peavey or ibanez packs for beginners

[daveatron]

hey all,
i have been learning guitar on a valencia tc40 for about a month, and i am at the stage where i want to get an electric guitar in a few months. I dont know much about guitars except for reviews that i read on the net.
I am going to buy one of those beginner electric guitar packs which come with amp, leads, etc etc so that i have everything to start playing.

The question i hope that some of you can answer is which is better in quality, sound, reputation and for a beginner; out of the peavey raptor guitars or the ibanez rx40. so far i seem to be hearing good things about the ibanez but what do you'se guys think? Which guitar is the easiest to learn on?
i will be mostly trying to play metal once i get good eg slayer, pantera, metallica etc. if this helps.
And i am not looking to play in bands, just at home and with friends.
But at the moment i am learning offspring, greenday.
My budget is $400 AUD, so if their is any other brand packs that fit the criteria please tell.
cheers
Dave

[Akira]

I haven't really heard anything nice about the Peavey Raptor.

[ren]

Just to make it more difficult...

I suspect you could get better kit, and possibly a better price buying a guitar and amp separately. I've never advised anyone to buy one of those packs.

As Akira says, I've never heard anyone say anything nice about Peavey guitars until you're spending ALOT of money.... ibanez are usually OK, but again my experience of the range is with higher end RGs.

Suggest you go look at spending $200 on a guitar and $200 on an amp (obvious room for manouvre) and just try out a few. Look out for sharp ends of frets etc.

[Andrew Sa]

I know this may not bre helpful to you, but I am with zreynolds...I think those all included packs are bad.

If you are going to buy one of those packs, I think you should decide it by seeing which kit has the nicest amp...as you will almost definately want a new guitar in a few months.

[J.Hammett]

I personally didn't want to get a starter pack when I started due to the lack of features I wanted on the guitar(Floyd Rose Trem, EMG pickups, 24 frets...) so I bought an ESP and a 120 watt combo and never regreted it. So I would suggest you save up more money. But I do have experience with the rx 20. My cousin bought one about half a year ago when he started out. I used it and it sounded pretty nice. It's really comfortable to play on. Although I have experience with the guitar I have no experience with the amp. My cousin said it sounds good so I guess it is. He told me that he needed to get a new cable because the one that came with the pack was pretty poor in quality so you probably need to buy a new cable. Not too big of a deal. So if you really need a guitar, go ahead and buy the pack.

[Ironbird85]

my first guitar was a rr3 and from being a repair tech and experience with friends setups i can say a package is the worst path to walk when getting equip, some ****ty guitars can discourage would be players into quiting, due to mass production and ****ty soddering and horrible pickups and frightening action the last thing a six year old needs is a crap guitar with yngwie style action and screwed up intonation with a buzzing neck and an amp that can get only one sound and a guitar cable that crackles with broken wire in a weeks use. not to mention the uncomfortable straps and crappy inaccurate tuners and stupid lesson vids that come with them.guitar packs were designed to sell quickly to anyone and thats what most stores gear towards, beginners and the like.i would suggest a tradition guitar qaulity at a cheap price and a v amp and some low model crate or you can just buy an adapter and headphones if you dont want your kids playing "noise" and bypass the amp until they show some improvement and get them some lessons.
my mistake was getting a floyd rose on my first guitar, man did i learn.but i never looked back it just helped me learn how to be self sufficient..........

[J.Hammett]

I would not suggest Crate amps. I've tried three of their practice amps and they were horrible. The eq was crap. There was always alot of treble even when the treble was turned down. So therefore I don't find them to be great practice amps. Buy a Marshall or Mesa Boogie. Behringers aren't too bad either. I always find them to be overlooked... at least where I live.

[6strngs_2hmbkrs]

well, I have the guitar from the ibanez pack (i didn't get the pack, I just got the guitar seperately) and I don't really like it for metal at all. so, my suggestion is not to get a pack, but instead, get these:
I've heard only good things about this amp (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=guitar/s=amps/search/detail/base_pid/480022/) so you might want to get that as your amp
check out this guitar (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=guitar/s=electric/search/detail/base_pid/518334/) (it would probably be better for metal then the ibanez, and you could just upgrade later when you can afford to, or if you're willing to stretch your budget some, then you could check out the low end ESPs)
this stand (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=guitar/s=accessories/search/detail/base_pid/450819/)
this tuner (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=guitar/s=accessories/search/detail/base_pid/210526/)
one of these straps (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=guitar/s=accessories/search/detail/base_pid/361700/)
this cable (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=guitar/s=accessories/search/detail/base_pid/330075/)
why not throw these picks (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=guitar/s=accessories/search/detail/base_pid/110841/) in?
you don't really need a gig bag unless you are going to take your guitar somewhere but if you want one, then here's one (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=guitar/s=accessories/search/detail/base_pid/545160/)
and these strings (http://www.musiciansfriend.com/srs7/g=guitar/s=accessories/search/detail/base_pid/100516/) (they are good for metal, they are what I use, and I play metal)

whew, now that I've just completely assembled a custom package for you, the total cost of that all was $301.82 USD (including the gig bag) which translates to $401.13 AUD... and if you take out the gig bag, you could spring for a fancier cable or strap. so there you go, there's what I would have bought if I had to go back in time to when I was buying my first gear... but, you'll probably end up wanting to upgrade the guitar after a few months to a year. I would get a better cable and strap as soon as you could afford them too.

