Best Electric Guitars

The body: huge, massive, robust body, compared to the former MIM standard. I resonates unbelievably well acoustically. The neck is somewhere between the modern C and very soft V. Very comfortable. Definitely a pro compared to the lighter body of the MIM standard.

The sound: it plays on a very wide range, however mainly it is a relatively hot strat sound. All pickups have more bass and a bit more high then for ex. a vintage sounding one. The clean is beautiful, and due to the hotter winding you reach a wide range of setups. If you dial back with the volume you can get close to vintage stuff as well. So If I ever change the pickups I’d keep this set, because its huge. I used it in one gig so far, and it held up the band surprisingly good compared to strats.

Build quality: as far as I can measure, it is perfectly built, no sharp edges, no extra laquer on the frets, and the buttercream color is love at first sight!

I would recommend the guitar and the service without hesitation.

This Fender MIM strat needs more work than three of my Harley Bentons (two electric one acustic).Guitar came with all tipical Fender flavs that i thought they menaged over the years.No sustain at all-two thick stickers in neck pocket, one on neck other in pocket that needed to be peel off, screw holes for neck to small- I drilled bigger so that neck can be thightened(screws cound not move free thru pocket holes), frets cutting in my hand -needed sanding, very poor quality tuners that I replaced with 22 euro Klusons that are ten times better than Fenders.I was very disapointed by this Strat, could not believe what Fender sells for 600 euros maybe more.

First of all, I ordered this guitar because I was looking for a Fender Stratocaster but the American Professional Series was too expensive for my budget. I was quite lucky, because the moment I decided I wanted a real strat was the moment that the Player Series came out.

The good aspects:
– The sound is amazing. Great pick ups with a nice output.
– Satin finish on the neck makes it comfortable and easy to play.
– Flawless fret job.
– The colour is beautiful!
– Holds tune quite well even when abused by the two point tremolo system.
– Tone configuration for brigde pick up adds a new tone diversity to stratocasters that just was not there in the past.

The bad aspects:
– The Volume and Tone knobs feel a bit cheap in my personal opinion. Not such a tidy construction here.
– The tremolo block is a bit thin for my taste. I would expect a 555 euro guitar to have a solid and thick tremolo block, but sadly this is not the case.
– I would prefer if this guitar had a tortoise shell pickguard to better suit the white colour. But this is a matter of personal preference. I might purchase one eventually.

Nevertheless, the guitar plays great, sounds as you would expect from a Fender guitar and looks absolutely stunning. I am well satisfied with my purchase.

This might not happen in your country, but the delivery of this guitar took a staggering 7 days (week days) which is not a good service at all. The guitar arrived Friday on the 6th of July in the nearest UPS station in my country. But it was only delivered at my house the following tuesday on the 10th. The reason? Thomann misplaced my address and I had to call UPS, thus spending more of my personal income, since they charge you for phone calls, to solve this matter. Not pleased with my service. Thankfully, the guitar arrived in good condition, otherwise I would definitely issue a refund.
But this was the first time that it happened, so I’m positive it will not happen to anyone else.

First of all thank you Thomann for great customer experience (in fact my first with you), everything went just smoothly.

The guitar itself is just great. Beautiful classical instrument made by Fender where everything is on the right place and proved by ages and millions of players all around the world. I was wondering what MIM Fender quality will be… but it is more than OK. I have MIA Fender Tele and from the quality point of view both guitars are very similar… equal I would say.

PROS:
– It is a Strat that I missed in my garage 😉
– Sound variability thanks to 3 pickups (btw sounding just fine) and its combinations
– It is well made, no issues at all
– Beautiful white color! (Butter cream was my second option, but I am finally happy that I made the decision to go with PWT)
– it arrived almost "ready to rock" no major adjustments needed (frets, neck… everything fine)
– After looong time quitar with Maple neck that I am having… It is nice experience at all that I recommed to those who are rosewood supporters as I am.

