First electric guitar

Flopsy · 12 Jul 2014 at 08:53

Been twanging away on my acoustic for a few months and would like to move on to an electric guitar.
Needs: Guitar, practice amp and cables
Issues: Budget. Ideally £200

Looked at the Squire Strat guitar and amp pack and heard the good bad and ugly about them.
Yamaha Pacifica and Cort G210 are the others but looking for any other suggestions to look in to. Already have a stand and tuner so no need for anything else apart from cables.
Any advice appreciated

Flopsy · 12 Jul 2014 at 08:55

Forgot to add.
I'm aiming for a John Frusciante type sound but like to get a bit heavy when the mood takes me as well.

Flopsy · 12 Jul 2014 at 09:55

Might have found an amp locally for £20, Kustom?

GTanny · 12 Jul 2014 at 18:14

amp wise for low budget i would recommend a decent modelling amp such as a roland cube, vox valvetronix, peavy vypyr (avoid anything marshall a this price!). a modelling amp will also help offering a lot more variations for when you decide what sound you do want if you decide to upgrade.

guitar wise, get down to your local guitar shop and play some, try a few way out of your budget to see what you really like then have a play on as many as you can... make sure you get the guitar a good setup as that can make a big difference at low budgets.

i haven't picked up a budget guitar for some time but when i had some i found epiphones to be a good option and i had a Vintage LP100 that i really liked and played very nicely. yamaha pacificas do seem to have a very good budget guitar following but i have never played one.

Flopsy · 12 Jul 2014 at 19:13

Modelling amp is going to push the budget, I'd end up buying a cheaper guitar just to get one. Sheehans in Leicester have a one day sale tomorrow so going to pop in and have a nosey

Marine Iguana · 12 Jul 2014 at 19:19

GTanny said:
guitar wise, get down to your local guitar shop and play some, try a few way out of your budget to see what you really like then have a play on as many as you can... make sure you get the guitar a good setup as that can make a big difference at low budgets.

Do this.

You can't go wrong with a Squire as a first guitar mine was the same choice and is still beside me good for playing many things.

Flopsy · 13 Jul 2014 at 15:50

OK so went to Sheehans and although there weren't any of my top guitar choices in the sale they did do me a deal. It was a choice between a Squire Telecaster Deluxe at £150 (50% off?) or a second hand Yamaha Pacifica 112 m for £150.
Tried the Telecaster and was OK but preferred the Yamaha, like the Strat style shape more, felt better, played nice and has a whammy bar!

Now an amp for £50 to keep in budget. Could have gone down my cheap and cheerful route but ended up as mention getting a Peavey Vypr VIP 1 modelling amp which they let me have for £100 instead of the £139.

I couldn't find much info on the guitar as it's an early 2000s or late 90s one before the Internet was invented so no idea if I've paid a decent price or not but the amp seems to be a great deal.

Anyway, I'm happy, the neighbours not so but **** him as he let his dog dump in my garden once or twice.

Pics may follow soon........

V F · 13 Jul 2014 at 16:32

Flopsy said:
Anyway, I'm happy, the neighbours not so but **** him as he let his dog dump in my garden once or twice.

Pics may follow soon........

Heh!

This'll be you in a few months then?

chris74 · 13 Jul 2014 at 22:15

Congratulations on buying the Yamaha as I have often seen it mentioned as being a real cracker for the money.

I myself own an Epiphone Les paul goldtop and like you I purchased it second hand. I was able to find out more about mines through the serial number which I am assuming yours should have too.

This site might help you at least find out more on the age etc: http://www.yamaha.com/apps/guitararchives/serialnumberwizard.asp

morguk · 15 Jul 2014 at 20:45

I know you've bought the Yamaha, but I just thought I'd recommend low end Washburns as excellent guitars, much better than Squiers.

Flopsy · 15 Jul 2014 at 21:34

chris74 said:
Congratulations on buying the Yamaha as I have often seen it mentioned as being a real cracker for the money.

I myself own an Epiphone Les paul goldtop and like you I purchased it second hand. I was able to find out more about mines through the serial number which I am assuming yours should have too.

This site might help you at least find out more on the age etc: http://www.yamaha.com/apps/guitararchives/serialnumberwizard.asp

Thanks. Ran the serial number through and it came back as May 1961 '71' 81 '91 or 2001 so still a bit of a mystery

GTanny said:
amp wise for low budget i would recommend a decent modelling amp such as a roland cube, vox valvetronix, peavy vypyr (avoid anything marshall a this price!). a modelling amp will also help offering a lot more variations for when you decide what sound you do want if you decide to upgrade.

guitar wise, get down to your local guitar shop and play some, try a few way out of your budget to see what you really like then have a play on as many as you can... make sure you get the guitar a good setup as that can make a big difference at low budgets.

i haven't picked up a budget guitar for some time but when i had some i found epiphones to be a good option and i had a Vintage LP100 that i really liked and played very nicely. yamaha pacificas do seem to have a very good budget guitar following but i have never played one.

