advice on buying an electric guitar, amp and effect processor

Hi everyone, I've been playing acoustic guitar for a while now and was planning to buy electric guitar amp and effect processor(pedals) this summer, can anyone suggest some models considering me as a beginner and my range to be around $500.

Hi mate i got some good ideas for you but could you tell me what $500 is in £££££ cheerss

so im thinking for a amp the line 6 range is realy eg the line 6 spider's are realy good. And I think that the best effetcs there are, are the BOSS range eg GT-8 but the GT-5 is just as good and cheaper!! lol im not to sure on a guitar, just go to your local music shop and test loads out, see what you like. As you probaly know encore is a rubbish make, but maybe you mite fine it a good guitar. lol

hope this helps

Lewis

Tell you what.. i was in the same predicament as you 4 months ago and probably the best advice i can give you is to get a very good amplifier first.. i know what you're thinking.. how can you play that thing without the guitar aight? but tell you this, a great percentage of your sound is very much affected by the type of the amp that you have. even if you a $1000 guitar if you got a crappy amp, pretty much the sound will be crappy too. o yeah, no offense to 137 up there, but i dont think low- end line 6 amps are that great. i dot even think that its a good beginers amp because the sound is way too digital. (for me that is.) Try Vox amps, i have the vox ad15vt and its much much better than line 6! it has preamp valve in it, very solid construction and has 11 amp models that you can mess around with. its not a tube amp but i think its what they call hybrid amps. i got mine for $186 (+tax)not too bad eh? bout the effects, dont go buy one yet cause as beginner you will still undergo the process of finding your true self as musician. a guitar and an amp is a good starting place to ponder and start figuring what do you really want to play in the future, and most amplifiers this days, especially the modelling ones do have built-in effects in it. try messing around with those first before considering getting any FX pedal. that vox amp that i just told you have a decent effects on it. its indeed a good place to start. hope this helps! peace =)

thanks mate (zmazz) lol

but when you program a GT-5 well they sound great!!!

lol

just saying

oo yar when you said that the sound is too digital what did you mean???

im not quite sure how to explain it but for me digital sounds really processed and it doesn't sound natural to me. if you have the line 6 spider, try their clean settings and you'll know what i mean.

ok cheers

thanks guys, can you guys suggest any specific guitar models, good for beginner..

considering your price range, i'd recommend something from these brands : fender, ibanez, schecter, and jackson. with the fenders, the american made series tends to be more along the expensive side($950+), so you could opt for a mexican or korean made one(if you're willing to spend a hint more, get the korean one...) as for the other brands, they offer great guitars for the price. also, try to consider what type of music you'll be playing. if you're gonna be playing metal... get something equipped with humbuckers. if you're gonna play more lead/bluesy stuff, perhaps something with single coils. or if you're an all round kind of guitarist, get something with both, like me. (i got a fender american h-s-s stratocaster... and i love it!) in my opinion you can't go wrong with the comfort and sound of a american stratocaster... or a gibson sg or les paul, but those are way more than 500 bucks =X

oh yeah, i forgot... with amplifiers.. get a marshall practice amp, like from the MG series, or can browse through peavey's selection of amps... they tend to have nice tube amps for the price... (i.e. the peavey windsor half-stack... a highly under-rated amp that consists of 100 watts of all tube power for an awesome price... like 500-600 or something) once you've mastered the guitar and have saved up tons of cash... get a full-stack marshall jcm or jvm series amp, a full-stack peavey 6505, or a full stack orange rockerverb 100... =D

thanks, I am planning to go for a fender squier(h-s-s) starter kit( the one for 299$, which comes with a amplifier), and high end effect processor digitech gnx4. But am still confused if its good to go for a starter kit or buy amp and guitar seperately, I've been playing acoustic guitar for a few years now, but not good at theory, scales and solo's, just kind of rythm person. Any suggestions?

Check out the Epiphone Valve jr. Scuttlebut on the forums is this little tube amp is a really great sounding rig. Not too hard on the wallet, either. Even a Fender Blues jr. sounds better than most beautique amps. Agree with zmazz above. Go for an amp and guitar and get a sound you like first, and then add effects sparingly to avoid spending a bunch of money of stuff you don't use. Most stomp boxes take away from that good sound you got with just the guitar and amp, even when they are off, ditto in-line tuners. There are tons of processors out there that sound great in the earphones or by themselves, but lousy in a mix (live or studio).

I see you posted this a while ago but I will still put in my two cents in. When I started out There was not much to choose from as far as FX goes. I had a crate 212. I did not get into FX until later after Alesis came out with Midireverb III. Now I use the GNX4 which is a very good unit for pactice and gigs. I dont use the heavy sound in it I use a metal zone for that. I also run my guitar though a Boss GT-8 and GS-10. I use a Fender deluxe and a Line 6 III 150. They are very good amps but do cost a little bit but if you want just use a amp they do have a lot of FX's. They are a digital amps and have that sound to them though. You can get a Line 6 III 120 amp for around 299 I beleive and if you look at guitarcenter you might find a deal or one used. As far as a guitar I like the ibanez and Schecter guitars. Fenders are very good too just I like them for lead or blues not a heavy metal guitar.

Hey bud in my opion you can get a marshall dfx 15 for about 150.oo (used) great amp,as far as guitar goes sorry bud ,know one can tell you what feels good to you,that is something you have to do alone.