[CW14]

whew, now that I've just completely assembled a custom package for you, the total cost of that all was $301.82 USD (including the gig bag) which translates to $401.13 AUD...
It's not just as simple as converting it to AUD. We get completely different retail prices over here (eg. an $800 USD guitar would have a retail price of $1700 AUD over here, which translates to $1200 USD).
There probably wouldn't be a huge difference in this case, though.

[ren]

What about ebay? or a local store second hand dept?

I just won myself an Ibanez RG550 for £120 on ebay!!! :D Sure it's got a locking trem and isn't to everyone's taste in style, but my point is that second hand you could get a belter of a guitar for less than the crap they peddle in those packs....

Get to a store, and just play everything in your budget....

Good luck dude :)

[daveatron]

thanks everyone for your replys, it has been very helpfull.
6 strngs-hmbkrs, your info was great and i am going to go down to a few shops around town and get some prices on the items you quoted mainly just guitar and amp. I have been hearing from other people that buying seperately usually results in better quality rather than some package from china.

Is the "Epiphone Les Paul Special II Electric Guitar" a better guitar overall than the "Ibanex rx40". I know you said its better for metal,... but because iam in the learning phase and its going to take me awhile before i can play any slayer, pantera, metallica etc. and i will also play some other genres( iam learning offspring, and other punk at the moment), is this a better guitar in most aspects?
opinions on this would be helpfull.
cheers
Dave

[Raskolnikov]

Is the "Epiphone Les Paul Special II Electric Guitar" a better guitar overall than the "Ibanex rx40". I know you said its better for metal,... but because iam in the learning phase and its going to take me awhile before i can play any slayer, pantera, metallica etc. and i will also play some other genres( iam learning offspring, and other punk at the moment), is this a better guitar in most aspects?Almost any typical solid body electric guitar can be used to play virtually any type of music. It's not a question of what is the right guitar to play X style of music, it's "what guitar works best for me right now?"

It might be either of those, it might be both, it might be neither. The best thing for you to do is go to the local guitar shop(s) and try every guitar you can get your hands on.

Make sure you check out the "Used" racks as well -- if a guitar is well taken care of it's just as good (and often better) than it was when it rolled out of the factory, but because it's used, you're going to pay a lot less for it.



For the types of music you're interested in playing, you're probably going to want at least a bridge humbucker, but don't let that stop you from giving all of the single-coil-only guitars a try.

[6strngs_2hmbkrs]

Is the "Epiphone Les Paul Special II Electric Guitar" a better guitar overall than the "Ibanex rx40". I know you said its better for metal,... but because iam in the learning phase and its going to take me awhile before i can play any slayer, pantera, metallica etc. and i will also play some other genres( iam learning offspring, and other punk at the moment), is this a better guitar in most aspects?
opinions on this would be helpfull.
ok, well, I've actually never tried the epiphone, but, I play my ibanex the grx40, and since I'm playing alot of metal, I really wish that I had 2 humbuckers, rather then one humbucker and 2 single coils. I never use the single coils, my pickup switch is always in the bridge only position, but the bridge humbucker doesn't sound too good, lot's of humming, and pretty thin. I wish I had gotten one with two humbuckers, I'm not saying that you have to get that epiphone, it's just one of the few guitars in that price range that has two. I would take a look at the epiphone, at the low end ESPs, and anything and everything else in your price range, you'll never know what you'll find. and, also take raskolnikov's advice too and be sure to look at used guitars and blemished guitars, they may not look as nice, but you can get a better sounding guitar for less. I got my guitar blemished, it has a nick in the front, that little nick made the guitar about $50 cheaper for me. so, be sure to check out the discounted guitars.

[6strngs_2hmbkrs]

one last quick thing, humbuckers will work good for pretty much any kind of rock, single coils get noisy and start humming if you put too much distortion on...

[Raskolnikov]

http://www.musikland-online.de/pix/onlineshop/tonabgit3130422181.jpg

[6strngs_2hmbkrs]

http://www.musikland-online.de/pix/onlineshop/tonabgit3130422181.jpg
of course there are exceptions, but they still won't sound as heavy and won't be able to put out as much output as humbuckers.