How about a Strat Plus from the 80s-90s? Amazing guitar for the money. Have a pro go over it and set it up. You'd have to spend custom shop or Suhr money to beat it in my humble opinion.

https://reverb.com/p/fender-strat-plus-electric-guitar

I have a 1999 American with locking tuners and Noiseless pickups. I paid $600 for it second hand a few years ago.Set up by Mike Lull (Seattle guitar guy to the stars). Great guitar, and so much better than the 1972 I had that it's on a different planet. The 72 was at the height of the cheapo years, and it showed.

Agree on getting good amp, which to me means tubes. Take a look at the Fender Blues Jr. It's a great little amp for the home. I'd avoid a fancy electronic "modeling amp" with a thousand built in effects, even though they are amusing, because they never sound all that great. Add pedals for effects.

So many regrets . I had this killer Plush tube amp . I think I gifted it to a family friend. My parents lost their house, and I had no where to keep it . It just had the thickest sweetest sound. I liked it better than a marshall .
The head was like this
http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1567213534.jpg
I had the matching cabinet with 3 15" speakers.
I am on the prowl for a decent fender amp .
I was a teenager in the 80's , so we were all playing metal, and trying to make that sound, but later on , I learned to love a good clean tube amp sound .

I still have all my pedals. I found them all last week. Tonights project is to see if the crybaby wa wa pedal still works . My kid was blown away when he saw it.

Get him a Squire and a 15 watt amp with some effects. A snark tuner that clamps on the headstock for $20.00. A 20 foot cheap cable.
Teach him chords not scales at first.
Hell... When he goes thru a 1-4-5, E A B7... he will be hooked.
Do not spend a lot of money at first. A big percentage of young boys and girls realize they are not
going to make it big like they dream of doing and quit some time later.

How old is you son?

If the idea of a real strat, not a squire, excites you, then go for it. I just checked CL and see that the true vintage strats are pretty pricey these days. My '62 strat must be worth quite a bit. But it's not for sale.

He'll need a nice amp, too. My daughter has a fairly new Fender amp that sounds nice, at $100. But my '55 tube amp sounds incredible. Of course old tube amps cost a fortune too. I'm glad I bought my gear in the early '80s.

I have owned a ***** load of guitars over the years. Fender Strats, Tele's, Carvins, G&L, LP's, Epiphone, Yamaha.

I am not impressed with new Fenders any more. The new US builts are fantastic and over priced. $1900 will get you a nice guitar if you don't mind paying a premium for the name have at it. The Squires are cheap with even cheaper parts, cruddy electronics and really poor necks. The made in Mexico classic 50's (reissue) from the 90's are very good for the price. If you are dead set on a Fender go with a good MIM Classic 50's reissue. Many of the MIM Classic 50s guitars have US made necks. Value wise they are very good bang for the buck around 350-600. Japanese made are also very good as most of the hardware and necks were supplied from the US. Fender has gone through periods over the years. Quality went up, down and up again reminding me of those AMF years Harley Davidson went through.

If you want an excellent Stat copy, fantastic finish work and the best necks in the industry get a Carvin Bolt. Used they are very reasonable around 500-800. Same company is now called Kiesel Guitars. They have been around a long long time. Built in San Diego California. Custom guitars for half the cost of a high end US Fender Strat and quality that far exceeds.

G&L is also excellent. Heck its Leo Fenders company that he started after he left Fender. G&L offers lower priced guitars like Fenders made somewhere else versions. The G&L legacy models are ok, step up from the Squire. Start midway and work your way up in the lineup. Cant go wrong here.

Ibanez has some nice guitars in the S model line. New are 600-900 range. Used about half that.

Pawn shops are good places to look for a used USA made Fender Strats. Pawn shops also know they can get a premium for Strats.

You Tube has some great learning videos. Half a dozen lessons with a guitar teacher would get him up and playing quickly so he doesn't lose interest or get frustrated.

Good amps for the money is a Fender Champion or an Orange Micro Terror. Good power and sound. The Champion is solid state, will last and has nice clean and dirty channels. Throw in an Ibanez tube screamer pedal and make some noise. The Orange Micro Terror is a hybrid with a tube pre and solid state output. Fun bedroom amp with a nice growl and still reliable.

