guitar for a beginner?

phaeton

hmm, id probably drop the duo sonic from that list.

is the telecaster a standard model? with single coils and everything?

scryber

The Tele has single coil pickups. The differences from a regular tele are the neck scale (24.75") and neck radius (7.25").

Interestingly, the recommendations I've gotten from that list are split 50/50 for the Tele and the Duo Sonic. I keep flip-flopping between them.

jberneti

Not sure if your search has ended or what, but I thought I'd throw in my two cents. I dig teles, but the Squier you're looking at is a semi-hollow body, which somewhat limits the guitar's resonation and fullness of the sound. They look great, but do not have the tone for all styles of music, particularly hard rock or anything with distortion. Lots of people claim that Teles in general are too twangy to play anything but country stuff, but this is definitely a misconception and in my opinion they can be used for any kind of music (except Thinline Teles). Have you thought about a used guitar? Maybe a solid-body Tele? You could probably find a lightly-used solid-body Fender Tele, which would be a much higher quality guitar, for around the same price.

tragictravisty

semi-hollow might affect tone but will only improve resonance.

jberneti

should i have said that it will hurt sustain? what's the difference between sustain and resonance?

Robbmonster

scryber said: The Tele has single coil pickups. The differences from a regular tele are the neck scale (24.75") and neck radius (7.25").
Interestingly, the recommendations I've gotten from that list are split 50/50 for the Tele and the Duo Sonic. I keep flip-flopping between them.

Scryber,

Your situation is similar to mine: on-and-off player, limited budget, wants something cheap and durable and sounds good.

I did plenty of research before choosing my guitars recently, and I actually ended up with a used Squier Affinity Telecaster from 2001 that was in bad shape, but has now been fixed and sounds wonderful. It cost me $200

I also have on hold a Jagmaster for which I am paying $459 (new). I didn't get the chance to play it, but I hope it is a good example of a Jagmaster. I had the Jagmaster on hold before I bought the Tele, which was an impulse buy really.

I did research into the Duo-Sonic (there are a few reviews on Harmony Central), and people tended to say the guitar was unreliable, even after being set up by a pro, so I gave up on the Duo.

I guess my best advice is to go for the Jagmaster if you can find it in your budget. If you can't and decide to go for a Telecaster, try to play as many of them as you can and find the exact one you like best. But my Squier Tele is wonderful and I would easily recommend it.

Post again when you have made your decision 😀

tragictravisty

jberneti said: should i have said that it will hurt sustain? what's the difference between sustain and resonance?

resonance is simply put how loud the guitar is unplugged, its how well the strings transfer to the body. might hurt sustain... but since the resonance would push the strings into feedback more quickly, might not... i dont have a semi hollow.

scryber

I haven't made any decision yet, but I think I've narrowed it down. Part of the reason for a lack of urgency is that I do have a guitar, it's just one I haven't felt comfortable with.

I've had it for 20 years and for the longest time I couldn't get any info about it. There's very little model info on it other than the Epiphone name on the headstock. But I googled for late 80s Epiphone guitars and found this article: http://www.premierguitar.com/Magazine/Issue/2008/Apr/Epiphones_800.aspx. To save you the time from reading it, the column answers whether a certain guitar is "trash or treasure," and in this case the verdict was "treasure."

After a bit more research I found out my guitar is Epiphone S-900, with these specs:

25.5" scale.

Solid basswood body.

All-maple neck-through construction.

Rosewood fretboard with 21 medium-size steel frets.

White plastic sharktooth inlays.

Steinberger traditional tremolo bridge.

SSH

So now I at least know something about it. I also know that the setup and action is completely F'ed up and has been for years, which is largely why I don't feel comfortable playing it. I keep meaning to take it to a guitar tech, which might just solve a lot of my problems.

I'm definitely keeping it, I just don't think it will be my main guitar. I still crave that Jaguar-style look. The Epiphone is a Super Strat clone, very much a guitar of its time (think 80s rock/metal). And the other big factor is the neck scale. I really want to try out a shorter scale.

It's between the Jagmaster and the Tele thinline. I'm dropping the Duo Sonic from the list. As superficial as it sounds, one reason is I can't get past the color. As for the other two, the Jagmaster remains a big contender. A friend at work recently got the Jagmaster and I played around with it for an evening. Felt really nice.

