Because of the electric guitars, the guitar has become such a popular instrument in the recent few decades. Initially designed in the early 1920s, currently there are a lot of various kinds of bodies for electric guitars, styles and pickups that it is almost impossible to count them.
The basic positive aspect of choosing the electric guitar as your first guitar is, in fact, its playability. Normally, there are light gauge strings that are set pretty close to the frets, and therefore it is very easy for the fingers of the beginner electric guitar musician to produce crisp sounding chords. The negative side is that you have to have extra equipment and this will be discussed further on this page.
Depending on the guitar kind of your preference, take a look at our chart that compares the most common styles guitars of the electric kind. Each one creates a very special sound that will reveal itself to you only when you play it. However, when it comes to beginner electric guitars for sale, the essential thing that you must be concerned about is your budget versus quality.
Electric Guitars for Sale for Beginners
As you make a comparison of guitars for beginners, there are few aspects you have to think about when buying an electric guitar for beginners. Such as:
- The electric guitar’s weight and size.
- The most suitable styles for your playing interests and needs.
- The electric guitar’s electronics.
- Some other equipment that needs to be bought.
- To buy a name brand or to purchase something cheaper?
The electric guitar’s weight and size
Despite that electric guitars appear somehow smaller than their acoustic cousins, most of the times they weigh more. You have to consider this if you are purchasing a beginner guitar for your child who will not be able to carry such weight, you can choose the light travel guitar.
And of course, there is the aspect of size. A lot of guitars with a hollow body, for example, the Les Paul, are quite large even for an adult man. Would you feel comfortable with such an instrument? Are you going to practice on it sitting down or standing up?
The most suitable styles for your playing interests and needs
We already mentioned Les Paul. Well this instrument has a completely different playing style than the style of a Fender Stratocaster with a solid body. So have you considered the type of music you would like to play? Fingerstyle? Rock? Jazz?
You can find various electric guitar types for any style
- First, the most popular, which is rock. If you imagine your learning process with a tough pick for power chords and strumming, you better choose a guitar with a solid body, such as the Stratocaster (Strat) or Telecaster (Tele). These instruments provide a wonderful sound, simple playability and their electronics are quite appropriate for creating the typical grungy feel.
- The second most popular style is blues or jazz. If you would like to create jazz variety riffs or licks, your best choice is a bigger archtop with a solid body or similar Les Paul style with a hollow body. And the reason is that the spacing of the strings is a bit bigger in order to accommodate fingers that are fat and some occasional finger picking.
- Moreover, finally, if you want a guitar for fingerpicking, you would better do one of these two things: first, you can look at the hollow body or the archtop already mentioned. Second, if you are not absolutely keen on electric kind of guitar, we suggest that you check some beginner classical guitars or beginner acoustic guitars. Both kinds are better for fingerpicking than the electic guitar.
The electric guitar’s electronics
Double coil, humbuckers, single coils. If all of the mentioned terms do not strike familiar, no worries! In regards to the electic guitars for sale for beginners, you will become familiar with all of these terms along the purchasing process and you do not have to be an expert.
So take a look at this short overview of every common pickup for electric guitar and what your expectations should be.
- Single coil – you can discover it on most Telecaster and Stratocaster models. It creates a sharp sound that in many cases is described as coming with much treble or high-end. This makes possible for the guitar to rise above the band’s noise and to be heard well.
- Humbucker – this kind of pickup was created in the early 1950s as a way to get rid of the hum that was considered ubiquitous for the electric guitars. Two coils pretty much cancel, or buck the hum and thus making the sound clean. As opposed to the sound of the single coil, this of the humbucker is quite heavier, darker and kind of meatier.
- Double coil – it is what could be judged by the name – two single coils. The humbucker is a kind of pickup that is double coil. It offers heavy and thick sound.
It is curious to hear that the pickup sound has a variety relying on where it is based along the string. That is the reason that you can see pickups at different places along the body and also a switch on the guitar allowing you to alter the one you use.
Some other equipment that needs to be bought
Since most electric guitars are made with solid bodies and are not hollow like the acoustic guitars, the created sound is in most cases quite softer when you play it alone. Because of this, you have to think about the extra equipment that you will have to purchase together with your electric guitar. These are included in the equipment:
- An amplifier – if you want to get more sound out of your electric guitar, note that the best way is to be plugged into an amplifier. This is a small box encased speaker in which your guitar can be plugged. The price range of the amplifiers is from $50 to $5,000 according to what you need, so be cautious when purchasing one that is suitable for you.
