Hi guys, I am just starting to learn guitar and I was wondering does anybody know of any low price Brian May style guitars, cant afford the official BM Red Special yet.
Thanks
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Well, I guess you should save for a Brian May guitar. I think there's no point in buying a cheap guitar because you still don't have the money to buy a proper Brian May guitar... I mean, save the money!
Meanwhile, you might as well mess around a little with your guitar wiring, it can get you a lot closer to Brian's sound. If you don't know how to do it, ask somebody to do it for you, it's not really hard.
[b]Cheers,
Hor[/b]
Meanwhile, you might as well mess around a little with your guitar wiring, it can get you a lot closer to Brian's sound. If you don't know how to do it, ask somebody to do it for you, it's not really hard.
[b]Cheers,
Hor[/b]
There's always the mini-may - good for practising, right shape, cheap....
I have a brian may guitar i wish to sell for arounf £400 should you be interested at all.
Buy any guitar, even a cheap one. Develop the sound you make with your fingers before throwing money down on a good instrument. You will thank yourself for it later; the fingers are a very underrated part of a players sound.
maybe so but i made the mistake of having cheap guitars and it kind of hinders you a little too. Maybe ok for practicing but to stand any chance of sounding good you need something of a fair standard because that in itself could prove frustrating on top of learning and trying to sound half decent.
A BAD workman ALWAYS blames his tools
A bad worker alsways blames his tools is so true! Good one. Seriously, you can spend $200.00 on the Fender Squier Strat Pack. Includes everything you need to get started. The quality of the guitar is quite good. Especially compared to when I was starting out. Back then an inexpensive guitar,aka: cheap, was a bad guitar. Todays "starter guitars" are head & shoulders above what I had to start out on. Plus, as you get better over time & upgrade to a better guitar such as a BMG RS, you'll have your starter to learn the inner workings of most guitars.
Indeed!
I also forgot to say in my last post; don't bother looking for a Brian May copy that isn't made by Brian May guitars. All of the good ones (read : not crap) are more expensive than the BMG ones anyway. You might as well just save for the official copy.
I also forgot to say in my last post; don't bother looking for a Brian May copy that isn't made by Brian May guitars. All of the good ones (read : not crap) are more expensive than the BMG ones anyway. You might as well just save for the official copy.
The cheapest I've seen his guitars sold (the Signature ones) was $700 on musiciansfriend.com when they were having a sale. (That wasn't very long ago, maybe they are still having it.) Still tis pricey though.
I really have to agree with those saying that it's all about how you learn and play, rather than the instrument that you learn on. I started out on a small 3/4 acoustic with steel strings. I think the steel strings and stiffness of this cheap guitar (£35 if I'm not mistaken) made me work harder to get what I wanted out of the guitar.
Not long after, I picked up a nicer (more expensive acoustic) and because my fingers were strengthened by working harder on the cheaper/stiffer guitar, I found it easier to achieve what I wanted on my new one which had a thinner neck and more accessible neck.
After that, I got an electric guitar (Squire strat). That's the guitar I used on the "A Winter's Tale" track uploaded here on QZ. It was a nice step to take and felt pretty cool to have my first electric guitar. After a few years, I picked up a nice Hohner ATX which I still use and have recently upgraded with my spare Burns pickups. Trying to play the Squire strat after playing the Hohner...well...the squire is a pig to play! But the point is, it was cheap, it worked and sounded pretty good and I learnt on it.
So, overall, buy a cheap/decent guitar to begin with and don't fall into the trap where you may be led to buy something like the Brian guitar starting out. Personally, I'd buy something like the Squire and then once you get good, use the allure of the official Brian copy as your goal to reach. To me, that just seems more fun! I know it certainly made me learn how to get the most out of the equipment I had to hand and because I was a Brian fan, I looked into how to achieve that sound before the Burns guitars came about. It was in 2006 (around 9 years since I started playing guitar) that I managed to get the money needed for a Brian May 2006 (£440) model guitar. I still enjoy using that guitar because of, not just the sound but, the path I took to get to that guitar. Learning the inferior stuff to begin with, helped me. I know people who started on great guitars that don't seem to have the strength in their fingers (or knowledge) that I do. At least, I think that's something to do with starting on hard acoustic strings. And isn't it true that when you get something handed to you that makes things easier, you try a little less?? :)
Hope you don't mind my rant!
