Best guitar for 400-500$?

[P-E]

Yeah Jind, one he liked was the ART300, I was surprised how he liked all sorts of necks btw (he didn't think any felt bad). But he forgot about it when the other guitars when he played the Godin (even though I played it through the 6505 longer than him, twas my first time in that legendary amp, unfortunately without a boost).

And yeah Marcus, I understand that but hey if his future neoclassical sweeps sound fluid through the bridge pickup, when he'll get a guitar with a nice EMG 60 in the neck he'll be blazin'. For cleans, well yeah... Though both of us are more in melodeath, so cleans would usually be acoustic (our favourite two albums happen to be The Gallery and Wintersun).

BTW my friend's quite the prodigy : he's been playing piano for one year and now he's nailin' Chopin, Bach, Mozart... Damn. No need to say the piano guy in the store was floored. He's been great on guitar two. He stopped guitar for that whole year (having a cheap ass one that wouldn't intonate right and would be buzzing all over the place) and just took it back and had the intro of Punish My Heaven better than me... needless to say I practiced it to play it better than him!

 

[Jind]

Yeah Jind, one he liked was the ART300, I was surprised how he liked all sorts of necks btw (he didn't think any felt bad). But he forgot about it when the other guitars when he played the Godin

Aye - I was looking for a fixed bridge guitar to play around with and the ART300 had some good reviews and it has good specs for the price - Mahogany body, Maple top, Set-In Neck. I played it a few times in the store and decided to take a shot on it - glad I did.

 

[Eschatologist]

I wish Ibanez would just ship the guitars with no pickups and knock off $50

This.

 

[Harry Hughes]

Does it have to be brand new?
No point in buying an RG 321 when a RG 550 can be had for the same price on the used market. And before you say "IT HAS A TREM" put a tremol-no in there, problem solved and you have a guitar that would absolutely slay an RG 321.

 

[Metaltastic]

Even with a Tremol-no, it's still a gaping cavity in the body which has an undeniable effect on resonance/thickness of sound

 

[Harry Hughes]

Even with a Tremol-no, it's still a gaping cavity in the body which has an undeniable effect on resonance/thickness of sound

True, but at any rate an MIJ RG 550 is probably going to resonant and sound better than a cruddy MII RG 321

 

[P-E]

Yeah and still, it has to be brand new, I'm sure he'd like to have his first good guitar he bought and played all by himself haha.

And true to what Marcus said, a shootout between similar guitars, one Tremol-noed and one hardtail would be great, I'll dig up on the Internet tomorrow to see if it has been done (with same pickups, of course!).

 

[Harry Hughes]

Well I guess it if HAS to be brand new, an RG 121 is the fucking bomb Ibanez-wise. The stock pickups are not great by any means, but they are usable until the owner gets the funds to replace them.
Awesome playability too, much better than the Indo made Ibanez guitars.

As for the tremol-no thing, for some guitars you just have no choice because they are made in a trem only model, like certain Ibanez guitars, certain Jacksons, plenty of Fenders etc.
I don't think a guitar with a trem sounds any worse, just different to that of a guitar with a hardtail. A lot of my favorite tones ever have been done with guitars with a trem, so it's hardly like a guitar with a trem can sound bad at any rate.

 

[P-E]

Well I guess it if HAS to be brand new, an RG 121 is the fucking bomb Ibanez-wise. The stock pickups are not great by any means, but they are usable until the owner gets the funds to replace them.
Awesome playability too, much better than the Indo made Ibanez guitars.

As for the tremol-no thing, for some guitars you just have no choice because they are made in a trem only model, like certain Ibanez guitars, certain Jacksons, plenty of Fenders etc.
I don't think a guitar with a trem sounds any worse, just different to that of a guitar with a hardtail. A lot of my favorite tones ever have been done with guitars with a trem, so it's hardly like a guitar with a trem can sound bad at any rate.

I totally get what you mean, might look into it as my next guitar. But still, it was costy for him, and for me right now as I got no job.
Anyways he did deposit 60 bucks to keep the Godin for him while his bank account transfers the money he foolishly deposited the day before we went to shop for it. I think he likes it. A LOT