CONS:
– so far nothing, I got what I expected and ordered

For those who are hesitating to buy for some reason I have just one advice… GO FOR IT! 😉

I’ve bought this guitar because i needed a solid and good sounding axe to play with the band . And i’ve got to say , i’m not dissapointed at all , i’m actually very impressed

Pros:
– The Finish is incredible , it feels so good and you can sense the work that has been put into the instrument
– The Pickups are great , the output that they have is really good to play aggresive and punchy stuff , you can really work with the sound that this guitar offers . Me and my band are kind of a Heavy-Groovy Metal so if you’re looking for a guitar to play similar stuff , this might be your way to go .
– The look of the guitar is awesome , really , It’s a single cut with a matte finish and amazing decals on it , can’t have anything against that

Cons:
– As you’d expect a Les Paul guitar to be , it’s a bit heavy , not too bad though , so don’t worry thinking it’s weighting like a tank , but it’s just a bit heavier than your regular standard style guitar
– I find that it’s going out of tune regularly , i can’t say if it’s the lock-in tuners , or maybe i should’ve tighten the screws of the tuning keys tighter , i can’t tell why is that , but it’s not a tragedy considering it’s not a floyd rose guitar neither a guitar with EverTune Bridge to stay in tune really really good , so i can’t say it’s a horrible thing at all .

Overall :
This is a solid choice , you’re getting awesome sound for an aggresive and metalish type of play , the look and the finish of the guitar is just marvelous , and the cons are not even things that are impossible to work with . I recommend this guitar to anyone that’s looking for a crunchy , punchy and rich metal sound . Combining this with an awesome Head amp and Cab , it will be a beast !

EMGs, ESP – do I need to say more? If you are browsing for a guitar, you have probably already watched countless videos of pickup tone comparison, reviews, wood type, bridge type and all other guitar geekness you could come up with.

This guitar was ordered as a replacement to my first Thomann purchase, which was an EC-1000 but with Seymour Duncans in it. The pickups kinda need more "oomph" for my taste (I’m a big metal guy), so I have decided to go with EMGs. BUT, BUT – the first guitar did arrive damaged, and it seemed as though the finish started coming off and Thomann were ever-so-generous to actually take the blame (even though it cannot be confirmed, the guitar was upheld in Customs for 3 weeks), so they have agreed to fully refund me – and this is where this metal beast came through.

The ordeal was a nightmare, but it is finally over and this guitar, it is just utter perfection.

I’ve played on an Ibanez S470 with ZR Tremolo bridge and my hand placement needed heavy adjusting, but the playability, the everything is just freaking amazing.

Did the guitar come with some standard faults? Yeah – there is a "nibble" where it seems the finish kinda "gathered up" and there is a bubble, but I embrace it. There are chinks in the neck, although you cannot feel it when playing it – then again, it is wood, it is not plastic.

If you are looking for a metal machine with a heavy tone, EMGs and a proper modern Les Paul – look no further, this is the one.

One of the best purchases I have as of yet.

This is my 4th Fender Stratocaster – and my favorite so far. I’ve had Mex Standard, US Standard and Classic Player 60s Stratocasters before, and this one beats them all. I used to work as a full-time guitar teacher and musician, now it’s a hobby – I play live now and then. The Player Stratocaster is definitely a step up or two from its predecessor – the Mexican Standard. Not that the Standard was bad, but this one is just so much better! Better pickups, better trem, and 22 frets for starters. It was perfectly set up right out of the box, the fretwork was excellent, the trem is smooth, the pickups are Stratocaster heaven, and the tone knob wired to the bridge pickup is very useful. The neck feels great, and the finish looks great. Slightly stiff tuners though, but they work good enough. I have hardly put it down since I received it. This guitar is basically an American Standard made in Mexico. If you want a slightly modernized Stratocaster for a really low price, this is where you should start.

