Good, inexpensive guitar?

SpellcasterDX

Okay so I recently got the idea to start playing electric guitar.
And since I know absolutely nothing about them, I come here for help.

What's a good, reliable brand of guitar that isn't too expensive?

And by inexpensive I mean it has to be less than $400.

Any help is appreciated. Thanks.

schooldays

Have you any experience on the acoustic guitar? If not, I'd advise starting with that. It's generally harder to play, so is better for learning. Then you could move on to the the electric.

And if you do, I don't know a huge amount about electric guitars, so I can't really advise. The most important thing is that is can stay in tune and has a decent tone, really.

Ankhanu

For a starter instrument, there are a lot of options, many of them are pretty similar; none are going to be amazing, but they'll do you for a while while you learn. A bad instrument will become more frustrating than fun to play and will probably discourage you from advancing.

I would suggest avoiding the major (expensive) brand names (ie. Fender, Gibson and the like) for a starter, just in case you find that the instrument isn't for you; you won't find yourself holding a $700+ piece of wood that you want to get rid of. Squire and Epiphone make licensed copies of the popular Fender and Gibson styles (respectively) that are made with lower quality parts than their more expensive counterparts, but can be decent quality for the price. Jay Turser, Brice and Hondo instruments can be a good quality for the price as well, and tend to make similar styled instruments to the popular name brands. Samick has a few good starter models as well. Yamaha also makes some good entry level instruments.

Godin makes a good quality, inexpensive guitar (in the Performance series at least, their higher quality instruments start getting pricey) and I find you get a really good value/quality for the price with them. My first guitar was a Godin Exit 22 that I picked up for about $500. It's served me well; it's fairly versatile and build of better quality wood (solid mahogany rather than plywood like most guitars in that sort of price range) and electronics than most entry level instruments.

Without knowing the type of music you want to play, it's hard to suggest a style of guitar; as they all have their strengths and weaknesses. The best advice anyone can give is to go in to your local music stores, and play around with some of them. See how they feel in your hand and how the different pickups sound. Ask for help from one of the clerks and spend some time picking their brains... but the real trick is to put aside the insecurities you'll probably feel about playing with the guitars in a public space when you don't actually know how to play. It's fine, no one cares that you can't shred Razz

SpellcasterDX

Well I'd like to play rock. lol
Some riffs from some LP songs and Evanescence songs.

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