What guitar should I take?

[MichaelParticipant]

Hi everyone!

I'm looking for my first own electric guitar now and it's much more complicated than I thought 😀

My budget is 500EUR/580USD at most. I'd like to have a quite "bluesy" guitar so I narrowed it down to:
- Fender Telecaster Modern Player
- Epihone Les Paul Custom Pro
- Cort Classic Rock 250

Are there guitar players here who could give me some advice?
I tried all of them but I have no idea where these guitars are at qualitywise...

Of course I'm also open to other suggestions 🙂

Thx a lot, cheers, Twilight

[Jason DavenportParticipant]

Hi Michael!

For me, if I had to go with that list, I would choose the Epi Les Paul Custom Pro... I have one, and love it! There are some nice Stratocasters in that price range as well. Can't beat a strat for blues, but the Les Paul is not far behind. Never had quality issues from Epi, or Fender... In the end, pick the one that speaks to you when you play it. If it feels good in your hands, it can't be wrong 🙂

[MichaelParticipant]

Hi Jason! Thx! I thought the same way. I think that there are not that huge differences between guitars in that price range. Tried another Telecaster few days ago and I think I'll go with that one...really was a nice guitar 🙂

[Martin Østervig LarsenParticipant]

I would go with the tele. Best and most versatile guitar ever made in my opinion.

If you can try them out and buy the one that feels best to and makes you want to play. That's what it's all about.

Best,
Martin.

[(Knot Hardly) JayParticipant]

i would have to agree with jason on the strat... not on the list but by far the most versatile electric guitar. out of the box (3 singles) covers a wide variety of tones. stock pauls and teles to me are a bit of a one trick pony unless you mod them. but that is basically based on the past. today with all the effects and amp features... any guitar can do almost anything you want sound and style wise so it really doesn't matter anymore. when i was young you basically had your guitar and your amp to make your 'sound' so it was easy for me to fall in love with strats. they ain't the BEST looking lol... love the look of pauls and teles as in 'stylish' but personally i don't give a damn what my guitar looks like and never have. to me it is all about what you can squeeze out of them. 🙂 cheers

jay

[Just LisaParticipant]

This may be old news by now, but I've been thinking about "the ones that got away."
I'm with Jason: go for the one you love to play. I'm still kicking myself about the classical guitar I picked up on a whim and didn't want to put down. I should have put it on layaway and figured out how to buy it later. Same with a used Les Paul Studio. They were great instruments -- both sold before I could get back to look at them again.

Here's a crazy thought no one mentioned: set up. I started my guitar playing on a Squier by Fender Affinity Series. It was from the 90s, and higher quality than the current models. My guitar teacher did a fret level as part of the set up and I grew to love it so much that I couldn't find a guitar anywhere that matched it for playability. I wore the frets down and it's not worth paying someone else to refret it, unfortunately.

The rub in this case is that the set up on most new guitars I've tried to play is really awful, so I never enjoy playing them in a store.

I've 'replaced' the Squier with a high-end Japanese guitar. The major differences? The sound of the pickups, the shape of the neck and the Floyd Rose copy bridge.

I bought a used LPS on Reverb. It spends most of its time in the case. It's not the same as the one I played in the store.

So, again with Jason: Strat/strat copy (my guitar teacher was a blues guy and he owned four) or the Les Paul.

Play it. And buy it because you love playing it.

: )
Lisa

Oh, and because you probably have been playing your Tele for awhile... how's it going?

[Author]

Posts