Looking for my first guitar

Looking to buy my first electric guitar set. Not sure what though. I like music by blink 182 and other bands like that, if that really matters. I hear fenders are good...

Max price for everything I need would be $650. BTW, I'm a lefty.

Welcome to GT Forums! :)

You should be right with just about anything that has passive humbuckers in it.. from what I can remember of blink 182, they have a hi-range gritty feel. An Ibanez setup is heading more towards the metal side of things and a Fender setup is heading more towards the jazz side of things and a Gibson setup has a blues/rock tendency.

Having said all that.. you can play just about any guitar in just about any situation.. Something I learnt from someone who owns lots of guitars was that you should play the guitar unplugged for a little while before plugging it in when you are considering buying it. Ask yourself.. Does it feel right? Does it resonate clearly all by itself? Is the neck too wide? Is the nick too thick? Does it feel comfortable? All that sort of stuff.. You can generally get a better idea of what the guitar sounds and feels like without plugging it in.. It's also MUCH easier and less intimidating to play "loudly" when the guitar is unplugged.. so you can really have a good bang on it.. I know that I always feel a little embarrassed when I am trying out guitars at stores where the staff are all guitar legends.. lol :)

So once you find a couple of guitars that "feel" right.. now it's time to select the amp that is closest to the one you are going to use it on. There's no point plugging it into a huge Marshall stack if all you are going to be using is a 15w practise amp. In fact a lot of amps will make an awful sounding guitar sound half-decent.. Which is what the first step of playing unplugged is all about..

The first obvious choice may not be the best one when it comes to buying a guitar. Look at what the artists you like are using.. If the majority of them are using Ibanez-based setups, then you should be looking in that direction.. etc etc

Thanks alot light. Incredibly helpful post. If I have large hands, would I want a pretty wide neck?

Also, I plan on buying the guitar over the internet because we dont have a music store anywhere near here. Is it a terrible idea to buy a guitar without first trying it? Because I am going to end up doing that. :o

Also, what type of amp should I get?

first id like to say congratz its a big step.
you said you dont have a music store close? do you have any friends/family that play that might let you try out a guitar? as for a buying over the net, i almost always buy over the net.most music shops cant compete with musiciansfriends prices. i always try what i want before had though.
a wide neck is good if you have big hands because the smaller the neck the faster youll get tired and cramp, but the wider the neck is also true unless it fits your hands. if you have been playing a while you should look for something around the $250 to $500 range, if not look for something cheaper. epiphone squire and ibanez a few other too i think offer amp-guitar starter packs but i dont know how good they are.

i do know if you want an ok starter amp you might try a pignose protable. its small and it can be powered by 6 aa batteries or a wall plug (the wall plug sounds better) and it is under $100. i have one and any time i do work on a guitar or travel with an axe i take it along. just my two cents

Thanks man. Any other suggestions? Also, the portable amp doesn't appeal to me. I am just going to rock out in my basement.

Edit: Any of you have a guitar in my price range? How is it?

i have an ibanez gax20 strat copy it was $170 its been an ok guitar for me but i would go for something a little better. i had a jackson dinky reverse with a floyd rose but i dont like locking nuts so i sold it. i also have an epi les paul which i find to be a pretty good axe set neck and tune o matic.

for amps though dont buy cheap if you can avoid it. i have a rogue 30 amp that iwant to chop into little peices. but the pignose is a good amp if you ever want a portable in the future.

What would u consider to be "Cheap" for an amp?

And what type of wood is good? Maple?

cheap is 30 watts for under $150 or so i guess its the name you need to look at.

for wood if i remember rightit goes like
maple- bright and trebley
mahogany-warm bassy
alder-warm soft
ash-swampash- in between maple and mahogany
basswood- in there somewhere
koa- warm

on a good les paul the mahogany body and carved maple top give it that lp punch or bite.
im not sure about the rest but i know maple and mahogony are in the right place

here is a guitar hobby builders forum site that has a lot of answers if you search for them http://projectguitar.ibforums.com/

What about Rosewood?

great for fingerboards. gives thats nice soft warm tone wheremaple gives you a briter sound and ebony gives a sharper harder tone. as for guitar bodies i have no clue but for acoustic sides and back its really nice.

another thing i like to do is if you have access to other guitars put your ear against the body and play a few note. i like to play and open low e an open b and a few fretted cs this lets you hear how the note resonate through the tone wood rather than just the strings.

For the money you are talking the wood doesn't come into it. Good pickups are the most important. For $650 you could get a cheap Ibanez the upgrade the pickups to Dimarzio Evolutions or EMG 81's (graewt for clear heavy crunch tones) and still get a Marshall 100 DFX from E-Bay. With that set up you would have monster tone and still be loud enough to play with a drummer. The whole wood debate means nothing when you are playing high gain/distortion unless you are an extremely advanced player and are thinking about tone shaping at professional engineer level - you simply won't notice the difference otherwise. The fretboard wood under sthe strings is more for show at this level than anything else.
The most important considerations are the feel of the neck (some people like thick for more chord based playing, other like wafer thin for ultra fast playing), the action (height of the strings - if you want to shred then it has to be low), condition of the fret wire (if second hand this is very important - otherwise you will be looking at redressing the frets for extra cost), the pickups (incredibly important - these create the sound) and whether or not you want to go with a tremelo (it takes longer to set up and tuning up can be tough but you get a lot more options).
If you are thinking Nu Metal then I advise either Dimarzio or EMG pickups - but you really need to sit down with a guitar and try to get a feel for it. For the guitar body and neck I would look at either Ibanez or Jackson. Most Nu Metal is powered by Mesa Boogie Triple Rectifier head/cab combos but that is WAY above budget! Good thing is you can also get major heavy sound from entry level Marshall DFX series, this is what I would go with anyway (I have a 100DFX from ages back and have used Ibanez since the begining). Line 6 Spider and Vox valvetronic 'modeling' amps also make it very easy to get a variety of tones - check them out too.

As a starter, if you have that price range, I would highly reccomend either the Epiphone Les Paul Standard (which I own and love), or the Gibson sg special with the faded finish. Both give you great tone. I would sort of lean towards the Epi LP for you because then you could buy a smaller Spider III amp. Those are awesome. If you are just starting out then there should be no reason to change the pickups right off the bat. By the way, for the wood thing, I believe the Epi LP has a maple veneer top, alder/mahogany middle, and a mahogany back and neck.