Guitar or amp purchase advice for mom
 

I need advice on a Christmas purchase for my 13 yr old son for Christmas.
He currently owns a Fender Starcaster guitar and an unknown $100 electric guitar. He also owns a Line 6 Spider III Amp. He has been playing for about 2 years and LOVES IT! He mostly likes playing rock (ie Guns and Roses, ACDC, Metallica, Ozzy, Nirvana) Between us...I wish he would soften up his preferences but....that's another post.
So... I am planning on spending between $300-$400 and leaning towards a new guitar or used.
Please advise whether you suggest upgraded guitar or upgraded amp for this money. also advice on which ones to look for.
He wrote a Christmas list asking for a Vox VT50 amp and an Ibaniz RGA32 guitar. any thoughts???
I will search for used too if it makes more sense.
He just started playing with a Christian rock band at local church. He is soooo excited-even though he had never played this music genre. It should be good for him. Want to get him a guitar that won't prohibit his growth as a musician.
Thanks so much for any help!!!!

you should be able to find an Ibanez RG series within that budget without any hassle. they're quite popular, especially with players who prefer a technical challenge to their playing.

it's an excellent choice for an intermediate instrument. it'll be enough to hold him over until he's ready to drop $1000+ into something special.

thank you Dave. I just noticed that they are $350. do you recommend that with his existing amp? Would we be smarter to get him a used guitar for $350 that might be worth $500 new?
thanks so much!

it wouldn't make a huge difference in quality at that point. besides, unless it's a really rare model type (which the RG isn't) a nice shiny new model as opposed to a worn in one also makes for a nicer gift.

i'd also recommend against going with a used guitar as a gift unless you play as well. too easy to end up with something that looks really nice but doesn't quite cut it regardless of the price tag.

that makes sense! thank you. is there any other $300-$400 guitar you recommend for his type of playing? sorry to ask so many questions. this is a difficult gift to purchase!
thanks!!!

there are plenty of other guitars but if he's specified this model there's no reason to deny it. the majority of the differences at that price point will be cosmetic anyway.

the difficult part should be deciding what finish to get haha

Hi again! can you by chance tell me what you think of this guitar...
Schecter C1 Plus?
It comes recommended and it looks beautiful! thanks so much!!!!!!!!

I have played one, they aren't bad.
check out musiciansfriend.com they usually have amazing deals

in the price range 300-500 I would suggest an Epiphone SG, or Les Paul.
Slash plays a les paul, so he'd look cool! Or if he is not against having another guitar that looks like his "starcaster", I would suggest a fender stratocaster. They are very versatile, and the neck is something like 3/4 of an inch longer, to make it easier to play. These guitars are more bluesy though.

Good luck!

I gave some slightly less long winded advice in the other thread on this subject, but I'll make some more detailed observations in here to help. Be warned, When I drop technical knowledge my posts tend to be long, so skip ahead and listen to Dave if you don't have a few minutes to read it!


Anyway, firstly - The RGA32 is a fantastic guitar for the money. This is for a few reasons.

1 - Bound Fretboard - Bound fretboards feel much nicer and look much nicer than their unbound brethren. They also usually indicate the guitar will come with at least passable fretwork, since it takes more effort to install binding than it does to just slot the frets in.

2 - The bridge - Ibanez bridges have a great reuptation, and with good reason. They integrate a lot of nice features in a convenient package. I've had a guitar with a Tune-O-Matic bridge like the Schecters, and believe me, while its not exctly a pain to work with, the ease of use is far behind the Ibanez bridge on that guitar.

3 - The neck on that guitar is much thinner than the schecters would be. This means it'll be easy to play! Thats a generalisation, and if your son likes thicker necks on guitars, then heed by his preference, but by and large, if someone wants a guitar that plays easily, the first thing they do is go for the one with the thinnest neck. Ibanez are KING in that category, because they've been doing it for years. They know what makes a comfortable neck.

4 - I agree with dave on the second hand thing. When it comes to second hand guitars, I have ten years of playing experience, and even I have been burned once, when I bought a guitar with a neck that shifted, and I didn't notice before I bought it. D'oh! Lesson learned! And that was with years of experience regarding how a guitar should feel and play! Don't go that route if you aren't sure.



