nubie buying gear

Hey just looked at 2 Epis
1st: les paul ultra
2nd: Joe Perry boneyard
Like to play blues to classic rock. any suggestions

I'm not a fan of Epiphone, so I can't comment on either of those guitars. What I will suggest, is go check out a PRS SE Singlecut. I have one, and it is a super versatile guitar. I would also suggest you check out a Fender MIM (Made in mexico) Tele. I also have one of these and it is equally as versatile, just a little different flavor of tone. Lastly, I will suggest one of the Yamaha AES series guitars. I had the AES620, and it's capable of pretty much any genre/style. The price:quality:tone ratio on those guitars far surpasses anything else in their price range that I've played.

Here's my PRS SE Singlecut

pfsh showoff eric

:D

im still wanting that tele btw but have been thinking abt the yamaha too

I've always been a fan of Gibsons but the Les Paul always seemed to weigh too much. (not sure if the model you mention is the same thing)
That's probably why I ended up with an L6S... nice and light.
Plus..24 frets which is mandatory and the control knobs easy to access but not directly below the pickups where you can accidentally smash your fingers.

Other questions that usually come up..
How good is the bridge for palm muting? Is it going to take several years to break it in and wear down the frets or are you better off with an older model thats been broken in.
Last but not least..does it look kewl when you're playing it.
Another reason I never bought a Les Paul.. it reminds me of something my grandfather would play while dressed in a 3 piece suit.
What pickups are in it and are they going to need replacing? (first thing I did with the L6S was replace the pickups with the best I could get.

Check for scratches. You can really haggle the price down if there's a couple of nicks in it (that somehow accidentally got there when nobody was looking)

How does the neck size feel with your hands. When you go to hit an A chord, does your left hand automatically find it's place or do you find yourself missing the chord. Not a huge problem but it means re-learning a lot of automatic, subconcious runs and licks.
Play the crap out of it and see how well it holds it's tuning. Make sure they have new strings on it before you'll even consider buying it.

Last but not least, are you going to have enough money left over for accessories and a decent amp. You're also going to need a strap, picks, extra strings, a winder, tuner, cleaner, case..etc etc..
You'll need a really nice amp if you want to get the best out of the guitar in live situations. Figure on spending in the thousands instead of hundreds. Plus you'll need decent cables (my main guitar cable was about $100 and the RCA cables for audio were $250 and yeah, it makes a big difference)
Keep in mind you'll also need effects units at some point. Compression, overdrive, chorus, wah etc...plus if you do recording you'll need to find a way to ground your power supply so you don't get any 60 cycle hum or noise from your computer monitor. (a constant problem)

As a newbie myself, let me share something I learned. Pros please chime in if you don't think this is right.

You're probably not going to spend a bunch of money on your first guitar. I'm no expert but it seems like the inexpensive models need some adjustments. Probably the dude in the Chineese factory doesn't know/care that much to put any time in.

I've got a friend that makes guitars for a living, and when he saw my guitar, he said more or less "there's nothing really wrong with this, but bring it to my shop so I can work on it".

I did, and he did a few things like adjusting the truss rod, filing down the grooves in the nut, adjusting the action and intonation. It really made a big difference, especially the nut thing. Apparently the grooves needed to be brought down some as it was making stuff, especially like an open D chord, sound sharp.

I would have never even considered buying something brand new and immediately bring it to a repair shop, but it makes sense to me now. He did it for free, not sure what a repair shop costs, but it took him about 45 minutes to fix up both my electric and acoustic.

A setup is really important. The nicer shops will give your guitar a free setup when you buy it, which is nice.

A great guitar can sound and play badly if it is not setup correctly...and every guitar will play much much much better when it is set up than when it is not.

I dont really know the Epiphone range that well, but you are no doubt paying for the Les Paul signature and whatnot...If I were you, I;d take Prs's advice and go with the Yamaha Aes 620...not sure of the price of thsoe there, but here they are comparable to the Epi Les Pauls...and in my opinion, twice the guitar.

Not only are they much lighter, but they also have a Seymour Duncan Jb Humbucker in the bridge position (something that you will find in time to be very awesome...stock pickups generally suck).
The Aes620's also have awesome finnishes and really nice Flame maple tops...for the money, I'd say they're the best guitars available

Yeah, it makes sense. If you're a beginner, it'd probably be a good time to learn how to do a basic setup yourself though. It'll save you a lot of money in later years cause a lot of the stuff you mentioned can be done yourself if you just read up on guitar setups/repairs etc... then take the time to do it right. Every guitar player should know the basics of truss rod adjustments, intonation, string height and how to properly string a guitar so that it doesn't go out of tune.

I vote for the LP Ultra. Throw in a 496R/500T combo and you'll never look at a POS err PRS

I have heard that Buying an Epiphone guitar is a waste of time and money. I can't become too critical as I haven't even touched one, so I won't, but if I were buying a first guitar I would go with either a mexican-made Strat or an SE like was previously mentioned! They are both medium quality instruments from very reputable companies.

I don't think that Epi is good quality for the money.

Not that it's in your price range anyways, but just to back up Epi's... The Epiphone Sheraton is quite an excellent guitar. One of my friends, guitarist of almost 10 yrs, bought one and he even had the option of a strat. Another one of my friends owns own from the 80's I believe when Epiphone was seperate from Gibson. It is an awesome guitar. Just thought I'd throw that out there. :rolleyes: