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Forums > General Discussion   Shooting the breeze...

Electric guitar

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Created by lee1972 > 9 months ago, 29 Dec 2012
lee1972
QLD, 921 posts
29 Dec 2012 9:54PM
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Been playing acoustic guitar for a while now, want to spice things up a bit and get myself a electric guitar and amp. Have been looking for a second hand guitar to get me started. I have found an aria pro for 180 and a encore les Paul copy plus a epiphone les Paul copy. Has anyone used these guitars to learn on, reviews and advice please.

Mackerel
WA, 313 posts
30 Dec 2012 9:44PM
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I had an Aria Pro II - good little guitar and much better sound than the cheap epi's. Really you should up the budget to about $300 - $400 and there is some really great second hand gear for that price. The best advice is to go into a guitar shop and sit around playing everything from the cheap to really expensive. You will know when you find one that feels right. Make sure you test them on an amp similar to the one you're going to buy too.
The big question is - do you play mainly rythem or lead? What style of music? A great blues guitar is not necessarily the best for shredding metal solo's....

Mackerel
WA, 313 posts
30 Dec 2012 9:48PM
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Oh yeah, the other option is to get a good steel string semi electric acoustic. I use an irig and plug into my iPad then feed out my speakers and you would swear I was playing a strat using the irig application.

beerdead
NSW, 433 posts
5 Jan 2013 8:58AM
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Must agree with playing as many guitars as possible. And don't think it will happen in one sitting, but you will know when you play the right one. Just buy it.

Mack, what is an irig? Haven't heard of that, being an old fart with semi literate IT skills, and decades out of playing much more than acoustic.

paddymac
WA, 937 posts
5 Jan 2013 11:28AM
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I had an Epi Les Paul - it was ok although I preferred my Ibanez strat copy. Now I just have a Squire strat copy, only cost about $170 new, has a great action, no idea how they produce something so good for so little. I think guitars are a bit like mattresses - don't focus on the price just find one that you are happy with.

Ian K
WA, 4120 posts
5 Jan 2013 12:29PM
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One main difference between expensive and cheap is the attention to the setup. Electric guitars mostly have fully adjustable bridges. Easy for even the tone deaf to set up the intonation with an electronic tuner these days. You can get most necks right with the truss rod. The nuts are probably tricky, I haven't yet needed to fiddle with one, nut files sets are expensive but you can make them from cheap feeler gauges

www.tdpri.com/threads/nut-files-from-a-feeler-gauge.65805/

or grinding back a cheap set of mini files. I figure you'd put a capo behind the first fret, see it plays OK, measure the gap below the string to the 2nd fret, then take off the capo and file the nut down to the get same gap between strings and the first fret ?

I've got a Yamaha pacifica, finally got sick of the action and burrowed into the truss rod. It wasn't even finger tight! Straightened the neck, made a world of a difference.

Gestalt
QLD, 14456 posts
5 Jan 2013 3:48PM
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i haven't come across a guitar yet that hasn't performed substantially better after a setup from a pro. regardless of how much the guitar cost and what name is written on it. (it's not just about the action)

pretty much every off the shelf pro level guitar i've used has had the action sorted nad the nut upgraded as a minimum. some have had custom bridges installed to get around string height issues.

intonation is easy to do yourself. you should do that after every new set of strings and especially after changing gauge of strings.

the main difference between cheap and expensive guitars is the quality of the wood, the pickups and the hardware. but more than often then not it is just the name written on the guitar.

that said, lots of cheaper excellent guitars around. the 1970/1980's japanese imports are pretty good. eventually if you stick with it you can upgreade the pickups. brands like tokai, aria, greco, guyatone, tiesco etc. check out your local second hand shops. play it acoustically and see how it feels and listen to the sustain of the strings.

i'm currently using a godin radiator, it's sounds is a cross between a telecaster and a ric. i can't speak highly enough of it. they are outside your budget second hand. but not too far outside.

as far as amps go the lunchbox amps are great value for money. the big mistake most electric guitar players make is they think high watt equates to better tone. that just isn't the case. high watt is only really ever necessary when you need to cut through the band in a live situation or playing large venues.

if you want american/fender sounds check out big white monkey, for brit sounds there is blackheart. these are all tube amps. 1-5 watt. $150 max gets you there second hand.

there are lots of other options, every amp maker has small watt versions. some better than others. if you've got more money tiny terrors rock. depends what tone you are going for.

if you need contacts for someone in brisbane to setup your guitar once you've bought it i can put you in touch with the best.

