[Drak_nyen]

Hi,

A mate of mine is looking to take up guitar and is looking for a cheap but good guitar. He is looking to play blues & rock mostly with some metal thrown in.

He has found 3 guitars on an online shop (hence he cannot go in and play on them as 1) he cant play ANYTHING & 2) the retailer doesnt have a showroom for him to browse)

The 3 cheap guitars he has found are:

BC Rich Warlock WHS Bronze Series £179
Epiphone Les Paul Special II £129
Epiphone SG Special £119

I have played none of these guitars and so cannot help him with his choice.
He is low on money so he cannot afford anything too expensive.

Can anyone provide any recommendations on the quality of any of these guitars??

Many thanks
Pete

 

[unchained81]

guitars

Try OLP guitars, thats the first guitar I bought and it was awsome, they look good and sound great. They go for about 200 bucks maybe even cheaper. I think your friend should def check one out.

 

[wahwah]

The Epi's are a similar price and he won't go wrong when the time comes to sell 'em and move to more expensive models. Hope this helps. :thumb:

 

[Drak_nyen]

Yeah I do like the Epis.
I tried out an Epiphone Les Paul Goldtop a couple of weeks ago and it was lovely & I am saving up for it.

Would the quality be really compromised on the cheap Epiphones??

 

[El_jalepeno]

For a beginner guitar, out of the three mentioned the LP is an excellent choice :thumb:

 

[MattM]

:werd: LP or SG would be great.

 

[grant]

Hi,

A mate of mine is looking to take up guitar and is looking for a cheap but good guitar. He is looking to play blues & rock mostly with some metal thrown in.

He has found 3 guitars on an online shop (hence he cannot go in and play on them as 1) he cant play ANYTHING & 2) the retailer doesnt have a showroom for him to browse)

The 3 cheap guitars he has found are:

BC Rich Warlock WHS Bronze Series £179
Epiphone Les Paul Special II £129
Epiphone SG Special £119

I have played none of these guitars and so cannot help him with his choice.
He is low on money so he cannot afford anything too expensive.

Can anyone provide any recommendations on the quality of any of these guitars??

Many thanks
Pete

If i was him, I would start on a Cheap Acoustic, learn the basics, learn everything. Then get nice calissus on the Acoustic. If hes dedicated to learning he will stick on that acoustic all the time. Then when he has enough money he should get a "Good" Electric or Acoustic instrument. That would help him, and he wouldnt have pussy fingers. But thats just a suggestion.

But if hes going Electric at the beginning, I would suggest getting a Jay Turser, they make a mean Electric for a low price. An Epi would work also...

But yet, my old guitar teacher who played for years, owns a Jay Turser (Strat Model) and hes in love with it. Check there page

http://www.jayturser.com

 

[mickey_g107]

les paul in a flash

 

[Drak_nyen]

At that price I am tempted to replace my Ibanez GRX70 that I am having some issues with (fret buzz, hissing on amp, poor pickups) and buy the Les Paul till I am competent enough to warrant spending the money on a proper Les Paul or just upgrade its pickups to decent new ones.

 

[Plstrcast]

warlocks are shit, go with the LP

 

[Drak_nyen]

Well I think he is looking at the 'look' of the BC Rich as he hasnt played one yet.

 

[DJ Snoo]

If he is that focused on "the look" then have him pick which ever one he thinks looks the coolest! Honestly!!! when you are first starting out, and trying to figure out all the basics, you are much more likely to pick up your guitar if you think it looks cool to play and sounds a bit shatty, rather than an ugly duckling that has bitchin tone. Learning the basics is learning the basics is learning the basics....ya know? Whatever it takes to get him to pickup his guitar and play it, go for it. Until he gets decent/educated enough to figure out what he wants to play for himself, he just needs the inspiration to play. A warlock may not have the great sound that any of us (or even him for that matter) likes the best, but a cool looking/p.o.s. sounding warlock may, just by looks alone, get him to practice more often. And as all of us have heard a million times from teachers/friends/famous guitarist/etc... PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT!!!

 

[Skydirt]

I personally would go for the LP. Although warlock (New, Low-end) Models are crap, I will say its still a guitar to learn on. I do agree if he thinks the guitar looks cool he might be more interested in learning. My first three guitars were crappier than all those listed so I say he is definetly in good shape with any of those.

 

[metalnick]

My guitar sounds like the shit and lokks like shit. I love it. I am going to save up for an ESP or maybe a LP. :rock: But Let the dude decide by himself. The only way anyone learns anything properly is by doing extremely stupid things. Like buying a Warlock. :wtf: Or not learning to play. :rant:

 

[VHF]

Here is a cheap guitar if you are just starting out. A Kramer Focus for only $89 new. LP's and Warlocks have pretty thick necks and might be harder to learn on that this. Besides most people that buy a guitar give up too soon and never get past "Smoke on the water"....LOL!

http://www.musicyo.com/product_specs.asp?pf_id=398

 

[MattM]

yeah another thing to consider...if he buys a cheap piece of junk, poorly put together axe that doesnt play worth a crap, it may frustrate and discourage him and he could quit practicing altogether.
on the other hand if you get one that is well made and affordable, which there are plenty mentioned in the thread, it will give him an edge and make him feel like a better player. gives a little more confidence. though ive been playing about 8 years, i still feel the same way every time i get a nice peice of gear or something...give me an edge and makes me feel better.

 

[JSD]

yeah another thing to consider...if he buys a cheap piece of junk, poorly put together axe that doesnt play worth a crap, it may frustrate and discourage him and he could quit practicing altogether.

Very ture. You wanna start out with the best you can afford but not too expensive in case you loose interest in 6 months. If you buy a poorly made piece of crap then you can pretty much bet the interest won't last that long. Want a guitar that is the same or better quality of a LP but costs much less, go with a Tokai <--- yes this can be seen as a slightly biased statment since I sell them but you can't beat the quality for the $$.

Thats my 2.25 cents worth.... :jam:

 

[Drak_nyen]

The choice of "what first" guitar is a difficult one. I looked around for a while before I bought mine off of Ebay but when I got it I found a catalogue of problems that I have tried to sort out and asked for various peoples opinions & have gotten frustrated about it so it has got to the point where I dont feel comfortable picking it up and playing it.
I tend to play my flatmates Ibanez SA160 than my GRX70 for no other reason than the constant fret buzzing & pickup noise. This really harms my practising as it doesnt allow me to really work on getting nice clean fretting as no matter what I do most frets buzz. This can get very frustrating.

From the price of the Les Paul Special II I am really tempted to put a little bit of cash aside to buy one myself.