This is my first Fender’s guitar and actually my first single coil guitar.
I already played an American Standard and an old version of mexican Stratocaster. I have to say that the new player series is an important upgrade wrt the old mexican one both from quality and sound points of view. The construction quality is awesome and it looks really good. The only cons is that the frets are not so smooth, but it is not a problem when you are playing. I think that American Standard product should be considered only if you are a professional player. Otherwise, the new player series performance are really satisfactory and you will get the classic Strato-sound. Actually it really fits every kind of musical genres.

What can I say about the Jimi Hendrix Strat other than it beats the pants off of any Strat in any range below American Vintage!

I’ll start with the best part of this guitar the sound, the American Vintage 65 pickup set is glorious and to me captures the Strat sound I hear in my head. They are not hot pickups and they will nail anything from Hendrix’s, Mayer’s or Stevie’s catalogue especially Slow Dancing. The bridge pickup is very trebly but not enough that its unusable and the neck pickup is utterly divine.

The look is of course striking, with the reverse headstock, stunning white with the aged hardware, it certainly stands out from the pack. But the look does more than make you stand out it makes you play different as the reverse headstock makes the string tension feel very different from a normal Strat with slinky low strings and slightly tighter high strings it makes you work for those bends!

The neck is a thin C profile which is comfortable providing lots of access for either the shredder style hand position or the thumb over the top blues style…my only minor criticism is the fret ends which can remind you that this is still a Mexican made instrument but they are still perfectly serviceable but the only reason this guitar doesn’t get all 5 stars.

This guitar is versatile for a number of styles and sounds not just exclusively Hendrix.

Beautiful Hendrix aesthetic but with it’s features the right way around.

Classic bright Fender tones in the vintage pickups.

The inverted neck give it a beautiful unique tone.

If you are looking for a reasonably priced guitar and a Hendrix fan. This is the guitar for you.

I’ve had this one for about 2 weeks now, bought to rekindle my guitar passion as I’m a bit bored with just an acoustic. I could choose between MX Player or AM Pro so cost was not the deciding factor.

First guitar delivered was a B-stock, heavily used before (tsk tsk Thomann), so I sent it back and it was replaced with the current one.

Happily it was a new one but when I opened the box and took it out the bridge was totally loose dangling from one screw.
Im sure it was a handling issue along the way but bottom line is before using the Strat give it a good setup. I mean do the bridge properly, set the tremelo spring pull correctly, do the intonation, truss rod, action, lubrication incl nut and fret board etc.
Set it up properly and then play it in and you will not be disappointed. Once set up correctly it is as good as any AM Pro.

Weight, neck feel and overall finish (other than technical setup) is perfect and it oozes Fender quality. Frets are not well rounded on the edges, similar to the new AM pro’s.
Pick up sound is very subjective and highly dependent on your abilities and amp but the pickups are great and gives ample of the usual Fender quack sound. I do have a bit of a buzz on high gain on the neck pickup but this is normal with most single coils. I will say the pickups will do the job for 98%, but some purists might want to splurge out for a simple upgrade.

Everything else meets or exceeds my expectations so far.
My humble opinion is that if you set it up well (just Google or have a pro do it) it performs just as well as any AM Pro and will keep you happy for many years to come while not using your kid’s tuition money…
Cons – Set it up properly before playing and bitching about it. Also it does not say "Made in USA" if that’s your kind of thing…

As mentioned previously I did not buy it because it was cheaper than X or Y. I bought it because of the value proposition. Its a darn good guitar for the price.

