From jazz and funk to country and heavy metal, the not-so-humble electric guitar has single-handedly shaped modern music’s sound as we know it. In fact, some of history’s most beloved guitar manufacturers still operate today, churning out streamlined tributes and historically-accurate reissues of their storied designs. Whether you’re a seasoned pro looking for another axe to add to your collection or a beginner looking for the right place to start, this list of the best electric guitars has something for everyone.
We compiled this list of the best electric guitars with a heavy emphasis on brand reputation and sound quality: Martin, Fender, and Epiphone are all long-standing manufacturers with decades of experience designing iconic guitars. We also took care to represent different body shapes, pickup configurations, and other factors that affect a guitar’s overall tone and genre suitability by including acoustic-electric, solid body, and semi-hollow designs. Comfort and ease of playability also played a role in whether a guitar made the cut, and we opted to choose designs that are fun and satisfying to play.
From jamming with pals to moving to Philly, buying a loft, and starting a noise band, one of the electric guitars on our list will help you live out your rockstar dreams.
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Why it made the cut: The American Performer Jazzmaster features a super versatile sound and an easy-to-play design that can pull off rock, blues, jazz, and everything in between.
Synonymous with surf rock and oozing with character, the Fender Jazzmaster is a quintessentially versatile electric guitar design with a wide range of tonal capabilities that’s easy to play. The company’s latest American Performer model brings this reputation to a whole new level, streamlining the design with thoughtful, modern updates to make it one of the most well-rounded electric guitars you can buy right now. The American Performer Jazzmaster features two Yosemite single-coil pickups that deliver all of the guitar’s distinct clarity and punch but with a slightly higher output level that’s more suitable for playing contemporary styles of music. A specialized built-in tone circuit also allows players to adjust the level of highs and lows using a single knob for a more subdued sound that never becomes muddy, further widening the range of the guitar’s tonal capabilities.
The American Performer Jazzmaster’s bridge assembly is a departure from the design’s traditional floating tremolo, swapping in a Stratocaster-style design with bent steel saddles that allows access to a wider pitch-bending range than the original. The electronics have also been pared down to a single three-way pickup selector switch, leaving out the traditional Jazzmaster rhythm circuit. While these modifications might bother players looking for a true-to-vintage Jazzmaster experience, we prefer this streamlined design because it only makes it easier to access the guitar’s range of classic tones. If historical accuracy is more your thing, consider the Fender American Vintage II Jazzmaster as a great-sounding alternative.
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Why it made the cut: The 000-10E features a warm tone and solid body with a perfect balance of value and playability, making it an excellent guitar for the road and at home.
Founded in 1833 and still going strong today, C.F. Martin Guitar Company is a significant contributor to music history and is known widely as the manufacturer of some of the most sought-after vintage guitars ever sold. You simply can’t have a list of the best acoustic guitars and not have a Martin model on it. But these are the best
Guitars, you say. Well, the Martin 000-10E acoustic-electric guitar distills the company’s heritage into an affordable and easy-to-play design that boasts fantastic projection and warm, rich tones. An “auditorium”-sized design with a comfortable-to-hold shape, the 000-10E’s top, sides, and back are made from solid sheets of sapele, a slightly heavier and similar-sounding alternative to mahogany. This midsize body, paired with the 000-10E’s short-scale tapered neck, makes it a great candidate for travel use and much easier to play than standard-sized dreadnought acoustic guitars.
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For amplified use, the Martin 000-10E features a Fishman MX-T internal pickup paired with easy-to-access dial controls and a convenient onboard tuner mounted out of sight in the guitar’s soundhole. In this guitar, the MX-T pickup itself offers a fairly typical acoustic-electric tone that can come across as a bit brittle or sterile compared to the unplugged tone of the guitar. If you are using the pickup on the 000-10E, adding a signal processor like the Boss AD-2 Acoustic Preamp will help reintroduce the guitar’s natural tone and sustain the amplified sound. All in all, the Martin 000-10E is an incredibly well-rounded acoustic-electric guitar, but consider the Martin Road Series D-10E if you have larger hands or prefer the brighter highs and booming lows of a more traditional design.
