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If you’re looking for the best Electric Guitars Under $400, you might be amazed at how far a $400 budget can get you. The best inexpensive electric guitars under $500 may lead you to believe that you must sacrifice quality, but you’ll be astonished at what you can obtain in this price range. It all depends on what you want from your sub-$500 electric guitar, in our opinion. Are you looking for a cheap practise guitar, a live workhorse that you don’t mind bringing on the road, or something else different?
This is a critical issue to ask yourself before purchasing one, because if you pay too little, you’ll miss out on nicer materials, better quality control, and overall receive something you don’t like. Spend too much and, you won’t have enough money to fill the rehearsal-room beer cooler. So let’s get started! Here’s our picks for the best electric guitars under $400.
Best Electric Guitars Under $400
Fender Squier Classic Vibe 50’s Stratocaster Guitar
If you wish to play a wonderful Fender electric guitar, you should try the Fender Squier classic feel. I’m impressed with this model and everything it has to offer the gamer looking for a step up from the lesser Squiers without breaking the budget. This was my first real guitar, and played it a long time. The Classic Vibe is significant upgrade above the lower-cost Squier versions.
This guitar has a beautiful alder body and is not built of cheap wood like other guitars. The neck is a Modern C shape, which fits your hand well and makes it simple to play. The frets are large, which sounds fantastic for a guitar in this price range. A Fender Squier in this price range is virtually as good as a real Fender Stratocaster.
Epiphone Les Paul 100
You already know that the Gibson Les Paul is one of the most legendary guitars in history, suitable for almost any form of music. Gibson owns Epiphone, which produces low-cost copies of some of Gibson’s most iconic guitars. The Epiphone Les Paul 100 is a stripped-down version of the Les Paul that lacks elaborate bindings, inlays, and other ornate fittings. This is a guitar that may be used in a variety of genres, including rock, metal, country, blues, and jazz.
Yamaha Revstar RS320 Electric Guitar
Most people don’t associate electric guitars with Yamaha, yet the company has been producing musical instruments for a long time. They have some excellent guitars under $400, such as the Yamaha Revstar. The guitar has a Gibson Les Paul shape, but it is not as heavy, and it has two large humbucker pickups for rock, metal, shred, and other comparable guitar styles.
The pickups are H3 Hot output humbuckers, which produce more sound than standard humbucker pickups found on similar guitars in this price range. There are 22 frets on the fretboard with a rosewood fingerboard. We like that it features a Tune-O Matic bridge since it makes changing strings on this instrument simple.
Jackson JS32 Rhoads
Jackson has been one of the biggest names in metal for almost 30 years. Professional musicians all over the world use Jackson guitars, but owing to the JS Series, a Jackson guitar is within most people’s budgets. There are several models to pick from here, but my personal favourite is the JS32 Rhoads. It’s an iconic body style inspired on the late, great Randy Rhoads’ famed Jackson Concorde prototype. Modern models are sleeker and, of course, bear Rhoads’ name.
Epiphone Les Paul SL
The Epiphone Les Paul SL, a cross between the Les Paul Junior and the Melody Maker, is a very badass instrument. Its lightweight poplar body has all the substantial heft of a Les Paul Junior without feeling bulky. The SL has a bespoke single-ply pickguard that covers the two Epiphone ceramic single-coil pickups, the 700SCT (bridge) and 650SCR (neck).
Apart from that, the SL is a standard Les Paul Junior with no binding, a mahogany neck, a slim-taper D-profile neck shape, 22 medium jumbo frets, an adjustable intonated “wraparound” stop bar tailpiece, ‘tophat’ master volume and tone controls with a three-way toggle switch, and premium die-cast 14:1 tuners.
Fender Squier Classic Vibe ’70s Telecaster Thinline
Squier’s version on the legendary ’70s Fender Telecaster Thinline offers the guitar’s renowned appearance and sound at an unbelievably low price. Squier’s rendition of the guitar looks the part, with a white pearloid scratchplate, carefully carved f-hole, and Fender-embossed humbuckers. Though, like most Squier guitars, the Modified ’72 Telecaster Thinline has a gloss-finished contemporary C neck, the guitar’s playability and tone are simply outstanding for the price.
Cleans from the neck and middle positions on the ’70s Telecaster Thinline are rock-solid. They pack a punch reminiscent of the tones created by fat P-90-esque single coils, yet the semi-hollow body produces a woodier, less aggressive tone than a straight-up solid body.
Ibanez AZES31 Standard Ivory
Ibanez’s AZ series has been a best-seller in recent years, with musicians from all walks of life preferring it to the other slew of super-Strat-style guitars on the market. We were overjoyed to learn that Ibanez was releasing a more affordable version – and it does not disappoint. Long story short, the AZES31 is one of the best affordable electric guitars available, and we can confidently declare that it is the best guitar under $300 available today.
This guitar can do everything you’d expect a Strat-style guitar to accomplish. Tonally, the poplar body, maple neck, and jatoba fingerboard give this guitar the snappy, sweet top-end you’d expect from a bolt-on double cutaway, and the lightweight materials make the instrument resonant and pleasant to play for extended periods of time.
Yamaha Pacifica Series PAC112V Electric Guitar
All things considered, Yamaha guitars are among the most sturdy and impressive on the market. Although there are certainly more expensive, more fancy models available in the sub-$500 category, nothing quite symbolises value for money like the Yamaha Pacifica 112V. For a long time, the Pacifica has been the gold standard for beginner guitars, and the 112V lives up to our expectations.
Although the frills have been removed from this guitar in favour of offering the fundamental necessities, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Instead, Yamaha has designed an exceptional instrument that allows players to concentrate solely on their playing. Because of its HSS pickup setup, it’s adaptable and sounds fantastic, and it’ll get you through the vast majority of musical situations.
Final Words
This is a list of the best Electric Guitars Under $400 available. Finding the correct guitar at the right price might be a difficult task for someone who has recently decided to enter the world of music. Unsure of what to look for in a low-cost guitar can lead you to purchase something that is either not worth the money spent or is a poor-quality instrument.