Best Electric Guitar under $400

LI Slim

LI Slim

New member
I'm taking my 14-year-old daughter shopping for an electric guitar. Guitar is not her main instrument; it's basically just to goof around with. She is a good beginner acoustic guitarist already. Her favorite group is Bare Naked Ladies. I see that Sam Ash has some strats for sale in the 3-400 dollar range -- is that the best idea? Other suggestions? Doing just as well for $200 would be okay too. Gracias.
 
I'm partial to the Mexican Stratocaster personally. It won't drop in value as much as a no-name guitar, so you can get some of your investment back if she doesn't take an interest. If she does take an interest, you can slap some new pickups in that thing and it'll go from a good guitar to a very good/great one.
 
Yamaha Pacifica? Not sure how much they cost stateside but here they are the equivalent of probly $300......
 
I like Yamaha Pacificas too, I bought one for a "trash" guitar for less than 200, and it's a fine piece of equipment. Of course, the Fender Mexican strat is much cooler... it's a Fender. You can get a really nice custom strat style guitar from http://www.route101guitars.com/ starting at $279. They also have some preconfigured guitars for much cheaper.
 
Thanks!

I've heard that Mexican strats are good. But how do you tell if a strat is Mexican? Se habla Jimi?
 
I think if you look on the back of the headstock you will see the serial number. If it starts with MZ, then it was made in Ensenada, Mexico.
 
I personally, would probably try and pick up one of ESP's LTD lineup.

Owning 3 Strats, 1 Gibson, and 1 LTD MV-300, I have to say, that LTD can hold it's own against a cheaper Fender Standard.
 
Dean guitars are a great bang for the buck. i've seen their "evo special" for under $400 at guitar-asylum's website. the "evo ft" is also a good guitar. the quality control is better than most, if not all imports and the stock dean pickups are some of the best i've seen in their catagory so it'll sound great out of the box. and Dean has awesome customer support.
 
I bought a washboard, I mean washburn WI-64DL recently that's a pretty nice guitar for the $. Great neck and buzzed feiten tuning to boot.

Check em out.

Get her away from that BNL's crap music to, that will rot your mind. :)
 
she's 14, right?...then she'll either get into it and love it or walk away in a short time........I know you don't wanna sell her short, but what about getting something really fun and inexpensive (that if she really gets into, then you can get something better later) that won't break your bank but looks great, plays well?

My cousin has a Kramer Focus (strat style)...the neck is super good, the whammy bar is totally awful...unscrew it and forget about it....the neck is for real, nice rosewood, too on the fretboard, but the body is a composite (which will last, but won't give that wonderful sustain we all want when we get into these things)......for $79 you can get an axe....for $165.99 she can have a tuner, amp, gigbag.....AND the guitar.....

Indonesian made, I think......maybe some are Korean....


I've played my cousin's and it's very very adequate, and he's pushing fifty years old, a non serious fairly good guitar player into blues......the single coils sound really nice on this strat copy....

check it out, this is the site...look at the Focus series and/or Packs.........gibs

http://www.musicyo.com/brandpos.asp?dept_id=1
 
Yamaha Pacifica.....

you can get one for $149 and it smacks a Mexican Strat up side the head......
 
I'd pick a guitar with good wood and good craftmanship, buy a EMG S-81 and exchange the cheap-ass humbucker that comes with the guitar....
 
Thanks guys, a lot of great input here.

Gidge, Yamaha Pacificas seem to cost at least a hundred more than that; where for $149?

Gibs, you cheap s...b:p
 
Guitar Center is having a sale on Fender/Squire Strat packs for 199.00, comes with lil practice amp, cors..maybe even a tuner, usually its like 269.99... Ibanez from GC has some pretty good deals too, at this price range really there isn't a big difference in quality, mostly tone preference..
Peace,
Dennis
 
I picked up one myself from AmericanMusicalSupply for $149 about a month ago...their website seems to be down....maybe they are out of business.....

the one i have came in perfected setup and i will say it again, $$$ for $$$,especially in the budget range, Pacificas smack Fenders silly.....

http://www.zzsounds.com/searchresults.music?z=1241264410044&l=1&b=p&w=pacifica

the one with the maple neck lists for $399 so $149 is a great deal....and believe me, side by side with a Squier Strat their is no comparison...side by side with a Mexican fat Strat ($399) youll be pleasantly surprised....if you spend$400, you can probably get better, but it wont be a Fender.....

if I woulda had to walk out of Guitar Center with a $400 guitar last time i went, i woulda walked out with a Schecter....I believe it was one of the Diamond Series, cant remember the model...it was nice.......
 
Tis true... Most people are attracted to Fender guitars for their sound, which is fine if you want to sound like everybody else.
Yamaha guitars are waaaay better set up and they will stay that way. My Yamaha strat has been dropped i dunno how many times and it still stays in tune and the action is great.
 
We got the Mex Strat

I was all set to steer her toward the Yamaha Pacifica. The thing is, we had to play it first. NONE of the music stores on 48th Street in Manhattan carry Yamaha electric guitars. I took her to Guitar Center (in Long Island City, Queens), and they don't carry them any more either. So for $349 the Standard Strat was the best alternative. We also got the little Marshall 10W practice amp (for $69), which is a pisser.

It's just as well. She really wanted the Strat anyway, 'cause she's 14 and it's a Strat. Very cool wine red color, BTW.
 
You won't be disappointed with the Mexican Strat. A couple years ago, I wanted a guitar to take around to some rowdy jam sessions and picked up a used Mexican Strat. The pickups were weak, and the selector switch was noisy. However, the neck had a great laquer job.

Over the last year, I have replaced the pickups with Seymour Duncan vintage single coils, replaced the selector switch, and added a pearloid pickguard. (The guitar body is the light blue, I think they call it Daphne Blue) I also replaced the bridge saddles with the Allparts graphites.

All-in-all, I have about $600 in the guitar and would put it up against ones selling for twice that amount.

So look at it this way, you can do the guitar mods as birthday and Christmas presents over the next couple years and come out better than if you paid it all up front for a more expensive guitar.
 
Yamaha Pacifica 112

Hey those who have spoken kindly of the Pacifica.

I just saw a used 112 (Natural Blond with a white pick guard). If my info is correct it has a alder body with maple neck. I played it very briefly, and it felt and played pretty well (but I couldn't crank it to really test the sounds). I can get it pretty low cost - but my question to you is -

If I already have a Fender Mexican Strat (which I feels plays well) - am I really looking at redundancy? Yea I know you can't have too many axes, but since I'm not primarily a guitar player I'm not sure if the 112 will really add that much. Does the humbucker make that much of a difference? I assume it will allow me to get more of a "Gibson" sound - rather than the single coil Fender sound.

I have an 86' SG (my only "real guitar") - so I have the Gibson sound covered - so with an SG and a Strat - does the Pacifica offer anything of substance???

I've read the various posts here and have looked at user reviews on Harmony Central (which are mostly good reviews) but I crave more input.

Thanks for your opinions.
 
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