Guitar Noob

[Faint]

Hey. I have very little knowledge on how to actually play a guitar and no theory, but I have an ambition to one day be able to play extreme metal and will practice until I reach it..

Before I can do so I would like to know what you guys/girls reccomend as a good guitar to start off on. Pretty much the main reason I am planning on buying one is to play metal, so it would help if it could meet that requirement (Although not straight off obviously).

I'm going to put alot of effort into learning how to play and will practice as much as I can so hope to be at a fairly average standard quite quickly. However, I was wondering if any of you know of any good tutorial websites that I could use, prior to and after I have a guitar.

Thanks alot for any help. I've reached the stage when I can't listen to metal without wanting to play some guitar.

 

[DeadlySinners]

I like BC Riches for metal starter guitars

 

[Vimana]

If you want to get really good, grow long black curly hair, steal a magicians hat, wear sunglasses, and smile in a creepy way under all your hair.

I play guitar all day, probably 6-10 hours. Sometimes when I wake up in the morning the fingers on my left hand are stiff and I can barely bend them for a little bit. I have only been playing about 6 or 7 months. But I'd say I'm about average or maybe a little higher, my guitar teacher is amazing and has been playing for 30 years.

Try Bob Dylan stuff for basics, do alternate picking exercises to increase your speed. Use scales as well to become more familiar with notes.

For soloing try this riff over and over til you can play it fast.

E------5h7h8
B-5h7h8

If you don't know what "h" means, it means hammer on, basically you let the note ring and you put your finger onto the fret while its ringing.

 

[LithiumLulu]

Almost any electric with at least 1 humbucker pickup will be enough to learn with. I would look at cheap Ibanez or Epiphone guitars. You'll probably want something better down the line, but these should be decent (stay in tune, able to set the intonation properly, etc). You'll also want a little amp that has distortion built in, or get a distortion pedal. Some practice amps built in distortion is complete crap so try to listen to it first. Make sure to get an electronic tuner - I can't stress this enough.

If you want to get started really quick use drop D tuning. You'll be able to make a power chord with 1 finger and sound like metal from your first day.

Play as often as you can and build up your finger strength and callouses. At first it will hurt a lot and be very awkward but it gets better pretty fast. You should start to really see improvement within 2 weeks.

 

[Gordy_gorestained]

Entry level BC Riches aren't all that great, I'd suggest and LTD, Jackon, or Ibanez, prolly the ibanez for starters. While I'm not that big of an Ibanez fan their entry levels are good.

 

[Skepticism]

Ibanez

 

[Faint]

Thanks for all the help! I came across two starter packages, if it isn't too much trouble I would greatly appreciate some opinions on each one or a recommendation of another package. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Both are Ibanez.

http://www.guitar.co.uk/packages/be...x_and_marshall_mg10cd_electric_guitar_package

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/page/shop/flypage/product_id/15432

 

[sadisticsatyr]

The Yamaha Pacifica range is very nice....much better than squiers. Cheap, but good quality, and really nice sounds for the price....Joe Satriani recommends (hehehe)

 

[Prophet Ov Isa]

I'd go with the first one, dude. Ibanez is a good brand for metal.

 

[BlackMetalWhiteGuy]

I have a $1,400 guitar that I bought used for $700, and I just bought an ESP F50 LTD guitar for $199 on musiciansfriend.com that as far as I can tell, is just as good, or better than my more expensive guitar.

Personally, I don't like BC Rich guitars, and I don't know anyone who does, except for my brother, but he's a virtual retard when it comes to music. He likes them for the way they look, and doesn't seem to know much about how to judge a guitar beyond that.

Honestly though, I think the ESP LTDs are great for their price, and hold their tuning very well, which is extremely important. I've also heard a lot of praise for Schecter guitars. I don't know anything about Ibenez, Fender, or any other big names though, but you definitely will want to avoid BC Rich if at all possible. I've never played one that could stay in tune for more than a few hours, but I've only played the inexpensive models.

 

[LithiumLulu]

Almost any guitar marketed "for beginners" like the Fender Squire Strats or basically anything $200 or less, is going to have terrible tuners and go out of tune all the time which makes learning very difficult.

