5 Best Electric Guitars for Recording (roundup & review) – Guitar Chalk
If you’re looking for an electric guitar for recording, this is the right place to get some help.
We’ve put together an article that focuses solely on electric guitars that are awesome for recording and laying down tracks in a studio. As a result, they’re close to the side of a professional electric guitar, similar to the best electric guitars under $2000 we’ve also covered.
For basic recording, pro-level session work, YouTube covers, and everything in between, these are the best electric guitars for those particular jobs.
Mục Lục
How We Chose the Best Electric Guitars for Recording
As often as possible, we recommend guitars that we’ve actually used and held in our hands. For this particular article, we’ve gotten in touch with some recording artists and session guitar players who have given us feedback on what they think are some of the best electric guitars for recording.
All told, we’ve focused on guitars that have been vetted by actual musicians and that we can vouch for based on our own experience.
Which features matter most?
For recording, the single most important feature would have to be the pickups. Since they have the most to say about your electric guitar’s tone, we recommend starting with a reputable brand, perhaps one of the following:
- Gibson pickups
- Fishman
- Seymour Duncan
- DiMarzio
There are also other basic quality indicators we’d recommend considering.
- Strings (though most need to be replaced when you buy a new guitar)
- Tonewood
- Versatility
- Value (cost VS quality score)
We’ll cover all these considerations in this article, after we recommend a few guitars.
Best Electric Guitars Under for Recording
You can use the compare buttons in this table to look at pricing and some basic feature comparison. More detail about each instrument is given in the following paragraphs.
1. Schecter C-1 FR-S Evil Twin
Schecter guitars tend to fly under the radar, but with the Sustaniac pickup at the neck position and the Fishman Fluence Modern humbucker at the bridge, the C1 FR Evil Twin is a fantastic electric guitar for the studio.
The Ideal Fit
We especially like it for those who are into heavier rock and metal styles, perhaps what would be called the “modern” side of rock. It’s a percussive guitar with a lot of next gen features, including the Floyd Rose locking tremolo system.
Pickups
The Sustaniac humbucker is a creation of Schecter guitars, but we do like the added sustain and smoothness that it brings to your tone. However, the real attraction here is the Fishman Fluence Modern humbucker that gives you qualities of both active and passive pickups at the same time.
After Fishman developed the stacked coil technology they use in the Fluence series, they’ve become extremely tough to beat in the pickup department.
IDEAL FOR: Modern rock and heavier playing styles.
TONE
88
PICKUPS
92
VERSATILITY
78
COST/VALUE
80
THE PROS
THE CONS
2. PRS SE Mark Holcomb Signature
Periphery’s Mark Holcomb developed two versions of his signature PRS:
- The mainline PRS version
- The SE PRS version
The SE version is far cheaper and pairs down the body carving that you usually get in nicer PRS guitars, in favor of a flat top. But it still includes the bird fretboard inlays and the Seymour Duncan Alpha and Omega pickup set (another Holcomb signature product).
The Pickups
This pickup set is built for speed, melody, and percussive rhythm, in keeping with Holcomb’s aggressive playing style. Moreover, they can handle a wide range of tones and styles, equally capable on both the rhythm and lead side of playing guitar.
Read more: Rhythm VS Lead guitar
Who is it ideal for?
We like it for recording because of the versatility and the high-end pickup set. Even if you aren’t an exclusively heavy guitar player, Holcomb’s PRS can handle almost any playing style you can throw at it.
IDEAL FOR: Versatile recording gigs, session guitar players, and performing.
TONE
94
PICKUPS
90
VERSATILITY
90
COST/VALUE
88
THE PROS
THE CONS
3. Gibson Les Paul Studio
The Studio version of the Les Paul was designed for recording artists, though can be used widely in a variety of musical situations. We like it for recording because of the Gibson-branded Alnico pickups (though we’re disappointed they’re not Burstbuckers) and the power of the Gibson name brand.
Who is it ideal for?
We’d argue that to be taken seriously as a session guitarist, you need to go the extra mile to get the Gibson brand name and not settle for an Epiphone Les Paul.
That’s not to say there is anything wrong with Epiphone.
But if you walk into a recording studio with an actual Gibson Les Paul, your clout as a musician immediately goes up. The Studio makes this a lot more accessible with a very reasonable price point.
IDEAL FOR: Studio musicians and classic rock fans.
TONE
94
PICKUPS
90
VERSATILITY
90
COST/VALUE
85
THE PROS
THE CONS
4. Ibanez JEM77 (Steve Vai Signature)
The JEM77 by Ibanez is one of Steve Vai’s (seemingly many) signature guitars. It gets you the name-brand pickups with two DiMarzio Gravity Storm Humbuckers and the DiMarzio Evolution single coil in the middle position. This gives you a lot of tone flexibility directly from the guitar, good for small tweaks and changes in the recording studio.
Though it’s still primarily a speedster’s guitar, especially with the added intensity of the Edge Zero locking tremolo system (modeled after the Floyd Rose bridge system).
We recommend it for faster lead styles and those who are into heavier rock genres.
IDEAL FOR: Speedsters and heavy rock
TONE
88
PICKUPS
94
VERSATILITY
80
COST/VALUE
80
THE PROS
THE CONS
5. PRS DW CE 24 (Dusty Waring Signature)
The CE line is my favorite PRS series, and the Dusty Waring signature might be one of my favorites of that bunch. It boasts a Floyd Rose 1000 locking tremolo system and Mojotone Tomahawk humbuckers, making it an ideal fit for almost any modern guitar player’s situation.
