Re: Electric Guitars
For a starter electric guitar, you are going to want to buy something inexpensive. This is, of course, to determine his long term interest, before spending a bunch of money. The good news is that there are plenty of inexpensive electrics available. For example, you can buy a bottom end Fender Squire or Ephiphone for under $100.00.
The choice of an electric for a beginner is good because the hardest part of the first learning period, is getting your fingers conditioned in terms of a couple of things - calluses and finger dexterity. Since electrics use much lighter strings than acoustic guitars do, and they are setup much closer to the fretboard, the electrics are eaier to play.
As with any other cheap product, you just want to buy the best instrument that you can for the money. Look at overall construction, fit and finish and apparent durability. Bear in mind that, for $100, you are at the bottom end of what can be purchased, but some models are better than others.
One of the most prevalent issues with cheap guitars is "intonation." This refers to the ability of the guitar to play notes that are in tune, throughout the scale range. The easiest way to check for this is to start with a guitar that is in tune with all strings open - meaning that you haven't placed your finger on any of them at any fret position. Now start with the bottom string (E) and depress it at the first fret. Play the note and listen for it to remain in tune. Following that, play a note at each fret position, all the way to the body of the guitar. Usually you will find intonation problems higher up on the neck. You can repeat this process on all of the strings.
For a hundred bucks, you are most likely going to find some intonation problems somewhere, but you can try to minimize it. You also do this check for every instrument that you consider buying, not just by brand. Again, this is a cheap guitar we are talking about, and quality control isn't going to be great no matter who made it - there is going to be variation from guitar to guitar.
The choice to buy from a national chain of music stores v. a local music store, can be partly a function of what each has available, and your comfort level with the sales people, In either case, you want to find someone who you trust to help you through the process. Sometimes the chains can beat the local guys on price, but that isn't always true. I have a buddy who owns a store and he prices most of what he sells based on catelog prices. He will meet or beat the catelogs, but offers local availability.
Here's a site that you can look at to learn some things about guitars. Click on the link for "electric repairs" and you will see a bunch of sublinks for various issues. By reading through them, you will learn quite a bit about guitars and the things that affect them.
http://www.fretnotguitarrepair.com/default.htm
As a final thought, be careful about buying super cheap guitars - they will have terrible intonation and setups, and will be generally hunks of junk. Frankly, you'd be better off not buying him anything, rather than one of those. The reason for this is that he is quite likely to be turned off by the lousy sound and playing characteristics - especially if the instrument is hard to play.
Ron G