I bought this guitar after having long evaluated whether to buy an American made (Fender AM Perf Strat RW HB) which costs twice as much or this one made in Mexico. Since I am an intermediate player and I only play at home, I decided to opt for this cheaper model. I am totally satisfied with the purchase. The guitar plays great, it is by all means 100% made by Fender (it happens I’ve heard that Fender uses the same piece of wood to make two different guitars, one in USA and the other in Mexico), the pickups play very nice and clean (and you can always upgrade them). I guess a big difference is given by the amp you are using, but I would certainly recommend to buy this guitar if you are on a budget and/or if you are an intermediate player, but you still want a quality instrument. What makes it great in my view is the playability. The frets, the neck, they are just perfect and the guitar comes perfectly setup. The body then is so ergonomic and it is so easy to keep it when you play it. If I’d compare it with the Gibson Les Paul Studio that I also have (which is by the way also a great, great guitar, a bit different from the Strat for many things) this Strat is much lighter to hold and is more balanced. Again, I am not a pro, but I guess many of you aren’t. This guitar has been a excellent choice for me.

Bought this guitar to replace my 10+ year-old Ibanez S470 (the ZR Tremolo was giving me headache), and boy oh boy do I not regret it.

Always had an affinity towards Les Pauls so I gave it a go – I’ve wanted something that has the classic Les Paul "darker" sound but with playability of an Ibanez – that is exactly what this guitar is. The sustain this guitar gives beats both of the guitars I currently own.

Comparing it to Ibanez and my Epiphone Les Paul, ESP’s neck is not a Wizard neck, however, it is not a "baseball bat" either (which my Epiphone surely feels like) – it is a perfect blend of grippiness.

The guitar arrived with small cosmetic damage (the finish was scrapped on the front (and is very visible), but I am betting that the gorillas at my country’s customs are to blame for that. Even despite that eye-sear, it is simply a beautiful guitar. The guitar has PERFECT fretwork and the mahogany neck is a pure joy to play on. Its "matte" finish is simply the best for long sessions as the sweat will not cause your hand to slip all the time.

What surprised me was how well the guitar stays in tune, even after abusing the living hell out of the G string, it remained in tune (which cannot be said for most Les Paul-style guitars).

As a testament to how awesome this guitar is, the guitar was upheld by customs for 25 days (my country’s customs and paperwork bureaucracy is stuck in the 80s) – even after spending more than a month on the road, the guitar arrived with almost perfect intonation, perfect action and very minimal and acceptable fret buzz (you cannot hear it through the amp, it’s caused by the low action), there was no need to re-adjust the tross rod – I’ve even reserved a local guitar tech’s time to set it up upon arrival – he was also genuinely surprised, nothing needed to be done and only thing left to do was to change the strings.

With the guitar having so many pros, it would be ridiculous to list them all, but to mention some cons:
– The "gold" line that follows the neck is a bit more "yellowish" than gold (this is not visible to the audience)
– The "tune knob" is rather finicky and not "as tight" as the Volume knobs
– If you’ve been playing a Floyd Rose guitar, you will need to re-adjust your hand positioning for palm muting

EDIT: Unfortunately, the damage was too great as the finish started coming off and I had to return the guitar. (ordered an EC-1000 with EMG’s instead) – however, what must be commended was the way Thomann dealt with the entire situation as they were more than amazing throughout the whole ordeal.

After this, would I recommend this guitar? Hell yes – I assume I was severely unlucky with the mass produced product and it somehow slipped through Thomann’s hands (ordering this during the height of the pandemic did not help).

I bought an EC1000VB in 2006, and man, it was just superb. EMG pickups (that incidentally were the thing i liked the least about it, and i first swapped the 81 with an 85, then went passive with a set of Bareknuckles), Sperzel locking tuners, Earvana nut (not that it made any percievable difference, to be honest). Perfect finish. It just looked, sounded and felt like a guitar thrice its price.
Few years ago, for reasons that seemed good at the time, i sold it (along with an LTD MH417, but that’s another sad story). And regretted it ever since.

So at last i decided to buy it again, and thankfully LTD now is making an already passive version, loaded with Duncans (a pretty standard combination of a bridge JB and a neck 59).

