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[Lemurnator]

The Price Range is $150-300.

Up until now I've been using crappy hand-me-downs my brother has given me. Now I have a choice as to what I'm going to use and I'm not sure what to look for in buying a guitar especially since I don't have that much money to invest...

I want a solid body electric guitar in the $150-300 price range. What should I look into?

 

[AlphaSnake]

Definitely an ESP Eclipse-100M. It's the least expensive guitar I own, and yet it remains my favorite along with the Schecter C1 Classic. Also, it's a Les Paul body, the maple finish is sooooo incredible and smooth, and the neck is a God send. I really don't understand why it costs $280 and I'd certainly have bought it for twice that price. Avoid Fenders, Epiphones, Ibanez, and etc -- because at that price range ALL of them downright suck. ESP LTD is arguably the only brand that makes incredible lower-end guitars.

Also, the wood used on the Eclipse is dreeaammy. Not even my $500 Iceman 3 has wood that nice.

 

[Raxel]

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[Lemurnator]

Can you link me to their website with info on that guitar? Or any website with info on it? I googled the name and I didn't get any hits.

Thank you

 

[Raxel]

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[Lemurnator]

I would never buy something so ugly.

 

[Raxel]

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[WHOAguitarninja]

http://www.olpguitars.com/usa/john_petrucci/john_petrucci_r4_c4.jpg

The olp jpm. It's the most comfortable body style I've ever used (i have an authentic jpm, which is the exact same shape).

I personally learned on an Ibanez RG220 (which they don't make anymore, but it's probably exactly the same as whatever $300 guitar ibanez makes now). It worked fine for what it needed to do, and it took me a long way before i really felt i NEEDED to upgrade.

But before you take ANYONE"S advice, go try some guitars out at a shop. No two people have the same taste, and what one person loves, you might absolutely despise. Even if you think your taste is compatible.

Example: I have a fully loaded jpm, saphire black, all the options, great guitar. I LOVE it. I swear it's the best guitar i've ever played. My friend, who is also a very accomplished guitarist, sat down to play it, and he hated it. I dont think he liked anything about it, and he couldn't play it well to save his life.

So don't put much stock in other's opinions on what guitars to get. Odds are if you go by others reccomendations, you'll be dissapointed. But if somebody reccomends an axe to you, and you have the means, you really should test it out at a shop if you can, because it's entirely possible taht you will like the same thing.

 

[iapetus]

morbidaza is right.

Raxel is sick in the head.

If they're in your price range over there, you might also want to try out the PRS Tremonti SE and Soapbar SE, which are sickeningly good for the price, and can possibly be had for the high end of what you're looking at paying (or slightly more).

 

[WHOAguitarninja]

I was going to mention those, but I think they're around 500. I could be wrong though.

 

[iapetus]

I've seen people saying they've picked them up in the $275-$325 range, though that's probably some sort of special deal.

Always worth trying something a little outside your price range anyway, just in case what you actually want to do is save a little more money for that big jump up in quality. If I'd stuck to my price range I'd never have tried my JJ.

 

[Raxel]

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[WHOAguitarninja]

We still need to have that jam thread. I now have ftp with my school, so as soon as I figure out how to actually use it i'll be good to upload whenever.

 

[Raxel]

Yup, I was looking forward to soloing over a backing track. If you have any ideas for a backing track, lemme know, I have these next few days off.

 

[WHOAguitarninja]

Well, I can throw together a simple riff fairly easily. I'll do that now i guess, i have some free time.

 

[AlphaSnake]

Download Yahoo's IM service and jam with it. Over at the MusiciansForums we have jams almost daily with it. All you have to do is set up a voice conference, put a mic near your speakers, and just play. It's awesome.

 

[LinesInTheSand]

Download Yahoo's IM service and jam with it. Over at the MusiciansForums we have jams almost daily with it. All you have to do is set up a voice conference, put a mic near your speakers, and just play. It's awesome.

lol

 

[AlphaSnake]

lol

What's so funny? It sounds dumb, yes...I thought the same. But it works really well, otherwise we wouldn't do it so often.

 

[WHOAguitarninja]

That actually might be kinda cool.

How is the lag time though. The idea is to get some sort of backing track/s written, and have everyone jam over it.

 

[Raxel]

I've tried this via Netmeeting, Skype, etc and it's usually too laggy. A 10ms delay is enough to throw me off when using my MIDI keyboard, and generally on broadband the ping can be from 50ms to 100ms. When I tried this technique, I ended up constantly trying to compensate for the other guys playing because of the delay, and vice versa.

 

[AlphaSnake]

That's the thing, we don't play along. There's a one person cap. If somebody's mic is picking up sound it'll lock everyone out. Once that person finishes the next person to start playing will be the one who's listened to -- so lag doesn't matter at all, just keep playing.

 

[WHOAguitarninja]

Do you guys have guitar pro software? I'm thinking about putting the backing track in that so you can extend it however long you like. Or would it be better to just record the guitar track and use that for backing?

 

[Raxel]

I have powertab, but I'd prefer an actual recording

 

[WHOAguitarninja]

Alright, what key you guys wanna jam in?

EDIT- Nevermind, got a little riff that is good for some melodic soloing in e minor, which tends to be a pretty comfortable key for most people so we'll just go with that. I'll have a recording within the hour.