- Guitar pedals – they are not necessary but you will discover that a lot of people buy guitar pedals that could be plugged into the guitar and then the signal is rooted to the amplifier. Thus you can produce a plethora of various sounds, control your volume or make a delay. They are however mandatory for shredding if you are into Pantera, for example.
- Cables – not a great expense, but keep in mind that you need one or more depending on the pedals you have, that you can use so your guitar could be plugged into the amp.
- Headphones – despite that it is great to make your floor tremble when you practice, in most cases, you would have to play with headphones so you can avoid the disturbance being caused to the neighbours or family.
Should you buy a name brand? Should you buy new or used electric guitar for sale?
Actually, there are hundreds of various types of non-brand guitars for sale. Yes, not all of these guitars are crappy, but in most cases, your best choice is to adhere to the Yamaha, Epiphone or Fender. When it comes to used guitars, they are great choice only if you know what you do and what to look for. You can possibly find a great deal on a wonderful guitar with amazing quality. But you can also get a guitar with string buzz or a crack. Do not ever purchase something unseen. Make sure that you first play the guitar, examine it carefully and test its electronics. Or simply purchase a new guitar and be gentle on your nerves.
Electric Guitars for Beginners
Electric guitars are developed to be played plugged into an amp. It means that, in general, they are too quiet when played unplugged. And with the inexpensive options for an amp these days, you can create a plethora of tones from a modestly priced setup.
Magnetic pickups are used in the work of these guitars. The magnetic pickups are wire coils wrapped around magnets, and they sit below the strings. When there is a vibration of the strings, it produces a magnetic field disturbance around the pickup which is then turned into an electric signal by the wire coil. This transfers through a cable to an amp, which makes a reversal of the process and changes the signal back to sound.
Since these guitars listen to the strings themselves, they do not have to be hollow in order the sound to be amplified acoustically. For many people, the basic goal of playing guitar is to learn to play an electric guitar. If you are a devout fan of rock and metal, you can only create such sound with an electric guitar.
The electric guitar necks are usually quite slimmer than on acoustic one, with lower gauge strings and lower playing action. This means they are much easier on the fingers. On the other hand, in many cases, their strings are more closely positioned than those on acoustic guitars and thus a little more challenging for finger style musicians.
A lot of people say that you should start with an acoustic guitar, because it will toughen your fingertips and make your finger muscles stronger. On the other hand, you should always think about how much motivation you would get by a particular guitar. The initial several months of practicing can be quite tough.
In the beginning, you will not be able to produce actual melodies and you will hurt your fingers while practicing. If you are practicing with a guitar that doesn’t bring you excitation when lifting it, the difficulties could be overwhelming. If you can get the excitation only by learning to play on an electric guitar, it means that it is the suitable choice for you. Because motivation is essential.
Advantages of the electric guitars for sale
- If, after all, you would like to play rock or metal, you will get such classic tones only with eletric gutair and an amp.
- You are able to create a much larger abundance of sounds with an electric guitar and an amplifier.
- Lower gauge strings, lower playing action and slimmer necks can be quite easier on the beginner’ fingers.
- Well, can something be cooler than eletric gutair? Yes, this fact is a wonderful incentive to learn and play this instrument.
Disadvantages of the electric guitars
- In general, they are more expensive than their cousins.
- You will have to purchase a cable and an amp additionally.
- Not very suitable for acoustic music, such as folk.
- It could take a little longer for the fingers to toughen up because of the neck’s “easy” nature.
Buy such guitar only if:
- You would like to play rock, metal or some electrified type of guitar music.
- You think that the fingertip pain could prohibit you playing acoustic guitar.
