Learning how to choose an electric guitar comes down to a handful of decisions: the body style, the pickups, the bridge, the neck and the kind of music you want to play. Get those five right and almost any reputable guitar will serve you well. Get them wrong and even an expensive instrument can feel like a fight.
Short answer: pick a body style that is comfortable to hold, choose pickups that match your music (single coils for clean and bright, humbuckers for thick and high-gain, P90s in between), start with a fixed or simple tremolo bridge, and make sure the neck shape suits your hand. This guide on how to choose an electric guitar walks through each choice and points you to our detailed buying guides when you are ready to compare models.
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The body shapes how a guitar feels on your lap or strap and, to a lesser degree, how it sounds and how easily it feeds back at volume.
| Body style | Sound and feel | Good for | Watch out for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solid body (Strat, Tele, Les Paul, SG) | Focused, sustains well, resists feedback | Rock, metal, pop, blues, almost everything | Some (like Les Paul types) are heavy |
| Semi-hollow (ES-335 style) | Warmer and airier, with a solid center block | Blues, indie, jazz, rockabilly | Larger body, can feed back at high gain |
| Hollow body (archtop) | Round, acoustic-like, woody | Jazz, rockabilly, clean tones | Feeds back easily at volume |
| Offset (Jazzmaster, Jaguar, Mustang) | Comfortable, distinctive, often shimmery | Indie, surf, shoegaze, alternative | Unusual bridges and switching take learning |
Weight matters more than most first-time buyers expect, especially if you stand to play. Our list of the lightest electric guitars is a good place to start if you have shoulder or back concerns. Headless designs are another way to cut weight and size; see the best headless guitars. Double-neck guitars are a specialist tool for players who switch between 6 and 12 strings mid-song; our double-neck guitar guide covers them.
Ready to compare? See the best semi-hollow guitars, the best hollow body guitars, the best offset guitars and the best Flying V guitars for something more extreme.
Pickups: Single Coil, P90 and Humbucker
Pickups are magnets wrapped in wire that turn string vibration into an electrical signal. After the amp, they shape the guitar’s character more than any other part.
- Single coil: bright, clear and articulate, the classic Strat and Tele sound. The trade-off is a 60-cycle hum that becomes more noticeable with high gain.
- Humbucker: two coils wired to cancel hum. Thicker, louder and smoother, which is why most rock and metal guitars use them.
- P90: a wide single coil with more midrange grit than a Strat pickup and more bite than a humbucker. A favorite for blues, punk and garage rock.
- Active pickups: battery-powered, with a high, consistent output that suits modern metal.
Pickup layouts are often written as letters: SSS (three single coils), HH (two humbuckers) or HSS (one humbucker at the bridge plus two single coils). HSS is a popular all-rounder if you are still working out which styles you like. The Wikipedia overview of guitar pickups explains the electronics in more depth.
Ready to buy? See the best P90 guitars, or if you already own a guitar and want a new voice, our guide to the best electric guitar pickups.
Bridges: Fixed, Tremolo and Floyd Rose
The bridge anchors the strings and decides whether you can bend the pitch of a whole chord with a whammy bar.
| Bridge type | What it does | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Fixed (hardtail, Tune-o-matic, Tele bridge) | No bar. Most stable tuning and the simplest string changes | Beginners, heavy riffing, alternate tunings |
| Vintage or two-point tremolo | Gentle pitch dips and shimmer | Blues, surf, classic rock |
| Bigsby | Soft vibrato, mostly downward | Rockabilly, country, indie |
| Floyd Rose (double-locking) | Wide dives and pull-ups while staying in tune | Shred, hard rock, metal |
A double-locking system stays in tune under heavy use, but restringing and changing tunings take longer. If you are on your first guitar, a fixed bridge or a simple tremolo is easier to live with. If dive bombs are part of the music you love, our best Floyd Rose guitars guide compares the options.
Necks, Frets and Scale Length
The neck is where your hand spends all its time, so it deserves as much attention as the sound.