What electric guitar is the best?

Answer 1

The answer is 100% opinion. It's best to go to a local dealer with a large range to choose from and have the staff plug some in for you to have a play with. Try several to see which one you think works best for you. If necessary, stake out several shops to find your favourite guitar. Also, you can find an ideal guitar by checking out some of the online reviews by professional sites to see what's getting the 5 stars.

Whatever guitar you pick (geddit?), make sure it's your opinion, not someone else's.

AnswerPRS guitars. They're very expensive so they're not all that widespread, but they sound and play great. And for a cheap a custom alternative, Carvin matches their quality, with your customization and for half the price. AnswerFor rock: Gibson Les Paul (if you like crappy overpriced guitars) Answerthe two most popular models are:

1. Gibson Les Paul

2. Fender Stratocaster

but... they both suck

The best Electric Guitar is a matter of choice. Some players like the "rock" sound, using Gibson, Fender, and several other top named rock style, and sounding guitars. With a more mellow type music, such as country, one might choose a different style of Gibson, or Fender, or Gretch. There are many brands, and styles to choose from, however, one of the most popular is the American made, Fender Strat. If you are looking for the best electric guitar, look at the signature series of any company. These are the best players, and their choices of guitars.

Answer 3

They say The reverends are good.

AnswerWell-known brands are good - but you also pay through the nose. Many little-known companies make some awesome guitar for an absolute fraction of the cost. Consider Cort and Washburn, for example. Guitar choice is very personal. AnswerThere's no such thing as "best electric guitar". It's very subjective. However, different guitars do have different reputations and perceived strengths in playing different musical styles.

FENDER TELECASTER It has been said in many music publications that "Leo Fender got it right the first time" in regards to the Fender Broadcaster, the forerunner to the Fender Telecaster, the first "production" electric guitar. It set the mold for "solid-body electrics", which have no hollow sound chambers inside the body and no sound holes. Telecasters are known for having a very steely, piercing sound (because of its single-coil pickups, and the bridge pickup which is attached to a metal "ashtray"), and is considered a good, versatile instrument especially strong in country, blues, and for rhythm guitar. Notable players include James Burton, Keith Richards, Eddie Vedder and Chrissie Hynde.

FENDER STRATOCASTER Possibly the most popular and most imitated electric guitar, the Stratocaster is known for its versatility (three single-coil pickups with "phase" options) as well as being one of the first "double-cutaway" guitars, where the body of the guitar is "scooped" on both sides where the neck joins the body, to allow for easier access to upper frets. The Strat usually has a clear, cutting, "hi-fi" sound and have a reputation for being able to handle any type of music. Famous players include Jimi Hendrix, David Gilmour, Eric Clapton and Jeff Beck.

GIBSON LES PAUL In response to the success of Fender's Broadcaster and the concept of "solid-body" guitars, Gibson -- a company which vastly pre-dates Fender -- teamed up with Les Paul to produce his signature model. The Gibson Les Paul's distinctive features include a maple cap combined with a mahogany body, resulting in a sound that is thick (because of the dark tonal qualities of mahogany) but with a good degree of cut (because of the bright maple top). Les Pauls are most used in high-gain rock and roll that requires great volume and thickness in the sound, as well as jazz and blues. It has a shorter scale (24.75") than Fenders (standard Fenders are 25.5"), and the resulting shorter strings tend to be easier for players to bend strings. The Les Paul's combination of a "tune-o-matic" bridge and a "stop tailpiece" (later improvements which were not on the first Les Paul model) also give notes a longer sustain than Fenders, which make the Les Paul a popular choice for players who like to play long, wailing notes. Famous Les Paul players include Jimmy Page, Slash, Joe Perry, Billy Gibbons and Bob Marley.

GIBSON SG The SG was a successor of sorts to the Les Paul. Some players have complained that the Les Paul is too heavy, and upper-fret access is not as easy as on double-cutaway guitars such as the Stratocaster. The result was the SG (which stands for Solid Guitar), a much thinner all-mahogany guitar with "devil horn" double cutaways, bevelled body edges, and greatly reduced weight. The SG is notorious for being "neck-heavy" with a weak neck-body joint and headstock, because the body is so much lighter, so the center of gravity makes the guitar tilt towards the neck and endanger the much more fragile headstock. However, despite this weakness, the SG is known for being a versatile, comfortable guitar, with superb upper-fret access that is especially convenient for slide guitar, and its light weight has made it popular among many female guitarists as well as smaller-bodied men. The most famous SG players are probably Angus Young and Tony Iommi, and Frank Zappa, Robby Krieger and Nina Gordon also relied mainly on an SG. Buck Dharma, Pete Townshend, George Harrison, The Edge, Eric Clapton and Allison Robertson played SGs periodically, and Duane Allman used an SG for his celebrated slide playing.

