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The best Electric Guitars Under $1000 When you purchase one of, you are not simply purchasing a guitar. This action is a declaration of intent. It’s you, announcing to the rest of the guitar world that you’ve arrived, that you’re no longer a novice, and that you’re a force to be reckoned with. When you reach this pricing range, you purchase an instrument that invests in yourself and your future ability. These guitars are for those who have identified their style, and desire to devote their entire lives to the guitar.
As this guide demonstrates, $1,000 can get you a lot of guitar these days. We have low-cost vintage reissues from Epiphone, all-purpose workhorses from PRS, shred machines from Charvel, and even a delectable offset from Music Man, among many other alternatives. With so many wonderful guitars at this price bracket, many did not make the list, but we believe we have chosen a good cross-section of what is now available.
Best Electric Guitars Under $1000
PRS SE Custom 24 Electric Guitar
PRS’ SE line of guitars has produced some of the best budget instruments available, and this iteration of the Custom 24 is no exception. This SE has a 24 fret ‘Wide Thin’ maple neck with PRS’ classic bird inlays, as the name suggests. The body is composed of mahogany and maple, a tried-and-true combination that produces a balanced tone with depth and personality.
The SE Custom 24’s 25″ scale length places it between most other electric guitars, providing players with an extremely comfortable ride. The PRS-designed hardware is quite sturdy, and the tremolo is smooth, eliminating playability and tuning stability concerns. Coil splittable 85/15 “S” pickups are the SE versions of what you’ll find on USA models, and they certainly live up to the promise, capable of lovely clean tones, insane gain, and everything in between.
ESP LTD EC-1000 Electric Guitar
While the body design is familiar, the tones you can extract out the ESP LTD EC-1000 are not. Sure, a Gibson Les Paul may provide meaty tones, but when you need more, the EC-1000 can take you into some extreme tonal area. Although the pair of active EMGs won’t be popular with more refined players, anyone wishing to add considerable gain into their setup could do much worse than picking one of these scene stalwarts.
This is a serious guitar with a lot of longevity thanks to the high quality fixtures and fittings. We love the classic black version, particularly its satin-smooth surface and elegant gold hardware. Currently, this is one of the best Electric Guitars Under $1000 that you can buy right now.
Epiphone 1959 Les Paul Standard Guitar
This is Epiphone’s first cooperation with the Gibson Custom Shop, and it certainly is one of the best electric guitars under $1,000. Aside from its stunning appearance, this Epiphone Les Paul has a pair of Gibson USA Burstbucker 2 & 3 pickups that do an excellent job of imitating the legendary late-’50s Burst-era tone. Other features include CTS pots, Mallory caps, and wire from the 1950s.
A sturdy mahogany body rests beneath a maple crown, providing lots of sustain and a good snappy attack in classic Les Paul manner. There’s also the somewhat thick but comfortable ’59 neck profile that so many players prefer and a high-quality protective case. These Gibson pickups have a lot of magic to them, and the build quality of the Epiphone factory right now is very good.
Fender Deluxe Nashville Telecaster Electric Guitar
This is a very well-equipped three-pickup Telecaster with all of the classic Tele tones and more. It has Vintage Noiseless Tele pickups in the bridge and neck positions. These perform just as expected, ranging from sharp and twangy to mellow and silky. However, in the middle of these is a Vintage Noiseless Strat pickup and a five-way pickup selector that functions similarly to a Strat.
It’s fantastic to have the traditional Tele tones, but also to be able to alter to something a bit more choppy for funk rhythms, or something more glassy for bluesy lead lines, on this guitar. You also won’t have to worry about undesired hum or hiss with these Noiseless pickups. It’s near the top of our budget, but it’s well worth it.
Fender Deluxe Series Roadhouse Stratocaster
Fender has given its renowned Mexican-built Deluxe Series Roadhouse Stratocaster model some love in order to create a relaunch that is very beautifully furnished. The enhanced model has an alder body and bolt-on maple neck, with a maple or rosewood fingerboard and satin polyurethane finish. Other characteristics include a ‘Modern C’ neck profile, 22 narrow/tall frets, a contoured neck heel, a synthetic bone top nut, and a pair of locking tuners with vintage-look buttons.
The previous Roadhouse models had a 241mm (9.5-inch) fingerboard radius, but the new model has a flatter 305mm (12-inch) camber. Yes, the radius is the same as on a Gibson Les Paul, allowing for easier string bends and lower action. The Roadhouse also has three Vintage Noiseless (1st generation) single coil-sized humbuckers that are coupled to a five-way pickup selection blade switch as well as master volume and tone controls.
Schecter Hellraiser C-1 Electric Guitar
The first guitar we have here is just stunning. The Schecter Hellraiser C-1 is the model. This Amazon’s Choice product costs less than $850, thus the pricing is already reasonable. You can’t go wrong with any of the colours, including Gloss White (simple white with a shiny finish), Gloss Black, and Black Cherry (burgundy with a tiger stripe-like pattern).
The awesomely titled Hellraiser features gothic cross inlays and abalone binding on a robust, attractive mahogany body. The Schecter locking tuners have their own locking screw pin to keep the strings immovable. This improves your tuning stability. The locking tuners have 10 millimetre diameter peg hole, threaded peghead brushes, replaceable knobs, and a 19:1 gear ratio.
Yamaha Pacifica PAC611HFM Electric Guitar
The Yamaha Pacific PAC611HFM is the next guitar you won’t believe costs less than $650. Seriously, one glance at this bad boy and it appears to be double, if not three times, the price it is. But, hey, why poke a gift horse in the eye? Yamaha’s Pacific guitar range has been a stalwart since 1990. The Pacific is designed for a variety of playing techniques and music genres, and the pickups may be changed to provide a grungier, more metal sound or a lighter, poppier tone.
This guitar comes standard with a Custom 5 Trembuckler with coil tapping and a Seymore Duncan SP90-1 pickup. The Grover locking tuners are kept in place with Graphtec nuts, allowing you to tune this instrument to your preferences. Other Graphtec features include the string saver saddle over the hardtail bridge.
Yamaha Revstar RS502T Electric Guitar
The 502T was the original design that launched Yamaha’s Revstar line of double-cuts, which are reminiscent of the Japanese guitar giant’s SG instruments. It’s made entirely of mahogany and has belly and ribcage curves. The 502T and its brother, the 502, feature Yamaha-designed soapbar P-90 single coils with a medium-hot output, and, like all models, include a simple three-way selector switch, master volume, and tone.
Pulling up the tone control, however, reveals the Dry Switch, which is essentially a passive high-pass filter that thins out the sound slightly. It provides remarkable variety to the soapbars’ biting-hot single-coil sound, easily kicking out traditional, punkier rock tones or just-as-cool old-school jazzy, bluesy soulful pop tones.
Final Words
There are numerous best Electric Guitars Under $1000 to choose from, providing you a wide selection of guitars to choose. We’ve broken down some of the key areas to look for when searching for an electric guitar in the buyer’s guide below. While you hope you could discover a fantastic electric guitar for less than $1,000, this seems like a pipe dream, right? What if we told you that you could get a fantastic guitar for less than four grand? Which ones are suitable?