MI Pro

Release Date	Out Now
Vendor	Yamaha, P&R Howard, DGC, Aria, Ashton, Adam Hall, EMD, JHS, Peavey, Tanglewood

SECTOR GUIDE - Budget Electric Guitars

Most guitarists can remember their first electric guitar, often with fondness; the brutal reality of a poorly pieced together lump of wood and metal with an action that left young fingers cut to ribbons lost in the soft light of misty-eyed retrospection.

Take this writer’s first electric as a case study. Bought from the local musical emporium, (at the time a mystical place populated with prodigiously talented musical demi-gods) for the princely sum of £60, it looked like something that no mere mortal could touch, never mind attempt to play: a Taiwanese Strat-a-like, all black, with mysterious knobs and an odd silver bar by the bridge which obviously performed some feat I would learn about when the keepers of the keys deigned me fit to have knowledge of.

Oh, it looked the part alright, it was a regular floozy, just enough sparkle and shine to make its delusional owner give it one more go, and for the next two years, it bore the brunt of adolescent thrashings, through the Beatles songbook and back again.

But no matter what, the damn thing wouldn’t stay in tune; once chords were learned, they just sounded… wrong, no matter how religiously the wretched thing was tuned up, restrung, set up and generally lavished with love and affection.

Soon the electrics went, with no hint as to why, rendering it virtually useless as the discordant noise couldn’t even be covered with the solitary distortion pedal that accompanied its purchase. Many have similar stories of their first musical partner.

Yet today, things are different; the budget guitars that are being thrust into the eager hands of the young (and in many cases not so young) acolytes of the electric guitar are by and large magnificent instruments. Sure there’s the odd cheesecutter that you wouldn’t even cast a weary G chord on, but the quality of instruments coming out of factories in the east is, generally speaking, bloody terrific.

There have been a lot of quality-based questions raised about Chinese instruments over the years, a lot of it not altogether unjustified. But as margins have been squeezed and manufacturers forced to look for the cheapest possible answer for their budget lines, quality control has risen beyond all reproach.

So much so that many of the instruments coming into the country now by the container load are not only playable, but genuinely desirable (for their price range), and a great place to start the journey along the road to becoming the next Jimi, Eric or Yngwie (delete as applicable).

Now the UK is once again in the grip of a guitar-based fever, with live music rocketing in popularity and bands springing up all over the place, it’s guitars in the sub-£200 bracket that are making the most waves and the most noise.

A glance through the NME will reveal that young bands with decent sized deals who are actually selling records are doing it with the guitars that they learned on (perhaps only a year or two ago) and have never had to replace thanks to the quality of the instrument.

It was perhaps Yamaha’s Pacifica that first introduced the notion that the price tag shouldn’t necessarily dictate the nature of the instrument. Why should a guitar priced at £199 have not had a respectable amount of attention given to it, decent components used and a bit of care taken with its assembly?

Correctly guessing that a guitar with a bit of thought and attention given to it would stand head and shoulders above its rivals, the Pacifica was an instant smash. Remaining virtually unchanged until last year, the Pacifica 112V featured the trademark solid Alder body, alongside new additions including a new bridge and hardware, a push/pull coil tab for the humbucker, new finishes and custom wound alnico pickups tailored specifically to the 112V.

The changes have ensured the Pacifica a whole new set of fans in the sub-£200 price bracket. “Entry level guitars continue to be in demand thanks to lots of people being inspired to play by both new, current bands and reunions of classic acts like The Police and Led Zeppelin,” comments Yamaha product manager Julian Ward.

“The big change in the ‘90s was that electric guitars under £200 actually became a realistic proposition. Models like the Pacifica 112, made properly, set up, playable, reliable guitars within reach of most people and meant that even if you'd never played a chord before, an electric might be a sensible place to start rather than a luxury just to get distortion from the word go.”

Whilst the market remains buoyant, Ward is quick to point out that the falling prices of electric guitars should not dictate the quality of product that is out there, and neither should the instruments be subjected to ruthless price cuts. “Our big challenge with the entry level market is to make sure people are buying guitars, not guitar shaped objects,” continues Ward.

“Ultimately, a guitar is a tool to do a job. It has to perform to be useful and if too many corners are cut to make a great looking Strat copy for £49, it probably won't perform properly. The market's strong, and lots of people want to play guitar, the issue at hand is how we can convince them that a £49 thing that looks like a guitar isn't really going to do the trick and that the cost of buying a 'real' guitar is just that bit higher.“

Another innovator in the field of entry level guitars has been Vintage, which has successfully injected a breath of fresh air into the sector with its inventive products. Take, for example, the Vintage Zip: Les Paul like in shape, but with a single Wilkinson twin lipstick pickup, an array of eye-catching finishes and straightforward controls, it’s appeal to first-time guitarists (or indeed just those who want something straightforward to get back to punk roots) is obvious.

