如何購買電吉他 Buying Guide for EG (English)

by 小非

Most of the websites are having a memorial day sale now, so I think it's a good time to buy (although they usually have some kind of sale everyday anyway). Please note some of these sales require you to call their 1-800 numbers becasue they claim the prices are too low they cannot advertise it publicly online. I think all of the websites below are no-tax and free-shipping (except for guitartrader.com).

WEBSITE:
The websites I go to most often are:
www.musiciansfriend.com (same company as Guitar Center)
www.americanmusical.com

Some other websites you can use for price comparisons:
www.samedaymusic.com (sometimes have good prices)
www.samash.com (sometimes have good prices)
www.music123.com (same company as musiciansfriend.com & guitar center, but might have different promotions)
www.zzounds.com (same company as americanmusical.com, but might have differnet promotions)
www.guitartrader.com (in CA so have to pay tax, but sometimes may have good scratch&dent deals)

The website I recommend the most is musiciansfriend.com because they have largest selection and usually better prices. Perhaps you can use their site to look for the appropriate guitar, and then check other website for price comparisons.

GUITAR:
There are two kinds of electric guitars, one has single-coil pickups (thinner sounding), and the other has humbucker pickups (muddier but fuller sounding). Single-coil pickups are closer to Chris Tomlin's rhythm sounds, whereas humbucker pickups are closer to Hillsong United hardrock sounds. I believe our English congregation is geared more towards the humbucker style.

I personally own about 10 guitars, and only use 4 of them for worship (2 humbuckers and 2 single-coils, depending on what kind of music).
They are:
1. Epiphone Dot Deluxe: Humbuckers, very versatile, can play jazz and hardrock
2. Epiphone Les Paul Black Beauty: Humbuckers, pefect for hardrock. I use this for United songs.
3. Fender Standard Stratocaster: thinner sound but very versatile and clean sounding (and bright). I use this for mandarin worship.
4. Squier Classic Vibe 50's Telecaster: very clean thin sound, I use it for worship leading where I only strum and no solos

There are plenty of good guitars priced between $300 to $400. I personally would avoid anything below $300 (unless it's a scratch&dent guitar that is originally above $300). I would also avoid any "starter's packs" because they don't have good quality and usually don't have any room for future upgrades (for example, change pickups to better ones).

Of all the brands that produce Humbucker guitars (and between $300 to $500), I highly recommend Epiphone, Ibanez, Schecter, and ESP LTD. I especially recommend Schecter and ESP LTD, they have good humbuckers and really high quality. Their more expenssive models ($500 and above) carry active humbucker pickups, which are designed for very heavy music... probably not necessary for worship team purposes. So cheaper alternatives are good enough.
Epiphone is a sub company of Gibson (very famous), and it plays like a real Gibson. But since it's a sub company, young people may think that he would "lose face" if his friend owns a real Gibson (not likely, but possible). If that is a problem, then Ibanez is another good choice due to its versatility and playability.

AMPS & PEDALS:

Regarding pedals and amps, there are several options. First, most of the entry-level guitar amps have built-in digital effects, which gives you effects like delay, chorus, reverb...etc. While they are not superb in any way, most of them work well and is enough for church settings. Therefore, buying an amp with built-in effects can be adequate. Second, if you happen to have a keyboard amp at home, you can then invest all your amp money on a good multi-effect pedal, and plug it directly into the keyboard amp (it's actually recommended to do this because keyboard amps are full range flat response amps, which work better than guitar amps if you have a multi-effect unit). The last option would be buying an amp and a multi-effect pedal at the same time. This option is more costly...

OPTION A (AMP ONLY):
High wattage is not necessary. Usually amps are 15watt, 30watt, and 60watt or above. 15watt is good for home use. 30watt is good for onstage monitoring. 60watt is good for onstage monitoring if you are standing close to a drummer.

Roland, Line6 and Peavey usually make really good fancy amps with built-in effects. Good examples are here, here and here. These amps model different famous amplifiers, as well as some basic effects.

More options here, they are all pretty inexpensive.

OPTION B (MULTI-EFFECT ONLY):
If you have an existing keyboard amp, then you can afford a good multi-effect unit. Here is a complete listing of what they are. You really can't buy a bad one because they are all very well-built and all have good reviews online. I highly recommend Line6, Digitech, and Rocktron for their user-friendly interface. Boss is way too hard to use (I have a Boss GT-10). Vox has a tube inside therefore is high-maintainance.

OPTION C (AMP AND EFFECT):
You can buy a keyboard amp to go with the multi-effect because they work well together. Or you can also look at some cheap tube amps that don't have built-in effects (because you have your own) that offer a very good non-digital, analog tone.

ps: you can also try craigslist.com for some good deals. There are lots of people selling their used guitars/amps/pedals, can be a good place to start before you invest too much money.

hope this helps.