tax return soon!! im being coerced by my gf and her mom to go on vacation with them in a few months but after paying for that i should have enough left over for a beginner guitar. is the one i linked gonna be good? im surprised by the price, how is a guitar (with good reviews), with an amp and several other accessories that cheap?
also my gf's bday and our anniversary and valentines day are coming up and i wanna get her an electric drum kit since she's been wanting to learn drums. is this one good https://www.guitarcenter.com/Alesis/Nitro-Mesh-Special-Edition.gc?rNtt=alesis%20nitro%20mesh&index=1 its expensive but i know a good quality trap set is much more. i think she'll appreciate this to start off since she can just play into headphones and its more portable
thanks hexbear!
If you know you're going to stick with it I would skip a starter guitar and just get one in the $200-400 range, used or not. That one would probably be fine but it's always possible corners were cut to allow for that price. You could probably fine that out on yt or :reddit-logo:.
I don't know anything about electric drums, never had the room for them :shrug-outta-hecks:
That was my experience too but I got a bundle like in the op for ~150 total. Maybe the guitar in a $300 one is comparable to a standalone guitar in a similar price range but I'd definitely be wary.
In my humble opinion, i'd avoid entry level kit epiphones. I personally hate the feel of any epiphone in the hand. I've owned two epi LP jrs, gave one to my sister and gave one to a music shop with the request they donate it to a kid who could really use it.
The tuners are trash, the neck feels plasticy and lifeless, and the pickups do the job.
Squires, Yamahas, and Ibanez guitars are all pretty good electric starting points.
o wow, thank you for the advice! youve convinced me to stay away from epiphones!
is this ibanez any good? its so damn cheap i worry abt quality https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/GRX70QATVT--ibanez-gio-grx70qa-transparent-violet-sunburst
What kind of music do you want to play?
There's a few things about that guitar and ibanez electrics in general that one could love or hate. Ibanez electrics typically have a fairly flat fretboard profile, as well as fairly thin/shallow neck profiles. A lot of people like them and they're great for playing metal or other fast technical stuff. This guitar has a tremelo system(wammy bar essentially) which means it can be a lot of fun but more difficult to keep in tune as the bridge moves.
The HSH pickup layout, two humbuckers with a single coil in the middle is fairly versatile. Pickup type is totally down to genre and preference, the latter generally being more important. You can technically play anything on any kind of guitar but some guitars will push back more than others if that makes sense. This setup will trend more towards warmer "clean" tones and a tighter "crunch" with distortion/overdrive. The single coil is more jangly and brighter in tone, but creates a lot more noise due to various electromagnetic reasons that aren't super important.
Entry level guitars have come a long way in the last 10-15 years and Ibanez doesn't typically make trash. This guitar is more or less identical in dimensions to more expensive Gios, the difference being level of fit/finish and hardware quality so cheaper pickups, electronics, bridges, tuners, etc.
If you get a guitar around that price range, make sure to get it professionally setup at a music shop or local repair guy, it'll cost 50-100 bucks but the guitar will play a lot nicer. Cheaper guitars from the factory will often have a high action(distance between string and fret, requires more strength to play a note), their frets might not be perfectly level(creating a buzz when a vibrating string hits a high point) and the nut may be too high(causing the action to be too high in a less adjustable way).
A proper setup and a fresh set of strings will make it play like a 500 dollar guitar.
im gonna want to play a lot of jazz, some alt and prog rock as well. from what ive researched, humbuckers will be best. im thinking ill take ur advice abt getting a pro to do a setup with new strings on a cheap guitar. not set on the ibanez but its def a contender!
thanks for the help shinji! :congratulations:
its so damn cheap i worry abt quality
My advice it look on Craigslist for somebody who is selling their own "starting guitar" after realizing they don't play it nearly as much as they thought they would, it's pretty common (especially in bougie areas) for people to buy $500 instruments and part with them for half that a couple years later. If you're really lucky you can find an older musician clearing out their garage - just make sure you have the chance to strum it a bit and hear what it sounds like through an amplifier before purchasing.
thanks for the tip! i might do that in a year or two when i upgrade but i dont trust myself rn to know if a guitar sounds right
Lots of guitar advice in this thread: https://hexbear.net/post/242745
I haven't messed around with any electric drum kits personally
thanks! good advice there but they mostly recommend squiers and im looking for something with humbucking pickups
oh, im a newb lol. i think i found the guitar im getting tho - squier bullet mustang. thanks!
The Yamaha Pacifica 112 gets recommended a lot. I have one but I'm still too new to really judge it.
And it has a humbucker.
oo that looks sexy as hell! thanks for the rec ill look into it!
Another vote here for this rec, Yamaha stuff is usually really good regardless of price
Electric kits teach bad habits and don't really reflect what you need to sound good on acoustic drums. But I understand also that they're very loud and don't work well in most living situations.
If you want to spend $400 on an electric kit, I would recommend you try scoring a used Roland kit. I personally think as someone who is good at the drums that electric drum kits at that price range are all garbage but again sometimes you just need something to get started.
I would say save a little more and recommend this instead or similar on craigslist:
https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/Roland/TD-1DMKX-Electric-Drum-Set-118147808.gc
Also, you should rarely be buying new, buy used. Why? Because used gear is usually just as good as new equipment or likely better and if you can't tell the difference then why buy new?
lol just get literally any guitar and save the money for your second guitar when you know what you actually want. Then you'll have two guitars. This is the correct advice :)
