My first electric guitar

[aemanon]

Hello Forum,

I've been playing classical guitar on and off for ~15 years. I decided to start practicing jazz and buy my first electric guitar
and would like to know your advice on this. After reading through many threads I came to the conclusion that my best option on a €1000 total budget would be:

Fender Player Telecaster SS (solid body is important due to a baby at home) (€780)
Fender Mustang LT40S (I'm not a professional, only to be used at home) (€200)
Headphones (because of the baby at home) (€50)

I went to a shop yesterday and played on a couple of electric guitars, but I am still clueless because I only know classical. I had no idea there are so many types of amps, pickups.
If you think these are not good choices, or you have better recommendations, please share your knowledge.

Thank you!

[alltunes]

You can’t go wrong with a Telecaster in my opinion. Since you don’t have much experience with the feel of electric guitars it will be difficult to tell what type of neck feel appeals to you. Coming from the classical world a fuller vintage-y “C” shape might be a nice transition from the feel of a classical neck.

For amps I don’t know much about solid state modeling amps. I prefer tube amps and have a few of those. I suppose the ideal tone for jazz is clear and warm with maybe a touch of grit. Given the “practice at home with a baby” scenario I’d probably go for one of these:

'''68 Custom Vibro Champ(R) Reverb | Guitar Amplifiers


p.s. ah I see the headphone requirement now….at home almost 90% of my playing is done on an unplugged solid body. It is fairly quiet for the wife and former babies in the house

[Peter C]

When there was a baby in the house, I just played my solid body unplugged most of the time. Being that you're familiar with classical guitar, maybe check out one of Yamaha's "silent" guitars? They come in both nylon and steel string options and I believe you can just plug heaphones in directly. On this forum, a guy called Mikko from Finland has posted some great stuff on one of these guitars.
Serie Silent - Especificaciones - SILENT guitar™ - Guitarras, Bajos y Amplificadores - Instrumentos musicales - Productos - Yamaha - Espana

[aemanon]

You can’t go wrong with a Telecaster in my opinion. Since you don’t have much experience with the feel of electric guitars it will be difficult to tell what type of neck feel appeals to you. Coming from the classical world a fuller vintage-y “C” shape might be a nice transition from the feel of a classical neck.

For amps I don’t know much about solid state modeling amps. I prefer tube amps and have a few of those. I suppose the ideal tone for jazz is clear and warm with maybe a touch of grit. Given the “practice at home with a baby” scenario I’d probably go for one of these:

'''68 Custom Vibro Champ(R) Reverb | Guitar Amplifiers


p.s. ah I see the headphone requirement now….at home almost 90% of my playing is done on an unplugged solid body. It is fairly quiet for the wife and former babies in the house

Thank you for your reply. You are right in that electric guitar necks felt thin after playing on a classical for so long, unfortunately your recommended amp is over my budget, I edited my post with my budget calculations.

[docsteve]

You can probably save on the guitar. Squiers in the 400€ range are fine, so are G&Ls. If they play well, you can always upgrade the pickups later.


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[sgosnell]

If you want a full-size hollow body more similar to what you're used to, the Grote brand has some good reviews. I've never played one, all I know is what I see on YouTube, but the price is good.

Greg Ruggiero is an excellent guitarist, and I consider his reviews to be trustworthy. You could probably get a Grote guitar, Quilter Superblock or TC BAM 200 amp, and Toob cabinet for your budget, or very close. I don't know how prices are wherever you are.

[docsteve]

That won't have a Classical neck, either. However, I assume that the acoustic sound is negligible, so it won't wake up the baby.

Anyway, I'd never buy a guitar from Amazon. Call me old-fashioned.

[Litterick]

Vox make Amphones — headphones that emulate the sound of an amp.

[John A.]

I'd suggest either a Fender Champion 20 or Champion 40 instead of the Mustang. They basically sound the same as the Mustang, but have simpler controls and are a little cheaper. The Champions' settings are all right there with knobs; the Mustang's are buried in menus that you have to scroll through. The advantage of the Mustang is that it has more control over the effects parameters and allows you to save presets, but if all you need is one basic sound that you stick with that's not especially useful. If you're just playing at home, the 20 is more than enough amp (I have one and use it on gigs quite often).

