My First Guitar

My father bought me a Fender *don't laugh* and amp... I owned it for 2 weeks. One day I came home from school to practice playing it, only to find out that my mother took it to the pawn shop and pawned it. She complained, "I did it to pay the electric bill! Do you want electricity in this house?? DO YOU???"

Grrrrrrrrrrrr! Whatta BITCH!!!!
 
Originally posted by Immortaldemon
Thankyou for your advice everyone.

@7DT. Thankyou especially, do you know of any good internet companys in england which might be cheaper or any good shops.

I'd not buy of the internet unless the dealer has a very good reputation. But having said that, I have got a few bits of equipment of ebay from the states and germany and now a few people who buy quite a few guitars of ebay.

Machine Head is a good shop (i forget where it is) and andy's second hand store in denmark street has some real gems in terms of equipment every so often.

Failing all that, if you want ibanez, then there is a dealer in the US who offers superb service at www.ibanezrules.com

also, some people have ordered from ishibashi in Japan which actually despite shipping and import duty still works out cheaper than buying new here, and they have a host of cool stuff there :) , i forget the url, but i can look for it if you want.

Apart from that, what you can do is take a day trip to a large guitar store(s) like denmark street in london, and several other places up and down the country (there's a fairly nice shop in brighton which had some . Go during the week (take a day off). Then find a guitar you like, and start looking second hand for one in classified ads or online in readers ads and the like, get plently of pictures :)

Save yourself some money :)

Also get a reasonably good amp, as a good guitar with a shit amp is not going to make you want to play :)
 
One of the guitars i was looking at is the ESP F200 but it is so expensive in England but around £350 cheaper in the US. I was thinking about ordering off www.music123.com but they won't ship ESP to england so I might try the Ibanez RG7420 or a similar 7 string. The amp that I was looking at was the Randall RG100SC but I have yet to try a Randall, it just sounds to be very good for it's price. Are there any comments about the equipment I've selected.
 
Originally posted by Immortaldemon
One of the guitars i was looking at is the ESP F200 but it is so expensive in England but around £350 cheaper in the US. I was thinking about ordering off www.music123.com but they won't ship ESP to england so I might try the Ibanez RG7420 or a similar 7 string. The amp that I was looking at was the Randall RG100SC but I have yet to try a Randall, it just sounds to be very good for it's price. Are there any comments about the equipment I've selected.

RG7420's are quite nice guitars, but the bridge isn't all that to be honest as they aren't as good as the bridges they put on their higher end axes which are superb. Ebay is definetly a good place to look for RG7620's and old UV7BK's(although these are quite expensive, although all considering they are killer axes and play like butter, fantastic :) ) , having said that, the 7420 is still a good axe for the price, but the bridge won't be as solid in keeping in tune as you'd like. 7strings however are a lot of fun, and the sooner you get used to them the better as they do give you more options :)

Amp wise I've never tried Randall amps, and shy away from anything that isn't tube. If you want a good distortion that's all tube and don't have loads to spend on mesa-boogie then try and get a peavey 5150. The clean sound isn't the best, but for all tube distortion it is fantastic, and loads of people swear by them :) , the main difference is preference. Tubes sound warmer and to my ears nicer than transistor amps which are harsher. Depends what your favorite bands are really at the end of the day, and what sound you are going for.

You can always give me a shout on MSN if you want or PM / email me and I'll quite happily ramble on for hours:)

Also, did you start a thread in the musicians section of UM (you can find it of the main board) as you'll get more people there to answer your query as well :) , always glad to help, just ask :)
 
@7DT.What do you think of Marshall amps such as the TSL100 compared to the 5150?

Also a lot of the bridges that i have seen for 7 string guitars are fixed. What disadvantages are there to this?
 
I have a really dumb question. What exactly is a tremelo system? And, (figure I might as well get all of these dumb questions out of the way) how do you identify humbucking pickups, and what sound difference does make?
 
I'd stay away from any of the newer Marshalls. They're all mass-produced, cost-effective, cheapest component POS amps that they can charge top dollar for.

The 5150's are good heads, and I'd even suggest the Crate Voodoo stuff....

As for guitars, I'd stay away from any Ibanez that's under $500... their products (high end) are pretty decent, but they want too much money.

I'd consider getting a Kramer from Musicyo.com (and take it to get a real setup)... they're neckthru, and the pickups are decent... all that they need is a setup (which they don't seem to get from the factory).

If you've got some money to spend, look for a Jackson Professional series guitar used, they're pretty close to USA stuff in build quality and play great. You can get them off ebay used from $250-$500.

I've bought dozens of guitars off ebay, ranging from a few hundred to $1400+, and I've only been ripped once. I would recommend ebay, with slight hesitation though.

STill, you never mentioned a price range....
 
Price range is $400 - $700. Maybe a bit more or a bit less.

But i can't sreally spend more than $950 on both the Guitar and amp so if I want a good guitar then I might have to get a cheaper combo amp.
 
Originally posted by Immortaldemon
@7DT.What do you think of Marshall amps such as the TSL100 compared to the 5150?

Also a lot of the bridges that i have seen for 7 string guitars are fixed. What disadvantages are there to this?

A matter of taste personally and what you want to do with it. Fixed bridges will provide tuning stability and are easier to detune, retune etc without messing too much with the setup, but as they are fixed you won't be able to pull of any whammy bar tricks :D , also another advantage of fixed bridges is a fatter sound with more of the strings vibration being transfered to the body.

Floating bridges (double locking) are nice, but not to everyone's taste. I think it's more a case of getting used to them. They are a bitch to tune, but once tuned and locked properly with a decent bridge with good hardened knife edges they will stay in tune, this will allow you to slack all the strings, produce those funky dimebag darrel high pitched screams et all and provide hours of fun :) , the downside is less vibration as the only contact that the bridge has with the body is the knife edges. This to me isn't an issue however so... The other disadvantage is setting them up, and having to adjust the springs et all when using different string gauges and tunings. Downtuning on the fly is impossible as well. Also, if you break a string, the rest will all go out of tune, but such is life, and I am more than willing to live with that. Trems are fun, well setup trems kick arse!!!!!

Hope this answers your query:)
 
B.C. Rich are true guitars, not japanese crap. If you can afford it get it, if you regret and quit playing guitar you will sell it alot faster and for more bucks than any of those other crap guitars people talks about. Almost the same applies for jackson ( but i think they are being bought by fender so get a 2001 or previous model )
 
To original poster:

Dude, don't get expensive equipment if you're just learning. You need to get basics down before you can start playing any genre of music. I'd suggest a Samick, low-end Ibanez, or a Squier. When you get better you can start loading up on equipment.

To be honest, it's better to learn on an acoustic. If you get decent with one of those, it's easier to play an electric.
 
I have already got a classic guitar and i want to play metal.

I already know music theory and i want something that can get a good metal sound eg. later opeth, nile etc.

I also want something that looks cool and most of all is easy to play.

I really want a maverick but those are too expensive so i will have to settle.