Thinking about joining the ranks of Electric Avatars and Rock Gods? Want to blaze like a demon and melt the minds of the innocent with thunderous awe? You must be thinking about buying an electric guitar. But before you buy, what should you look for? 3 things to keep in mind:

1) Sound. Do you wanna play Blues? Get a Fender Stratocaster. Rock? Stratocaster / Les Paul / Telecaster or any of their relative knockoffs. Metal? Maybe an Ibanez / Charvel / Dean for you. Each one has a unique tone. For example, if you wanna play Hendrix, Deep Purple or Clapton tunes get a Stratocaster. If you want to play Led Zeppelin, Kiss or Guns n Roses get a Gibson Les Paul. Like Radiohead? Maybe a Fender Telecaster is in your future. Whatever you decide, make sure it fits the majority of styles you wish to play. Of course you can play blues with a Les Paul (Gary Moore did it just fine) or shred metal with a Strat (Yngwie did ok) and it will work. Do a little research and check out what kind of guitars your favorite bands / guitar slingers use and work from there. Keep in mind that while the guitars the pros use may cost upwards of $3,000 you can always find a cheap knockoff thats good enough to get going with. If you stick with it for more than a few weeks (ok, more like a good year or so) then maybe its time to reward yourself and upgrade to a more expensive model. Also, by then you will be more immersed in guitar culture and will be starting to find what it is you like most anyways.

2) Regardless of what guitar you buy you have to make sure the intonation is good. This means that any fret you play on any string from open all the way up the 24th fret is in tune. In other words, when you tune the open strings and you play a G Chord and it sounds in tune then if you were to play a G Chord up around the 12th Fret it would also sound in tune. If your intonation is out then the 12th Fret G Chord would sound out of tune, even if the Open G Chord sounds perfect. This means that the length of your strings needs to be adjusted slightly and that is done by adjusting the saddles which are mounted on the bridge. Make sense? Did I lose ya? Then ask a sales peep to check the intonation for you before you buy, or else those high screaming 20th fret searing face melters will be eliciting sour frowns instead of awe-struck adulation!!!

3) Price. $100 wont get you a good sounding guitar. It just isn't likely that the parts used are of any decent quality at all. However, its a safe and inexpensive way to see just how dedicated you are to this future of fame and fortune. Lose interest after a month? No worries, sell it and you aren't going to take a big loss. You can however get a decent sounding guitar in the $300 range, maybe $200 if its second hand and has already depreciated a bit. Then again, maybe you can find a vintage Les Paul at a garage sale and pay $50 for a $10,000 guitar. Its happened before!


4) Last, but most importantly:

Color.

Make sure it matches your platform stage boots.

Peace:)

Id say check out the Tremar, or maybe the Super Swede with the coil tap for the single coil sound. That sort of imitates a Telecaster. Its a good, versatile guitar for sure.

Damn its cold out here!!!

M