If you want to save a little more, the Squier Classic Vibe tele is nearly as good as the Fender Player tele and is a lot cheaper (here in the US, around half the price). The basic sound and playability of the two are about the same. Some of the parts on the Fender are better quality, and the overall fit and finish are a bit nicer, but the CV series guitars are completely legit, usable guitars. Also consider a used Player tele, which will be a couple of hundred Euros cheaper than new. You'll probably want a strap, case, and cable, and these substitutions will give you a little more room in your budget for that (and better headphones). All that said, there's nothing at all wrong with your choices.

[AllanAllen]

The choices you made are fine.

If you want to spend less check out the Squire telecasters or a G&L ASAT Tribute. These are both solid options.

[orri]

Fender player Telecaster should be a rather solid pick. The squier classic vibe telecasters are also really good at a bit lower price point.

I think I'd rather want a Boss Katana than a Fender Mustang amp in that price range. If you're going to play over 95% of the time with headphones you might want something else.

I just played my solid body unplugged most of the time. Being that you're familiar with classical guitar, maybe check out one of Yamaha's "silent" guitars

Depends a bit on your motivation, interests and needs.
If you want to learn electric guitar you need plenty of a practise with it plugged in, just to learn how to make it sound good when plugged in. You can also get a lot of practise done with it unplugged.
A silent nylon guitar might fulfil your needs if it's just silent practise you're after, but you need to play electric guitar to get good at electric guitar

[Schwoop]

Hi OP,

you can't really go wrong with the gear you suggested. You'll quickly find that the market for consumer-level electrical guitars is pretty snake-oily. The best thing is to try some different stuff and trust your ear.

That being said: as others have suggested, you should test the higher-level Squier models. Unless your heart is set on the Fender name or a particular colour, a Squier Classic Vibe (~€400) is also a great instrument and varies very little to the lower-priced Fenders. I play a Squier Tele myself and recently A/B-tested it against a Fender Player - I couldn't justify the additional money. And because they are so prevalent, you can easily find them used too! (That is true also for the Fender Players though)

As for the Amp, I am not familiar with the Mustangs, but here I would suggest to spend the money you could potentially save on the guitar itself. The DV Mark Little Jazz is a quite common entry-level jazz amp. Its a nice, small solid-state amp that really doesn't weight a lot. It has a 3-band EQ, reverb, a headphone output and an aux input. Thomann has one in store for €380 at the moment. For what its worth, it also takes pedals quite well.

Together you should have quite some money left for a decent set of headphones, some heavier strings, and maybe a gigbag and a looper pedal down the line.


Let us know what you end up with!

[aemanon]

Hi OP,

you can't really go wrong with the gear you suggested. You'll quickly find that the market for consumer-level electrical guitars is pretty snake-oily. The best thing is to try some different stuff and trust your ear.

That being said: as others have suggested, you should test the higher-level Squier models. Unless your heart is set on the Fender name or a particular colour, a Squier Classic Vibe (~€400) is also a great instrument and varies very little to the lower-priced Fenders. I play a Squier Tele myself and recently A/B-tested it against a Fender Player - I couldn't justify the additional money. And because they are so prevalent, you can easily find them used too! (That is true also for the Fender Players though)

I would like to thank you and the others for sharing your thoughts.

[wolflen]

You may find some of Ted Greene vids//lessons a nice transition from classical guitar to the Telecaster

Ted is a master player/teacher..He plays finger style on the tele and has lessons and vids of him playing Bach and other classical pieces and many jazz tunes


Tedgreene.com

hope this helps

[hotpepper01]

Most jazz guitar player use archtops and not tele's. Sure, some jazz players use tele's and I am not stating it is an incorrect choice in todays era. A simple archtop like say an Ibanez can suit your needs very well. Jazz can be played on ANY type of guitar. Any type of guitar.

