Best Beginner Electric Guitar to Start Perfectly from Day 1

Things to Consider When Buying the Best Beginner Electric Guitar

What is the Best Electric Guitar for Beginners?

When getting beginner’s electric guitars, you have to consider playability, aesthetics, and tone with a very limited budget. Here we will talk about these elements in a bit more detail to help you find the right starter electric guitar.

Playability

• Playability describes how easy it is to play an electric guitar, usually pertaining to the fretting hand. As such, it can somewhat be subjective, but for beginners, there are standards that are generally accepted. First off is the guitar’s string action or string height, which should be low enough to make them easy to fret (press the strings down on the fretboard), yet high enough to prevent string buzz. Next is the guitar’s neck profile, those with smaller hands will want thinner necks, while those with bigger hands usually prefer fatter necks. Another important consideration is the smoothness of the fingerboard and fret wire edges.

Scale Length: Short vs Regular

• Scale length is an important specification that affects playability. It is the measurement of twice the distance from the nut to the 12th fret, with some variance added by saddle positioning. It is essentially describing the length by which the string is stretched. The average scale length ranges from 24.75″ for Les Paul-type guitars to 25.5″ for Stratocaster types, but there are a number of manufacturers that offer short-scale instruments, often less than 23″, many of which are designed for beginners. The advantage of starting on a regular scale guitar is that it has similar string tension with other mid-tier / premium guitars, which means minimal technique adjustments when you decide to switch to a higher quality guitar. On the other hand, those with shorter scale lengths have lower string tension, which makes them easier on the fretting hands, and very comfortable to play. Short-scale guitars are also usually shorter in length, making them more portable. Short-scale guitars are usually recommended for younger players, but even experienced players find benefit in having them for their ease of use.

Aesthetics

• With so many different beginner electric guitar shapes and colors, choosing a particular design can be quite daunting – but getting the look of the guitar right can be just as important as playability, especially when it comes to inspiring young upstarts to practice more. Going for one that looks similar to the student’s guitarist hero is always the safest bet.

Tone

• Tone is a big and sensitive topic, but to keep this discussion on point, we will just focus on tone as perceived by beginners. Most students are not as sensitive to tone as experienced players, but they can tell the difference between a good and bad-sounding guitar. Bad sounding is usually associated with unbalanced treble/bass, excessive “buzz”, muddy (unclear) string sound, and lack of sustain. Thankfully, the beginner guitars we feature in this guide are ones that provide satisfactory tones in their price range.

Amplifier and Other Gear

• This may be a no-brainer, but it must be said, that to get your electric guitar working, you’ll need at least a guitar cable and a guitar amplifier to be able to hear your electric guitar. So you’ll need a bit more money for these essential pieces of equipment, although instead of a beginner electric guitar amp, you can use headphones in conjunction with a guitar headphone amp (headphones won’t work on their own plugged directly into your guitar). In addition, there is other gear that can improve your overall guitar experience, including effects pedals and multi-effects processors, a guitar case, a guitar stand, and more. Other essential beginner accessories to consider include metronomes, tuners, spare strings, and capos.

Standalone vs Bundle

Speaking of other gear, there are manufacturers that offer electric guitar bundles or packages. These usually come with an amplifier and a cable, so you can play your beginner electric guitar right out of the box. There are some that come with other essentials like a tuner, extra strings, and capos. The obvious advantage of getting a guitar bundle is that you get more for your money, and you don’t have to worry about separately getting a cable and amp. On the flip side, you won’t get to pick the specific amp and other gear.