Thats the guitar dealt with. As for the amp, thats a much simpler proposition - Those amps are GREAT amps. They're very cheap for what they are, they sound great, etc etc. As I mentioned in the other thread, there are only a couple weaknesses in them, and they're nothing deal breaking by any stretch of the imagination. If you have the choice between getting the amp or the guitar, GET THE AMP, and GET THAT ONE :)

hey Guitarbizarre! thanks so much for the detailed answer. i really appreciate it! okay--i'll go for the amp. IF I happen to find a screamin deal for the ibanez rga32 and the Vox amp...i'll get both--but doubt it. so ill get the amp first and i'll get that one.
one last question to you...do you think the ibanez rga32 (@$350) is a big enough jump in quality from the fender starcaster? He has another guitar too that looks cool (paulownia style body i think) but his grandparents only spent like $100-$150 on it, so it is a beginner guitar too.
i just want to make sure i am not waisting money on this step. should we wait till we can afford a more intermediate price ($600-800) or is the ibanez a smart in between step? sorry i am so unsure in all this. i really am grateful for your help!
happy turkey day!

hello.
one more thing...(ya right!) there are used vox vt50 amps on guitarcenter for $299 and used vox vt100 for $400. any thoughts there?
thanks so much!!!

The RGA32 should last for a long time to come, its a great step up guitar.

Worth noting by the way, margins have tightened with the recession and whatnot, but you can almost ALWAYS get a discount at a music shop by haggling a bit. My acoustic guitar should have been £370. Before I even expressed absolute interest in it, the salesman I was speaking to had told me that because business was so slow (due to the recession), he'd do me a deal on the guitar. Theres usually at LEAST 10% you can get from them, if you're in the right shop. If you're buying two things at once, that goes up to more like 15!


As for used amps - I wouldn't worry too much, since they're practically indestructible apart from the jack sockets, but I would definitely say not to buy sight unseen if you can help it.

hi again!
my son was asked today to play guitar in school's advanced jazz band. he's so excited!his instructor recommended a hollow body. i think i read nice things about the ibanez art320. is it a semi-hollow body? would it work for jazz band and his personal favorite...rock? do you recommend it or something else? thanks so much for any advice.
p.s. i bought him the vox vt50 amp for xmas. happy holidays!

Semi hollow bodies are great and will work for rock, but if that isn't his main passion, I'd get him one of the ones you mentioned before since they'll be better suited. I love semi hollow bodied guitars, but you can play perfectly good jazz on a solid body guitar as long as your amp settings are good. I wouldn't compromise on what your son wants to play in favour of what a jazz band teacher wants him to play.

that's great news!

a hollow body generally does provide a smoother tone for jazzier sounds, a semi would work in the meantime as well. the art320 is not a semi-hollow though, just a single cutaway. the Artcore series is semi- and hollow though.

personally i'd go for the AM73B from the Artcores, but one of the AF or AG series would likely be more appropriate for Jazz class hehe.

Aren't kids so adorable? (I have three sons)

I'm going to agree with Dave, in that he sounds like he knows what he's talking about.

If you aren't really sure about the quality of an used instrument, talk to the salesperson. Then talk to friends of yours who play instruments. Talk to anybody you possibly can, because when you buy used instruments, you never really know what you're getting into. On the other hand, it could be a very good instrument, just a little banged up. But if you can, a new shiny instrument always looks good under a Christmas tree.


Side topic: I was at a pon shop once, and the man had a chared, tarnished french horn in there. He gave it to me for 5$, a steal. I cleaned and polished the instrument, cleaned it out, and returned it to it's natural glory. The instrument was made in 1901, well worth 500$. That's what I was talking about, the pearl in the coal, if you will.

Anyways, best of wishes!

Hollow bodies and semi-hollow bodies are wonderful instruments, and provide terrific sound quality, and should work fine for Rock as well as Jazz. However, if it would only be used for the Jazz Ensemble, I would recomend getting one of the ones mention earlier. Speaking as a parent and a band teacher, I wouldn't comprimise your son's wishes over what a band teacher wants. Granted, I see where the band teacher is coming from, because of the rich Jazz sound, but I'd rather purchase a guitar for my son that he'd use everyday, not just on days he's playing with the Jazz Ensemble. My guess would be that his band teacher doesn't have kids, so the teacher can't see your point of veiw.

