Hi,

I have a very old, cheap Squier (it's about 20 yrs old), and it's bend and quite broken, so I'm thinking of getting a new electric guitar. I would like something in the cheaper range.

I want to play very simple phrases and also record guitar as loops. I haven't recorded guitars ever. Except a few chords & power chords, I can't play much (still have to learn note playing).

The style of music/electric guitar tone I'm thinking about is lo-fi electronic rock / experimental, Krautrock & slightly trip-hop. I record through an old Yamaha EM-80. Most songs probably won't be featuring any guitar at all.

Does it matter what kind of guitar I get ? If so, any particular recommendations ? Thank you.

Budget? Any examples of guitar style, tone, anything else out there that could be referenced?

look over the one you have and lets see the condition, it may be something you can use. probably needs a new set of strings.
Also, see where it was manufactured.

Decent pickups. Decent setup. From there, its a lot about budget & style. Being earth friendly, I try to steer people away from cheap guitars but.... That often kills budget. Try shop goodwill.com , if you are in the states. Lots of used guitars. often go pretty cheap. Also, 80's style electric guitars are pretty cheap, these days. You can find a good ibanez, jackson, etc. Sometimes really great guitars that just don't look the current role. maybe you can use a Floyd Rose to cool effect, for your style of music

Save up a little more for something decent. Mexican Fenders and Chinese Epiphones come to mind...

I just picked up a Epiphone '61 SG re-issue, very nice for $450. I had the real deal, '61 Les Paul SG and this is very close.

Once you get past basic functionality the most important thing about a guitar is proper setup.

Even brand new guitars are not necessarily setup properly so I would say the first thing to do is to determine what exactly is brokenz on your current guitar and decide if your money would be better spent getting that one fixed and set up or if buying a new one actually makes more sense.

First, thank you everyone for your answers. I play synths and come from a piano background so I don't know much about pickups types & quality.

My old electric guitar strings rattle the neck & the "nut" part of the 1st string has been broken for 15 yrs at least. I fixed it by cutting a toothpick in half and gluing it inside the hole that holds the string... (lol) but it affects the sound somehow, the string makes a little "clicky" sound. I don't have it with me atm but i believe it was made in Japan. It cost about 200$CND back in the day (so very cheap, I think).

Tone wise.. I think of a sound that is a little aggressive, a bit abrasive even without distortion. Something like post-rocky or the guitars in Beak or the 2nd & 3rd record of Portishead.

I have an amp that I'm going to keep (even if I don't use it), it has double cascading gain knobs which sounds very nasty (in a good way, sometimes..) I prefer to record direct in, but I can't hear the distortion (but it works with headphones, I never figured that one).

Your 20yr old Squier is prob better made than the newer stuff. Show us some pics. What’s the serial numbers? My 90s MIK Squier has a pretty decent neck considering

Take your Squier to a good repair tech/luthier and have him go over it. Or tell you it's too long gone (which is not likely). I've owner a number of Squiers and they're generally pretty decent guitars. Maybe change the pickups if you don't like the tone. I know a lot of players who use Squiers as gigging guitars so they can leave their expensive ones home.

I'm very surprised by the answers (in a pleasant way) . I'd actually prefer to have it repaired than buying a new one. I also like how it looks (glossy black).

I'm fine with it's tone, especially for what I'm gonna do with it.

I won't have it with me until the weekend, so i'll get the serial number and post some pics then. After that I'll see if it makes sense to have someone look at it for repairs.

I forgot to mention, only 1 of it's 3 knobs work now (the one for the volume). It also sports a pickup selector switch and a vibrato bar.

The thing with not knowing guitars, is for one the neck radius. Thats where you'd want to try before buy, as you might feel uncomfortable with some radius's. Some are flatter than others. Here's a quote. Also, those, what you call knobs,,, may just need cleaned.

"Most current and recently produced (say since the beginning of the century) Squier models are 9.5" radius, even the "Classic Vibe" models... However, in the 1990s some MIK models were made with 12" radius and some of the early MIJ models from the 1980s which were close to "reissue" spec had 7.25" radius fretboards."

Before you decide that the controls on your Strat are broken do you actually understand how they are supposed to work??

In "normal" setup you have two tone controls and one volume.

One tone is for the neck pickup, the second for the middle pickup, and there is no tone control for the bridge pickup. The volume knob affects all three pickups.

It's kind of an odd thing compared to many other types of guitars which is why I mention it. Also because it is rather odd people do sometimes mod the controls to work differently, for example many people find that the bridge pickup is just too bright on it's own so they modify the wiring so it does have a tone control that affects the bridge pickup.

You should check it out and see how your's works or doesn't.

The nut which is broken on your E string is a pretty easy fix for a tech. Find somebody who works on guitars and get them to cut you a new nut and do a basic setup with the gauge of strings that you prefer to play on.

As people here have said the Squiers are decent guitars and if you have an older one it may even be one of the better ones.

So I have my guitar now, I'm afraid I have made a mistake in my description . The guitar itself actually is a Profile (It says Profile Professional on the back). It looks a bit dirty in the pic but it's actually just a glossy reflection.

I thought it was a Squier but it's the amp that is a Squier (model 15G dual cascading gain - quite noisy). And the guitar bag has "Fender" written on it.

The switch is a 5 way and I tested the tone knobs and they do work (but they definitely need to be cleaned).

I just wanted to add that I've decided on keeping it and I will look to have it repaired, thank you for all the advice.

I recorded a little jam while testing it out (4 bar loop). Left-panned guitar is through the mixer, and the Right side (noise) is through the guitar amp.

One last question : Can busted guitar amps be repaired or is it better for me to look at an alternative like a small Yamaha THR5 - and keep this one for the noise ? It's for practice and recording.

Good and decent amps can and should be fixed. Your amp is a basic thing that probably came with a beginner's kit or something. Fine for practicing in the bedroom, but not a great amp.

Guitar Center has one used in good condition for $129. Getting it repaired will surely cost that or more unless it is a very very simple problem. It's not likely it will be too easy to diagnose though. Put the money toward a better amp you like.

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Used/Sq...RoCo5cQAvD_BwE

Actually is the amp broken...or just noisy? Noise can be related to things that aren't a broken amp.

Good points.

First thing is to get an idea about what exactly is wrong or if there is some other factor like the guitar being the issue or bad cable or user error of some sort.

A truly crap starter amp probably isn't worth fixing as the money could be put towards something better.

This looks just like the amp that I have, except that there's no master knob - it's labeled Gain 2 instead - and Squier is molded plastic glued on the speaker itself. On the top right corner it's written Champ 15G. I found out on the net it's a solid-state practice amp.

I'm in Canada so it's not practical to order from the US.

It's working, just extremely noisy. I cleaned the inputs & outputs, and tried different cables, no difference. It's not the guitar either, because it comes out clean through the mixer. I guess i'll look for a replacement.

Does the noise from the amp change if you move around while you're playing? Better if you stand a certain way, for example?

Also, I would look for a replacement just for a better amp if you can afford it and want to upgrade.

A good friend of mine often uses an AC10. Looks like $499 new, surely less used. Very nice sounding amp -- can't speak to the build quality, but it seems totally fine.

It makes noise independently of where it's situated or my relative position. It also crackles even on clean tones.

The Vox AC10 looks good but I need an headphone output (a line out would be cool too, but I can live without it).

Do you need an amp for playing with others or do you just want something that's easy to record and get a pretty good sound? Check out the Strymon Iridium. It might check a lot of boxes for you.

Yup just for recording and practice. The Strymon Iridium looks really nice but is a bit above my budget atm.