Adam.
Not long after, I picked up a nicer (more expensive acoustic) and because my fingers were strengthened by working harder on the cheaper/stiffer guitar, I found it easier to achieve what I wanted on my new one which had a thinner neck and more accessible neck.
After that, I got an electric guitar (Squire strat). That's the guitar I used on the "A Winter's Tale" track uploaded here on QZ. It was a nice step to take and felt pretty cool to have my first electric guitar. After a few years, I picked up a nice Hohner ATX which I still use and have recently upgraded with my spare Burns pickups. Trying to play the Squire strat after playing the Hohner...well...the squire is a pig to play! But the point is, it was cheap, it worked and sounded pretty good and I learnt on it.
So, overall, buy a cheap/decent guitar to begin with and don't fall into the trap where you may be led to buy something like the Brian guitar starting out. Personally, I'd buy something like the Squire and then once you get good, use the allure of the official Brian copy as your goal to reach. To me, that just seems more fun! I know it certainly made me learn how to get the most out of the equipment I had to hand and because I was a Brian fan, I looked into how to achieve that sound before the Burns guitars came about. It was in 2006 (around 9 years since I started playing guitar) that I managed to get the money needed for a Brian May 2006 (£440) model guitar. I still enjoy using that guitar because of, not just the sound but, the path I took to get to that guitar. Learning the inferior stuff to begin with, helped me. I know people who started on great guitars that don't seem to have the strength in their fingers (or knowledge) that I do. At least, I think that's something to do with starting on hard acoustic strings. And isn't it true that when you get something handed to you that makes things easier, you try a little less?? :)
Hope you don't mind my rant!
Adam.
I was overcharged (I think) for my Burns guitar. The shop was asking for $1800 Australian, thankfully we were able to knock a couple hundred off. I suppose I could've held on for a while longer, and gotten it cheaper from eBay or something. But I played it in the shop, I found phasing settings that had loads of possibilities in them, I fell in love with the thing! I haven't been so taken with a guitar since Mum let me have a (brief) go on my late grandfather's Hofner President.
In hindsight I'm glad I went with that guitar anyway, price notwithstanding. I've heard horror stories about the Burns and I seem to have lucked out with this one. It's never failed me; every tuning woe it's ever had was down to me fiddling too much during a song. I just got it out of it's case after more than a month in storage and it was still in tune. I love this guitar.
Actually, I'd like to add a bit of advice that I've foolishly ignored in my own travels; don't buy a guitar you haven't played first. This year I've bought a Variax and an Epiphone Casino, and both were bought without ever touching them (the Casino was shipped in from the US, so all I saw was some photos!).
It's a much smarter move to have a hold of the guitar you're going to put money down on, and to make sure that you can physically use the thing!
In my case, I haven't been bitten (yet) for ignoring this practice. The Variax feels and plays like a dirty whore, but I've A/B'd it with more than a couple of the guitars it emulates and it's good enough to record with (though I don't think I'd ever gig with it). And the Casino was a great find, at almost half the price my local shop was charging (I think we Australians get a bit ripped off!).
I dunno if I've said this before, but my last offering is ; have the guitar with you as often as possble. Play it while watching the telly, play it in bed, play play play. Don't do what my nephew does, and 'wait for lessons' or practice for an arbitrary amount of time for every day. He's a musical kid, but I do think that treating guitar like juggling or algebra can hamper your progress. It can (and should!) be a much more involved and rewarding experience.
