by Adam Nierenberg

Created on: January 01, 2009

As a musician who has been playing guitar for over 20 years, I have come to learn a couple of things about electric guitars. To a great degree price and quality go hand in hand, and that Guitar
Center, in particular, doesn't care about the guitars they sell, they're just looking to move product.
If you find a music store that has staff that are knowledgeable about their products and are looking to help you get the best bang for your buck; go there to purchase your gear.

The best brands concept is totally subjective and is based on your playing style. Each brand is suited toward a certain type of player or genre of music, so I will break each brand down by genre. However you can also apply this to style of guitar. Please keep in mind that you are free to deviate from this as much as you want.
This is just a rough guideline that isn't based on a subjective list of a personal choice of guitars.

First we will start off with my preferred genre now known as Classic Rock. Through the late 1960's and early to mid 1970's, driving rock and roll was the staple of FM radio. Guitar tones were heavy and chunky because of humbucking pickups. Most guitar players such as Eric Clapton (up to his time with Derek and the Dominoes), Neil Young, Jimmy Page, Ace Frehley, Pete Townsend, Angus Young, Peter Green, and Robert Fripp used the prominent guitar with humbuckers, namely the Gibson Les Paul. With its mahogany body with maple cap and dual humbucking pickups, this guitar delivers sustain and massive tone (especially when driven through a high wattage tube amplifier). These players were able to riff and perform solo runs on the rosewood neck (or ebony neck of the custom) designed like a baseball bat. These players are not shredders, these players are more visceral in their performances, but can bend notes and use tone for their songs like nobody's business. So to sum up here, for classic rock, I would choose either a Gibson Les Paul Standard (the neck has been changed), Les Paul Traditional (used to be the Les Paul Standard with the 50's neck), The Les Paul Classic, Les Paul Studio (same thing as the Les Paul Classic with a 60's neck but with different pickups and no binding). Gibson Les Pauls also weigh up to 10 pounds so remember to use a sturdy and padded strap when playing to avoid shoulder injury. A Gibson SG (also originally part of the Les Paul family of guitars) also delivers the same type of tone, but with less sustain because there's no maple cap to resonate and is therefore

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