Still made in Korea, despite the production has already partly shifted to Indonesia. Still looking as gorgeous as i remembered it, but with some difference (obviously apart from the pickups).
No more Sperzel hardware, the tuners are still locking but branded LTD. They work fine, anyway.
No more Earvana, just a generic nut (see above).
A push-pull tone know for coil splitting (and that’s a very welcome addiction)
A macassar ebony fretboard in place of the pitch black Madagascar ebony of the old model (and this is another change i’m really happy about, i never liked both the looks and feel of ebony, and macassar not only looks way more interesting, it could be me, but it’s apparently also less clangy and snappy on the strings)

I can’t be sure, but I suspect the body is no more made of a single piece of mahogany, because the acoustic tone has changed a bit.
It’s somewhat less resonant, less middy, brighter and more balanced – i was a bit perplexed about the choice of pickups on a guitar that i remembered being very warm sounding – but actually they complement very well the “new” acoustic properties.
The bridge JB is well balanced, not too aggressive but perfectly able to handle high gain in standard or drop tunings with ease, and its mid hump make it stand out of the mix in solos and melodic parts.
The neck 59 is not as muddy as i feared it to be, and they both sound very good when splitted.
I don’t think they’ll last long – but I’m a pickup nerd, there’s nothing wrong with them.

This said, the LTD EC1000 is still one of the best guitars you can find for less than 1000 €, but the quality gap with the ESP eclipse is slightly more pronounced (less inapparent, to be fair) than it used to be. I gave it four stars in the “quality” department exclusively because of this very reason. But in absolute terms it’s a five star instrument in all aspects.

I purchased this guitar two weeks ago at Thomann. This is the first guitar in this price range that I ever bought. I have some old guitars and I also purchased a Harley Benton beginners guitar at Thomann six weeks ago.
To make a long story short: the guitar sounds flawless. Together with the new amplifier, it is just beautiful. But unfortunately I felt like something was wrong when I received the package. The Harely Benton Guitar that I received six weeks ago was simply beautifully wrapped and unboxing it was very cool. My son was more than happy. Unboxing this guitar felt like unboxing something that was already returned to the seller and now was re-sold. This was not the original packaging and there were fingerprints all over the guitar body. It almost looked like B-Stock. Although this is kind of ok and won’t effect the sound of the guitar (there are not scratches), it messed the "unboxing feeling" totally up. Having to clean a product first before you can use it is difficult. However, after cleaning it I deceided not to send it back because it is still a great guitar and it works fine. It doesn’t have any scratches so it looks good now. Other than the poor packaging, I can only highly recommend this instrument.
// let me give you a quick update here: after about three weeks, I experienced technical problems with the guitar. There was no sound anymore although cable and amp were ok. I contacted the Thomann support and their help was concerning friendliness, competency, speed and, at the end, customer happiness absolutely flawless. To be honest I never experienced a customer service at the hight quality level. This is why I changed my rating of the overall quality from two stars to five. Thank you Thomann-Team for this exceptional service. You guys rock! 🙂

Great guitar!
I play mostly metal, sometimes punk rock. This guitar handles the styles very well, active pickups provide high gain sounds with great fidelity. I owned several guitars with EMG pickups, I always used to replace EMG 81 in bridge position with EMG 85 due to EMG 81 sounding too harsh and brittle to me. With LTD EC-401 i did not do it for the first time, as EMG 81 sounds just great in bridge position, sound is full a and very harmonic, not harsh in any way. I think this is related to wood of the body (mahogany with no top). I always modify the pickups connection to work in 18 volt mode (two 9 V batteries), which makes the sound more natural and harmonic. This guitar has absolutely best sustain I have ever experienced with any guitar!
The only small complaint about this guitar is instability while playing sitting, guitar body is not very well balanced for that and tends to slip off to the right side, you definitelly need a strap to stabilize the instrument while sitting. However, this is really minor issue and playing while standing is absolutelly comfortable.

My LP was delivered in impeccable condition, I carefully checked every parts of the guitar’s body, assembly, finishing etc… No issues to report. The box is sealed out of Gibson’s factory.
In my opinion, the guitar was setup optimally out of the factory.

