The best electric guitars in 2022
Choosing an electric guitar is never easy for a guitarist. It's easy to get lost in the criteria that define the instrument's sonic personality, especially when you're expecting something very specific.
We have understood the requirement and have written this comparative guide to group the best electric guitars.
1. Best value for money: ESP LTD EC-1000VB
The LTD EC-1000 series guitars are designed to offer the quality sound, strum feel and luxurious appearance that professional musicians demand. And this at the most affordable price possible.
The ESP LTD EC-1000 VB EMG "shines" with understated elegance with its matte finish. Completed with deluxe features like Seymour Duncan JB bridge and '59 neck pickups, Tune-O-Matic bridge, locking tuners and Earvana saddle. It has a fairly classic look with a slim U-shaped profile that makes the mahogany neck very easy to play.
This electric guitar is perfect if you like to play a very aggressive and deep sound. And that's thanks to its Seymour Duncan humbucker pickups. From clean tones to high gain bass tones, this guitar covers a very impressive tonal range. But the truth is that the pickups provide a solid foundation for hard rock.
2. Best Cheap: Ibanez Gio GRG131DX
Looking for a lightweight electric guitar to rock out on? The Ibanez GRG131DX will please you. With its balanced poplar body and dual humbuckers, this guitar sounds great and plays easy.
With the Ibanez GRG131DX you will benefit from maximum tuning stability thanks to its rigid bridge. Its fast-action purpleheart maple neck gives it effortless playability. A black dominated design and cool shark tooth inlays give the whole thing a very aggressive look.
A duo of Infinity R pickups give you massive tonal range. Equipped with a duo of Infinity R humbuckers, the Ibanez GRG131DX produces an impressive range of tones. The humbucker in the neck position offers a warmer, richer sound, while the bridge humbucker is a brilliant lead pickup: vibrant, yet growling with enhanced midrange output when pressed. If you're looking for good tonal toughness, the Ibanez GRG131DX will give you what you need.
3. Best High-End: Gibson Les Paul Custom EB GH
If you're left-handed, look no further than your guitar is available immediately from Thomann. The mahogany neck structure promises a velvety touch to the sound that will allow you to achieve groove-filled solos.
Sound as a finishing touch to aesthetics can only seduce high-flying guitarists. It should be noted at first that this guitar is quite heavy. However, this does not affect its handling in any way. Its humbucking pickups offer a particularly remarkable sustain. The resonance is felt throughout your body.
The 628mm scale delights passionate rock and blues music lovers with the round sound embellished with meaty bass it produces. The Gibson Les Paul Custom EB GH is equipped with a Tune-O-Matic bridge for precise intonation. Impossible to hear notes that sound out of tune. Guitarists rejoice in the presence of the case provided with purchase.
4. Best Style: Harley Benton HB-35Plus Vintage
Burst Equipped with a semi-hollow body, this guitar produces a deep sound similar to that of an acoustic guitar. A must for fans of Rock-Blues.
This guitar is suitable for both lefties and righties. Needless to say, its vintage color coupled with its glossy finish appeals to big-name model collectors. Two Roswell LAF Alnico-5 pickups sit at the neck and bridge to spread the vibration of the strings. Aside from the two tone control knobs, it features two push-pull volume control knobs. With this type of potentiometer, you can easily split the microphones, but also bypass it or even have a Kill-Switch effect. What adapts the sound to the need of the practiced genre. Single coil pickups for blues or jazz and humbuckers for power and gain.
Like the Gibson featured above, this one has an excellent quality Tune-O-Matic tailpiece. Despite the difficulty of manufacturing this type of guitar, that is to say semi-hollow, this model benefits from the best choices of wood species for all its elements, namely maple, laurel and mahogany. After polishing the frets as needed at a luthier, this guitar will be a pure pleasure to strum.
5. Very good choice: Yamaha Pacifica PAC112V
The Yamaha PAC112V electric guitar is a great guitar for beginners, but it can also be suitable for emerging musicians. Reliable and above all offered at an unbeatable price, it has a design inspired by that of the Stratocaster.
Yamaha's Pacifica series has always been renowned for offering electric guitars that deliver exceptional tone and playability. The Yamaha PAC112V features a lightweight alder body with a smooth maple top and rosewood neck. A trio of versatile pickups lets you dial in a variety of tones, from crisp highs to punchy mids and deep lows.
It comes with a custom Yamaha Alnico V ceramic humbucker in the bridge position, perfect for heavy, hard rock. Two Alnico V single-coil pickups in the middle and neck positions also deliver all sorts of rock-and-clean single-coil tones. And with a push-pull tone control, you can split the humbucker for crisp, clean single-coil tones. The trio of versatile pickups lets you explore all kinds of stylistic approaches in almost any genre.
6. Excellent choice: Fender Player Series Stratocaster MN TPL
This Fender Player Strat MN TPL is a great opportunity to take advantage of not only for its more affordable price but also for its design features. Perfectly updated, it fits a body with a 3-ply pickguard.
This Fender model promises a good quality sound, among other things, thanks to the material of its fingerboard. Fingerboard that is made with a 9.5" radius to promote speed when strumming, but also fluidity of the game. The power of its triple single coil pickup is very much felt, especially in the bridge. And all this, without sacrificing to no high and low range.
In addition, one of the tone controls is specially assigned to the bridge, while the first one affects the neck pickup and the middle pickup. This guitar is equipped with a 5-position switch, hence the possibility of correctly distributing the pickups. To this is added its 2-point vibrato, very practical for a successful bend.