some help over here please!

[gaggots]

hi guys. I m a beginner at the guitar. i want to play everything from heavy metal to jazz and blues. should i get a guitar with single coils or humbuckers?or is a mixture of both single coils and humbuckers good too?
also, what electric guitars would you recommend? my budget is around $160.
thanks to those who reply!

 

[thunderlung]

Re: some help over here please!

Hey Gaggots-
Double humbuckers is always a good place to start. You can't go wrong but you probably will eventually want a single coil guitar too. I would definetly go used for that amount of cash. Agile makes a nice Les PAul knockoff. You can also look at Epiphone Les Pauls, Washburn W164, and Hamer's import line. Lots of nice choices. A used PRS SE might be reachable for a little more green. Regards

 

[kherman]

Re: some help over here please!

Agile.
For $160, you really can't go wrong.
It's a lot of guitar for that price range.

http://www.rondomusic.net/al2000blackflm.html

 

[JacksonMIA]

Re: some help over here please!

Honestly, at $160, I'd be looking for bolt-on neck guitars like strats. It takes more money to make set-neck joints like LPs and PRSs, so with a bolt-on you're more likely to get a higher quality guitar for your money.

Your money will go even farther if you buy used. I've bought two Peavey Predators in the past year and a half and both were less than $100. You can probably find an 80s Japanese Squier in your price range and they're killer guitars.

I'd try to get something with at least one humbucker in it if you're planning on doing metal (a single-coil size humbucker would be fine!), but single coils will get you by for a while and will do the other styles with no problem. If you get one with single coils you can play it for a while until you save up the money to swap out one or more of the pups.

 

[Jay 77]

Re: some help over here please!

A Peavey Predator was my first guitar 14 years ago, and i think it was areound $200 brand new. It served its purpose, but then I found a used gem (and still have it).

Your best bet is to not settle on something before you even go to the store. You'll hear a million different opinions around here, and they all have merit. At the end of the day, you have to be happy with your purchase so my advice is to try every single guitar you can that falls into your budget. Even try stuff that may not be as visually appealing at first because it may sound & feel like a million bucks.

As long as you get something solid to start with, there's always the potential for upgrading parts rather than getting a whole new guitar in a couple years.

Hope that helps!

 

[JohnnyGuitar]

Re: some help over here please!

I've started with a good electric guitar which was a steal for the money- a Gibson Nighthawk. It has 3 pickups and non of them is standard- a neck mini humbucker (like you'll see in a firebird), a single coil which is screwd in like a P90 and has the output and punch of a P90, and a slant humbucker (doesn't remind me of a PAF at all tonewise). This is still my favorite guitar...

So... you can start with anything and develope wherever you want... singlecoils or humbuckers are used in any style (Blackmore played a strat).

For your money, you can get a good strat copy... good luck!

 

[RW James]

Re: some help over here please!

You're talking my price range... I would go with humbuckers - simply because single coils in that price range are going to hum horribly. That may not a problem depnding on where you will be playing - but it prompted me to change out my single coils for SD rails as soon as possible - which ended up more than doubling the value of my cheap guitar.