Gestalt
QLD, 14456 posts
5 Jan 2013 4:14PM
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meant to add,

the downside with the lunchbox amps is with the combo versions, they tend to have crappy little speakers. i preferr the heads when they are available and i run them through a cab loaded with celestion vintage 30's.. the one i have that is a combo i use the extension cab output and run that into my vintage 30 cab and bypass the onboard speaker.

for getting into electric guitar it probably won't matter for you. just bear in mind that eventually you will be able to plug into a stand alone cab and will notice an improvement in tone.

Poida
WA, 1916 posts
5 Jan 2013 5:12PM
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Hey lee1972
I bought a new epiphone les Paul std copy. Cost about $750 new. Also bought a vox vt40 amp. So with the amp have lots of different and vintage sounds without lots of pedals. You might like the pedal to go with it to swap between settings. Only drama with the pedal is it sets to a preset volume. Which is sort of small venue loud. Otherwise I can play with the valve fully working and various crunch levels and have a low volume so I don't upset everyone in a 100m radius.

The guitar is great. Its a heavier guitar than others but thats why its got such good sustain. I would like say a fender tele as well and lots of others for different sounds and styles. The les paul does most of it depending on your settings, bit of palm muting and strum style.

Ian K
WA, 4120 posts
5 Jan 2013 8:19PM
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You could always go for a hollow body electric? Gretch I think it is. No doubt cheaper versions are about.


Gestalt
QLD, 14456 posts
5 Jan 2013 11:06PM
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nice,

one of the sweetest guitars i have played. occasionally i use a gretsch hotrod that has been modified with tv jones classic pickups and custom aluminium bridge and graphite nut. it was owned by the guitar tech my mate uses. he traded an epiphone nighthawk and gibson firebird we weren't using for the gretsch.

the tv jones pickups are the setzer pickups. they have a growl and twang that is glorius on a hollowbody guitar. they are excellent. i also like the simple electronics on these type of guitars. a volume pot per pickup.

i've been pretty keen to pick up and old japanese hollowbody or eastwood hollowbody and put some tv jones in it for myself.

for beginers they are a little tough as the bridge is floating and makes intonation setup a must when changing strings. you can fix the bridge with double sided tape to simplifiy things.

the gibson style semi hollowbodies es335 probably suit beginners more as the bridge is fixed. both ibanez and epiphone make a semi hollowbody also.

lee1972
QLD, 921 posts
8 Jan 2013 10:31AM
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Thanks guys,

I found a epiphone special with a boss me30 effects pedal and Laney mc30 amp for $250 thought that was pretty good, been trying to set the peddles and amp to get the sounds I like. Decided to book some lessons, Going to take all my gear so I can learn how to get the best out of them.

Mackerel
WA, 313 posts
8 Jan 2013 4:09PM
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Rock on my man!

Gestalt
QLD, 14456 posts
9 Jan 2013 12:18AM
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nice one lee,

i think you got a good deal there. if i was going to be picky i'd say ditch the boss pedal on ebay and use the money to either get your guitar setup or buy a better pedal. (maybe a clip on tuner, they are invaluable)

i recently got some new kit myself. have been wanting a vox ac4tvh for a while but couldn't justify the cost. mooloolaba music is selling them for $240 so i jumped on it.

it turned up today and i'm stunned at how good it sounds.

Poida
WA, 1916 posts
8 Jan 2013 10:46PM
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try Guitartoolkit App for an iphone or ipad, has a tuner in it plus a small drum machine as a metronome plus lots of chords and scales.

new set of strings and a setup you should be fine. i was amazed at what the metal dude did at the local music store to my acoustic. new strings and readjusted the bend in the neck for $25



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Forums > General Discussion   Shooting the breeze...


"Electric guitar" started by lee1972