional single coil tone with a sharper attack. (not hum canceling) Use in combination (series or parallel) humbucker in "North coil mode" or a standard single coil (north) for a hum canceling Strat/ P.R.S. style tone.
3. Single Coil (North) Just north coil of the pickup alone. Almost the same tone as the south coil but slightly different due to its different position. (not hum canceling) Use in combination (series or parallel) with another humbucker in "South coil mode" or a standard single coil (South) for a hum canceling Strat/P.R.S. style of tone.
4. Parallel-In Phase Great single coil style tone with no hum. Best option for clean, bright tone without the noise of standard single coil wiring. Strong treble with crisp attack but lower power output. (hum canceling)
5. Series-Out of Phase Thin "phased" sound with good power. Great for funk. (not hum canceling)
6. Parallel-Out of Phase Thinner "phased" sound with low power. (not hum canceling)




BUT...


Since you're just getting back into playing, I'd just go straight for a regular guitar and amp and make sure you follow through before spending too much money.

[strangegrey]

Actually, T-bone, his LP model simply has a filter-pass knob that hollows out the humbucker tone to provide a single coil simulated sound. Thats it. Can't speak for his old andersons, schon-models or what not. But the LP versions he had Gibson made from 2001-present all seem to have this domenget-style capacitor network designed to aproximate single coil sounds.

Also, that doesn't speak to what he uses in the studio....who knows there...

[Ehwmatt]

Don't forget Neal's excellent single coil tone on I'll Be Allright Without You... mmmm

I dunno if that's single coil. It might be a low-output humbucker wired in parallel with alot of compression on it. Hard to tell. That's why I said "identifiable" strat tone.

Neal fucked around with alot of sims and wiring mods....In fact, his domenget Les Paul has a some type of capacitor filter network, where he can make a humbucker sound very single coil-like. I know for a fact that Lights (and most of the first album) was recorded with a strat....but whether that strat had a humbucker in it at recording, is anyone's guess....but Lights is undoubtedly a single coil tone.

As far as I'll be Alright Without You....he might have gotten into some of his weird wiring shite by 86 or so....so it might not be single coil....who knows.

But hardly worth arguing over....if it sounds crisp enough to be single coil to your ears, go with it man!

I think I might have heard he used his signature 80s Schon guitar on that album with S-S-H setup? Not sure.. That song sure sounds great on my Strat, I know that

[journey062393]

I'm really looking hard at a Epiphone Les Paul Ultra II. Been reading some pretty good reviews but does anyone know anything negative about this? Also, since I'm new to guitar shopping, is there anything majorly wrong with buying anything marked as a "2nd".

[T-Bone]

I know that he has a Fernandes Sustainer in many of his models

[gtrplr1960]

Try www.used.guitarcenter.com. I bought a Fernandes Revolver Pro with the Sustainor Pickup System for $450. There is nothing wrong with a "Second". It is usually a finish problem.

[kbo]

If you are going to pay the money for an Epiphone Ultra II, I strongly suggest you go to a local guitar store and play an ESP LTD EC-1000. This guitar is a top notch foreign made guitar that ROCKSSSS... Quality parts and craftsmanship. If you are looking for a high quality low cost guitar this is it.

# Set-Neck
# Flamed Maple Top
# Mahogany Neck
# Earvana Compensated Nut
# Black Nickel Hardware
# ESP - Sprezel Locking Tuners
# Tonepros Locking Bridge & Tail
# EMG 81 (B) / 60 (N) Active p.u.

Here's the link to ESP's site.

http://www.espguitars.com/guitars_deluxe-ec.html


Good Luck..