Tips for Buying an Electric Guitar

So you want to buy an electric guitar? Well get ready to drown in a sea of confusing options like body styles, pickup choices, hardware options, manufacturer differences and modeling capabilities just to name a few. If you walk into a decent size music store these days you will be confronted with more options than what the latest luxury SUV offers. Or you might be thinking about browsing an online music store. Now you have even more choices than your local store.
Fortunately, it is possible to group these choices together in a list of options that you can bring to your music store salesperson. So, let's get started...

STEP ONE: IDENTIFY YOUR MUSICAL TASTE
Do you want to rock? Are you into blues, jazz or country? Answer this question and you'll greatly narrow down your choices. Certain types of guitars are typically used for certain styles of music. (In the interest of maintaining a fair and objective position on brand names and products I will refrain from mentioning specific brand names.)

If it's modern or classic rock you're into, you're going to want to find a solid-body guitar. For a thick, rich tone you will want to select a guitar with "humbucking" pickups. For a brighter thinner tone choose a guitar with "single-coil" pickups. If you're interested in those crazy 80's guitar tricks you might want to find a guitar with a "floating tremelo" If not, go ahead and choose a standard bridge or a fixed tailpiece.

If you prefer a little country twang, you're probably going to want a solid-body electric guitar with single-coil pickups. Don't worry about the floating tremelo on this one.

For jazz, you might prefer a semi-hollow body electric with humbucker pickups for a nice round tone.