From Lisa to Anders

First of all I have to say GT rocks! I've been a member for just over a year and I love it.
Long story short... I have a really nice acoustic guitar (Collings OM2H) that I bought when I wanted to learn finger picking. I went to a very good guitar store and got good advice, but I knew that I wanted a small body, high quality guitar I could grow with. Then I went through Lisa's lessons, which added so much more colour to my old sing-along nostalgia ballad type stuff from the 60s (I'm an old guy).
Cut to the present... I'm working through Anders' blues course. And wow! Instead of just playing songs I'm exploring on the guitar and just discovering so much. But... it seems I really *need* an electric to get the most out of the course and to enjoy this genre more.
Here's my question, do I get a nice can't-go-wrong guitar, say an American Strat and suitable amp, and see where it leads in terms of music and tones I want, and then perhaps look for the "right" electric for me, or do I work with my local experts and try to find that "right electric" guitar right off the bat. I know I like clean sounds and would lean toward blues, classic rock and not heavily overdriven and metal tones.
Any advice? I feel like a total newb when it comes to electric.

My advice would be to get it a decent Strat and go to work. I had one for several years. They are great guitars, you will be happy with it. Later I got a Les Paul. The difference between the two led me to find something totally different for my current guitar. But without seeing the trade-offs in the Strat and Les Paul I wouldn't have known what I wanted.

Anyway, fun problem! Just my two cents.

Jon

Originally Posted by: BeenAWhile
Here's my question, do I get a nice can't-go-wrong guitar, say an American Strat and suitable amp,

I'd say yes. From the sounds if it, you'll be really happy with a Strat anyways. Its always good to try before you buy... go to a store with a good selection, ask for a tuner, (those clamp on ones are great) and then try out a bunch of guitars to get an idea of what they are like. A fairly major distinction is whether the guitar uses single coil pickups, (like a standard Strat) or "humbuckers" (like a Gibson Les Paul).

I was listening to a TED Talks episode a while back, and they were talking about how too much selection these days can actually make us feel less happy with our purchases. There's always something "better" that you could have bought. I think this can be true with guitars too.... imagine yourself back in time, in a small town with a little music store. You tell the shop owner you want an electric guitar, and he opens up a catalog with a black & white advertisement for the new Fender Stratocaster with "Tremelo Action"... you slap down your deposit, wait 3 weeks for the big day, it arrives, and you fall in love! Fast forward to today, where you have 100's of guitars to choose from and supposedly one of those is the "perfect" choice just for you... but which one? The sheer number of choices can be over-whelming and leave you with a feeling that you could have done better...

So don't worry too much about which electric you end up with. Try a bunch out... see what grabs your fancy. One thing to watch for, especially in cheaper instruments, is the quality of hardware. Really cheap machine heads (tuners) can make it almost impossible for the guitar to stay in tune. Also, really high action can make the guitar quite difficult to play. If something on the guitar doesn't feel right, ask & clarify before purchase.

With the amp, its the same thing... tons of options, but I'd just start with a small, affordable practice amp for now. You may also want to look into having some sort of system that can play jam tracks that you can practice along with. Another option is connecting your guitar directly into your computer. There are some good systems out there that will offer you a lot variety and flexibility in effects & tones, and will allow you jam along with backing tracks, which is a ton of fun!

I agree that the blues course on GT lends itself to the electric guitar, though you can play blues on an acoustic. It's taught here on an electric and I think some of the bends taught would be tough to attain on an acoustic.

Many blues players play strats - SRV, Buddy Guy, Clapton, etc. However, some great blues is played on gibson guitars - BB King, Joe Bonamassa come to mind immediately.

Unless you are really trying to nail an particular artist's tone, I think the guitar choice is up to you.

I happen to own both a stat and a les paul. The main sonic difference between the two is the strat has single coil pickups and the les paul has humbuckers. The les paul won't get as twangy or trebbly sounding as a strat.

I like my strat (my first "real" electric guitar) but if I could only have one electric guitar, I would go with my les paul. It has a smaller scale size which suits my smaller stature better. The neck is slightly narrower too which I find more comfortable.