The amp really was worth it, glad I took the advice. Only problem I'm having is finding presets for sounds I want to get close to eg blues, Pink Floyd ish etc

Flopsy · 20 Jul 2014 at 09:13

First week with the new setup and happily no buyers remorse. Bought a cheap set of sennheiser headphones as the wife works nights, I can now rock out to my hearts content. Current having a crack at learning Iron Man by Black Sabbath, got part of the riffs down already which I'm quite chuffed with and the sound from the modelling amp is close enough for me, takes a lot of fiddling to work out a specific sound but it appeals to my inner geek like a fat kid at a chocolate factory, just dive in! The callouses on my fingers are starting to come back but the pains worth it.
Any suggestions for beginner songs to learn would be cool, as much as I love stuff like System Of A Down I don't think I'm quite ready for it and I like to to play older heavy stuff like Sabbath as it's got weight behind it

Tohrazer · 20 Jul 2014 at 14:38

i have a 30w amp that's too loud for my house

Flopsy · 27 Jul 2014 at 12:30

I think it's about time I had lessons, discipline of learning on my own is pretty slack due to work and family so if I throw my hard earned cash into the equation I'm more likely to progress.
Seen lessons locally varying from £20-£30,is this around the going rate?

kingy666 · 27 Jul 2014 at 20:20

Have you tried youtube for guitar lessons. I think Rob Chapman does some but I am sure there is loads of stuff. It means you can keep going over stuff without it costing you a fortune in lessons.

Also, with some of the simpler songs, if you just sit with the guitar and find the 'root' note of a riff you can quite often just work it out slowly from that as that note will be part of a scale. Just as an example listen to redemption song by Bob Marley then try to learn that riff at the beginning. Its a simple riff to work out. Once you have that then just think of another, fairly slow riff, and try to figure it out. Yesterday I heard Eric Claptons 'Bad Love' in a friends house and I went straight to a guitar to figure it out (well, a simplified version of it

).

I just bought a very cheap Guitar from the bay of e, £65 new Westfield E1000 strat. The pick-ups were rubbish so I bought some vintage Wilkinson single coil pick-ups for £23 and a black pearl scratchplate and I have to say after sorting out the intonation, action, loosened off the truss rod and rubbed down the frets with some wire wool to smooth them out it now plays and sounds excellent. Shows what you can do with under £100

King85 · 27 Jul 2014 at 22:40

Yamaha Pacifica v112 and an epiphone valve junior both second hand would be a winner.

Edit: Didn't realise you'd already purchased, good choice.

Flopsy · 28 Jul 2014 at 17:51

kingy666 said:
Have you tried youtube for guitar lessons. I think Rob Chapman does some but I am sure there is loads of stuff. It means you can keep going over stuff without it costing you a fortune in lessons.

Also, with some of the simpler songs, if you just sit with the guitar and find the 'root' note of a riff you can quite often just work it out slowly from that as that note will be part of a scale. Just as an example listen to redemption song by Bob Marley then try to learn that riff at the beginning. Its a simple riff to work out. Once you have that then just think of another, fairly slow riff, and try to figure it out. Yesterday I heard Eric Claptons 'Bad Love' in a friends house and I went straight to a guitar to figure it out (well, a simplified version of it).

I just bought a very cheap Guitar from the bay of e, £65 new Westfield E1000 strat. The pick-ups were rubbish so I bought some vintage Wilkinson single coil pick-ups for £23 and a black pearl scratchplate and I have to say after sorting out the intonation, action, loosened off the truss rod and rubbed down the frets with some wire wool to smooth them out it now plays and sounds excellent. Shows what you can do with under £100

already trying the YouTube route which is why I'm thinking of lessons. If left to my own devices I'll keep plodding along with YouTube as and when I can because of work etc, I need some structure that will get me spending some regular time doing it.

Flopsy · 28 Jul 2014 at 21:25

My fingers are a bit sore so only thing to do tonight is pack up and post a photo of the guitar.

Flopsy · 3 Aug 2014 at 18:32

Contacted a few local tutors and it seems they're not available for a few week so I've tried a different YouTube teacher instead of Justin Guitar and he seems to be more my style (guitar jamz Marty Schwartz) looked at him before and didn't click but for some reason now he does.
Learnt my first scale, minor pentatonic, and that small achievement is enough for this weekend. Happy with how quick I've got to grips with it

King85 · 3 Aug 2014 at 19:09

Flopsy said:
Contacted a few local tutors and it seems they're not available for a few week so I've tried a different YouTube teacher instead of Justin Guitar and he seems to be more my style (guitar jamz Marty Schwartz) looked at him before and didn't click but for some reason now he does.
Learnt my first scale, minor pentatonic, and that small achievement is enough for this weekend. Happy with how quick I've got to grips with it

Good work! Keep on plucking away and you'll do great.