Tone is percussive but smooth and you’ll have a ton of sustain to work with, even on cleaner settings.
For recording, it’s one of the nicer – more expensive – guitars we can recommend.
Like the Gibson Les Paul Studio, it’s a very serious instrument, ideal for pro players and those with more to work with in their budgets.
IDEAL FOR: Pro-level players with serious recording gigs.
TONE
94
PICKUPS
91
VERSATILITY
94
COST/VALUE
86
THE PROS
THE CONS
In the following sections we’ll review some of the features that we think are most important when picking out an electric guitar for recording. We’ll also provide a summary of our scoring and grading for the five guitars in our list.
We’ll start with one of the most important categories: Pickups.
Pickups
To grade pickups we’re looking at tone quality, overall sound, sustain, magnet type, and how the pickups perform with certain clean and distorted tones.
Here’s a quick list/summary of those features:
- Tone quality
- Overall sound quality
- Sustain levels
- Magnet type
- Performance with clean tone
- Performance with distorted tone
We use all of these factors to provide a numeric score for the pickups used in each guitar. While this can certainly be somewhat subjective, we think it’s helpful to having something that’s based on personal experience and not just a re-hash of features that we can easily find in a product description.
Obviously this requires that we actually use the guitar in question or get in touch with someone who has.
For the pickups in this list, here’s how our final grading panned out:
Pickup Quality Chart
Ibanez JEM77 Steve Vai Signature
94
Current Progress
Current Progress
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
92
Schecter C-1 FR Evil Twin
92
Current Progress
Current Progress
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
92
PRS DW CE 24 Dusty Waring Signature
91
Current Progress
Current Progress
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
92
Gibson Les Paul Studio
90
Current Progress
Current Progress
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
92
PRS SE Mark Holcomb Signature
90
Current Progress
Current Progress
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
92
All of the pickups on these guitars are solid, but the DiMarzio Gravity Storm and Fishman Fluence humbuckers are tough to beat. It’s saying something when Holcomb’s guitar is bringing up the rear of this chart.
Brand/Reputation
While we don’t really track this category with a grade, I always want to emphasize the importance of brand loyalty and reputation when I write articles like this.
If you’ll notice, we typically only recommend from a handful of brands that we’ve found to be really reliable.
Now, that doesn’t mean there aren’t other good brands out there, but it does mean we’ve found something that works for us and will keep recommending it to other folks. That’s a simple example of brand loyalty and relying on guitars from companies with good reputations.
Some of those companies would include the following:
- PRS
- Gibson
- Fender
- Schecter
- Ibanez
- Epiphone
Is it possible to shop outside of these brands and get a great guitar?
Of course.
At the same time, it’s easier to stay consistent if we shop and recommend from just brands we trust.
Overall Tone Quality
Let’s get back to a category that we rate for.
Tone quality speaks to how the guitar sounds overall. And while pickups have a lot to say about that, they are a separate rating from overall tone quality because tone quality denotes how the guitar sounds with everything factored in.
- Tonewood
- Hardware
- Pickups
- Electronics
- Strings
Pickups are usually the most important part of that equation, but they’re not the only thing to consider.
Below, you can see in our chart how the guitars faired when graded in this category:
Tone Quality Chart
PRS DW CE 24 Dusty Waring Signature
94
Current Progress
Current Progress
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
92
Gibson Les Paul Studio
94
Current Progress
Current Progress
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
92
PRS SE Mark Holcomb Signature
94
Current Progress
Current Progress
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
92
Ibanez JEM77 Steve Vai Signature
88
Current Progress
Current Progress
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
92
Schecter C-1 FR Evil Twin
88
Current Progress
Current Progress
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
92
The two PRS electrics and the Gibson Les Paul are easily our top performers in this section. You could make an argument for the Mark Holcomb SE being a little less than the other two, but during testing we really liked all three.
Versatility
Versatility is a measure for how much a guitar can “migrate” to different musical genres and still be an effective instrument. While many of the guitars on this list lean towards a hard rock profile, they’re also quite versatile and able to handle a wide range of styles, none more than the Dusty Waring PRS.
Versatility Score Chart
PRS DW CE 24 Dusty Waring Signature
94
Current Progress
Current Progress
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
92
Gibson Les Paul Studio
90
Current Progress
Current Progress
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
92
PRS SE Mark Holcomb Signature
90
Current Progress
Current Progress
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
92
Ibanez JEM77 Steve Vai Signature
80
Current Progress
Current Progress
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
92
Schecter C-1 FR Evil Twin
78
Current Progress
Current Progress
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
92
Cost and Value
We use a different chart when we grade value. Basically, we take our overall rating for each guitar and plot it against the retail price to give you an idea of which one has the most value.
In the chart below, lower orange and higher blue is better.
- Blue Line: The higher the better
- Orange Line: The lower the better
You can see in the chart below that the Holcomb SE – largely due to the low price tag – performs extremely well. The Waring Signature and LP Studio are also in the conversation.
Cost and Value Score Chart
Your Questions
That concludes our list of the best electric guitars for recording.
Again, it’s important to emphasize this is based on my own experience and research. It does not mean you can’t find other guitars out there that are equally awesome or better, especially if you just wanted to spend more money.
But these are guitars that we believe give you great value for what you pay.
They’ve been vetted, tried, and found to be capable for recording and session gigs. That can help put you on the right track towards finding a guitar that works for your unique situation.
If you have questions about the guitars in this list or our review process, feel free to reach out via the comments section below and I’ll do my best to help.
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