What would be your choice for a beginner Electric guitar

Session 5

Session 5

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My choice was the Squire Affinity Stratocaster. It was for me a cheap starter guitar that was reasonably well built. And I would have to say best quality for the money in its low end class. For anyone starting out electric I believe this would be a solid choice. This guitar has a slim neck which I like. I had purchased the Fender beginner kit, came with the Fender 10G amp and guitar strap, plus a fender tuner. This was a good idea Fender had in coming out with this kit for beginners to get them interested in playing.
 
Session 5 said:
My choice was the Squire Affinity Stratocaster. It was for me a cheap starter guitar that was reasonably well built. And I would have to say best quality for the money in its low end class. For anyone starting out electric I believe this would be a solid choice. This guitar has a slim neck which I like. I had purchased the Fender beginner kit, came with the Fender 10G amp and guitar strap, plus a fender tuner. This was a good idea Fender had in coming out with this kit for beginners to get them interested in playing.
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100% with you here. I bought this for my niece two christmases ago, and although she's now getting pretty good, she feels no need to upgrade the guitar. I did get her a new amp to let her take her place in the school band. But she still uses the original amp at home.
 
We bought our daughter the Candy Apple Red H-S-S Squire with amp as a starter. She had already been playing my Squirecaster, so it was natural I suppose.

For students, I encourage them to actually play a Squire, a Epiphone Les Paul, Import Jacksons, Ibanez, LTD's and a Epiphone SG and then choose the one they like the best.

I think feel is very important, but new players seem more driven by looks, or by who plays a particular guitar, so I think students should have a balance between a "cool looking" guitar, but one that intonated/ plays well too.

I am seeing more beginning students with the entry level Ibanez guitars - the ones in the $149 range. Very good action and intonation, they come in a vareity of colors and they are certainly "cool" in that regard.

I never recommend any particular brand or model point-blank, but I suggest a fairly wide range of good, entry level guitars...
 
Robert Herndon said:
We bought our daughter the Candy Apple Red H-S-S Squire with amp as a starter. She had already been playing my Squirecaster, so it was natural I suppose.

For students, I encourage them to actually play a Squire, a Epiphone Les Paul, Import Jacksons, Ibanez, LTD's and a Epiphone SG and then choose the one they like the best.

I think feel is very important, but new players seem more driven by looks, or by who plays a particular guitar, so I think students should have a balance between a "cool looking" guitar, but one that intonated/ plays well too.

I am seeing more beginning students with the entry level Ibanez guitars - the ones in the $149 range. Very good action and intonation, they come in a vareity of colors and they are certainly "cool" in that regard.

I never recommend any particular brand or model point-blank, but I suggest a fairly wide range of good, entry level guitars...
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Same guitar, same colour. She was in charge of looks, and I dealt with the feel - we were both mega happy with the final choice.
 
I'd probably lean toward the Epiphone Starter Pack. Fender scale length can be daunting to younger/smaller players just starting out. Gibson scale is a lot more forgiving, and there are usually humbuckers involved, which is nice because it cuts down on hum that people learning to play don't know how to control yet. But, it also depends on the age and size of the kid and what their musical interests are.
 
I have a bunch of Squier Stratocasters including the Affinity, Bullet, & Standard series...all great guitars for modding. I really like the sound of the Affinity pick ups even though they are low output. They have a very Jimi Hendrix type of chime to them. Here's a video review on the Squier Affinity Telecaster...it sounds pretty darn good for a budget guitar and is good right out of the box.



;>)/
 
Yes I agree Fender Squire Affinity guitars are a good deal for the price, and like you say BlackSG91 the pickups are good for the price hard to beat I believe. For a person starting out wanting a Tele or a Strat this is the way to go. But I am a believer, if you want to move up buy a higher end guitar that has what you want rather than doing a mod on a cheap guitar. I have a tendency to agree with Robert if you want to mod by a good quality neck and body and build your own, with all the bells and whistles you want.
 
arch top--- comfortable--
and it does blues jazz anything you want its NOT just a shredder ---though it can most certainly shred
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Are we speculating or looking?
Epi specials are very good but QC can be hit or miss.
This can be true on all of them.

The Yamaha Pacifica is highly rated.
Repeating what I have read, avoid tremolos on budget guitars, they are usually problematic, and add complication.
The Yamaha strat type trem is supposed to be set up flat on the deck instead of floating, which is preferable.

The Squier strats and teles are always a good bet.
And theres plenty of almost brand new used ones around pretty reasonable.

I hear those JS student series Jacksons are pretty good too - when compared with other similar priced guitars, not against other $800 plus Jacksons.
Again I would stay with a hardtail or decked strat type bridge and not have to deal with the extra things involved a Floyd Rose type bridge (or an floating type)

Ibanez Gio series I hear are pretty good too, again within this crowd and some hit or miss QC issues.

What ever it is, if it is set up right it will be easier and more comfortable to play and more encouraging.

The nut fitment is especially important for beginners; at this stage typically I learned a lot of open chords.
Also a well cut nut delivers better tuning stability.
 
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