suggested electric guitar

[samcatluth]

Birthday coming up. Looking for suggestions for an electric guitar in the $500 price range. I have not kept up with when/if there are sales or what to watch for. thanks.

[YamahaGuy]

Yamaha Pacifica 611 is a lot of guitar for the money. High quality everything! Pickups, tuners, bridge, saddles, nut.

[Dave Hicks]

What kinds of things would you like to play on it? A Tele (used or Squire) is a good, adaptable instrument.

D.H.

[Bob from Brooklyn]

My gut says used Mexican Telecaster but I have no idea what music you like to play.

[Steve DeRosa]

If you're OK thinking a little bit outside the box, $499 @ MF gets you this beauty - with a set of honest-to-Brooklyn, patent-number Professional Series Filter'trons:





https://www.musiciansfriend.com/guit...lectric-guitar

[Birchtop]

There’s a few brand new Fender MIM Player Series Stratocaster on sale right now if you shop around. I’ve seen them going for $599 and less. If you can haggle, you can maybe even get that price lower.

Otherwise, the used market opens up some amazing choices

Good luck

[guitararmy]

Any favorite colors or styles?
Is it a significant birthday? (25th, 50th or 100th)

[samcatluth]

To be honest I have played acoustic all my life and am now finally moving up the fretboard ( and even learning music theory!) but, big problem, I don't have a cutaway and I'm beginning to like my Goodwill obtained Yamaha electric more and more as I move up the fretboard.

[guitararmy]

If that is a Yamaha Pacifica model you might look for something different like this:

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/guit...ompare|ClickCP

[bfm612]

Originally Posted by Steve DeRosa

If you're OK thinking a little bit outside the box, $499 @ MF gets you this beauty - with a set of honest-to-Brooklyn, patent-number Professional Series Filter'trons

I love my Gretsch G5420T, which also came stock with Filtertrons, but it definitely matches what I've been into playing over the past several years: rockabilly, TMOE, Sondre Lerche, Cole Porter, Cy Coleman, Americana, etc. The Filtertrons are a good choice for me, but if you're looking to play crunchier stuff, then you might need a guitar makes sense for you to set up with P90s.

[Poppa]

The good thing is you have many, many choices of great electrics in the $500 price range. The bad thing is you have many, many choices in the $500 range and that can make it difficult to choose!

The Epiphone line has some very nice instruments. The Dot, ES-339, LP's et al are very nice guitars.

Check out the Classic Vibe series from Fender. Great sounding, feeling Tele's, Strat's, etc.

If it were me, I'd go used as you could probably find both a nice CV strat and tele for your $.

I'd take that Gretsch jn a heartbeat if I had the cash. Cool looking guitar.

Good luck with your search and happy birthday!

[jseth]

Look at the Michael Kelly guitars... I believe there are a couple around $500. I've been impressed by all of those guitars I've played; beautiful fit and finish and fretwork that is MARVELOUS for an inexpensive guitar... there are Tele, Strat and Les Paul" -esque" models from which to choose.

Of course, you could just take your Yamaha electric to a good tech and have it set up and all the electronics "dialed-in"... and take it from there until you have a better idea of what you're wanting and how you're wanting to play it. That would probably be "too simple" a solution for this particular Forum, however.

Buying a guitar without really knowing what I want and what I want it to sound like as NEVER worked out real well for me!

[jseth]

Sam;

Another good thing about just having the current Yamaha "dialed-in" is that you could then spend the birthday money on a good amplifier... with electric guitars, the amplifier is AT LEAST HALF of the equation, if not even more so...

[raysachs]

Hard question to answer - there are SOOOO many flavors of electric guitars (way more than acoustic with much less subtle differences) and you haven't told us and probably don't have a clue yourself what you want.

I love strats, I love teles, I love semi-hollows, I love SGs, I love P90 pickups. I mostly love strats but that's a 40 year obsession, not something I've taken lightly.

For someone buying their FIRST electric guitar without really knowing what they want, i think I'd go for versatility and simplicity. I'd recommend starting with an Epiphone or Ibanez semi-hollow. Because really you can play anything from jazz to blues to country to rock to metal on a semi-hollow - they've been used for everything at one time or another. You might lose style points playing metal on one, but it can be done.

You can get Epiphones with either humbuckers or P90s but Ibanez only with humbuckers. I personally prefer P90s but the path of least resistance is to go play a few with humbuckers and see what feels right to you. Both of those makers have some really fine guitars in the $400-$500 range. My #2 electric these days is an Epiphone SG with P90s that I paid $400 for and I can't freaking believe the quality of it. I've had semi-hollows from both Epiphone and Ibanez and it's really tough to go wrong with either. There are other makers of course, but I don't think they live in the sub-$500 neighborhood so much. So that's what I'd recommend.

Good luck - electric is a freakin' BLAST!!!

Don't forget to budget for a decent amp too...

-Ray

[DukeX]

Originally Posted by jseth

...Of course, you could just take your Yamaha electric to a good tech and have it set up and all the electronics "dialed-in"... and take it from there until you have a better idea of what you're wanting and how you're wanting to play it...

Originally Posted by jseth

Sam;

Another good thing about just having the current Yamaha "dialed-in" is that you could then spend the birthday money on a good amplifier... with electric guitars, the amplifier is AT LEAST HALF of the equation, if not even more so...

I like these suggestions a lot.