Every guitar, even āsilent guitarsā have some acoustic sound. A solid body electric will have less acoustic sound than a hollow-body electric. You can play either unplugged.
Butā¦
You will never get a distortion sound from any unplugged guitar. The distortion sound is a function of the amplifier, not the guitar.
So you can plug any guitar with pickups into a guitar amp and get distortion. But you need an amp.
So thatās where I would start, trying it with your current guitars. You can always get an electric to use with it later if you decide you need it.
That will depend on the amp you use. There are amps that work and sound pretty good at low volumes. They arenāt as much fun as a cranked amp, but they work well for ābedroom volumesā.
What amp to look for then depends on what you expect your usage might be beyond low-volume apartment use.
If you think you may eventually take it to rehearsals with others, or other locations where you can use it turned up loud, then I would suggest something like a Fender Mustang, Boss Katana, or Line 6 Catalyst that can be used at bedroom volumes but can also be turned up loud where required.
If you only need something you can use in your apartment, I would suggest something like the Yamaha THR10ii or its bigger brother the THR30ii.
I have used my THR10ii in my small apartments over the last couple of years. The latest one I used it in was a 35 m squared apartment. It works well at low volumes and sounds great. It also looks good, is a compact size, and can also be used as a streaming Bluetooth speaker. It has an acoustic setting, so can be used to amplify, or just add some effects like chorus and reverb, to an acoustic guitar, but it also has higher gain settings which will give you the distorted tone you are looking for.
I have a wife that suffers from serious health issues and without going into details, I have had to be respectful of that for well over a decade and considerably more so over the last 2.5 years. I own amongst other amps, a Mustang III 100W amp that sits under my desk, the line out is connected to my Audio Interfaces and I listen to it via headphones. The amp is silenced by a small 3.5mm jack extension cable (6 inches) and although it is not the same as attempting to blow the windows out, I get full use of that amp but not disturbing anyone in the process. Folk here will give testimony to the fact I have be known āto rockā !!
If your amps have headphone sockets and you want to keep the peace in your neighbourhood, that is the way to go.
I have two Hollowbody Washburns (see my Roadcase/Learning log) they can be played unamped and are quieter than an acoustic but were not designed for that. They were built to be amped and sound damn fine when they are, Iāve recorded them for this forum on many occasion. Both are based on a Gibson ES335 which some consider a Jazz guitar but they have been used and abused by many a rock musician since the mid 50s !! There are light, they look darned good and they sound fantastic. They are affordable, I have an HB32 and an HB30 and they rock. Simple. If you already have 2 amps, get some headphones and have some fun with a capital F.
This is my own opinion but rest assured HB are not just for jazz, period.
Cool, you just need to find something in your budget. BTW I have a Gretsch G2622T Streamliner as well. Do you have a local shop you can visit in South Korea ?
Do you specifically want one with a vibrato, as the Bigsby adds a fair bit to the price and can be difficult to maintain, though I have had no issues with mine. Having a quick look around I assume it is an online store ? You would get a better idea if you can visit a shop and see what it feels like to hold and play.
I would have thought that both of those amps could be used at bedroom volumes. The H&K, for instance, is a 15W solid state amp. Iām sure it can get too loud when cranked, but it should be possible to turn the master volume right down so itās not annoying the neighbours.
Whether or not it sounds good at that volume is a different matter. Have you tried it with one of your guitars?
If you arenāt happy with either amp at low volume, then maybe itās time to sell on and get something more suited to your environment, such as the THR10ii.
You can get a very good guitar for under $1,000 US - even in the $600 range. Check out Darrell Braun Guitarās channel on YouTube. He reviews $200 to high end guitars and literally breaks them down. As others have suggested, visit a guitar store and play a bunch of different guitars. Be mindful of the amp you buy. Dollars saved on the guitar could be better invested there.
I am no expert and have only recently updated from my $200 electric. If you can, go to a guitar store over a couple of days. Play everything they have. It will give you a feeling for all the differences and what you like. take your time, check out what you like in detail. I play primarily seated, and found the neck feel ,fret feel, pickup sound, ability to split humbuckers. more critical than weight. Then you can narrow down what attributes you want. After playing what felt like 100 guitars, I fell in love with a quality built Indonesia made semi hollow. I wasnāt looking for a semi hollow, It was in the 600-900 range depending on the deals available. I would recommend to use the same amp the whole time. you could even bring you own headphones if you donāt want the store to hear, but they donāt mind thatās why theyāre there.
Update. I got myself an Accustic guitar for now yamaha ll-ta transacoustic
My wife complained that electric guitar will be too noisy. Still want an electric guitar but I am putting it off Need to convince her first .
The Yamaha Transacoustic are fantastic guitars!! Congrats!!
But as a selling point to your wifeā¦. Electricals makes far less noise than acoustics
Just turn down the volume on the amp
My amp has a headphone jack (the speaker is muted when the headphones are plugged in,) so thatās how I practice with my electric. Itās noisier when I play my acoustic.
OK I convinced my wife and I am going to buy one more guitar this time electric but I prefer Yamaha. All my guitars are Yamaha so I was thinking of Yamaha - Revstar Standard RSS20 black color
When buying the guitar what else do I need to buy? I have Amps for home practice but what about pedals? I suppose I need a reverb pedal and I love to have some distortion. How much do I need to invest?
You really only need one ā¦ you could sell the one you will use least and put the funds towards other gear. The Roland Street is possibly better than the H&K.
Get a mid-budget multi-fx to feed in to your amp.
You will learn what the different types of pedal do and it will be very much bang-for-the-buck compared to lots is single pedals. A great way to start learning.
Thanks this is very useful . I also need to choose pickup , If I choose single coil does that mean I can not play distortion ? I mostly will play clean . Like pink floyd stuff
I HS better?
If you go for the one with P90 pickups you more or less have a good in between setup. They are a bit hotter than standard single coils but not as hot as a humbucker. They were originally used quite a lot on Jazz guitars to give a bit more body to the higher notes.
Both of my Electric guitars have these, I really like them!