As for the Tele, I don't ever plan on playing heavy/metal stuff so that's not a concern. Most of the alternative bands I listen to have at least one Tele variant in their guitar rack so I don't have any worries about it being too twangy or "country" ... and I REALLY hate country. The main appeal for this one is that it's semi-hollow, which could mean a fuller tone, and maybe some nice Ric-style jangle.

tremolo

the best beginner's budget guitars ever produced were the squier 51's. i say beginner's budget because they went for as low as $79 at one time, because they were a little too novelty to catch on...basically tele electronics/neck and strat-ish body.

i think most of them are gone now, though you may find the odd one at out there somewhere, and if you see one under $200, i would give it serious consideration.

here is what they are now going for:

http://search.ebay.com/search/search.dl ... category0=

Robbmonster

If you are interested in short-scale, a tele definitely will not help. 25.5", 21 fret.

Current Jagmasters are (I think) 24", 22 fret.

I really can't wait to get mine. When I do, I'll be playing a 3/4 scale classical acoustic, my tele, and my Jagmaster. 3 different scale lengths and neck widths.

I hope my playing improves from this instead of making it tougher 😀

scryber

someone said: If you are interested in short-scale, a tele definitely will not help. 25.5", 21 fret.

That's what is appealing (and unique) about the Squire Thinline Tele, it has a Gibson scale, 24.75". So not quite short scale, but not 25.5" either.

Robbmonster

someone said: If you are interested in short-scale, a tele definitely will not help. 25.5", 21 fret.

Ahh okay, that suddenly pushes the tele a bit higher up.

As someone who adores Telecasters, that's probably the one I would go for if I was really intent on the idea of the short scale. Personally, I'm trying to vary the sounds I get and the scales I play. The telecaster fills one need, the Jagmaster will fill another, and my 3/4 classical fills another again.

But if I could only have one, it would be the tele, no question about it 😀

tragictravisty

you wont notice the difference between a 24 and 24.75 that much. its only noticable for about the first thirty seconds.

nirvana23freak

i barely notice a difference between 25.5. and 24.

tragictravisty

i notice a huge difference in bending. also when i play with any speed on a strat i #### up fretting. i can play more than twice as well on my jag. this is because of habit, a strat player might experience similar things with a jag. also jags are more comfortable with the neck higher. i usually play sitting down, so that might be part of it.

nirvana23freak

bending i can tell a difference. thats it. i can play either eyes closed, and it doesnt bother me. but i have kind of big skinny hand

Robbmonster

nirvana23freak said: i barely notice a difference between 25.5. and 24.

Maybe if it was 24", 22 fret things would be a bit more compacted...

nirvana23freak

i have a 21 fret strat. and 22 fret jagstang and mustang. i could without a problem play shortscale to regular in one second. it just doesnt bother me

Robbmonster

nirvana23freak said: i have a 21 fret strat. and 22 fret jagstang and mustang. i could without a problem play shortscale to regular in one second. it just doesnt bother me

I tend to be that way when I switch from the classical to the Tele.

I'm still in a very experimental frame of mind, and looking to explore different forms of guitars and different sounds.

Having said that, I seem to be quite monogomas (sp) toward Fender. Weird...

scryber

Robbmonster said: Having said that, I seem to be quite monogomas (sp) toward Fender. Weird...

Hopefully without getting into a whole Gibson vs Fender debate, I find that I wish there was a Gibson-ized Fender guitar. Aesthetically Jags and Teles just look right to me, while an SG just doesn't...something about those curved horns. But as a novice there are elements common to (most) Gibsons that I wish were on (most) Fenders. I don't feel as comfortable with the 25.5 scale that dominates Teles and Strats, and here's the other thing that seems superficial, but for me is a consideration: the fret dots.

For a newb, those big Gibson inlayed fret blocks are a lot more helpful than a small white circle. I know with practice it becomes second nature knowing and quickly finding where the 8th fret is, but try to remember those early days when hunting for the correct fret involved looking down at the neck and making a quick visual inspection where the fret marker was.

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