getting a noob addicted to guitar

[JustWendell]

so at least a year ago i asked my best friend if he ever had any interest in learning guitar. He answered it was definately something he would be interested in doing once he had more free time to devote to it. Well, I helped keep the suggestion alive and about two weeks ago i gave him his first lesson.

He is now in the market for a guitar and says his budget is $1000. For him i think it will be best to start with an electric(much easier to mess around with an electric while on the net). He likes everything from phil collins to jay-z to dragonforce to meshuggah so buckers would proally be best(same musical tastes as me, we definately listen more to stuff with humbuckers).

So the question comes down to:
is it best to buy a cheapie $100-200 guitar or skip that step since he's able and get something that most likely will play/sound better? Either way it would be best if its something that will hold it's re-sale value in case it dosn't click. buying used dosn't bother him at all and i got a digitech effect box i'll be hooking him up with so he won't need an amp.
so there you have it....suggest away and thanks for the help

[JustWendell]

if i was a smarter man, i would maybe post serious questions during hours closer to when more people are on these forums when will i ever learn

[Mephis]

Look at some of the forigen made hamers.

[greendy123]

I would bring your friend to guitar shop with many types of guitars and try to find the tone/shape of guitar he wants. From there we could give suggestions to specific guitars.

[Zerberus]

I would bring your friend to guitar shop with many types of guitars and try to find the tone/shape of guitar he wants. From there we could give suggestions to specific guitars.

+1

But I agree with your statement that it would be better to situate him with a say for ex. a 400$ guitar and 300$ amp instead of a cheapo.... partially for playability and quality reasons, and partially becasue it will generally hold it´s value a bit better than an even lower budget entry-level instrument.

Something like an Epi LP or a MIM strat and a Peavey Bandit, for example... Something he CAN uppgrade if necessary /desirable, would suit his needs and allow for some growth musically, but something that also wont be worth zilch the minute it´s paid for

[nahfuten]

Since he can spend it, go for a little more quality. I'd say a new MIM Strat or a used LP Studio.....

On the other hand, I picked up a Squier Strat for my nephew at Christmas (his first guitar), and it really suprised me!

Either way, if you go with a strat, take off the trem bar for a while. I think those always distract new guitarists, and don't even think about giving him a floyd yet!

[Davey]

+1 for the strat... also maybe an epi valve jr and an overdrive pedal

[Empty Pockets]

a Strat or a Tele or an SG or LP that nobody wants anymore, into either Valve Jr. head and cab of his choice or a peavey valve king (for more ca$h) and an effect pedal...i loved having a distortion pedal when i was first starting out.

Be like "huhuuhuhhh duuude this one's green and says 'bad monkey' that's cool riiiighhhh"

he'll go for it

-X

[JustWendell]

thanks for all the help guys....this has all been stuff i've been thinking about

now believe it or not i too was a noob(still am in a ton of ways) not really that long ago and i remember when i was first starting out i was always asked what kinds of shapes/styles i liked best and as a noob everything sorta looked cool aside from strats/single coil guitars, as everyone was telling me humbuckers were better. knowing what i know now the guitar i ended up getting (ibanez gax30.....no longer have it or it would be in my friends hands now, there's a story about it i'll proally post later) was a great guitar to start on, although looking back after playing more guitars i really don't care for that wizard 2 neck and the guitar was pretty lifeless in comparison to everything else i've played. So i can really emphathise with my friend when he seems to be leaning towards the 'you're more experienced, you can proally make a better choice for me' type of logic. to me that argument has its good points and its bad points: the good is that i'll make sure he dosn't end up with a non-resonant/poor sustaining guitar and ideally he won't end up with a neck profile he dosn't like. the bad is that neck profile is totally subjective to the person and that's experience he's most likely not going to have before buying his guitar.

there is of course the slow option of me giving him more lessons on my sg till he gets more of a feel for things, then could make a better decision. most likely that won't happen though cause he lives an hour away. I figure the most likely thing to happen will be that one weekend we'll check out some stores together or if we get lucky we'll find something uber cheep on ebay/craigslist(this option appears to yeild the best $/gear ratio)

also as i said i don't think he'll be getting an amp anytime soon as i'll be hooking him up with my old digitech multi-effect box( rp100a has headphone jack) since he's going to school/living in dorms. that and my experience with amps is that my 15w ibanez amp was more or less a waste as my xtl sounds infinitely better(i'd even go as far to say the rp100a sounds better also) and if i knew then what i knew now i'd have saved that money to put towards a real amp. anyways if he has to have an amp i'd be willing to hook him up with mine since the xtl through headphones sounds better than the xtl through the amp.

Also i'll make damn sure he dosn't make my noob mistake of playing for like a whole year withought owning a tuner or changing strings once they go dead(also were on the guitar for like a year, aside from a singly purchased e and b strings when they broke)

anyways, can't think of anything else to rant about now so i'll let you guys have at it again......thanks again for the help..........with any luck once he really gets started he'll be on this forum making fun of falloutboyroxxxx and foamy with the rest of us

[JustWendell]

bumpage.....anyone else got anything to add? sounds like i got the right idea and just go with it?

empty pockets--put that way, i think anyone would be willing to buy the 'bad monkey'

[Ocifer]

Go used, if you can. For a $1000 (USD, I'm guessing) he could probably find a great used guitar and amp... he could even find a decent tube amp if he tried hard enough - the Blues Jr. would probably be pretty easy to find used.

As far as guitar goes, just let him decide what feels best to him - like you said, go to a store with him and have him play the guitars in the price range that interest him.

Don't be afraid to buy used, just make sure it's in good condition.

[JacksonMIA]

I'd definitely encourage him to buy used (if you're there to help him find a good one), like an MIM Strat or something. If he buys it used the biggest hit in resale value is already taken care of - and sometimes you can sell it for more. There are some pretty decent used tube amps that can be bought for very little.