As I have already told in my previous posts, electric guitars are appropriate for beginners as they provide a much easier way of learning the instrument to all guitar enthusiasts- narrow body which due to its weight has stability, low action and thin strings.
It is a myth that electric guitars are very expensive and there is no use of buying a decent one if you do not know how to play an acoustic first. To be honest, you can now get a decent electric guitar in the range of $200 to $300 and let me reveal another secret- you can start playing an electric guitar before learning to play an acoustic.
These guitars that I am mentioning here are not the best ten guitars of the world and are neither the most expensive 10. Keeping in mind what a beginner or an intermediate student might want, I listed the top 10 as per my experiences with them.
Top 10 Electric Guitars
Fender Squier Bullet Stratocaster
For those who can’t afford the Fender Stratocaster, comes the cheaper version from Fender only- the Squier. The Fender Squier is one of the most popular and recommended guitars that can be bought in low budget. The guitar has surprisingly pretty good quality of pickups, hardware, tuners and more- for a price that is unbelievably less than expectations. The quality can’t match that off the original Fender signature Stratocaster but the sound is amazing, good for intermediate players and almost brilliant for the beginners to start with. Needless to say, it is worth the money.
Fender Squier Standard Stratocaster
The next best model in line after the Bullet Squier is the Fender Squier Standard. The guitar design is cool and if you can add around $50 more to your current budget, you can be the proud owner of a Deluxe Stratocaster. All the Stratocasters mentioned are brilliant for the beginners, intermediate and advanced level guitar players who cannot spend a fortune in buying their next guitar but would love to enjoy the signature tone and design of the Fender Stratocaster. The best thing, you can upgrade these guitars with EMG or better pickups o the future to enhance the sound even more.
Epiphone LP II Les Paul Vintage Sunburst
The Epiphone LP II Les Paul Vintage Sunburst has a mahogany neck and body that gives the model a thick tone which is perhaps the specialty of the Les Paul Series. The pickups and tuners are okayish in this model but as I said before, these guitars are just the perfect pieces for any beginner to begin their journey with. If you want to pursue rock, blues or metal with your guitar in the nearing future, the Epiphone humbuckers are there to rescue! The Epiphone LP II Les Paul Vintage Sunburstis highly reliable in terms of quality and performance.
Fender Squier Affinity Telecaster
The Fender Affinity Telecaster has maple neck, alder body and a maple fingerboard. The guitar has just tow single coiled pickups and allows three way switching between them. The hardware along with the tuners that have been provided are pretty solid and needless to say, very durable. Even though this telecaster model is the cheapest in the whole telecaster series manufactured by Fender, it is of a decent built. The guitar sound is amazing and it feels comfortable and cool to handle.
Ibanez GRX20ZBKN
Ibanez is my personal favourite brand when it comes to electric guitars. I have been playing on the GRG series a lot and I absolutely love them. Here, I recommend the GIO series model GRX20ZBKN which is a cheap model from Ibanez that gives you the Ibanez feel and quality of sound without much compromise in hardware. The guitar is good for different genres, including rock, pop and metal. The guitar has an alder body with a maple neck that complements the model’s sleek design well. This Ibanez model is particularly nice for lead guitarists.
Squier Vintage Jaguar modified by Fender
If you want to own a beauty in guitars that has a class of its own, Squier Vintage Jaguar Modified it is. When it was first released, the jaguar was a popular choice among the artists for country music and rock n roll. Even jazz could be played well on this model but as the time flew by, the Jaguar began to be used in many other genres as well. The guitar has a basswood body with a maple neck and vintage bridge. The Jaguar modified Squier is just the guitar you would like to begin with and continue your journey- it’s different and it’s classy.
Yamaha Pacifica Series PAC112V
Alder body, rosewood finger board and a maple neck with two single coil pickups combined with a humbucker- that’s Yamaha Pacifica PAC112V for you in a nutshell. The guitar has the name value of Yamaha associated with it which ensures durability and quality in the limited budget and when you search for it, you will find it stylish as well as incredibly cool. As per my views, this is a good guitar for the intermediates but the beginners can use this as well.
Epiphone SG 400 Pro
The Epiphone G 400 has a mahogany neck and body with a stylish rosewood fret board. The guitar has Alnico Pickups that have split coils. The Epiphone G 400 gives you several tones to select from which you can adjust through pickups and volume controls. If you want to experience being in the lines of greats like Eric Clapton, Angus Young and Tony Iommi, the SG 400 Pro is the guitar for you which brings you the same tone, same feel, comfort and style without a heavy price tag.
Ibanez Artcore AS53
The Artcore S53 from Ibanez is one of the many semi-hollow body electric guitars that are popular among the folks. The Ibanez AS53 is good for all genres like jazz, country, rock and more, except for metal. The body is very comfortable to hold and being semi hollow, it is light to handle. Just like any other Ibanez model, the tone is superbly rich and diverse which is the reason why you can switch from jazz and blues to rock in less than a few seconds. Quality and affordability- that’s Ibanez after all.
Ibanez GRG 170DX
Another Ibanez model which is stylish to the last detail and is rich in tone quality. Needless to say, it can be used for all genres such as rock, jazz, blues, metal and even classic country. What gives this guitar some extra style points are its shock tooth inlays instead of fret markers. The guitar is easy to handle and is the true example of affordable quality ready to rock.
