Are you getting ready to make your first electric guitar purchase? Have you read my article on the different types of electric guitars? If you answered ‘yes’ and ‘yes’, then this electric guitar buying guide is for you! I’ve reflected on the hundreds of hours I’ve spent researching and playing different electric guitars. And I’ve broken down my top three guitars across various price points and feature categories. This article focuses on my top recommended electric guitars that can be purchased for $500 or less. In fact, I’ve provided you with three lists. One for solid body electric guitars, one for semi-hollow bodies and one for heavy metal fans.
A Quick Note On the Quality of Electric Guitars in This Buying Guide
You might be wondering why I chose to recommend various electric guitars under $500. Why not under $400? Or $300? Or even $200? After all, you can by a ton of electric guitars at each of these lower price points. The answer is that in my experience, electric guitars in the $400 to $500 range match most of the basic material, workmanship and quality of guitars in higher price categories, but without some of the frills that you can live without.
And if you do buy an electric guitar for $200, you might be frustrated that it doesn’t play as comfortably. Or deliver the right tones your seeking to make in your music. Worst case is that it causes you to give up learning the instrument altogether. And that gives me the blues just thinking about it! So you can be rest assured that each of the electric guitars in this guide will provide a lot of bang for the buck.
Each electric guitar listed in the tables below are arranged from left to right in slightly increasing cost. Let’s take a look!
Recommended Solid Body Electric Guitars Under $500
 |  |  | |
| Price | Low | Mid | High |
| Brand | Yamaha | Squier by Fender | Epiphone |
| Model (w/ Amazon Link) | Pacifica PAC212V | Telecaster | Les Paul |
| Pickup Configuration | 2 Single-coils & 1 Humbucker | 2 Single-coils | 2 Humbuckers |
| Bridge Design | Vintage Tremolo | Vintage Telecaster | LockTone ABR |
| Body Material | Alder w/ Maple Top | Pine | Mahogany / Maple Top |
| Neck Material | Maple | Maple | Mahogany |
| Fretboard Material | Rosewood | Maple | Indian Laurel |
Yamaha Pacifica Series PAC212V
- Yamaha has been making the Pacifica series for over 30 years. The first thing that catches the eye on this particular model is the flamed maple top. It’s absolutely beautiful and a terrific feature for a guitar in this price range!
- This guitar includes two control knobs. One for master volume and the other for master tone. Another great feature is that the tone knob has a push-pull coil split. This gives you even more options to shape the tone that you hear coming from your guitar. In other words, this guitar will work great for virtually any musical genre that intend to learn how to play.
- Another feature of this guitar that makes it particularly versatile is that it has a combination of single coil and hum bucker pickups. So whether you want clear, bell-like tones or thick heavy sounds, this guitar can do it all!
Squier Classic Vibe 50s Telecaster
- In 1950, Leo Fender introduced the first mass-produced solid-body electric guitar. And he named it the Telecaster, or “Tele” for short. Amazingly, the design looks nearly identical over 70 years later! Squier has been around since 1890 and was purchased by Fender in 1965.
- Tele’s are played by countless guitar hero’s including Bruce Springsteen, Keith Richards and Brad Paisley just to name a few.
- This Classic Vibe version emulates design features found on famous Telecasters from the 1950’s. Featured are a pine body, slim and comfortable neck profile, and a vintage-tint gloss neck finish.
Epiphone Les Paul Classic
- Similar to Squier being owned by Fender, Epiphone is owned by Gibson. And just like Squier making guitars long before Fender, Epiphone has been making guitars since 1873. Another archetype electric guitar design, the Les Paul hasn’t made any significant design changes since its creation in 1952.
- Some of the most famous Les Paul guitar players are Jimmy Page, Slash and Duane Allman
- For a classic hard rock or blues sound, you simply can’t go wrong with a Les Paul!