Then there's the amp...another ballgame which does impact your tone. If your budget allows, it's hard to beat the sound of a tube amp. Just like with the guitar, try different ones out and see which (combined with your guitar of choice) appeals best to you.

I found picking a guitar overwhelming enough that I put the purchase of a good amp off - I just got a small practice amp. That worked for me for years until I had the itch to upgrade. I went into the store with a Line 6 modeling amp in mind and walked out with a Peavey Valveking tube amp.

Oh, I see Jon responded already. Funny how his path followed mine. Probably pretty common since strats tend to be cheaper than les pauls. My les paul is a faded studio, so it was actually cheaper than my American Standard strat.

Originally Posted by: Slipin LizardI was listening to a TED Talks episode a while back, and they were talking about how too much selection these days can actually make us feel less happy with our purchases. There's always something "better" that you could have bought. I think this can be true with guitars too.... imagine yourself back in time, in a small town with a little music store. You tell the shop owner you want an electric guitar, and he opens up a catalog with a black & white advertisement for the new Fender Stratocaster with "Tremelo Action"... you slap down your deposit, wait 3 weeks for the big day, it arrives, and you fall in love! Fast forward to today, where you have 100's of guitars to choose from and supposedly one of those is the "perfect" choice just for you... but which one? The sheer number of choices can be over-whelming and leave you with a feeling that you could have done better...

Too much selection can also paralyze you in your purchase. Back in 2000, I remember being overwhelmed with the choices in strats - there was Made in America, Made in Mexico, Made in China (Malaysia maybe?). There was the American Standard, the Deluxe, the 60's tribute, the 50's (maybe 70's) tribute. At the time, you could choose between a fixed or floating bridge. Want single coil pickups? Perhaps humbuckers? Perhaps a combination? Oh, and what color would you like? Even with research I had done for hours online, I was there for about 4 hours.

Mind you - this is all just from one manufacturer!!

So Slipin Lizard, we can agree here :-).

Any Blackstar Amp, any Zoom mulit-effects pedal (w/ acoustic simulator) and a Dean Custom 350 Floyd will blow your mind!

The Dean is an inexpensive guitar ($299.00), but one of the absolute best guitars I've ever played. Humbuckers with a coil-tap, very touch sensitive clear or dirty sounding pickups (clean through metal, very expressive blues machine too), 25.5" scale, it's light weight but resonant. They really nailed this one. I've played many, many, many different guitars too.

Dean had/has some defects in the 350 run as do all other manufacturers have defects in runs. I went through 3 SG's before receiving one non-defective one, multiple Fender/Squier defects, Ibanez defects, ESP defects, etc., and yup...even Esteban defects (lol). So, learn how to check a guitar before going past the return period.

But a Dean 350 CF and any Blackstar amp and a zoom zoom zoom will hit the sweet spot. Add a Digitech Whammy DT for the real-time tuning feature to the signal chain and you are done!

The Floyd Rose has a steep learning curve, but once you get it down, you'll have a very stable guitar you can whammy away on.

When somebody comes up with a gizmo that locks the Floyd into a fixed bridge with a flick of the switch that is not attached to the block and or springs and does not effect the feel nor travel of the Floyd, I'll be tickled pink!

I suffered for decades till I found this combo!

Originally Posted by: Slipin LizardI was listening to a TED Talks episode a while back, and they were talking about how too much selection these days can actually make us feel less happy with our purchases...

Yeah, that's a great TED talk (Schwartz I think).
I'll get Part 1 of the blues course done and then start shopping. Another factor is weight, so I want to include hollow or semi-hollow bodies in the search.

As for amps, well, I'll find a guitar that I just don't want to put down and take it from there.

One of the things that impressed me with the strat in the beginning was the weight - they are very light and contoured well to be comfortable against your body. les pauls are know for the opposite - though some models are chambered to make the lighter.

I mentioned that I'm an old guy... one part of that is that I'm past the age where deferred gratification makes any sense. Anyway I've now bought a very nice Anderson (Tele style) guitar and Fender 12W tube amp. I love the feel of the neck of the guitar and the amp is fine for clean sounds at house volumes. I added an Apogee Jam to my iPad so I can play along with GT backing tracks or any other music I have and use headphones. Continuing the Blues course and loving it.