Hope that helps!

as if anyone wouldn't rock the hell out on this every freaking day?

http://img3.musiciansfriend.com/dbas...3/3/544433.jpg

maybe not for metal but for straight up hard rock hells yes hahaha

The Epiphone Dot is a great guitar too. Ibanez, from my experience, has never made nice guitars. I'm 13 as well, I've played for awhile too. I have the same music tastes as your son. I use an Epiphone SG.

The thing about Epiphone is that, they are a sub company of Gibson, and I know you've heard Gibson come out of your sons mouth many times before! ;)

Buy Epiphone Dot Electric Guitar | Semi-Hollow and Hollow Body Electric Guitars | Musician's Friend




Epiphone guitars come stock with excellent pickups. The neck pickups on that guitar will give such an excellent bluesy tone, he will be pleased. I also hear that Epiphone has much better customer support than Ibanez.

Oh, and the Dot has a pickguard, so if your son is doing some hardcore playing his pick won't scratch the body up and ruin the finish.

Well I wish you luck, I know he'll enoy any guitar except for this one.

I've been playing for over a decade, and I have this to say.

If Ibanez didn't make nice guitars, I wouldn't own 3 of them and rate them so highly. My RG, my S2170FW and my S7320 are all perfectly fine guitars.

As for being a sub company of gibson, that means nothing, they use different woods, different pickups, different finishes (Poly, as opposed to nitro lacquer), different hardware and most importantly they're made in a completely different factory in a completely different country, go through different quality control, and not only that but they're shipped differently, made in far greater bulk and mor of the contruction is done by CNC. Also, they're not set up by a PLEK machine like current gibson models are. They are NOT Gibsons in any way shape or form. Whether or not they're good guitars is open for debate, personally, I find them to be middling at best and terrible at worst, at least up until you're spending hefty amounts on one.

But one thing you should NEVER assume, is that being related to a bigger company is a badge of quality. There are official, fender licensed stratocasters and stratocaster copies made in america, mexico, korea, indonesia AND japan for instance, or at least all of those countrys HAVE made official strats at one point or another. The japanese Squiers for example are quite collectible, since they were good guitars and they're quite rare. However none of those Squier strats are in ANY way the same as the mexican or american ones.

Secondly, the epiphone pickups are misleading and not that great either. They're labelled as 'Gibson USA' on most models, and to be blunt, thats nothing more than a name. Those pickups are neither made by nor designed to the same standards as real gibson pickups. They're not even made in the same place. At the very least at least the Dim/Ibz pickups that come on a lot of Ibanez guitars are made in the same factory by the same peopl who make the more high end Dimarzio pickup ranges.

As for 'you hear' that the customer support is better than ibanez, thats not something I'd trust without a few sources. Ibanez customer support is generaly handled only by the distributor anyway, since hoshino gakki are a japanese company and therefore american distribution is in a much better position to handle customer support queries. The distributor will vary depending on area, and frankly, you shouldn't ever have to deal with them in the first place, seeing as most retail laws state your warranty contract is with the retailer, not the manufacturer or distributor.

As for the pickguard, I have guitars with and guitars without. A scratched up pickguard looks just as bad as a scratched up finish, in fact, I'd say it looks worse seeing as a scratched up finish has some cool value, whereas a piece of plastic with gouges all over it just looks ugly.

thanks for all the advice. i am saving up and still deciding what to do. i agree not to buy JUST what the bazz instructor wants, but i would hate to buy a guitar that wont sound good with the jazz group either. it sounds like the amp can take care of that.
i think maybe another hour spent at guitar center with son might be smart. he can try the semi-hollows, hollows and solid. will also look into artcores. thanks so much guys!

If its the Vox amp, it actually can handle some really nice jazz sounds, you'll have no trouble.

i did get him that vox vt50. hope he likes it! thanks again.

merry christmas

Hey you guys!
I just wanted to let you know my son had the best Christmas ever today! He got his Vox VT50 amp and the Ibanez RGA32 guitar! He loves them both!
We both want to thank you all for all your wonderful and helpful advice! It really helped me out a lot! Thanks again and Merry Christmas to All!