If you’re looking to get an Electric Wizard sort of vibe, definitely go for something with humbuckers.
Most of the brands mentioned previously I’ve played (and second). I’d also add Epiphone to the list.
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Regardless of what you decide, I’d spend a minute watching this video and hearing some of the rationale behind spending more money on an amplifier vs. spending more money on a guitar. The budgets they’re talking about (roughly 1000 USD for the whole package) are obviously higher than you’re considering, but definitely remember to take into consideration the amplifier. I see a lot of starter kits come with a pretty decent guitar (squire strats, etc.) but come with total dogshit amps.
Of course, when you’re just starting out pretty much everything you do will sound like garbage (sorry, but it’s the truth 
), but when you finally have those breakthrough moments when you actually start making music-like noises with it, you want it to actually sound awesome 
I don’t know if this is an option for you but if there are places near you that sell used guitars (shops, Craigslist, or whatever) and you have a friend who plays guitar, take them with you when you go shopping. Guitars vary a lot guitar to guitar, even the exact same model, and your guitar player buddy will be able to evaluate the instrument better than a new/ non player.
Getting going, the setup is maybe more important than the sound. It needs to be comfortable for your left hand and it needs to intonate reasonably well.
Beginner axes can be great. I’ve been playing the same squire bass for 25 years. I’ve played lots of epiphones that play better than Gibsons. I have several no name guitars that I’ve kept over known brands. Etc…
Just my two cents.
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Seriously, buy an Eastwood. Korean made, assembled in USA or UK. I bought an Airline MAP baritone from them and have nothing but praise. The guitar wasn’t expensive (although I think the price went up a little recently), it sounds phenomenal, and they didn’t have the vintage case I wanted in stock in the US, so they shipped one overnight from Liverpool. For FREE. Awesome company with so many different types of guitars. I will be buying another one.
Edit: Additionally, they have YouTube videos of pretty much all of their line-up, so you can at least hear what R. J. Ronquillo can do with them.
Edit 2: Visited their website and it looks like most of the model’s prices are up by around $100 USD since I bought mine.
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J Mascis jazzmaster is such a good suggestion. it’s versatile, easy to play, and… hip.
Some good advice around here. I’ll add mine to the mix:
A. If you just want a cheap guitar to mess around with and see if you like it, a Yamaha Pacifica will give you the highest likelihood of buying something that is at least decent to play for the money spent. They are WAY too cheap for what they are.
B. Pickup type and placement:
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Single coils and humbuckers are two different designs of the same thing. Single coils are the OG design for pickups, they consist of a row of magnets and a single coil wrapped around. They sound brighter, usually quite dynamic, and have a little bit of noise/hum going on. Jimi Hendrix played predominately single coil Fenders. Roughly speaking, there are two famous categories of guitar (shape & electrical design) where specific types of single coils are used, the Telecaster and the Stratocaster (both Fender guitars originally, but they get copied, adapted, evolved a lot by other makers over the decades). A Telecaster is known for it’s very bright, twangy sound - you’ll hear that sound a lot in country music, but def not only there. A Stratocaster is less twangy and less bright, but still bright overall (generally speaking). As mentioned, Jimi Hendrix played the Strat and it is mad popular to this day. Note that it’s the pickups and circuitry that determine the quality of the sound predominately, namely both are single coils. The difference in sound in pickups comes from the types of magnets used, the quality of the coil, the number of times it’s wrapped around and some sort of pixi dust only the initiated will know of (…oh and wood type also plays an important role in my book, but at your price point and level I wouldn’t worry about that at all for now).
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Humbuckers are an evolution of single coils - they too have a row of magnets with a coil wrapped around them BUT they also have a a second coil wrapped around to suppress the hum you’d get from a single coil (hence the name: HUMbucker). Thus you will recognise a humbucker by the “two rows” it consists of, so humbuckers are usually bigger. The sound of humbuckers has less hum, sounds rounder, less bright still, usually louder and with more Oomph / more power coming through than the average single coil. In a way the sound to me tends to be “warmer” and “rounder” with more “pressure” than the sound of single coil pickups, and somehow tends to sound more polished to my ears when played clean. At the same time, I find (cheaper) humbuckers to not be quite as dynamic as single coils, so they can sound a little more compressed. When playing overdriven, a humbucker will translate that extra pressure to a more aggressive sounding tone than a single coil - at least to my ears. Slash is a famous player of humbuckers, but not only (BB King’s guitar also had humbuckers so go figure), BUT here as well, there are differences in humbucker design (type of magnet, types of coils, number of wraps, pixi dust etc) and thus sound.
