Check out musician's friend. They may have some inexpensive portable guitars that would suit you. If you are worried about space, you can get a 3/4-size guitar, or even smaller. I wouldn't recommend smaller than 3/4 because the frets are closer and harder to transition back to a full-size axe.
Another option is to get an acoustic with a built-in pickup. That way, you don't need an amp when you are wooing your sweetie at the campfire. But, you can hook it up for the concerts in the park. However, the trade-off is acoustics don't sound too good with full-blown distortion and will probably squeal like crazy with feedback. If you decide to go with a solid-body electric, I would suggest you get a guitar processor. Guitar pedals, so to speak, generally do a particular task: distortion/overdrive; chorus; reverb; flange, etc, but smaller pedals don't really give you all of the above. A guitar processor usually has all of these effects as well as a speaker, or cabinet, simulator. You defintely want that effect. With a speaker emulator, you can listen to your axe and processor through headphones, or your truck speakers, and it will sound like you are playing through different combinations of amps and speakers. If you ran a guitar straight to a home entertainment system, for example, the sound would be way too harsh due to all of the high-range frequencies that are not reproduced through a "normal" 10" or 12" guitar speaker. The speaker emulator basically cuts those frequencies, and shapes other aspects of the signal, to sound like you are playing through a full Marshall stack. Personally, I love Digitech equipment. They have a new processor, I forget the exact name, but it's like G4X or something like that. (I'm probably not even close.) It is their guitar music workstation. Basically, it's a single floor-sitting pedal board with sequencer, drum machine and recorder. It's pretty damn cool, but may be a bit more than what you want. If you do get a somewhat-fancy processor, look for one that is MIDI-capable. If you are a geek of sorts, you can connect your guitar processor to your computer and, with the right software, you can let your computer "drive" your guitar processor. These features may be a bit overkill, but if you are stuck in your cab for hours or days, they can certainly keep you occupied for long periods of time. Also, I strongly suggest Gorilla Snot and Finger Ease. No, these are not some kinky jungle fetish, but very useful additions to your gig bag. Now, back to the guitar. You probaby won't want an axe with a vibrato bar (aka: Tremolo, Floyd Rose, Kahler, Tallywhacker bar) since those add quite a bit to the cost. If you do get a vibrato bar, I would suggest you get a bar that has fine-tuners on the bridge as well as a locking nut. http://www.floydrose.com/ and http://www.kahlerparts.com/ (Ugly site, but great products) Some other considerations are the body style. I would stay away from the Flying-V (Randy Rhoads style) because you can't sit one on your knee without it sliding backwards. I would get a strat-style or telecaster-style guitar. (I prefer strat-shaped bodies. Teles are a bit too country for me.) Then, you need to choose your fingerboard. Most likely, they are maple or rosewood. I like rosewood because I can tend to keep a better grip on the strings. Maple, for me, makes my fingers feel to slippery when doing bends. The third consideration is what type of pickup(s) you need. You can get by with a single pickup near the bridge. For more tonal variation, you can get an axe with two or three pickups. My Hamer axe has a double-coil (aka humbucker) near the bridge. It also has two single-coil pickups in the middle and neck positions. I usually just keep it on the double-coil when I play with distortion. For clean sounds, I switch between the other four positions. (With two pickups, you get three settings: Pickup 1 only, Pickup 1+2 and Pickup2 only. With three pickups, you get two more positions.) Last of all, before you purchase one, play the guitar on clean and distortion on a good amplifier. Make sure the strings are no more than a few millimeters from the frets. If they are too far, they will be hard to play and will also make it difficult to keep the strings tuned since you have to push them farther, which in turn, stretches and changes the pitch. If the strings are too close, you will have some annoying buzzes. You need to also decide on what type of strings you want. "Lighter" strings are easier to play, and bend, but don't tend to get you the more-dynamic sounds. "Heavier strings are great for that "powerful" sound, but can wreak havoc on your tender fingers. You need to choose a string "guage", then stick with it. Once you change the guage, you need to adjust different things on your guitar as a result. Once you find a guitar you like and sit on your leg and is easy to play, I would take it to a guitar professional (probably not the same place where you bought it) and have them to a proper "setup" on it. They will adjust the neck, the string height, the bridge and intonation. I could go on and on, but I won't for now. Good luck with the guitar hunt. M!ke -----Original Message----- From: brobborb [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, September 26, 2005 8:07 AM To: CF-Community Subject: Electric Guitar help hey guys i wanna get an electric guitar so i can rock out in my truck. the problem is I know NOTHING about em. what do i get? do i need pedals? stuff like that. I KNOW NUFFIN! and i'm willin to spend 300 bucks. :-D thanks ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Discover CFTicket - The leading ColdFusion Help Desk and Trouble Ticket application http://www.houseoffusion.com/banners/view.cfm?bannerid=48 Message: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=i:5:174994 Archives: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/threads.cfm/5 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/lists.cfm/link=s:5 Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/cf_lists/unsubscribe.cfm?user=11502.10531.5 Donations & Support: http://www.houseoffusion.com/tiny.cfm/54