 

[genocide roach]

I like BC Riches for metal starter guitars

BAD ADVICE!

bc rich are teerrriibble to learn on. theyre top heavy and the quality is horid until you get to the NJ series.

for a good beginner guitar, its all about ibanez. solid construction, great playability. i dont know what your budget is, but the SA series is a fantastic deal. around 300 for a GREAT guitar. i have somthing similar to this (as my backup. great all around guitar though) http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Ibanez-SA260M-Electric-Guitar?sku=512538. if you do some looking on ebay, youll find one similar with a quilted maple top and rosewood fretboard. i can personally say that guitar slays. good distortion from the bridge and awesome glassy tone from the single coil in the neck. you may like this guy as well http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Ibanez-RG3EXQM1-Quilted-Maple-Top-Electric-Guitar?sku=519784

their lower priced guitars are also nice. notice i dont say cheap. cheap= poor quality for low price. ibanez does a great job of building quality axes for a good price

there are various sites out there with guitar lessons. but i highly suggest a teacher, atleast for a month, so you get the basics down. after that you can decide what you want to do from there
~gR~

 

[sadisticsatyr]

Almost any guitar marketed "for beginners" is going to have terrible tuners and go out of tune all the time which makes learning very difficult.

Which is why i recommend the Pacifica...ive been playing one for 2 years and they are really really good....for the price. Being a beginner guitar player, i recommend you buy something cheap; once you start learning, you might find you dont like it anymore and give up. This way, you dont waste much money.

 

[LithiumLulu]

I agree a beginner shouldn't run out and spend $1000+ on a guitar. I don't know much about Yamaha guitars, I think I've only ever played and acoustic, but I do know about Ibanez and they make a seriously good guitar for a low price. I mentioned this elsewhere but I have an Ibanez that I got from Musicians Friend for $60 (finish blemish) and once it was set up correctly it plays like a $1000 guitar.

 

[genocide roach]

while it might make sense for a beginner to buy a cheap guitar, incase they dont want to play anymore, if you buy a slightly higher priced guitar (around 3-400) you can resell it and make some of your money back instead of having a piece of junk sitting around your house for ever.

starter guitars sell at garage sales for $25. the ibanez i listed would sell for a around $200 on ebay. notice the investment difference.
~gR~

 

[Cheiron]

Meh. Go into a guitar store. Tell them how much you want to spend. ANd then go play a lot and see which one just feels right. Buy a guitar that you really want to play, not something that somebody else tells you to buy.

The problem with cheap guitars isn't so much the tone. Sure, they have 'worse' tone, worse parts, etc. But for learning the biggest pain with cheap guitars is that they go out of tune a lot. As a beginning guitarist that can be extremely annoying.

I'd stay away from any Floyd Rose setups (if you don't know what they are, ask the salesperson). Its just something else to cause you difficulties in learning (tuning, restringing, etc.). But if you have your heart set on a guitar with one... get it, and learn how to use it.

 

[Faint]

Thanks for all the advice. I'm going to go to the local store and try out a few, going to ask about having a go with a low priced Ibanez because everyone I've spoken to recommends them as being good value and a decent guitar to start out with.

 

[Acey Jendell]

Get a big fat steel string acoustic, and take guitar and music lessons.

If you wanna play death/thrash/black metal, you need to be able to move your hands on the fretboard around alot, and if you get an acoustic, your training your hand muscles to do that in a much more precise way as it requires more pressure be placed on the strings and a heavier pick attack.

You should alternate between playing acoustic and electric as much as possible, because at the end of the day, you're gonna want to play all this evil shit on an electric with a big ass tone and chunky distortion.

I've been playing for around 11 years, and i practice on my acoustic every single day. I play basically the same things i play on electric, so it's not like i play coldplay songs on the acoustic and Deicide songs on the electric. Extreme technical metal playing requires finnesse, skill, and most of all, CONTROL over both hands, and the more you train yourself, the better you will be. I really strongly suggest learning mostly about music theory and scales and such, as well as open chords and song structures before delving into learning how to play brutal riffage and face melting solos, because it's all relative, you can't have steak without a cow.

And always remember, speed is a by-product of accuracy!!!

 

[Vacant_Planets]

Been playing metal for 15 years, never used an acoustic and all the crap people tell you. Many will say not to learn on a Floyd rose.... I certainly did. Doing stuff like this forces you to become comfortable faster. I would say that while you don't want to spend a lot of money you will want something that will at least stand up to someabuse. I learned on a Jackson Warrior, the necks are great for it, but so are the Ibanez models.