Recommended Semi-Hollow Body Electric Guitars Under $500
| |  |  |  |
| Price | Low | Mid | High |
| Brand | Ibanez | Epiphone | Guild |
| Model (w/ Amazon Link) | Artcore AS73 | Casino | Starfire I DC |
| Pickup Configuration | 2 Humbuckers | 2 P-90s | 2 Humbuckers |
| Bridge Design | ART1 Fixed | Tune-O-Matic | Vibrato Bar |
| Body Material | Basswood | Maple | Maple |
| Neck Material | Nato | Mahogany | Mahogany |
| Fretboard Material | Walnut | Laurel | Rosewood |
Ibanez Artcore AS73
- The Artcore series has been around since 2002. It has remained a workhorse semi-hollow body electric guitar ever since for blues, country, rock and jazz.
- The neck of this guitar is set into the body as opposed to being bolted together with screws. This provides improved sustain of notes played.
- The walnut fretboard is a great choice for this guitar. It helps to bring a balanced tone between lows and highs.
Epiphone Casino
- Epiphone has been making the Casino since 1961. And it’s most famous users were none other than The Beatles! And I don’t mean just a single Beatle, but all three guitar players. Paul, John and George each played Casino’s from the early/mid 60s. And these guitars were used on most of the recordings made at the height of their success.
- Instead of more traditional humbucker pickups, these guitars feature single coil P-90s. P-90 pickups were invented by Gibson in 1946. They produce a warmer tone with a bit less edge and brightness compared to other single coil pickups. It’s definitely a solid combination since this guitar has maintained its legendary status for decades!
- Another unique feature of this guitar is the diamond trapeze tailpiece. It definitely gives the guitar a look of elegance and class.
Guild Starfire I DC
- I had to include this guitar, even though it may cost a tiny bit over $500. The reason is that it includes Guild’s vibrato tailpiece and roller tension bar. This allows you to create epic changes in pitch, or ‘bends’ as they’re known.
- The combination of Guild’s Premium Vintage 18 tuners and Tune-o-matic bridge really help to keep this guitar in tune.
- Both humbuckers are controlled with push-pull coil splitting from the tone knobs. This opens up the sonic possibilities of this guitar to all genres.
Recommended Heavy Metal Electric Guitars Under $500
| |  |  |  |
| Price | Low | Mid | High |
| Brand | Jackson | Schecter | ESP LTD |
| Model (w/ Amazon Link) | JS32Q | Omen Extreme-6 | EC-256FM |
| Pickup Configuration | 2 Humbuckers | 2 Humbuckers | 2 Humbuckers |
| Bridge Design | Floyd Rose Tremolo | Tune-O-Matic | Tune-O-Matic |
| Body Material | Poplar w/ Maple Top | Mahogany w/ Maple Top | Mahogany w/ Maple Top |
| Neck Material | Maple | Maple | Mahogany |
| Fretboard Material | Amaranth | Rosewood | Rosewood |
Jackson Dinky JS32Q
- Jackson guitars are metal-machines with their high-output ceramic-magnet humbucking pickups and graphite-reinforced maple necks. The pearled sharkfin inlays and black hardware add to the bold look for even the heaviest of metal-heads.
- The Floyd Rose double-locking tremolo bridge is a great feature at this affordable price point and will allow the metal player to whammy away and make some epic deep bends of your power chords.
- And maybe the best part is that this guitar sells for quite a bit under $500!
Schecter Omen Extreme-6
- The quilted top on this guitar is absolutely stunning, don’t you think? Combined with the vector inlays and creme binding, this guitar will catch the attention of your legion of fans!
- The over-wound humbucking pickups push your sound over the edge with an aggressive and high output tone. And because they include push-pull knobs, you can tame this beast by just playing single coils when desired.
ESP LTD EC-256FM
- While this guitar will head-bang with the heaviest metal dudes, it will also play classic rock, progressive rock, blues and more.
- It actually has many similar design features of a Les Paul. But the ESP LH-150 humbucking pick-ups have a higher output, which is what makes this guitar really scream when you crank up your amp.
Summary of Buying Guide for Electric Guitars Under $500
Hopefully, this article has reinforced the notion that a beginning player can find a number of solid electric guitars under $500. The quality control from the major manufacturers has improved so much in recent years. I would bet that many intermediate players could not tell the difference between these guitars and others double in price in a blind test. Happy hunting and best of luck to you in learning and loving to play guitar!