BEGINNER ELECTRIC GUITARS

Beginner Electric Guitars , Guitars For Beginners To Get Started Enjoying Guitar Playing

Beginner electric guitars and electric guitar packages are the solution for the beginning guitarist to start playing the instrument without spending a lot of money . Beginner electric guitars have come along way in the last ten years and the quality of beginner guitars is higher , the sound better , and the playability a lot easier for someone just getting started.

The choices of guitars for the beginning guitarist are also a lot more plentiful and of a much wider variety of styles and colors than they used to be. Almost all guitar manufacturers offer a good quality guitar for the beginning guitarist to learn on without spending the usual large amount of money it takes to get a quality instrument.

Guitar companies such as Gibson, Epiphone , ESP , Fender , Dean , Kramer , Jackson , and many other others all offer beginner electric guitars that have a lot of the features as their more expensive models but without a few of the bells and whistles that make the price a lot higher.

Beginner Electric Guitars | What Guitar Should You choose?

The first and obvious choice you need to make when choosing a beginner electric guitar is what style of guitar you like , which is of course completely personal preference. Some players like The Gibson Les Paul style of guitars , others like the Fender Strat style guitars , and still others prefer the less common shapes such as the flying v or the explorer type guitar body styles.

Although  you can play any type of music with virtually any type of guitar , for better or for worse , some guitar styles and shapes have become synonymous with certain types of music. For example , when you think of the blues and guitars , you automatically think of Jimi Hendrix , Eric Clapton , and Stevie Ray Vaughan. And when You think of these players , you automatically think of the Fender Strat.

When you think of Jimmy Page , Slash, Randy Rhoads , and rock music , you automatically think of the Gibson Les Paul. And When you think of heavy metal , you think of the explorer and flying v type guitars such as the ones used by Kerry King and James Hetfield.

Again , don’t be too concerned about what body style of guitar you choose , it really is just personal preference. But if you like a certain type of music or a certain guitarist , it will make you choice a little easier by narrowing down your selection.

Beginner Electric Guitars | What Brand of Guitar Should I Choose?

Today’s beginning guitarist has an incredible amount of quality guitars to choose from . The explosion of rock in the 1960′s and the off shoots of heavy metal , glam rock , alternative , nu metal, and many more styles of music have created a large demand for many different styles of guitar and as a result , many new and different guitar companies have entered the market and have made the selection and quality of a good beginner instrument for the new guitarist a literal buyers market.

Not too long ago, if you wanted a good electric guitar , you had to choose either a Gibson or a Fender. Those days are long gone. You can now choose a guitar from companies such as ESP , BC rich , Kramer , Peavey , Ibanez , Epiphone , and the list goes on and on.

Almost all beginner electric guitars are going to be made overseas simply because the production costs are so low and a quality beginner guitar can be manufactured for a lot less money.

But make no mistake about it , a foreign or Asian made guitar at an affordable price does not mean a low quality instrument. In fact , it’s just the opposite, It is truly incredible the quality of electric guitar that you can have from a foreign manufacturer. A good example of this is the ESP guitar company. They produce full featured , quality instruments for low prices, of course they make high end more expensive models , but you a quality beginner electric guitar can be had for well under $200.00 .

Epiphone and the fender squire line of guitars are another example of a great beginner electric guitar at a small price. Will all of that said , the brand of your beginner electric guitar isn’t really important , the most important thing is that it contains the features you want at the price you can afford.

Beginner Electric Guitars | What Features Should I Choose?

The features you want included in your beginner electric guitar will be based on the style of music you wish to play more than anything else. For example , if you are a young heavy metal fan and you plan to play heavy 7 string drop d tunings , a six string strat style guitar isn’t going to do much good , and if you are an older beginning guitarist and you are planning on playing some bluesy Stevie Ray type riffs and songs with a warm bluesy tone while sitting on your favorite bar stool , the seven string baritone flying v with reverse headstock and Floyd Rose tremolo isn’t going to do much good either.

Your beginner electric guitar will give you the most enjoyment if take a little time to choose what style of music you plan to play. If you enjoy a bunch of different styles of music like many people do, you will need to choose a well rounded beginner guitar.