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Pickup placement: the overwhelming majority of humbucker based electric guitars will have two pickups, one placed near the neck and one placed near the bridge. If you go humbucker, I’d recommend that design to you. The neck pickup tends to sound warmer, rounder, louder while the bridge pickup tends to sound brighter, thinner, twangier. A guitar’s switch will let you choose which pickup you’re using. A 3-way switch (typical in Les Pauls) will allow you to choose between neck position (switch facing up), bridge position (switch facing down), and a mix of both (switch in the middle). A typical stratocaster design will have three single coil pickups (neck, middle, bridge) and a 5-way switch (Neck, middle, bridge + two phase inverted “middle positions”). Now which is “better”? Answer, neither. Some people will play the neck pickup 95% of the time (typical in Jazz for example), others will swear by the bridge pickup only (some blues styles). Me personally I prefer playing the neck pickup when playing alone due to the fuller sound. When in context, I sometimes switch to the bridge pickup, because it just tends to occupy less of the frequency spectrum and slots in easier - but these are all personal choices. I should also point out that the difference in sound really is due to the placement - so two exact same pickups will sound different in neck and bridge position.
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Active or Passive: Most pickups are of a passive design, that means you don’t need any dedicated current to operate the pickup (so no batteries or anything like that). But there are also active designs (eg EMG makes a few). Active pickups usually need a battery and so they can have more power and can really push an amp. So unless you want to destroy your neighbours house with the death metal you play, I’d suggest to look at passive designs. disclaimer: I’ve never played active pickups and am thus clueless here - apparently some people play Jazz with active pickups, but to me having to worry about a battery in my guitar is just not something I’d want.
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So single coil or humbucker: really, this is entirely a matter of taste and feel. Me personally, I prefer humbuckers. I like the more “hifi” sound of humbuckers, I like the “roundness“ I get from the sound and the extra “pressure“ / compression they give. But I play mainly clean and dabble in jazz, neo-soul and reggae. I do love my Fender Stratocaster as well though, and whenever I get used to it, it takes a few hours before I can accept a humbucker sound again. So listening habits matter here. I like about my Strat the dynamic playing and how easy it is to play - Fender Stratocasters (single coil guitars) have a slightly longer neck than eg Gibson Les Pauls (humbucker guitars)…I like that - though my Strat is a particularly playable one, I’ve held others where I felt inhibited by the guitar. Also please note: my favourite guitar I own is a Gibson Les Paul though
You should know that you cannot swap a single coil pickup to a humbucker due to the size difference (would require a bigger cutout in the guitar and maybe slightly different electronics to get the best of the design). That said, there are single coil pickup designs that basically emulate humbucker features, so the route to that sound wouldn’t be impossible.
You also cannot easily fit a single coil pickup into a humbucker based guitar (the cutout will in this case be too big for it), BUT there are humbucker-sized single coil designs, called P-90 pickups, of which some DO fit in a humbucker sized cutout. P-90s are somewhere between single coils and humbuckers in sound. They tend to have the brightness and roughness of a single coil design but with the added pressure/compression of a humbucker.
My tip to find a starting point: Listen back to a few tracks that are currently inspiring you to go for the guitar and search the internet to find out what sort of design the respective bands are using on these tracks…and then just go with that. It’ll hopefully be the beginning of your journey and not the end, so I think it is fine to start like that
Hope this helps!
EDIT: I want to add one more piece of advice: Buy the best guitar you can afford and make sure you feel a connection to it before you buy it! Why? Playability, sound, and mojo vary SIGNIFICANTLY across guitars…not just makes and models, but ACTUALLY from guitar to guitar. It is important that you feel good about the guitar and that you WANT to hold it, use it, get to know it. It should be attractive to you and you should enjoy holding it. So also I’d suggest buy it somewhere where you can hold it. I buy mainly used, and will always try before I buy. I only bought one guitar online (a Gretsch Parlour Acoustic) and it turned out awesome, but only after I set it up to my taste.
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+1 on having someone make sure the guitar is set up properly. It’s something you can do yourself by following instructions online but someone experienced will be able to pick it up and say, “oh the nut is far too high” or whatever and know what needs sorting.
When you’re starting out, you don’t want to be struggling with a setup that sucks and not realising why the guitar is so hard to play or why it always sounds out of tune.
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I went from a 50€ Squier Affinity Strato to a 800€ Fender Jaguar in a couple of years. Skillwise I’m in a similar situation as the OP. I can’t really play, but I’m very motivated to sit down and start learning. I’ve bought a couple of good books on chords and techniques and I’ve decided that learning to play will be my corona hobby for this fall.
From my personal point of view I can’t see the necessity of a guitar amp. I bought a Boss rack unit that does all the amp modelling and every effect I can dream of for a good price as it’s 10 years old technology. But If I didn’t have that I’d just plug my guitar to a Hi-Z input on my soundcard and do the amping & effecting in the DAW. If your budget is 200€, spend the whole lot on a guitar, preferably a second hand one, so you’ll get a little more bang for your buck and get it serviced and cleaned at a local guitar shop.
