Getting into guitars is one of the best things that you can do to yourself. And that’s especially the case with electric guitars since they provide you with amazing potential in artistic expression. Just imagine all the different amps, effects, and other devices that can help you achieve different tones. With an electric guitar and a proper setup, the sky is your limit. However, there’s a catch here – playing the electric guitar is a bit of an expensive sport. In order to sound like a pro, you need to pay like a pro.
Knowing that a lot of guitar players can’t afford luxurious equipment, this always comes at a cost of tone and overall performance. But you don’t need to worry that much. These days, there are still decent and more than just decent guitars, amps, pedals, and other guitar gear that are available for a reasonable price. This is exactly why we decided to help you out in finding the best cheap electric guitar that you can find on the market today. Of course, the choice was not that easy and there needs to be something for everyone’s needs. After some consideration and weighing, we’ve compiled this list of affordable electric guitars.
Yamaha Pacifica PAC112V
It might be right on the edge between inexpensive and mid-priced, but Yamaha’s Pacifica series has a lot of great stuff to offer for the price. This is exactly the case with their PAC112V model. It’s a fairly simple guitar based on the classic Stratocaster, yet it covers so many different sonic territories. It comes with an alder body and a wonderful maple neck with a rosewood fingerboard. It feels pretty great under your hands and it’s an amazing choice if you need something to cover multiple different genres. This is mostly due to its pickup configuration with one humbucker and two single-coils.
Jackson Dinky JS32
In almost all cases, people think that they need to splurge out a large sum of money in order to have a good shred machine. But this couldn’t be farther from the truth since you can always get yourself a good old Jackson Dinky. The JS32 model might be somewhere right on the edge of this category when it comes to the price, but it’s more than worth every penny. It comes with a poplar body and a maple neck and it carries two very powerful humbuckers for those heavy tones. What makes it really special is that it has 24 jumbo frets and Jackson’s version of the legendary Floyd Rose double-locking tremolo. You don’t really find these features anywhere else for such a low price. And don’t even get us started on all the amazing ergonomic features that it has.
Epiphone Les Paul Special
For so many years now, Epiphone has been making some of the best guitars for the price. One of the best examples is their standard Les Paul Special, which brings some of the basic features of the classic Gibson Les Paul in the form of a very affordable instrument. With it’s dual humbucker formation, mahogany body, mahogany neck, and a classic tune-o-matic bridge, you’ll get a great tone and performance for rock, blues, hard rock, and even heavy metal music. It’s a very simple, cheap, and extremely versatile guitar.
Leo Jaymz Full Size Single Cut
While we’re at Les Paul guitars, there are plenty of budget-friendly single-cutaway guitars that are available on the market these days. Another one that we’d single out is Leo Jaymz’s classic single-cutaway model. This one rocks a regular mahogany body and a mahogany neck with a “C”-shaped profile. Although a “Les Paul knock-off,” you’ll get a pretty great guitar for the price. The pickups are pretty decent as well and you can get a nice tone out of it. And the most interesting part is its USA flag finish as well as its nice inlays on the fretboard.
Donner DST-1S
Donner is one of the most famous cheap brands on the market, delivering some pretty decent and reliable guitar stuff for surprisingly low prices. While they’re mostly known for their pedals, we have some guitars in there as well, like their DST-1S model. This is a regular full-size guitar that mimics a classic Stratocaster. However, it comes with an amazing pickup combination with one humbucker in the bridge position and two single-coils. It’s all rounded up with a nice Strat-shaped body made of basswood and a Canadian maple neck. It’s pretty surprising to have such a nice and versatile guitar for this price.
Ibanez GRGM21
Whatever is the price level, you can’t ever go wrong with Ibanez. And that’s also the case with their low-end stuff, including a guitar like GRGM21 that we singled out as the best example. The guitar comes with a basswood body and a maple neck that’s fitter with a jatoba fretboard. This instrument comes with 24 frets and 5 tone combinations with its two humbucking pickups. This is not a common feature, especially not for a guitar of this price. GRGM21 comes as a stripped-down budget version of Ibanez’s versatile shred machines that they’re very well known for. Whatever is the genre that you’re into, this one will do an amazing job.