When I say well rounded , I simply mean a guitar that will have the ability to produce many different tones. For example, if you are only going to be playing some clean chords and distorted rock , all you really need is something a simple beginner guitar like the epiphone Les Paul Junior. This little number is a simple , inexpensive guitar with one pickup , one volume and one tone , and a simple one piece bridge , which is really all you need to start enjoying the guitar.

If you plan on experimenting with a lot of different clean and distorted tones , you may want to look at a fender squire that has three single coil pickups and a five way selector switch allowing many different combinations of pickups and tones.

If you plan on playing music with a lot of dive bombs and tremolo work , you obviously want a guitar with a Floyd Rose tremolo or other type of tremolo system on it. If you don’t plan on making a lot of different weird noses with your beginner electric guitar , you can forgo the tremolo system entirely which will no doubt save you a few bucks off of the price.

Beginner Electric Guitars | What Type Of Pickups Should My Beginner Electric Guitar Have?

The type of pickups that you choose will again depend on what style of music you plan on playing with your new beginner electric guitar. For the most part , if you are going to be playing a lot blues , mellow , warm tones and rhythms , you may want to opt for a strat style guitar with single coil pickups, these pickups seem to lend themselves to the bluesy , warm , open type of clean and softly distorted sounds that blues is known for.

If you are going to be playing heavy rock and metal music , opt for a guitar with humbucking pickups. Basically a humbucking pickup is two single coils stacked beside each other and they are wired in such a way that decreases the loud hum that are normally experienced by using high gain distortion with single coil pickups, hence the name “humbucker” .

You can also purchase a guitar with one humbucker and two single coil pickups , so it is possible to blend the two styles of pickups together , this set up isn’t as common though and when you are first starting out you may want to stick with a beginner electric guitar that has either one style of pickup or the other.

Beginner Electric Guitars | Fret Boards , What’s The Deal?

The fret boards on guitars are basically available in three different types of wood and for the most part , the wood that is used to make up the fret board is dependent upon the style of guitar that you choose.

For example , Fender Strat Style guitars are almost all synonymous with the maple fretboard , Gibson Les Paul style guitars are synonymous with the rosewood fret boards ( ebony on the custom models) , and a in both varieties on the same style of guitar.

For example , you can by a fender strat with a rosewood fretboard but it is not as common or as desirable as the maple fret board on a strat (my opinion) .

You can also buy a Les Paul with a maple fret board although it is very uncommon and in my opinion is very ugly on a Les Paul.

The choice of fret board on your new beginner electric guitar is basically going to be based on a personal preference because in reality it really doesn’t make any difference on the playability of a guitar.

So choose your guitar based on the fretboard that is most visually appealing to you.

Beginner Electric Guitars | Do I Need An Amplifier To Start Playing Electric Guitar ?

This is where things get really interesting. The first and obvious answer is that no , you don’t actually need an amplifier to play your beginner electric guitar, but obviously , to hear it the way it was meant to be heard and to have the bluesy or hard rock and heavy metal guitar tones , you of course need an amplifier, or do you?

The great news for beginning guitarists today is the fact that technology has gotten so advanced that you can literally have a collection of the worlds greatest guitar amps , cabinets , and effects at your finger tips for less than $100.00 and you won’t even have to have space for an amplifier or even get up from your home computer or lap top!

How is this possible? Simple , technologically advanced “amplifier and effects modeling technology”. It wasn’t too long ago that the beginning electric guitarist had to have a large heavy tube amp , expensive effects pedals , all the cabling , and had to crank it to 11 to get the sound they were looking for .

Those days are long gone ! Beginning guitarists searching to get that incredible guitar tone and wall of amps sound can now simply plug into their home or laptop computers , or into a much smaller , much lighter , modeling amp.

Lets first talk about what’s available to the beginning guitarist to get that perfect guitar sound they are looking for without very expensive , very large , and very heavy amplification and effects pedals.

When I was a beginner guitarist , if someone told me that I could have any guitar tone that I wanted and could sound like any of my guitar heroes for around $100.00 , I would have laughed at them and told them they were crazy.

If you are just beginning playing guitars and getting into guitar sounds , I am very jealous of you. If I had only had the technology and guitar tones that are available today for the low price that they can be had for , I truly would have never left the house!

Read more at the following link:
Beginner electric guitars – How to get a killer sound without spending a fortune on equipment and amplifiers.