A low price tag combined with a concerted effort to give the guitars features that suit the market and don’t blow the roof in terms of pricing have ensured Vintage plenty of Zip sales.

Elsewhere in its budget ranges, Vintage is proving that an added value approach to this area of guitar sales can reap huge rewards. The V6 series of Strat-a-likes are responsive, well-thought out instruments in the shape of the Fender classic that have seen Trev Wilkinson exhaustively go through every aspect of the design in order to deliver an instrument shot through with care and class.

Adam Hall has also found itself involved with the entry-level market, thanks to its new Elektrasonik guitar range. As with so many manufacturers now, Electrasonik has its own spin on things. Take for example the double cut-out New Yorker.

Looking like something approaching a Les Paul Junior cross-bred with a PRS, two humbuckers, a basswood body and a maple neck all make this a great little guitar.

The Vegas is another corker in the range, featuring Fender-ish stylings (this one Jaguar rather than Strat though) and has a great retro look.

With a huge range of entry-level instruments in its Westfield range, P&R Howard has become a force to be reckoned with, no doubt thanks in some part to its highly successful budget line. Every major shape of electric guitar is covered off, with some distinguishing themselves more than others – take a look at their SG and Les Paul re-workings for example, fine instruments for the learner rock God. The E4500 is a Les Paul Classic style of guitar, with flamed maple top and gold fittings, and shows just how far your money can go nowadays.

Guvnor has been quietly carving itself a niche as one of the few budget guitars out there to have completely individual designs whilst successfully maintaining a modern edge.

Although its instruments do reach up out into the mid-price bracket, its entry level guitars are excellent flag-bearers for the brand.

The first rung on the ladder, the GE100, echoes the body shape of its more expensive siblings, and features a slimline neck and floating tremolo alongside a number of finish options. Slightly further up the line in Guvnor’s electric range comes the GE500, which packs in a flamed maple top edged with cream binding, a humbucker - single coil – humbucker combination and the Guvnor GTL050 custom tremolo system into its sub-£200 price.

The STG range from Aria has proved a popular choice amongst beginners, surely thanks to a set of excellent looking and sounding instruments alongside the manufacturers dependable familiar sounding name. Sticking to the ever-dependable Strat shape that undoubtedly dominates this end of the market, Aria takes few risks here, but gets all the basics right – alder bodies, coil taps and a wide range of finished to suit most palettes.

Another rising stock in the MI world is Ashton, the Antipodeans with a sharp eye for design and enough good ideas to back up its promise of beach-based musical good times.

Its electric guitar lines are soon to be bolstered by new products (see NAMM news), but its popular starter packs have been making waves not just in the UK but also abroad and the company’s profile continues to build.

Tanglewood has also made a huge leap forward with the announcement of the new Evolution series. Bolstering what is already a huge selection of entry-level products in the Tanglewood catalogue, Evolution looks set to propel the brand into a whole new area of the American market, so expect a concerted marketing drive and a huge upswing in demand for these guitars in the near future.

Peavey has an impressive amount on offer in this section of the electric guitar market, including the HP Signature Ex, the successor to the popular Wofgang QT and only recently in stock, the explorer-influenced Rotor EX, and the HP Special EX, a Chinese manufactured version of Hartley Peavey’s signature model.

All this without mentioning the Raptor range or the numerous other instruments Peavey has to offer the guitarist on a shoestring, and anyone could see there is a real commitment to the learner market from Peavey, with scaled down versions of popular high-end models within reach and without a compromise on quality.

Lastly comes a name that has graced the headstock of many a budding guitarist’s first axe, EMD’s Stagg. A brand that caters for so much entry level equipment, from cases and stands all the way thorough to instruments, Stagg has come to mean affordable, good quality gear for those among us who don’t have money to burn, yet still want to look professional and get the job done.

The Vintage S-Series has a number of tasty looking Strat-a-likes which could be mistaken for the real thing at a squint, while the Stagg Vintage M Series features an original design in the mould of a Jazzmaster with Strat fittings.
As fresh new fingers continue to find their way to unfamiliar fretboards, the market for electric guitars in the sub-£200 price bracket is as varied and hard to predict as ever. But, in comparison to the starter instruments in years gone by, build quality is higher (and still rising), options in shape, finish and hardware more varied and manufacturers more committed than ever to providing a serious solution to the needs of new players.

Electric guitar sales are often dictated as much by looks as by the actual playing of the instrument, but with today’s low-end guitars benefiting from investment in hardware, design and quality control, beginners are getting a better deal than ever before.