- You may feel a strong inspiration from the great abundance and range of tone available to your fingertips
Types of Electric Guitars
Pick an electric guitar from the most famous variations of the musical instrument:
The solid body guitar
Solid body electric guitars do not come with vibrating soundboard amplifying the string vibration like the acoustic guitars. Because of this, the solid body guitars use an amp, electric pickups and speaker. The solid body makes sure that the sound that is amplified recreates the vibration of the strings alone and this way avoids the unwanted feedback and the wolf tones typical for the amplified acoustic guitars. The solid body guitars are usually made of hardwood and additional cover made from hard polymer which is in many cases lacquer or polyester. In big production venues, the wood is kept for about three to six months in a kiln for wood drying and then the wood is cut in different shapes. The expensive special custom made instruments are often made using quite older hand-chosen wood.
Les Paul invented one of the first guitars with solid bodies. The company Gibson decided not to present the prototypes Les Paul to the broad public because they did not expect this style would get attention. There was also another prototype, early Spanish-style guitar with a solid body, quite similar to the future Les Paul guitar by Gibson that was designed in 1941 by O.W Appleton. Appleton contacted both Fender and Gibson but didn’t manage to sell his idea to either one.
In 1946, Merle Travis requested from Paul Bigsby (builder of steel guitars) to make a Spanish-style electric guitar with a solid body for him. The first mass manufactured solid body electric guiatar was the Broadcaster by Fender, which was later renamed Telecaster. The Broadcaster was first presented in 1948, five years after the prototype of Les Paul. The Les Paul by Gibson was commercially launched a little after the Broadcaster in order to compete with it. Another solid body design worth mentioning is the Stratocaster by Fender, first revealed in 1954 and later hugely common among guitar players during the 60’s and 70’s because of the more comfortable ergonomic design and its broad tonal options compared to other models.
The chambered body guitar
There are electric guitars with solid bodies such as the Telecaster Thinline by Fender, the Singlecut by PRS and the Les Paul by Gibson that are made with hollows in their bodies. The hollows are made in such a way as not to cause interference with the string anchor point and the critical bridge on the solid body. When it comes to PRS and Gibson, these bodies are named chambered bodies. The reason could be a weight reduction, achieving a semi-acoustic tone or both.
The semi acoustic guitar
These instruments come with a hollow body which is with similar depth to a guitar with a solid body and also with electronic pickups attached to the body. These guitars work like electric guitars with solid bodies, but the difference is that because of the hollow body’s vibration, the pickups convert the combined body and string vibration into an electric signal. Unlike the solid body and chambered guitars that are made from a single piece of wood, the semi-acoustics are made using many thin sheets of wood. You cannot produce enough acoustic volume with them for a live performance, but you can use them for quiet unplugged practicing. The semi-acoustic guitars can offer a plaintive, sweet and even funky tone. These instruments are employed in many styles – indie rock, 60’s pop, funk, blues. In general, they come with cello style F-shaped sound holes. These holes could be blocked off in order to prevent feedback, as in the famous Lucille used by B.B. King. The reduction of feedback can be also accomplished with a solid block placed in the soundbox’s middle. The fans of semi-hollow guitars maintain that these instruments provide bigger sustain and resonance than the solid-body guitars.
The full hollow body – electric guitars or archtop guitars
These instruments have big, deep bodies made of sheets that are glued together or plates of wood. In many cases, they could be played at the acoustic guitar volume meaning that they can be played unplugged at some secluded gigs. They qualify as electric guitars because of the fitted pickups. Throughout history, the archtop guitars coming with retrofitted pickups were one of the first electric guitars. They first appeared during the jazz age in the 1920s and 1930s and are considered the classic jazz guitar, also called jazzbox. Similar to semi-acoustic guitars, they often come with sound holes that are f shaped.
Because they have humbucker pickups or sometimes only a neck pickup and often strung tightly, the jazzboxes are famous for their rich and warm tone. An option having single coil pickups and in some cases, a Bigsby tremolo, has long been very common in rockabilly and country music as it provides more biting and twangy tone than this of the regular jazzbox. The archtop term is a reference to a way of construction that is a little different from the standard acoustic (steel string – western – folk guitar): the top is made from a relatively thick piece of wood – about one inch, which is afterward carved into a thin domed shape with about 0.1 inches thickness. On the other hand, standard acoustic guitars come with a flat, thin top.
