I'm thinking of getting an electric guitar... (1 Viewer)

[JonZ]

Chuck,
When I was looking for a new guitar a few years ago, I was determined to get a Carvin (wood finish, neckthru construction,fixed bridge).

What happened was I went into Guitar Hangar in Connecticut (who deals with high quality guitars http://www.guitarhangar.com/) and he had a 85 Gibson Explorer with Dirty Fingers Pickups(rare PUs http://www.harmony-central.com/Guita...ingers-01.html ).I fell in love with it,Ive always wanted one, so I bought it ($800)

My next guitar WILL be a Carvin

As far as a amp goes, IMHO its WELL worth your time to track down a good older Gallien Kreuger. They only make Bass amps now, but their guitar amps were freakin amazing.I owned 2 and had a friend who owned another and they sounded better than anything else I heard back in the day.I just connected a Boss distortion and a Boss EQ to it and cranked it up.

 

[Philip Hamm]

"Cheap" guitars are not what they used to be. I've been playing bass for over 25 years and I recently bought a sub-$200 import from www.rondomusic.com , I'm completely satisfied with it, and the crowd at www.talkbass.com pretty much universally recommends them.

That said, you can't go wrong with a Mexican Fender or a Korean Epiphone (don't know about Chinese Epiphone).

IMO Everything Lasido touches is gold. If you've got the budget for a Godin setup, do it. I have a Seagull guitar that's wonderful, my brother just got a Godin guitar that he loves, and I have a custom bass with a Lasido neck that's very nice also.

Peavey is another brand name I like a lot.

 

[ChuckSolo]

The only way I would own a Marshall amp these days is if I could find an old vintage tube type that those folks made back in the day. The crunch from those amps was unreal. Francois, the Epiphone guitar line is a pretty solid line. The rhythm guitarist in our band played a Gibson SG copy made by Epiphone for many years. Phillip Hamm is right though foreign quality has gone up in the last few years, not down as you might think. You really have to consider how motivated you are. I cannot begin to tell you how many friends and acquaintences I have seen buy guitars, expensive guitars, with the mission of learning to play the thing, and then a couple of months later it sits in a closet unused and probably will remain there for years. If you are truly motivated, and you must be since you are a musician already, get the best you can afford. If your determination is iffy, I would probably recommend getting a Fender Squire. Learning to play an instrument, any instrument takes dedication. Most of the old "axe-handlers" replying to this post have probably been in the game for dedcades. I had a girlfriend once who was determined to learn to play "like me" that she went out and bought an $800.00 Takamine acoustic guitar to learn on. She gave up after a few weeks, but guess who wound up being given the guitar?

 

[Francois Caron]

Hmmm... "Lasido"... "La", "Si", "Do"... "A", "B", "C"! Didn't notice that before!

The main reasons for choosing the Godin are the following:

- Great sound (based on reviews, still needs confirmation)
- Great reputation
- Local company
- Many models to choose from
- Average price in Montreal for Performance series models: about $500 Canadian. That includes I believe the Exit-22 with the maple fingerboard.

And I can afford to spend $500 on a guitar, but not much more. I still have to buy the rest of the equipment. With what I've learned on the Home Theater Forum, at least I know better than to pay $100 for a lousy guitar cable!

With all the confusing choices available, I'll choose the amp at the store. I'll just have the clerk walk around and plug the guitar in most of the small amps for a few seconds.

As for whether I'll stick with playing the guitar, it all depends if I can play it well at all and if I like it that much. I do love what I hear from them so that's a great motivator. With my previous experience with the piano and clarinet, I never became any good with either instrument mainly due to problems with coordinating my hands. They both tend to produce the same rythmn no matter what I play. With the piano, each hand has to play their own melody, something I couldn't handle. With a clarinet, I had to bridge the jumps using both hands, which still caused problems. Then there was all that "blowing"...

With a guitar, both hands have to work in tandem to produce anything decent. One goes out of sync and the entire melody collapses. But with both my hands wanting to work as one unit, this may work out.

And if it doesn't, the guitar will become a lovely piece of living room decoration! JUST KIDDING!!!

Thanks everyone!