In hindsight I'm glad I went with that guitar anyway, price notwithstanding. I've heard horror stories about the Burns and I seem to have lucked out with this one. It's never failed me; every tuning woe it's ever had was down to me fiddling too much during a song. I just got it out of it's case after more than a month in storage and it was still in tune. I love this guitar.
Actually, I'd like to add a bit of advice that I've foolishly ignored in my own travels; don't buy a guitar you haven't played first. This year I've bought a Variax and an Epiphone Casino, and both were bought without ever touching them (the Casino was shipped in from the US, so all I saw was some photos!).
It's a much smarter move to have a hold of the guitar you're going to put money down on, and to make sure that you can physically use the thing!
In my case, I haven't been bitten (yet) for ignoring this practice. The Variax feels and plays like a dirty whore, but I've A/B'd it with more than a couple of the guitars it emulates and it's good enough to record with (though I don't think I'd ever gig with it). And the Casino was a great find, at almost half the price my local shop was charging (I think we Australians get a bit ripped off!).
I dunno if I've said this before, but my last offering is ; have the guitar with you as often as possble. Play it while watching the telly, play it in bed, play play play. Don't do what my nephew does, and 'wait for lessons' or practice for an arbitrary amount of time for every day. He's a musical kid, but I do think that treating guitar like juggling or algebra can hamper your progress. It can (and should!) be a much more involved and rewarding experience.
does anybody know where i can buy a cheap brian may style guitar, i seen a really cheap one about £120 a month or so ago on ebay but cant rem the brand of it, if anyone can think of the name of it drop me a line, thanks
You want us to remember the name of a guitar you saw on ebay?
Is it your shoelace tie-er's day off?
Is it your shoelace tie-er's day off?
One point that is always missed: buying the same guitar as the musician x or y uses won't make you sound like him, if this is your main purpose. It might happen, but don't expect it to happen all the time.
Spending a lot of money in an expensive instrument as a starter is much more frustrating than starting with cheap models. With cheap models, you can "grow", and while getting better at it, you can notice how the instrument itself is limiting your technique or not (if it's not limiting you at all, fine). Buying a very expensive instrument won't make you play better than you actually do in any time of your '"playing life", if you don't have the desire to play better or the right tools to play better - good teaching is one of them for example (not that important, but you need some kind of reference). I had some teaching in the beginning, and when it started to get boring and technical and I noticed that I had no real use for it, I quit.
Also the advice of playing something before buying is very important. Being comfortable with a certain model is very good to keep you interested. A guitar that will make your hands ache after 5 mins of playing for sure will make you lose the desire to play it often, which is necessary in the beginning.
Zebonka: the Variax is that bad because of the feel of the guitar while playing (a thick neck for example) or because of technical issues, like a delay in processing the sounds? I heard that it has a delay that sometimes gets very annoying, and I think it was a delay in the notes (latency), not in a patch change (ex. switching guitars) like in some old pedalboards...
Spending a lot of money in an expensive instrument as a starter is much more frustrating than starting with cheap models. With cheap models, you can "grow", and while getting better at it, you can notice how the instrument itself is limiting your technique or not (if it's not limiting you at all, fine). Buying a very expensive instrument won't make you play better than you actually do in any time of your '"playing life", if you don't have the desire to play better or the right tools to play better - good teaching is one of them for example (not that important, but you need some kind of reference). I had some teaching in the beginning, and when it started to get boring and technical and I noticed that I had no real use for it, I quit.
Also the advice of playing something before buying is very important. Being comfortable with a certain model is very good to keep you interested. A guitar that will make your hands ache after 5 mins of playing for sure will make you lose the desire to play it often, which is necessary in the beginning.
Zebonka: the Variax is that bad because of the feel of the guitar while playing (a thick neck for example) or because of technical issues, like a delay in processing the sounds? I heard that it has a delay that sometimes gets very annoying, and I think it was a delay in the notes (latency), not in a patch change (ex. switching guitars) like in some old pedalboards...