Guitar.

Believe it or not, Yamaha's are pretty good (acoustic or electric). They're cheap ($150ish), play well and sound decent. You can find them at Guitar Center.

 

i wouldnt go for a yamaha electric. acoustic is fine though, i have one myself. most Epiphones are good, but not as cheap. The SG is cool

 

Fender's " Squire " or Ibanez makes a complete starter kit for around 100 to 180 dollars. Should come with Guitar, Amp, Case, maybe an extra pair of strings and a CD or something.. Both are great starter guitars. Ive heard both guitars played from novice to guys who've been playing 13 years..they sound pretty good.. and if you end up loosing interest later on, your not out too much money. My 2cents. Been playing 11 years, Started on a Squire. its now my " Franken-Squire " and being modded out..

 

An Epiphone electric in the $350 range will be a pretty nice guitar for a beginner. Never liked the Squires but Epiphone is a Gibson after all. I buy a lot from http://www.musiciansfriend.com/ and another place that I can't remember out of NJ I think. Both have great prices and fast shipping. If you see something nice from a local shop at a good price go for it but the online places usually have some very candid reviews. I have an old Yamaha Nippon Gakki Red label that I love.

 

definitely check out www.musiciansfriend.com, I started with a squier I bought from there and it wasn't bad at all. If you want a good beginning electric I'd head that way. The best acoustics I've found are ovation guitar but are quite expensive. I have a black ovation that is acoustic/electric and it sounds amazing. By the way, they're having a huge sale on musicians friend so get on it if you want a deal.

 

Best thing I ever did was to go on Youtube. There are step by step lessons for a ton of songs. Even just slowing the videos down and pausing them while someone plays a cover makes it possible to learn. I took professional lessons for years and pretty much sucked. After going to you tube and a lot of practice I can play pretty damn good at least compared to before. Have Fun.

 

To me guitars and surfboards have a lot in common. So many guitars are mass-produced overseas now. They are almost always and inexpensive and pieces of s***.

I have had better luck with Epiphones than Squires. But, that too is changing. 10 years ago Epiphones were built almost as well as Gibsons. Recently, though, they've come out with some ultra-cheap models that are crap. If you want a Fender style guitar, skip Squire and try to find a mexican strat.

If you are starting out, your best bet would be to seek out a used guitar (another similarity to surfboards). For probably a little more money, you could probably land a decent Epiphone Les Paul or Mexican strat. Ibanez and the Parker PM guitars are good budget models as well.

As a general rule of thumb, a new guitar should cost at least $400, though probably more like $500. Anything below that is really poor quality. You could probably get something used for $350. A lot of mom and pop music stores sell a good amount of used gear and Guitar Center now does as well.

Probably a bit hypocritcal of me to say - my first guitar came from Toy's R Us and was $99 -- but I would stay far away from any of those entry level packages that you see at Best Buy or Target.

 

I agree with the above statement, those all in one packages are crap and the guitars are horrible. The quickest way to tire of playing the guitar is to buy a crappy instrument. The fret work on a cheap guitar are usually so sharp you could hurt yourself playing them.

 

im selling a usa fender strat for 500, out of your price range but nice guitar for sure

 

Hit the Pawn Shops you can get some pretty good deal there too, I have a telecaster and Vox amp and I love how it sounds I got probally 600 wraped into it total

 

Alvarez makes a good acoustic. I got a brand new one for about $200 and the tone is amazing.

 

for any of you that are into guitar... Check out Guitar Rig from Native Instruments... Basically every amp, cabinet, and effects pedal you could ever want or need... I don't even play guitar, but I run my synths through it... Basically its ****ing amazing, and if you are all about some electric guitar, its probably the best thing you could ever buy...

 

Here's a great guitar for sale..............

http://delaware.craigslist.org/msg/1858818557.html

Pm me if you're interested, i'd meet ya' up state. Sweet case comes with it too!

 

I have a Epiphone Les Paul Standard and a 15 watt Marshall amp for sale if your interested. I was going to take it over to the pawn shop next week. Great first guitar, it's the setup I learned on. $300-Hit me up if your interested.