As I was driving down the road yesterday I realized that I haven’t ever played one note of an electric guitar. I already have a Dean acoustic which has recently only been used by my wife. I used to fiddle around with it, but have not really played regularly for several years. I am definitely a beginner.

I’m looking for an electric guitar that I can learn on but that sounds good enough to where I won’t lose the interest to play. Looking to spend about 300-400 on a guitar and practice amp. Any suggestions Obner?

Mexican Fender Telecasters/Stratocasters are a good deal still (called "standard stratocaster" etc. now), I think. Probably about four hundred bucks or so for the guitar, but it's made well enough that it's not a piece of crap.

Amps are a different story. You either spend 70 or 80 bucks for some little solid state piece of crap, or you go up to something decent with tubes, like a fender Blues Jr. for another three hundred or so. There's not much in the middle that's worth a shit, honestly. Making guitars sound remotely good costs money. And that lil' Blue Jr. is a single 10" speaker, 15 watts. So if money's tight, go cheap and get a little Orange practice amp or something. If not, there's used decent stuff for $300-$600.

Those lil' Orange practice amps are pretty cool.

I just play my guitar through a mixer and then into my computer these days. I actually really like doing that at present...

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Anyhow, I'd pick up whatever you think looks like the guitar you want to play *and* feels right in your hands, so long as it meets your cost limits. It'll sound fine to you and that's all that matters now, right? If you end up finding you want to do more with an electric down the road, starting off cheap will let you know exactly what it is you don't like.

cap'n slappy said it
i would also suggest a mexi tele or strat
but thats what i like and use for guitars

Thanks for the suggestions.

On a whim I went into a guitar shop that's close to my office and found a Mexican Strat for $300. I'm taking a friend by tomorrow to test it out and if it plays ok, I'll probably get it.

The amp is a different issue. The practice amps they had were Marshalls. I'll probably get one unless someone tells me they're worthless.

when i read this thread title i thought, "man, you're old"

one of these days i'll realize i'm in my 30's.

ANY cheap little solid state practice amp is pretty much gonna be the same. Don't sweat it. The Orange branded ones are kinda neato, but I think the Marshall ones are fine. They're all bottom of the barrell chinese stuff anyway. They'll do the job until one day you wanna kick it up into the serious bracket. Meanwhile, no need to spend much cash.

$300 mexi-strats are a really good deal. Pretty good quality, low-low Maquilledora prices.

you can get a tube amp for cheap on ebay or craigslist, highly recommended over wasting money on a practice amp. Seriously. Plus you can always sell it and get your money back, not so with a shitty practice amp.

get Japanese, not Mexican.

Japanese now costs over $500 if youre lucky, usually more like $700. Those Ichiban fenders are fucking QUAL.

Phil is correct if you have the money, which it sounded like you didn't... tube amps are the only thing that sound remotely good for guitar (barring the very rare example of the Roland JC120, which is a jazz amp). So if you can scrape up two hundred bucks, you might luck into a used little tube amp.

Ahh okay. Well here there isn't that much of a price difference 'cause they both have to come from a long long way away.

Oh yeah. Fender went to Japan in the early eighties and was all "you make our cheap line of shit." Then they made stuff that was as good or better than american, for much less money. Fender was pissed. Those first few years' worth of squire strats/teles (before they said "squire") were killer.

Now those shops in Japan make some really nice reproduction guitars, but they charge a good bit for 'em. MexiTeles go for like half, and aren't of the same quality, but are better than no-name korean shit.

I'm going to have to contradict a little bit here with what has been said solely based on your budget. In my opinion, getting a better amp is more critical at this stage to keep you interested and wanting to play. The guitar is a good investment also, but it's amazing the quality you can get out of the cheaper guitars nowadays than you used to. Plus, it's much easier to upgrade components of your guitar (pick-ups, tuners, etc) as you grow down the road.

The trick to finding a decent one is looking through them all. You already have someone going with you who it sounds is more experienced which is a great first step. I would start at the Squire (the Korean division of Fender) or the Epiphone (Korean div. of Gibson) lines. You can find decent electrics anywhere from $100 and up in both of these lines. Once again, you just have to look through them all to find a good one, the quality is more across the board at this level, but there are excellent players out there.

As far as amps go, there are a couple of little 5 watt tube amps that are out now that are good for bedroom level volume practice, and can later be hooked up to external cabs if you need more volume. The two most popular right now are the Epiphone Valve Jr. and the Fender Champion 600. The Epi will run you around $125-150 for the combo and the Champion is $200. Check places like sweetwater.com and musiciansfriend.com for an idea of what's out there, and you can check out some reveiws of things at harmonycentral.com.

By the way, I was at this same stage a little over a year ago, and went with the cheapo Marshall route. It didn't hold me over at all, and I ended up with a Blues Jr, the amp the Cap'n suggested. I love it, but it's a little loud for home practice at night. I would have gone the route I described if those smaller tube amps were available at the time.

I have one of the Champions I described on the way for late night practice and recording use.

Actually, I could spend 300 on an amp and it wouldn't be that big deal of a deal. And I really don't want to drop $100 on an amp that's going to be worthless to me in 6 months. Problem is, I don't want to wait for shipping. Looks like I'll just have to shop around or borrow a friends amp for a bit.

I bought my shit today. I got a used Strat and a Marshall MG30DFX amp for $475. Now I shall commence to rock out with my you know what out.

Or you could go this route.

Congrats on the new gear.

i've been playing for 16 years and now you have nicer equipment than me.