best electric guitar for under $300

Yokennan

hi people,

ive been a drummer for 6 years and dabble on the guitar every now and then but i want to start learning the guitar properly from scratch. i want to cover many styles but play a lot of metal too, ive played an ibanez sa series and i really loved the thin neck, but an sa is a bit out of my budget.
im mainly playing to practice and compose on so i dont need an extremely good sounding guitar, so what guitar under 300 would you reccomend?

cheers

Infosec_Sam

With a hard limit of $300, it might be tough to find something with a decent sound. Just above your budget, you could probably find a used Mexican Stratocaster, which has always been a solid mid-tier guitar. I am a fan of Epiphone for cheaper guitars, and Reverb.com always has some good deals, so you might want to check them out if you're okay with something used.

chrisone

Id like to buy and learn the Spanish guitar when I slow down from certs  

medic

Since you have dabbled with the guitar you probably already know this, but cheap guitars are not great for beginners to learn on.  Cheap ones tend to be harder to play (high action, maybe not so straight neck) which can lead to frustration in a beginner. 

When I was taking lessons, I was having a hard time with barre chords on my Squire Strat.  My instructor let me use his Fender Telecaster and it was night and day difference.  I bought a Stratocaster for $600 shortly after. 

JDMurray

Many inexpensive string and wind instruments made for beginners are more difficult to play because they are so cheaply made. Sometimes just upgrading to a better mouthpiece or set of strings will greatly improve the playability of the instrument. Having a very experienced instructor adjust your guitar, piano, or woodwind can be fix problems you never knew the instrument had. However, you can have a hunk of wood or metal that just can't be remediated no matter what you do and you just need to move up to the better-quality models if you want to become serious about practicing correctly.

MacGuffin

@Yokennan, I'm curious about how you plan to spend this $300 budget. It sounds like you are looking for an electric guitar but made no mention of owning an amp or other vital accessories. Is this for the whole setup or just the guitar?

I keep telling myself I'm going to learn to play the bass and so bought an acoustic/electric Dean bass guitar.  It was under $300, and they make 6 string guitars of similar style and for a similar price.  It doesn't need amplification but has builtin electronics to plug in. Perhaps not the style people expect for performing certain kinds of music but it is a place to start. Perhaps not the most "metal" of a guitar but, again, it doesn't need an amp but will accommodate one.

It's my belief that in most things competition keeps prices and quality in a good balance.  This is not just for guitars.  So long as you keep to major brands, don't go too cheap or too expensive, the price and quality tends to match up well.  On the cheap end there's a question on how or where they cut corners and if they will stand behind the product after the sale.  Too high and you start spending more for name recognition and customizations that don't matter much for most people.

My guess is that if you are spending $300 on a guitar then it's hard to go wrong, there's lots of good gear in that range.  Look for something that matches your style, the "look" you want and how you play.  I'd stay away from the "novelty" guitars, the ones where they spend more time on how it looks than how it sounds.

As @Infosec_Sam points out there's likely lots of good used gear out there in your price range, including the Ibanez series you tried out.  Check the local music stores and pawn shops.  There's several within about an hour drive of where I live and I learned that they each cater to different crowds, there's likely one near you that "speaks your language" that can help you out in choosing gear and might be able to help on the price if it's only a few bucks that will make the sale.