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I have a Musician's Friend catalog in front of me and will give some comments and ideas:
Guitars:
Fender "Standard" (made in Mexico) Stratocaster or Telecaster $350 -perhaps more than you want to spend, but very decent guitars
Squier Fender Strat/Tele $150-200 - a longtime standard beginner instrument
Epiphone Les Paul and SQ: $150-500 - nice instruments, but like I explained in my other post, the Les Paul probably won't be a good choice. They are georgous and produce fat, rocking tones, so she might fall in love
Ibanez GSA60,GSZ120,JTK1,etc. $200-$300: a better value than Fender/Gibson products but won't have the cache/credibility with traditionalists like myself nor the resale value
Amps:
While I can go on and on about the virtues of tube amps, a decent solid state amp will be better (<$) for beginners. I would also be a bit weary about evryone here who says to keep the amp under 25W. The reason is that playing with other musicians is the most rewarding musical experience you can have, and within a month of your daughter ever playing with a drummer or bass player, she will want something larger than a 1x10 25W combo with a 10" speaker. 40W and 12" is more like what I'd shoot for. Oh, and you don't need built-in digital effects (they can be fine, but don't think of them as a deal maker/breaker). People will try to sell you on these features, but ask them if Jimmy Page would use an amp with built-in effects. Anyway, here are some choies from Musicina's Friend (this is like the Wal-Mart of musical gear):
Marshall MG III series: let there be rock (recommended)
Any Crate amp - these will seem very impressive from a wattage/price ratio, but the tone is horrible on all of them. Kind of like comparing a Kia to a Civic.
Fender FM or Frontman series - recommended. Very nice clean tones
Vox Valvetronix,Pathfiner, etc. - good little amps
Line 6 Spider series - recommended and more versatile than the other cheap amps.
Roland practice amps - probably decent
Behringer practice amps - pretty decent
"Rogue" and "Drive" brand amps - kind of like a V8 Yugo
All in all, I would go with a Squier Tele or Strat or an Epiphone SG and a Marshall, Fender, or Line 6 practice amp.
For good advice, go to http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/ and ask your question on some of the bulletin boards. The amps and effects bulletin boards draw a slightly more mature audience than the guitar boards. There are also tons of product reviews on this site as well. FWIW, my main setup is a Clapton Strat through a Fender Vibrolux Reverb. You should get some slightly different preferences from other musicians at Harmony Central.
Also, used gear is always a better value if it is in good shape over half of the gear I currently own was purchased used. To use a car analogy, you want to find something like a Civic/Mazda3/Golf for her as opposed to a Sephia/Cavalier/etc.
Feel free to post more specific questions once you have it narrowed down a bit. Long live rock!
posted by 216.216.206...
http://www.harmony-central.com
, Thu, 17 Mar 2005 16:27:02
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