For a beginner I would stay away from tube amps. All tube amps have nuances (or issues) that a beginner may not understand.

Keep it fun.

Reverb.com is a good place to window shop, see whats out there and market prices are usually reasonable.

I quit smoking 3 months ago and always pick up the banjo when I quit to keep my hands busy, I got tired of the banjo and had a Yamaha acoustic electric and a small amp that I bought for my son, he never used it and I picked that up 2 months back. Within a week I got a Fender Squire and haven't looked back. My sister - next door neighbour, saw me playing and got herself a pallor acoustic, we "jam" everyday. We both suck big time but we have a riot, we're just 2 crazy kids, rockin and rollin, I wish I would have picked this thing up 45 years ago but its never to late to start to have fun.

Finn

Mindset is everything and you have it. Keeping it fun is 99% of playing. A little everyday. By the time you notice the calluses on your fingertips building up you realize you are getting pretty good at this gig. Your last sentence made me smile and says it all.

Great story Finn.

Fred, how many years of playing does your boy have under his belt? If he's totally new, get him a $300 used MIM Strat. They are a huge value for the money, play and sound great and you can get your money back out of it, if your son doesn't stick with it. I have a lot of guitars and more amps, but the best ones are the ones that make me want to play all the time, the ones that make me think about them when I'm away from the house. The best way to ensure he practices and sticks with it is to get an entry-level, but playable guitar on which he can play the kind of music he likes. Getting my grandfather's ancient Stella acoustic and learning Love Me Tender and Proud Mary when it was the first VH album that made me want to start playing was not a recipe for success.

Here's a beater partscaster I slapped together from spare parts laying around. I have the pickup coil split, so I can get a nice Strat sound from it. But it also has the VH superstrat vibe and can handle that stuff in spades.
http://www.fototime.com/57C20790B58FF67/standard.jpg

New player question.
So I went out and bought a bigger amp and it has a gain knob, almost works like a volume control but I feel there's more to it than that, whats the deal with the gain control?

Gain adjustment or "drive" is where the fun begins. Turn your guitar volume down. Turn your amp master volume to 2. Set your gain at about 5 or 6. Slowly turn up the guitar volume why strumming, see how the sound changes from clean to gritty as the distortion increases. Gain or drive pushes the pre amplification stage. Fine tune your tone to suit.


Gain versus volume:
That first stage is the preamp stage. On some amps, you can control the level or strength of the signal sent through this first stage; this control is called "gain" (also often labeled as "drive"). Gain can be thought of as the input volume to the preamp stage (gain adjustments can produce changes in overall volume, which might account for some of the confusion between the terms), although it's more of a tone control than a volume control. Your gain setting determines how hard you're driving the preamp section of your amp. Setting the gain control sets the level of distortion in your tone, regardless of how loud the final volume is set.

What this means is that your gain setting determines how clean or dirty your sound is regardless of the master volume setting. You can set the gain high for a dirty tone, but set the overall volume of that dirty tone from near silent to near deafening using the master volume control.

Master volume is an entirely separate entity that lives in the second stage of your amp, the power amp section. It provides the muscle. Think of it this way: the preamp (and gain control) provides the shape of the sound; the power amp provides the overall strength of the sound.

In amps with only a single volume control (and no gain control), that volume control is usually placed early in the signal path - in the preamp stage - thus controlling both volume and gain.

Which amp?

Here you go guys...package deal...all ready to go.

https://www.shopgoodwill.com/Item/74844537

Marshall MG 30 FX

Thanks Jeff, that makes a bunch of sense when explained the way you have.

Another vote here for a MIJ Strat. Here's mine - a hardtail from 1992. It's their take on a '54 Strat. Plays and sounds very nicely.

http://forums.pelicanparts.com/uploa...1567392811.jpg

Crybaby draws very little current- it will be likely chewing up batteries because its left plugged in. When a cable is in the "input" (right side), its drawing current. As with almost every analogue pedal. When a 9v plug is inserted it disengages the battery.

Cheap cables do fail, and they often sound bad.