The electric acoustic guitars
There are acoustic guitars with steel strings that come with pickups basically as an alternative option instead of a separate microphone. They could also come with piezoelectric pickup fitted under the bridge and connected to the mounting plate of the bridge, or these guitars can have a low mass microphone, in most cases a condenser microphone, inside the guitar’s body that converts the body’s vibrations into electronic signals. Such types of pickups combinations can be used with an integral graphic equalizer/preamp/mixer. These guitars are called electric acoustic guitars. They are basically considered acoustic ones because the pickups do not create a direct signal from the strings vibration but rather from the guitar’s body or top vibration.
You should not confuse electric-acoustic guitars with semi-acoustic guitars, the latter having pickups similar to those on electric guitars with solid bodies, or with hybrid guitars with solid bodies having piezoelectric pickups.
The String, Bridge and Neck Varieties
Pay attention to the following elements of the electric guitar:
The one string guitar
It is also popular as the Unitar. Quite rare, but it could be heard from time to times, for example in Delta Blues, where there was a popularity of improvised folk instruments in the 1930s and 1940s. The Eddie “One String” Jones had locally based success. The musician Lonnie Pitchford who played Mississippi Blues had a similar homemade guitar. In more recent times, Little Willie Joe who has invented the Unitar, came with a rhythm and blues hit in the 1950s with “Twitchy”, this instrumental track was recorded together with the Rene Hall Orchestra.
The four string guitar
More popular as the tenor guitar. Tiny Grimes was one of its most popular players, he played with the beboppers on 52nd street and had a very important part within the Prestige Blues Swingers. The multi instruments musician Warren Ellis of the Australian bands Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds and Dirty Three is a player who uses a tenor guitar.
This four string guitar is usually tuned CGDA, but there are guitarists such as Tiny Grimes who tune it to DGBE and this way keep familiar six string guitar chord fingerings. You can tune a tenor guitar like a tenor ukulele, concert or soprano when using GCEA tuning versions.
The seven string guitar
Most of the guitars with seven strings add a low B string under the low E string. There are both classical and electric guitars that are made for this tuning. Sometimes, a high A string is used above the high E instead of the low B. Another less popular seven strings setting is a with a second G string placed next to the regular G string and tuned one octave more, in the same way as with a twelve string electric guitar. The seven string guitar is used by jazz musicians such as John Pizzarelli, his father Bucky Pizzarelli, Lenny Breau and George Van Eps.
These electric guitars became popular with rock players in the 1980s because of Steve Vai. They increased their popularity in the beginning of this century and have been endorsed by many rock and metal bands. Musicians prefer them because of their extended lower range.
Eight & nine string electric guitars
The kinds with eight and nine strings are rare but sometimes used. The biggest producer of eight to fourteen string guitars is Warr guitars. Nine string guitar was used first in the first album of the British band Jethro Tull.
The ten-string guitar
A six course ten string electric guiatar is manufactured by B.C. Rich and is called the Bich, whose unique shape places the machine heads for the four strings that are secondary on the body and thus avoids the head becoming too heavy like on many twelve strings electric guitars. It is interesting that many people purchased it because of its electrics or body shape and just removed the additional strings. Because of this, the company started making models based on the Bich that have six strings, but they also keep producing ten strings variants.
Other Variations
The twelve string guitar – This kind of electric guitars have six pairs of strings, in many cases every pair is tuned to the same note. The additional D,A,E and G strings add a note an octave more and the additional E and B strings are in unison. You can play each pair of strings together as one which means that the tuning and technique are the same as on a regular guitar but the tone created is much fuller. Such electric guitars are used almost exclusively for rhythm and harmony. They are considerably popular for folk music. A notable use of the twelve string electric guitars in rock and roll is by the Beatles’ George Harrison, the Byrds’ Roger McGuinn and Jimmy Page of Led Zeppelin.- The third bridge electric guitars – This is a prepared electric guitar with an extra, third bridge. It could be a standard guitar with, for example, a screwdriver positioned below the strings or it can also be a custom-made guitar. Third bridge guitar is played by the Sonic Youth’s Lee Ranaldo.
- The double neck electric guitar – The double neck, also known as twin neck, is a guitar enabling musicians to play both guitar and a bass guitar, or more often used for playing both twelve and six string guitar. The double neck guitar became popular when Jimmy Page started using it.
Consider The Following Links
- Make an Electric Guitar That Won’t Break Your Back (How to PreventBack Pain and RSI)
- The Secrets of Electric Guitar Pickups (Helmuth Lemme – German Electronics Expert)