Electric Guitar Reviews...

[Pierscoe1]

Hi all,

Anybody have any good links for review sites?
I've found loads of shops, and a few 'guides', but no actual comprehensive review sites... any ideas?

Alternatively, recommendations for beginners electric guitars would also be appreciated.
What is a good ballpark figure to spend on a beginners guitar? Any particular makes/models to go for, or avoid.. etc etc

thanks...

[Gaspode]

Harmony Central has plenty of reviews.

As for a beginner's electric guitar, buy the best you can afford. A good guitar is going to sound better and be easier to play than a cheap plank, and be less likely to deter you from putting the effort in. It's not a case of 'you get what you pay for' but you certainly won't get what you don't pay for.

[garybezz]

Ultimate Guitar also has lots of reviews.
Whether you trust the judgement of a 14 year old American telling you that you really must buy a Gibson 'coz Epiphones suck' is up to you though

[Pierscoe1]

thanks for the links... although as you say, user reviews are only so useful.

I was hoping for a proper professional review archive, something similar to, say, reghardware, where you can look up reviews of any sort of gadget.

any comments on either of these:

Ibanez GRG170DX
http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/...

Yamaha 112V
http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Guitar/...

[dern]

Haven't had one but that yamaha pacifica comes up time after time as a good beginners guitar.

Do yourself a favour though, get down to a shop and sit one one your lap and see how it feels. Don't be embarrassed if it takes you 20 minutes to form a D-chord... they will understand. Then buy the one you tried from the shop if you like it and got a good feel of the shop. The setup and quality of cheaper guitar will not be as consistent as the more expensive ones and buying one mail order with no local backup just to save a few quid is not the right thing to do.

What amp will you be going for?

Good luck,

Mark

[evil len]

dern said:

Haven't had one but that yamaha pacifica comes up time after time as a good beginners guitar.

Do yourself a favour though, get down to a shop and sit one one your lap and see how it feels. Don't be embarrassed if it takes you 20 minutes to form a D-chord... they will understand. Then buy the one you tried from the shop if you like it and got a good feel of the shop. The setup and quality of cheaper guitar will not be as consistent as the more expensive ones and buying one mail order with no local backup just to save a few quid is not the right thing to do.

This.

And, I've got a Pacifica, great beginners guitars, highly recommended

[Pierscoe1]

dern said:

What amp will you be going for?

No idea!!

...just trying to nail the guitar down, and haven't even looked at amps yet.
Care to recommend a decent small practice amp, bearing in mind I would be buying, for example, the Pacifica 112V?...

[dern]

Pierscoe1 said:

dern said:

What amp will you be going for?

No idea!!

...just trying to nail the guitar down, and haven't even looked at amps yet.
Care to recommend a decent small practice amp, bearing in mind I would be buying, for example, the Pacifica 112V?...

Depends on your budget I guess.

My brother is very happy with his roland cube.

I just play at home and mainly play through headphones (young kids asleep in the next room) and use a line 6 ux2 pc external sound card thing which comes with software which has a stab at emulating all sorts. It sounds pretty good and you get a ton of toys and effects to play with.

There's loads of modelling amps which have a stab at pretending to be all sorts of amps and have effects built in which might be worth a look.

You could get a small valve which would sound very nice and need not be that expensive. The epiphone valve junior is supposed to be good (haven't heard one). I've got a blackstar ht-5 and am just ebaying that as I've bought a laney l5-t... both of these are more money but I like that valve sound.

Same advice as with the guitar really... get yourself down a shop and have a listen. When I wasn't confident enough to play I would ask one of the sales guys to play the kit I fancied and then I knew what I'd sound like a bit down the line.

Forgotten the obvious question - what sort of music do you want to play?

Edited by dern on Monday 1st March 23:13

[garybezz]

dern said:

The epiphone valve junior is supposed to be good

I've got a Harly Benton GA5 which is essentially the same thing.
As standard, they sound pretty wooly at low volume so you need to turn them up to sound good and even a 5w valve amp is way, way too loud for home use when cranked up (unless, of course, you live in a remote farmhouse or similar.)
I've done a load of mods to mine so it does sound really nice now but you probably are better with one of the modelling amps IMO.

[dern]

garybezz said:

dern said:

The epiphone valve junior is supposed to be good

I've got a Harly Benton GA5 which is essentially the same thing.
As standard, they sound pretty wooly at low volume so you need to turn them up to sound good and even a 5w valve amp is way, way too loud for home use when cranked up (unless, of course, you live in a remote farmhouse or similar.)
I've done a load of mods to mine so it does sound really nice now but you probably are better with one of the modelling amps IMO.

I must admit I've found the blackstar ht-5 a bit wooly uness turned up. The replacement laney lt-5 I bought a week ago sounds amazing at any volume and I wish I'd bought one in the first place... but it's a load more money.

[Pierscoe1]

so I've been looking on that harmony central site, and the available deals online (there are no shops nearby that have decent variety of stock, that I can find), and this is looking promising so far:

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/42570-yamaha...

with this

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/42739-vox-da...
the Vox DA5 seems to get really goods reviews across the board on that site)

only thing missing is some picks & a tuner (???)

what do you knowledgable folk think

Edited by Pierscoe1 on Wednesday 3rd March 09:00

[dern]

Pierscoe1 said:

so I've been looking on that harmony central site, and the available deals online (there are no shops nearby that have decent variety of stock, that I can find), and this is looking promising so far:

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/42570-yamaha...

with this

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/product/42739-vox-da...
the Vox DA5 seems to get really goods reviews across the board on that site)

only thing missing is some picks & a tuner (???)

what do you knowledgable folk think

Although the pacifica is supposed to be a good guitar the only way to make sure that the one you get is a good one (true with any guitar) is to play it or get a mate to play it. The sound a guitar/amp makes is subjective so you need to listen to it. Learning to play guitar is extremely difficult and time consuming and there will be loads of times where you just want to chuck it in... make sure the kit you buy is what you feel comfortable with, setup correctly and sounds the way you want it to so that the kit is never the reason you get pissed off with it. Making the effort to find a shop that can help you is the way to go and the time spent will pale in to insignificance compared to the sheer enjoyment you get out of playing if you stick with it.

Regards,

Mark