[Kirk Garrett]

If they are available at a shop near you, I recommend getting the best used Telecaster you can find after playing them a lot. Not so much for jazz, but for anything. Including jazz.

[pauln]

My advice is to start by getting something very modest and cheap (maybe no amp); then spend a few months playing it. Learn the mechanics of adjustment without fear (stunt guitar). At some point you will be in a far superior position to make a more informed choice, knowing what physical features and attributes are important to you.

My first electric guitar was a solid body I played (unplugged no amp) for years. It was a piece of junk ($28 new). Teaching myself to play, I also taught myself how to restring it, tune it, adjust action, intonation, and relief. Playing unplugged helped develop listening, and with no concern for electronics (no playing with switches, knobs, etc. for tone chasing) all 100% of practice time was available for pure playing.

[garybaldy]

Babies only wake up when you whisper.

[RickyHolden]

Telecaster is a good option, suggest you look at one with a belly cut to make it more comfy to play, the hard edge on the normal ones digs into your ribs a bit if u play for a while on it.

[mr. beaumont]

Telecaster is a good option, suggest you look at one with a belly cut to make it more comfy to play, the hard edge on the normal ones digs into your ribs a bit if u play for a while on it.

I know people say this, but I've been a tele player for almost 30 years and I've never had any discomfort from the body.

Besides the back of a tele needs to be flat, it doubles as a writing desk for scribbling out quick charts at sessions.

[Reg]

Hey aemonon...

If you haven't picked up a guitar yet... I would suggest actually get a guitar that is designed for the style you want to start playing.

Solid bodies are great and great players can make them work.... but that's the point, they can already play.

Part of playing jazz comes from actually playing a Jazz box. The technique developed from solid body guitars is different.

Most jazz boxes aren't any louder than your classical Guitar. You don't really even need an amp.

Reg

[pamosmusic]

I know people say this, but I've been a tele player for almost 30 years and I've never had any discomfort from the body.

Besides the back of a tele needs to be flat, it doubles as a writing desk for scribbling out quick charts at sessions.

Agree. I always wanted to play archtops and always come back to a tele.

You’d have to spend pretty substantial money on an archtop to get that cool archtoppy acoustic kind of sound out of an amp. Otherwise there won’t be much tonal difference between a budget archtop and a low to medium end tele with a neck humbucker.

Upside also being that a tele is made to be modular. Replace whatever you want with whatever you want whenever you want and you get a pretty seriously upgraded guitar at a pretty reasonable pay as you go price.

[pawlowski6132]

Why do you think you need an ELECTRIC guitar? Or, any other guitar than the one you already have to play "Jazz"?

There are TONS of contemporary and past "Jazz" guitarists who primarily played nylon string guitars including those with the wider nut as found on traditional Classical style guitars:

Earl Klugh
Diego Figuera (sp?)
Charlie Byrd
Lenny Breau
John McLaughlin*
Paco de Lucia
Laurindo Almeida

Unless you want to be the next Mike Stern, ask yourself what makes the most sense.

It's really a rabit hole I didn't enjoy; amps (another decision tree), pedals, chords, etc. Just more stuff. Who needs it. I've always found it more distracting than anything.

I went to see Bela Fleck & Friends concert a few months back. EVERYONE in the band used something like a DPA 4099 on their acoustic instruments. Not even exaggerating.

[Reg]

I think it sounded like he was only going to be play at home... so most of the mechanical and non musical benefits might not really matter.

And again... it's like putting a square peg into a round hole... you can obviously do, but the results will be different. LOL

[aemanon]

Why do you think you need an ELECTRIC guitar? Or, any other guitar than the one you already have to play "Jazz"?

There are TONS of contemporary and past "Jazz" guitarists who primarily played nylon string guitars including those with the wider nut as found on traditional Classical style guitars:
.

I want to buy an electric because my classical guitar is too loud, now that I have a baby in the apartment. I have always been fascinated by jazz, never learned it though.
Now looks to be a good time. I think I am going to listen to the advices here, and will buy a tele next week, but I won't buy an amp. First I will get familiar with it, leart to set it up,
just see how my fingers move on it.

I will let you know.