GIBSON ES-335 A pioneering guitar, the ES-335 and its many variants (such as the ES-345, the ES-355, and the Epiphone Sheraton) are known for combining elements of older, hollowbody jazz guitars with features from solidbody guitars such as the Les Paul. The ES-335 has a solid maple block running down its center, but also has hollow "wings" on the sides of the body to give more resonance, complete with F-shaped sound holes. The result is an instrument that has a more "airy" sound associated with hollowbodies, which promote more "openness" in clean sounds, but also good sustain and resistant to feedback thanks to the solid center block. The ES-335 is popular in rock and roll as well as blues, jazz and rockabilly. Famous players of the ES-335 family of guitars include The Beatles (who played Epiphone Casinos, a variant of the ES-335), B.B. King (who plays "Lucille", an ES-345 with no soundholes), Chuck Berry (ES-355), John Lee Hooker (Epiphone Sheraton), Larry Carlton and Alex Lifeson.

GIBSON FLYING V Gibson's "modernistic" series -- the Flying V, the Explorer and the originally unproduced prototype Moderne) gave birth to the wilder guitar shapes that would become truly popular in the '80s. The Flying V is the most famous of these. With a mahogany or korina body and double humbuckers, the Flying V's sound is aimed towards high-gain rock and metal. The body is complete clear of the neck, which means unrivalled access to the uppermost frets. However, the V shape of the body means that the Flying V (and its later progeny like the King V, Rhoads V and the Dean ML) is nearly impossible to play in a conventional posture when sitting down. The Flying V also has the quirk of almost being able to "stand on its own" when propped against the wall or an amp. While Flying Vs are usually popular with metal players, blues legends Albert King and Lonnie Mack also played one. Kirk Hammett and James Hetfield played Gibson Flying Vs early in Metallica's career. Rudolf and Michael Schenker of The Scorpions and UFO play Flying Vs exclusively; Lenny Kravitz, Marc Bolan and Jimi Hendrix have played Flying Vs frequently, and Dave Mustaine played a "King V" model which, over the years, has been produced by Jackson, ESP and now Dean.

GRETSCH 6120 Gretsch, one of the few companies that can rival Gibson for longevity, is most associated with rockabilly and classic rock. The most famous Gretsch guitar is the 6120, a model developed in association with Chet Atkins, known as one of the best guitar players of all time. The most famous Gretsch guitars are hollow, and feature "Dynasonic" (also known as "DeArmond") single-coil pickups or "FilterTron" humbuckers. Both pickups have a clear, trebly sound, the classic sound associated with rockabilly music. Famous Gretsch players include Duane Eddy, Bo Diddley, Brian Setzer and Neil Young (who used a Gretsch White Falcon early in his career before switching to a Gibson Les Paul).

RICKENBACKER 330 and 360 Rickenbacker's history goes back far and the company may lay claim to producing the first electric guitar, the "Frying Pan", created in 1931. Rickenbacker's heyday was the '60s, when The Beatles' John Lennon and George Harrison both played Rickenbackers early in the band's career, which led The Byrds' Roger McGuinn to play a 12-string electric Rickenbacker 360, an instrument of which McGuinn is considered the master. Rickenbackers have a unique, compressed, midrange-heavy sound with great presence, which produces equally good overdriven and clean tones. The look of the guitar is also unique, with a fingerboard elevated higher than the guitar's hollow body, and distinct soundholes that are unlike the F-holes of the classic American hollowbody guitar. Rickenbackers are especially popular with pop music as well as "jangle" pop, alternative, and "college" rock. Other famous Rickenbacker players include Tom Petty, Peter Buck, Carrie Brownstein, Susanna Hoffs and Per Gessle.

