So you’ve decided to start learning the guitar, welcome to the club!
As a guitar teacher of nearly ten years and also a fellow guitarist whom has also climbed the ranks I have one thing to say, the saying “a bad workman always blames his tools” is in fact not all true.

Having a good guitar doesn’t mean you have to have an expensive one, but it does mean buying a guitar within a budget that is realistic. Having the right guitar and the right amp will make sure that, with a little bit of tuning, your guitar will be singing like a song bird, keeping you inspired as you progress as a beginner guitarist.

I’ve put together a list of my personal choices for both kids and adult players to ensure you get the right guitar to fit your needs.

ELECTRIC GUITAR LIST

These are my top three choices based on price, quality of play and build.

Yamaha Pacifica 112j

PRICE: £159-£220 (depending on colour)
This is a fantastic beginner guitar at around the £200 mark. A fair few students of mine have owned one of these throughout the years in there various different colours.
What I like about the Yamaha 112j is its ability to stay in tune. A fair few beginner guitars don’t hold tuning very well and this is something to be very careful of when shopping around.
Generally speaking the factory set up (the way it plays straight out the box) is very good. The guitar stays in tune all the way down the neck and the strings are at a good height to the fretboard. The guitar comes with a maple or rosewood fingerboard, single coil and humbucker pick ups, two tone kobs, a volume knob and tremolo arm, making it a good enough guitar to see you up to a grade 5 Rock School (RSL) grade. PURCHASE LINK

Ibanez GRG140 GIO

PRICE: £169-180
Again another guitar around the £160-£200 mark.
Ibanez are well known for their metal history, so if you are in to that genre of music the sound and look of this guitar may be more suited to you. Coming in various colours (pictured in sunburst), the set up is similar to the Yamaha above, only featuring one tone knob. The tuning is consistent on this also, and the maple/pine finger board makes it easy to play. Another guitar that will see you on your way to a grade 5 exam. PERCHASE LINK

Epiphone SG Speical

PRICE: £129-140
This Epiphone SG Special comes in first on price. Epiphone are owned by Gibson, so have a quality brand backing them. This does help with overall quality of the guitar. The Rosewood neck is ideal for beginners, it comes with one tone, volume, three way pick up switch and two humbuckers. SG’s and Les Paul’s are known heavy bodies which may be something to consider. Lastly overall the tuning is very solid but the G string tuning peg can slip out of tune. For the AC/DC lovers out there this is definitely a bit of you. PERCHASE LINK

GUITAR CONCLUSION

On Price alone the Epiphone stands out. The guitar is robust and made well. I’d consider the bottom heavy body and the possible slip of the G string! There isn’t much in it between the Ibanez and the Yamaha, a few minor details missing on the Ibanez in terms of the tone knobs. In my personal experience I have taught more people with the Yamaha so can positively say that it does stand up to many years of playing.

AMP LIST

Orange Crush 12

The main thing I look out for with small practice amps is tone quality. Some amps you buy the name and not the sound. The list below I have put together because I really believe that you’re getting a good tone for your money.

PRICE: £89
This is a wicked little 12 Watt amp.
It comes complete with:
Treble, Middle, Bass EQ
Overdrive
Headphone out
The build quality is the same as all orange amps, robust and stunning but only coming in at 4kg!
This is a very straightforward amp, no effects, amp simulators or USB plugs. This makes for a nice organic amp tone but does lack all the fun effects that you might want to explore as a beginner guitar player. PRUCHASE LINK

Fender Mustang I V.2 20-watt 1×8″ Modeling Combo Amp

PRICE: £110
This is a slight step up in price against the orange, but it does come packed with a LOAD more features.
Unlike the Orange amp this is digital, meaning that the signal is helped along by computer chips! The amp features 17 amp models from super cleans to dirty metal sounds. It packs a load of FX from modulation, delay, pitch shift and fuzz to phaser, tremolo and reverb. The handy tap tempo will keep your FX in time with your playing too. Unlike the orange the amp only features a bass and treble, this is a personal dislike of mine as tone can be a bit scoopy and muddy some times. You can save your own sounds which is a neat little feature. the USB feature allows you to connect to your computer, making it easy to record, always great to look back on progress. The amp comes with a built in tuner and lastly the Aux in allows you to plug your tunes into the amp, helping you jam along.
It’s safe to say you get a your money’s worth with this amp. PURCHASE LINK

Roland MICRO CUBE GX Guitar Amplifier, Black

PRICE: £102
The Cube comes in close to the Fender in price and shares some similar features. It’s main feature is its both mains and battery powered, meaning ultimate portability, ideal for taking on holiday, to school, or even the park! It features 8 tones from clean to EXTREME. The FX match up to that of the fender featuring, delay, reverb, octave, chorus, flanger, phaser and tremolo. similar to the fender the is a memory bank for your awesome tones, and an AUX in for jamming along. The amp also comes with a built in tuner. You can also connect to the I-CUBE link for using with the Free CUBE JAM app for iOS allowing you to play songs to jam tracks. PURCHASE LINK

AMP CONCLUSION

If you are after a very straightforward amp with no bells and whistles and just sweet sweet tone then the Orange is for you. If you are after lots of FX and customization I would choose the fender over the cube, more pre-sets and possibilities, however the cube has a slight edge of being battery powered which is ideal if you like to practice on the go at school, on work trips or during your beach holiday!

Thank you for checking out this blog post. I don’t get any financial gain out of this, these are my honest views put out there so that the start of your journey as a beginner guitar player can be as positive as possible.

Wil