Why it made the cut: This compact, fashion-forward Fender delivers classic single-coil tones and features a short-scale neck that makes it ideal for beginners and players with small hands.
Originally designed in 1964 as a student-series instrument, the Fender Mustang is somewhat of a rock-and-roll icon, having found favor with the likes of Liz Phair, Kurt Cobain, and countless others over the decades. True to its student-friendly design, the Fender Player Mustang features a 24-inch scale neck that makes it much easier for players with small hands to fret chords and stretch their fingers when compared to standard-scale designs. The guitar’s two single-coil pickups deliver jangly, mid-forward tones that sound biting and aggressive when overdriven, making it a great choice for surf rock, punk, grunge, metal, funk, and other traditionally bright-sounding guitar styles. The Fender Player Mustang is also a great candidate for taking on the road thanks to its short scale and relatively small body, but you’ll need to bring your own case—we like Fender’s classic series wood case and short-scale bag.
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While the Player Mustang packs all of the brightness and character for which its design is known, it’s not the most versatile instrument if you’re looking to venture out of bright genres into playing styles that require a thicker, fuller guitar tone. If you love the Mustang design but need a little more flexibility from your sound, the dual-P90 configuration of the Fender Mustang 90 adds a little more body and substance to the mix without forfeiting style points. The Mustang is also a fairly small guitar, so if you’re a beginner who prefers a more standard-sized electric guitar, the Fender Player Stratocaster is another legendary design with a very similar sound and larger body.
Why it made the cut: Full, rounded tone and woody resonance are hallmarks of the ideal blues and jazz guitar sound, all of which the Epiphone Sheraton II Pro delivers in spades.
Epiphone’s history as an instrument manufacturer started in 1873 on the western coast of what is now Turkey before the company relocated to New York in the early 20th century. Today, the brand is owned by Gibson and is used primarily for offering high-quality versions of the company’s classic designs at affordable price points. The lush-sounding, eye-catching Sheraton II Pro lifts its inspiration from the infamous Gibson ES-335, a guitar known for its chime-like attack and thick midrange that’s been favored throughout history by players like Chuck Berry and B.B. King. Despite being priced at over $2, 000 less than the ES-335, the Sheraton II Pro punches way above its class and produces fantastic rock, blues, and jazz guitar tones in an easy-to-play design.
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The Sheraton II Pro’s distinctly rich sound comes from its resonant semi-hollow body, which is supported by a central tone block, and its two vintage-style humbuckers, which encompass a range of tones from warm and subtle to bright and bold. The Sheraton’s humbuckers give it a full, bass-heavy sound and long sustain that’s ideal for jazz and blues but also great for heavier rock styles when paired with an overdrive, though its semi-hollow design makes it prone to feedback when playing at louder volumes. Despite being semi-hollow and sporting a thin, easy-to-play neck, the Sheraton II Pro is also a bit heavy and bulky, which may make it tough for smaller players to use. If you’re looking for something a little more wieldy, the Epiphone Casino Archtop of Beatles fame has a smaller frame and skews slightly more toward rock-and-roll tones.
Why it made the cut: Fender’s Acoustasonic Player Telecaster offers a unique blend of acoustic and electric tones in a futuristic package, making it an intriguing all-in-one choice for gigging and songwriting.
In every aspect, from its tone to its construction, the Fender Acoustasonic Player Telecaster blurs the line between acoustic and electric guitar, making it a great option for studio and touring musicians who want a little creative inspiration. The guitar is constructed like a traditional acoustic guitar with a braced spruce top and a hollow body. Still, its unique electronics can blend between six onboard tonal varieties to make the guitar sound like everything from a dreadnought and small-body acoustic guitars to an overdriven solid-body Telecaster. In practice (and we’ve had a bunch, as our full review shows), the Acoustasonic’s built-in Telecaster pickup doesn’t fully nail the sound of a solid-body Tele; however, the resulting tone
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