Electric guitars and amplifiers are such an exciting and amazing thing! But as beginners, we are often unsure of which option to choose for ourselves. There are so many options after all. But worry not! I'm an experienced musician myself (You can see my YouTube channel and playing at the bottom part of this page) and I'm here to help you choose the right electric guitar starter kit for you!
I am very passionate about music and all of my recommendations are based on my own research and personal experience (over 15 years). If you buy something through my links, I get a small commission from Amazon & eBay at no extra cost to you.
If you have absolutely no idea what your ideal type of electric guitar is, my recommendation is always a stratocaster with a humbucker in the bridge position. Humbucker is a hum-cancelling pick-up on the guitar (it makes less annoying noise) and it produces a more powerful sound when compared to other pick-up types.
But don't worry about those things yet. Just trust my word. You want one humbucker in the bridge position on your electric guitar in the beginning. It's great for every genre of music.
Get this comprehensive electric guitar guide to go along with your brand new guitar! It will provide you with some extra structure and it could prove handy, if you need specific information quickly.
The 7 Best Electric Guitar Starter Kits (2022)
Donner guitars have been gaining a lot of popularity recently and for a very good reason. You get a lot of guitar for a very small price. There are a lot of reviews for these guitars on YouTube and most of them are very positive. They look around 200-300$ more expensive than they really are and looks are one of the biggest motivators to pick up your guitar because it inspires you. It makes you smile and think to yourself: "Man, I'm so glad I started playing guitar".
The second Donner product I'd recommend is definitely this one. The reason I recommend this is simple: It looks amazing and makes you feel like Slash. It's also a good alternative to the stratocaster I mentioned before because not everybody likes their guitars in the same shape. I started with a stratocaster and now I play pretty much only guitars that look like this one! The reason I don't recommend this over the first one is because you have less tonal options (two humbuckers instead of one humbucker + 2 single coil pick-ups) and a stratocaster is more comfortable to play. At least if you hold the guitar on top of your right leg (or left leg if you're a leftie). Pro tip: Hold this guitar in the classical position (between your legs) for an easier playing experience!
THREE IN A ROW!? I swear I am not sponsored by Donner, but they just provide an option for all the important guitar types. In total there's 3 guitar types that are the most popular: Stratocaster, Les paul (the second one on this list) and the Telecaster (which is this one). Telecaster actually came before the stratocaster and stratocasters were supposed to be the successor to the telecaster! But telecaster still has its own sound and many people love its simple design, so they never stopped selling them. In fact, I myself bought one roughly one year ago. It's a lot of fun and looks very classy. The neck pick-up also sounds wonderful and the bridge pick-up is very twangy sounding.
This stratocaster is a bit special on this list. Why you may ask? Well, one of the biggest names on YouTube, "Guitar MAX" made a video about this specific guitar here: https://youtu.be/Mg2jQcPUsuo
The guitar looks quite unique (the color is called Bourbon) and the price is affordable. Plus points for being comfortable to play.
Got short fingers or maybe you want a lighter guitar? Or maybe you're still a kid and want an easy guitar to play. Well, this guitar is not a full sized 4/4 guitar. This is size 3/4. So this is roughly 25% smaller than an average guitar. It's also a great brand. Sawtooth guitars are pretty new but they are getting more and more popular every day. "Guitar MAX" has also reviewed these guitars and he was very impressed with the playability and visuals.
Fun fact: The fastest guitar player in the world "Michael Angelo Batio" is an official partner with Sawtooth guitars. So, I think that tells you what type of player these guitars are aimed for (fast & technical shred monsters!)
3/4 Sized guitars should be able to use all guitar string sizes with no problem, but I personally would try using at least gauge 10 strings like these: Ernie Ball Extra Light Nickel Wound Electric Guitar Strings, 10-50 Gauge.
If the tuning stability is good with those 10 gauge strings, then you can try the easier to play gauge 9 strings as well: D'Addario Guitar Strings - XL Nickel Electric Guitar Strings - EXL120BT - Perfect Intonation, Consistent Feel, Reliable Durability - For 6 String Guitars - 09-40 Super Light Balanced Tension
Now this just screams metal! This guitar has a lot of positive reviews and is clearly aimed towards the metal & hard rock crowd. It's very pleasing to look at and the headstock logo looks pretty modern. Kind of similar to the Yamaha logo from their own line of electric guitars. At least to me.
Yeah, go buy some 11-12 gauge electric guitar strings for this thing and down tune this beast a few steps down. It's gonna sound and feel friggin' awesome I tell you!
This last recommendation is for all you youngsters! If you're a parent trying to find a guitar kit for your kid, this one should do the trick. The guitar is small, light and has at least three different color variations: Red, Green and Black. It also only has one knob to adjust, the volume knob. Normally guitars of these types have 3 different knobs and a pick-up switch, but those only serve to confuse the kids. Young players, and beginners in general should be focusing on actually playing the guitar instead of fiddling around with different knobs and switches.
Because this guitar is a smaller scale guitar, I recommend using thicker strings like these for added tuning stability: Ernie Ball Medium Nickel Wound Electric Guitar Strings, 13-56 Gauge
That's it folks!
Just pick the guitar that best suits your visual and playing preference! And budget too, of course. Also, if you're a left-handed guitar player, many of these options should have a left-handed option as well. So be extra careful to select that one. Unless you plan to be like Jimi Hendrix who learned to play left-handed on a right-handed guitar! Worked out for him I guess, heheh.
My YouTube channel and who am I?
Hey, I am Pege and I'm a instrumentalist that creates anime and gaming related music covers for my YouTube channel. I'm very enthusiastic about what I do and my biggest love in life is my guitar and producing music in general.
I mostly pick songs that play in very iconic scenes in the shows that I watch. For example, when Kirito and Asuna (from Sword Art Online) buy their first house together. Or when they both fall asleep on the grass outside in the fields of Aincrad.
I'm not in this for fame nor money. Though, both of those things do help me quite a bit! Thanks for reading my article. I hope you find what you were looking for.