I’m lucky to have a good old friend who loves tinkering with guitars. When I got the Jaguar, I called him and he came over, cleaned my guitar very nicely, adjusted everything, swapped the strings for new ones and gave me a bunch of good tips for the future. He just loves guitars and he was really happy to get the opportunity to handle a 1994 Fender Jaguar and see what it feels like. Everyone should have a friend like that. (I did give him 18 cds from my cellar storage for his troubles). He has a bunch of guitars and one of his most loved ones is the J Mascis Jazzmaster. I trust his taste in guitars so I’ll join the choir and recommend that too.
For me, you can’t really go terribly wrong with a Squier or an Epiphone.
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I was doing that (plugging into my sound card) for a while and ended up buying a 10w Blackstar combo just so I don’t have to turn the computer on and load amp sims and so on in order to play amped. It has a headphone out so I can play silently, and it has made a difference to how much I play/practice plugged in.
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thanks for this. great info here.
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This is another reason I love Eastwood. Their guitars are setup before shipping. I expected some intolerance when mine shipped, but wow, they exceeded all of my expectations regarding the setup. Just a fantastic experience all around.
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I remember being given the “amplifier is more important than guitar” advice when I got started with electric guitar. This was in the late 80s. I actually bought my first electric guitar in the early 90s but this was the kind of talk I was hearing.
These days, amp modeling has gotten so good that I wouldn’t worry too much about the amplifier side. If you advance enough with your playing to be able to hear differences in tonal quality between various amplifier models (real and virtual) as you play and you feel money burning a hole in your pocket, by all means have fun shopping for an expensive guitar amp. But even then, that’s down the road and not something you have to budget for right now.
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I think I’m going to blow the budget. the guitar + amp pack idea is gone. I probably have enough stuff lying around to not need the amp.
The self build idea was interesting, but maybe a project for further down the line.
that is ticking all the boxes right now based on the valued feedback from the 'nauts
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If you check equipboard you can see what gear bands use. Another option for you could be an epiphone SG. Electric Wizard used this guitar, and it’s in your price range.
I love Dopethrone BTW. You really need pedals to get that kind of sound. They use the the Boss FZ2 which is collectable, silly prices. But check out the behringer clone, the SF300 I believe, which is awesome.
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You def need a fuzz pedal for doom/sludge/stoner/Sabbath style stuff if and when you want to go that way. Not sure other than the Behringer mentioned above what the cheap options are. Second hand stuff most likely. I recently picked one of these up and it’s quite tasty:
As is the Fuzz War from Death By Audio:
But I’m sure there are cheaper alternatives.
Fuzz = Big Muff Pi!! Cheap second hand
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I also have the Fuzz War, it’s killer but not cheap. The Behringer above is genuinely a great pedal for very little cash.
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Nice choice, should work nicely for you!
I second the amp advice, there’s some killer amp sims to be had for no or little money.
The leading edge to me comes from NeuralDSP - they have sales on occasionally, but not huge ones. I love their stuff though, one of their suites will serve you variety and tone for years.
Another great company for amp sims is Nembrini Audio. Their stuff goes on sale frequently and their amps can then be had for €29-€39 which is a steal. I love their Mesa Boogie sim.
Mercuriall Audio and Kuassa also make nice and affordable amp sims.
Also worth checking out: SK Note has a really nice Fender Twin Reverb amp sim, which is around €29 (or maybe that’s the price when on sale?!).
And of course, Brainworx amps sims via plugin-alliance.com are well respected and frequently on sale, though to my ears they tend to lack a little bit of depth.
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Hey all, I have a j mascis jazzmaster and am looking for something a bit more punky/weighty as a second guitar, is there anything reasonably priced and humbuckery?
I was looking at the Les Paul “Gothic” line, I wouldn’t mind the “Gothic Morte” for solid body but that’s a bit out of my price range.
I don’t give any shits about how it looks. I don’t care if it’s banged to shit beyond a patched neck, I would like good tone and that’s it.
Of all the guitar brands, anything I should consider for a heavy sound that would be good enough to get by before I mod things incrementally?
My brain is too filled with synth knowledge to get into guitar forums, advice appreciated
;(
Edit: Ok, for my rhythm needs i’ve ended up ferrying to an island off Tacoma WA for a nice craigslist discount guitar with upgraded humbuckers and bits-n-bobs, will pair with an AMT SS-20 tube preamp and go direct to board and possibly mic up a solid state practice amp.
You could look at the epiphone sg or les paul models. Last I checked they were good quality for the price, and you can upgrade the pickups if you want. And there’s always the option of buying used. That is probably where you’ll get the most bang for your buck, but is of course dependent on if you live near lots of people, or you’re comfortable trusting strangers with your money 
Edit: I need to read through posts before replying
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