Prog Electric Guitar Models

Wormboy wrote: MikeEnRegalia wrote: porter wrote: since you're a beginner, I would suggest not to go too far with brands and especially money, so you'd better choose a cheap guitar...there are some good brands like Epiphone, if you like the les paul style, or maybe you could opt for a Mexican or Japanese Fender, if you like the strat. PLEASE LEAVE ALONE THE VARIAX at this stage, I think it could be a little confusing since, as you said, you still haven't played a scale on a guitar. That's a guitar for the pro's, or for people who already know what they need and what they don't. Quite the opposite. Why do you want to force him to decide whether he's a Fender or Gibson guy? The Variax is certainly a good guitar for beginners - especially the Variax 300. Hey, you not only get both Gibson and Fender sounds, but also quite good simulations of various acoustic guitars including a 12 string guitar. I'd rather say the reverse: The Variax is NOT a guitar for pros, because the sounds are not as good as the genuine versions. But they're DAMN good, and certainly better than cheap versions of Fender and Gibson guitars. BTW: If you use your computer to play music, you might want to consider buying the GuitarPort instead of a fully fledged amp. Its sound is as good as that of the POD XT ...  Sorry, I totally disagree.  A Variax would be a horrible choice for a beginner.  Frankly, it doesn't matter that much what you learn on as long as it's a good instrument.  Go with standards, and worry about the Gibson/Fender split after a couple of years.  No beginner really cares about that kind of crap anyway.  They are just trying to learn a new instrument. Sounds to me like you're pushing a specific guitar for some reason.  Variax rep, are you?

I'm not a Variax rep, I don't even have one. Sounds like you're bashing the Variax for some reason. If you read reviews, ask guitar teachers etc. you'll find out that that Variax isn't a bad guitar at all.

Sorry, the highlighted bits in your post are just nonsense. It's true that no beginner cares ... but they should. If they buy the Variax, they are free to explore the Fender sounds and the Gibson sounds. The WORST thing a beginner can do is to buy a Fender Strat and then discover that he needs humbucker sounds, or he buys a Gibson and misses the "twang".

As I said in the above post: If you don't like the Variax, buy an alround guitar from Yamaha, Ibanez etc. but not a Fender Strat or a Les Paul.

1970 Les Paul Custom

TURK182! wrote: The best guitar for to have yhe best prog sound is a "Rickenbaker". It's the guitar that've been used buy almost all prog group in late 60'S and begining of 70's. But, I dont know if they still make guitar or still alive!!

Rickenbacker still produces alot of 6 strings and their famous 12 strings, but I prefer their basses, even though i'd rather have an old 4001 with the toaster pickups and dual truss rods over a 4003.

Thank you so much for all the suggestions!  They have been most helpful in my goal of purchasing a guitar.

It seems the majority of people are swaying towards recommending the Fender Strat.  I was checking out some of the local music shops, and this guitar seems to be priced around 800 for the american-made version and 500 for the mexican ones.  I was also checking about some of the usual online-buying suspects (ebay, etc.)  and discovered that the Maxican-made strats drop in price significantly once they've been used for a year or two.  I would likely be able to purchase one from a reliable seller for around $250 or so.  Would this be a good idea?

Also, we here in Vancouver are lucky enough to have a Tom Lee music store which seems to offer the best prices in the area.  They currently have what i believe to be an amazing deal on an Ibanez RG170R-- which ive looked up and seems to usually sell around $300-350.  However, they currently have it on sale for $230 Canadian (190ish US)  The problem is that even i know this model is built for metal-heads.  Yet would it be a good option for a beginner like me?