Somehow the Bourbon Burst’s colour tones appear lighter in the flesh than in pictures. It is closer to Ice Tea than it is to Tobacco burst, so not straight in the middle of these tones as I expected it to be. But it’s not an issue, and depends on the amount and type of light projecting on the guitar.

I took a bit of a gamble ordering the guitar through UPS during this covid-19 situation. Thomann was extremely fast in handling the shipment, UPS was a little slower than usual out of Germany probably due to custom.
Therefore I will say that it is safe to order during this pandemic lock-down, provided that you consult UPS’ website pages describing the shipping situation in your country.

I’m not going to comment on the reasons to buy a Gibson LP and a particular model over an another, at this price range you should know what you are doing in your choice of guitar.

The colour of this Les Paul is lovely, great finish.
Not keen on the fret board colour.
Sound is great, like my 1976 custom, not too overdriven,
The neck is nice though a bit too wide. I am sure I will get used to it, feels much better than the 50s model.

Only problem is I needed to take it to a guitar luthier to make some fine adjustments to the nut and a some frets, and set up.

Will add more when I get it back later next week.

I wish the guitar was a but heavier tbh, though its not light by any means, but not as heavier as my 1976 custom.

* OK, back from the pro luthier, needed to file some of the nut, and some of the frets too, adjust the intonation etc
Its like a different guitar, totally wonderful! class stuff.

I bought this guitar mainly for recording purposes and for using it in music videos. First of all it’s a beautiful instrument but you don’t pay almost 4 grand for a piece of furniture. It excels in the sounds you get out of this masterpiece!

I know that many are sceptic about the richlite fretboards and people argue that this is not acceptable on Gibsons when you get ebony fretboards on Epiphone guitars for roughly 900¤.

At first I was also sceptic about richlite and thought it sounded a bit more harsh than the ebony fretboard but now after 3 months of playing it has begun to soften up a bit and get a more "ebony-esque" character. Compared to a 57 Black Beauty this Les Paul Custom has a more sharper sound thanks to the maple cap but in other aspects it’s quite similar to the 57.

The only things I were not too happy with was some small scratches on the top of the guitar and a small ding in the binding on the headstock. But I am more concerned with the sound than the esthetics so I chose to keep the guitar because it delivers very clear chords and nice tight low end. The pickups are a bit "microphonic" as old Gibson pickups were back in the days and they are a bit too hot for high-gain sounds where they sometimes tend to pick up unwanted sounds. Having that said they work perfectly for rock, blues and jazz. If you plan on playing metal with this one I’d recommend changing the pickups.

This is an instrument meant for professional use and it’s a guitar you buy once in your lifetime. If you are looking for a superior Les Paul this is it. I own one Gibson Les Paul Traditional from 2009 and it is also a great instrument but there are remarkable differencies in how much more precise a Les Paul Custom is compared to standard USA Les Pauls. If a normal Les Paul is a knife then the Custom is a scalpel.

It is worth the extra cash you put on from a normal Les Paul model in how it plays and how it sounds but the price is a bit steep for a hobby musician.

The finishing job on this guitar is far from satisfactory. There are issues with it all over the place. Just to name a few: on the neck binding, all around where neck meets body, and black is missing altogether where the neck pickup and fretboard meet (which up close is quite ugly). At this price level, I would expect much better from Gibson. I used to own a 2001 Les Paul Studio which had no such issues at all, so for a Custom to have them caught me completely by surprise.

Having said all that, I simply couldn’t bring myself to return it. The setup was damn perfect straight out of the case, and the guitar feels silky smooth and gorgeous to play. And the more I play it, the more the sound and sustain on this thing just blow my mind. In short, too good to return, and I didn’t care to risk sacrificing the amazing sound and playability for a nicer finish. After all, you’re supposed to play the thing, not look at it.

As always, customer support at Thomann was excellent, as was the pricing in comparison to other stores.