How to choose the right electric guitar for you

If you are a beginner looking for your first electric, then no problem. These are the 4 main factors you want to consider when buying an electric guitar for a beginner.

1. Size and Weight

If you're buying a guitar for a small child, under 12 years of age, you should really consider getting a small-sized guitar like a MiniS. The MiniS weighs about 2.5 kg, so it's quite easy for little hands to lift and to play.

On the heavier scale of things, you can get an LP style guitar like an LP60. These are generally very heavy guitars, and for most beginners they are probably a little too heavy. These weigh about 5 kg.

The STH model is a good in-between size and weight, and it weighs about 3.5 kg. So it's not too heavy and it's quite a good choice for most beginners. 

2. Pickups

Most beginner guitars come with 3 single-coil pickups, like the MiniS. Single coils are great for clean sounds, but they're not great if you're going to be playing with any form of distortion.

The 'Single Coil' pickup

If you're going to use distortion, you want to get a guitar that has a humbucker pickup on it. a humbucker pickup looks like the image below in the STH model. It's got 2 pickups side-by-side, and by having these pickups side-by-side, it reduces the noise and hum in the guitar.

You also get humbuckers that are covered by a metal plate, like our AG1 guitars or LP60 guitars. Inside of the metal casing, there is still 2 pickups side-by-side, and you still get the humbucker noise-cancelling effect.

3. Tremolo

For beginners, we normally recommend against using tremolo, especially in the early stages of learning. Tremolo can cause a lot of problems with tuning if it's used incorrectly. So there's lots of different types of tremolos. The most basic type, like we have on our STH guitars, is used on lots of different types of guitars. This tremolo itself doesn't cause a lot of problems because it's quite simple. But we would still recommend that people avoid using this style of "trem" if you're a beginner. 

The second choice is a roller-style or Bigsby-style trem like we have on our Blackcherry guitars. These tremolos, when used incorrectly, will cause a ot of tuning issues on the guitar. So you really want to avoid getting a guitar with this style of trem on it, or avoid using it if you do get a guitar with it and you're a beginner. 

The worst style of trem system for a beginner is a Floyd Rose or double floating style trem. In these styles of guitars, if any of the strings has a tuning problem, it generally puts the whole guitar out of tune. This can be a real problem of beginners, especially if they're not used to using that style of trem just yet.

4. Style

If you look at all the guitars on our website, they all have a different style and a different look. If you really like the way one of them looks, or if it looks similar to a guitar that one of your heroes might have played, that's the last factor we would consider when buying an electric guitar for a beginner.

Jimi, rocking the 'Fender Stratocaster'

 

Example 1

For example, you might be a fan of Jimi Hendrix. A quick search online will tell you that the sort of guitar he played was a Fender Stratocaster.

Nice shape, huh?!

...That's called the 'ST.'

Then wanting that shape you can search for a budget priced beginner’s version to start with on the ARTIST GUITARS website, and find that we at ARTIST have a great guitar in that shape.

Check out the product page for our ST!

Example 2

Another example is that you may really like SLASH (ex Guns & Roses). Searching online for the sort of guitar he played you will find out it was a 'Gibson Les Paul', as he does in this video clip of 'Sweet Child O' Mine'.

But the original version of this guitar can cost between $2000 - $1,000,000 (Yes, very true)

... And that beautiful curved shape is called the 'LP'.

If you're after an LP shaped guitar you can search for a budget priced beginner’s version to start with on our ARTIST GUITARS website. You'll find that we have a great guitar in that shape too!

Check out the product page for our LP