Electric guitar for beginner

I got my daughter a used Dean V-coustic (electric/acoustic) at my local; she was taken by the look and shape (definitely makes her stand out) but she still has to grow into the shape. Of course, now she wants a real electric and likes the Squier Tele's.

 

She's young, life is a journey, who knows...she may come back to it later.

 

I talked to him yesterday and he's gonna meet us in the guitar section when we get there! If I had him with me, she'd be on to us. LOL!

Ed

 

Looking forward to pictures of the new guitar.

 

Awesome. Let us know what she picks out.

 

In my experience, buy a used guitar from a reputable shop and you won't have a problem.

 

........and?

 

First off, any entry level instrument is gonna be miles better than the stuff I learned on in the 60s.

Hypothetically, if you knew how to tell a good instrument from a bad one, craigslist always has tons of entry level instruments for pennies on the dollar. But I'd recommend against that. This notion of "buying used from a reputable store" is also bad advice. They have to mark up used entry level instruments to almost what a new one costs to make any money.

Yamaha makes very good instruments at all price points. Squires are also very good entry level instruments. I'd go that route. Buy new but don't spend over $200. The instrument will play fine, but won't be worth upgrading. If your daughter demonstrates she is serious, consider upgrading her to a mexi Fender or lower end Gibson in a couple of years.

 

My fellow drummer friend learned to play electric guitar by getting a Beatles songbook and learning the chords.

 

Good choice. Ibanez hasn't been mentioned, but some nice instruments there as well.

 

Still getting cash together. I'm very excited to do this. Coming sooner than later. I solemnly promise to update the thread once we do it.

Ed

 

do that! and a picture of the weapon of choice would be great too!

 

Done!

Ed

 

Both of my sons wanted electric guitars at different times in their lives. We went shopping and i bought a cheap amp and a beginner guitar combo. Sort of what they sell at wally world. I told them if they stuck with it and advanced on the instrument , i would buy them better equipment. Both lasted under a year, then lost interest , so i wasn't out all that much.

 

Well, I know you are ready to roll on this, and I admit to not reading it all, but I think she should pick out the guitar herself. Maybe got to the store and pick a range she can choose from. I dunno, guitars are so personal. How they fit and feel in your hands seems so important to me now. But as a new player I know it was about the look (a Mexican Fender black strat at the time). Then as I learned to play I quickly switched to a shape which has stayed my favorite for many years (Gibson SG). Soo, I think I am saying the first guitar should be seen as a disposable item, something to fire the imagination, and then later and with some skills the "real" guitar can be acquired. Most pro guitar players we know and love will refer to their first guitar as a junker or hand me down, Leo Kottke's "Student Prince" if you will, the first guitar doesn't need to cost much, that's just what I think.

 

Oh, the cheapest guitars are actually the used ones costing about a grand, excellent instruments that hold their value. Buy it, play it or don't play it. You can always sell and get your money back. A $350 Squire Tele may be a great guitar, but you might have trouble giving it away in a couple of years.

 

Strongly disagree. I've been buying and selling music gear for more than 30 years. Used fair market value for anything really is between 40%-60% new street price. This is almost universally true across the board, unless the instrument has something special about it. So that hypothetical $1K guitar, might be sold for $600 max on a good day down the road. The $1K price point ain't nothing special. Even high end production Fenders, such as the EJ strat I play, sell new for around $1500 street. Any acoustic guitar of heirloom quality is gonna run at least $2K. Even at that price, it's only a slightly above average guitar. Nothing special really. Top quality acoustics start at around $3K new. Good wood and above average workmanship cost money.

Now that Squire that you claim someone would be lucky to "give away," will likely net (assuming stock VG condition) at least 40% of the original $300-ish purchase price, or around $120. So comparing the two instruments, you'd take a whopping $400 loss on that hypothetical $1K instrument, and a $180 loss on the Squire. So in real dollar terms, it's a no brainer.

Again, the best advice I can give is don't spend much on that entry level instrument. Yamaha makes some very playable electric guitars under $200. In fact, CNC machining has virtually done away with the cheap unplayable import. They all play well enough to learn on. This is really important: keep the entry level instrument dead stock - no mods allowed. That way, you will be able to sell it later. A hacked entry level instrument is worthless.

Regarding "reputable stores." The worst price gouging I've seen has been mom and pop stores. Last year I helped a widow sell her husband's bass. He paid full retail at a mom and pop store, even though the store's own price sticker (still affixed to the instrument!) said this, "$799 suggested retail. Your price $499." Yup, the store charged the husband $799. The widow was hoping to get most of that back on resale. I had to break the news to her that the bass was actually worth around $150. It was a common as dirt low end production bass. Nothing special about it. That was a tough conversation.

If or when the OP's daughter is ready for a proper instrument, that's when it's critical to spend enough money to buy lasting quality. The biggest mistake I see are guys who spend too little on each instrument and end up with a vast pawn shop guitar collection. A whole bunch of guitars that are average on a good day, not worth much on resale, and often get modded to fix the issues they have (further dropping the instruments resale value). Better to build a guitar collection slowly with guitars that do what they do exceptionally well. Even better to shop until a guitar calls your name. That connection will never go away.

 

Or do what I do, and have always done.

Dont buy a guitar and worry about the resale value.

Buy it to understand that you are going to play the living crap out of it and its gonna get banged and dinged and beat up from the ensuing life, love and war that you are going to drag it thru.

Mods and changes to a guitar are part of the instruments life path, possibly, depending upon the player.

Yes it will lower the resale value.

I never cared about that. I'm a longtime working player, only one of my guitars is worth a dime now and it never leaves the house.

Or dont listen to me and seek wisdom from yourself.

 

Dood, the context is a parent seeking advice for a child's first entry level instrument. Your advice, while perfectly fine for someone like you (a experienced player), does not scale at all into the parent's context.

 

Dood.

Ok.

 

My first guitar was a 64 Jazzmaster.
Bought it in 1987. It was like new. 9.8/10 condition.

I have played it since and it is still in 9.8 / 10 condition.

You don't HAVE to beat your guitars up. People just choose to,

 

if you;re an often working guitar player, then, your guitar is the exception and not the rule.,.. from what I've seen over a very long period of time.

I'm not saying its impossible to keep them in mint condition. I'm saying that its very difficult, if you are playing them at a wide variety of shows, all the time.

Stuff happens. Then again, I expect it to, and do not use valuable collectible guitars at gigs.

You're a brave soul, if you do. Hats off to you.

 

Very first electric guitar I bought for my son was a Fender Duo-Sonic with a Fender Champ amplifier. (He was 9 at the time, so the 3/4 scale was appropriate). Twenty years later, and this is what he ended up with:



He still has that Duo-Sonic (hiding behind the salmon Strat), though he has it set up strictly for slide playing nowadays.

I say a Squier Affinity Strat or Telecaster should do the trick, with a Fender Champ 20 as a starter amp. It's a minimal investment, but more than good enough for her to really find out if this is the direction she wants to take.

 

I just got my son a used Epiphone Les Paul Standard. Model was built in 2009. I paid around $270 for it. Did I get a pretty good deal? It's his first electric guitar.

 

Update: I'm still working on it. A good friend of ours was on the same page and I don't want to leave them out. We're talking things over. Guitar trip coming soon...

Ed