"SUPERSTRATS" The "superstrat" had its genesis in the late '70s and early '80s with the advent of Eddie Van Halen and his fast, technically complex approach towards rock guitar (which had its roots in earlier '70s players such as Ritchie Blackmore and Uli Jon Roth). The very fast playing techniques of this style required a guitar that had a thinner neck and flatter fretboard, low action, and a vibrato bar ("tremolo bar" in Fender terminology) that can handle dramatic changes in pitch without losing tuning. The result is the "superstrat", guitars with a shape loosely based on the Fender Stratocaster, and equipped with Floyd Rose vibratos, locking nuts and a variety of pickup combinations -- high-gain pickups such as DiMarzio and EMG pickups are popular. Mostly associated with heavy metal, the superstrat tends to be coupled with heavy use of effects (such as flanger, phaser, wah and usually much distortion), aiming for a heavily processed, saturated sound rather than more organic, amp-based "vintage" sounds. Later on, the features were extended beyond the superstrat shape to include shapes like the Jackson Rhoads V (named after Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Randy Rhoads), the Ibanez Destroyer, the B.C. Rich Mockingbird and the Dean ML. In the '90s, seven-string versions of the superstrat became popular with the "nu-metal" bands. Notable players of this kind of guitar include Eddie Van Halen, Kirk Hammett, Joe Satriani, Steve Vai, Dimebag Darrell, Chris DeGarmo and Phil Collen. Yngwie Malmsteen, and Richie Sambora played heavily modified Fender Stratocasters in the same vein. Popular modern versions of this kind of guitar include the ESP M series, the Ibanez R series and S series, and the Music Man Axis (which was Eddie Van Halen's signature model at one time).

PAUL REED SMITH (PRS) In the '80s luthier Paul Reed Smith began to make a guitar that incorporated features from both Fender and Gibson guitars. PRS guitars feature a 25" scale length (in between Gibson's 24.75" and Fender's 25.5"), double cutaways, vibrato bridge and body contouring (as on Fender's Stratocaster), and mostly used double humbucker pickups and mahogany or korina woods, sometimes with a maple cap (traits of Gibson guitars). The resulting guitars became possibly the most popular new guitar brand since Fender and Gibson. PRS guitars tend to be expensive (though it has a more affordable foreign-manufactured "SE" line) and feature beautiful woods and elaborate decorations such as "bird" fretboard inlays, and have a stature akin to Gibson's Les Paul in terms of price, desirability, collectibility, and craftsmanship. Famous PRS players include Carlos Santana, Mark Tremonti and Dave Navarro.

My answerEither a fender Strat or an ESP Kirk Hammet limited edition or an ibanez S series. My answerThe Epiphone Les Paul custom or Gibson Les Paul custom My AnswerIn my opinion, it's a Fender Stratocaster......best guitar most famously played by the best guitarist (Jimi Hendrix)

Now do not listen to everyone that said fender or Gibson... unless you intend to play country, blues or strictly chord rock.

if you want to take guitar seriously and end up somewhere, in today's world, a fast, clean player is needed, fenders strings are tooooooooo close together and make it difficult to play fast, Gibson has a fat, uncomfortable neck, which limits your playing.

Companies like Carvin, Ibanez, ESP, PRS will get you somewhere.

Carvin- my personal favourite, has a comfortable neck and an awesome sound, and looks great, and they offer quality and customization at a low price, in this case you get more than what you pay for. rock, metal, alternative, blues, funk...

Ibanez- awesome look, awesome sound, and most of all, awesome neck, amazingly thin and easy to play. used for metal, rock, alternative

ESP- the same description as ibanez. used for metal, rock, alternative

PRS- the same description as Carvin. used for rock, metal, alternative, blues, funk...

(but at MUCH higher price than Carvin)

in conclusion, my fav- Carvin, is cheap, custom, good quality, great sound, and extremely versatile.

Answer 2

Opinions can be given, but this is not a question that can be answered as it is presented. This is WikiAnswers, not WikiOpinions. If you ask most musicians a question like this, you're most likely to be answered with more questions, such as:

What style do you play?

Do you play with a pick, or fingerstyle?

For what style of music?

At doing what?

The forums on Harmony-Central.com will probably give you plenty of opinions on what people believe to be the best electric guitar, but again, these opinions are likely to be in reference to a specific style of music or playing style (jazz, country, strumming, fingerpicking, shredding, etc...).