Wrong forum. This post belongs in the "Musical Instruments" forum.

But, I will still answer. 8)

Standard guitar type/brand for upbeat pop music? Standard amp?

Strat with a Fender amp. Maybe an Orange amp if it's British pop?

Standard guitar type/brand for edgy pop music? Standard amp?

Start or maybe a Les Paul with a Fender or Orange amp. Maybe a Kustom or Marshall if they want something thicker?

Standard guitar type/brand for pop ballad music? Standard amp?

What is a pop ballad? Celine Dion? You will probably find more Jackson guitars and Marshalls here than the other two sub genres you listed.

But, you want bread and butter stuff, get an American strat and a Fender amp, or if you want more high gain, Marshall and Orange are probably the 2nd most popular amp choices.

Wow, thanks NCdan! That was truly helpful.

And if anyone has any more options for the genres I listed, be them alternatives or whatever, feel free to list those too!

NCdan wrote: Wrong forum. This post belongs in the "Musical Instruments" forum.

But, I will still answer. 8)

Standard guitar type/brand for upbeat pop music? Standard amp?

Strat with a Fender amp. Maybe an Orange amp if it's British pop?

Standard guitar type/brand for edgy pop music? Standard amp?

Start or maybe a Les Paul with a Fender or Orange amp. Maybe a Kustom or Marshall if they want something thicker?

Standard guitar type/brand for pop ballad music? Standard amp?

What is a pop ballad? Celine Dion? You will probably find more Jackson guitars and Marshalls here than the other two sub genres you listed.

But, you want bread and butter stuff, get an American strat and a Fender amp, or if you want more high gain, Marshall and Orange are probably the 2nd most popular amp choices.

When you say 'fender amp' which fender amp do you mean? Surely they don't all sound the same..

When you say 'fender amp' which fender amp do you mean? Surely they don't all sound the same..

Any Fender amp over $1,000. 8) The Blackfaces and Twin Reverbs will give you more of the clean sounds with people usually using overdrive pedals to get distortion. The more modern Fender amps will get you maybe up to classic rock distortion. But yes, there are a lot of Fender amps. They seem to be popular pop amps in general.

The Fender Twin is my amp of choice when it comes to lush clean sounds! Sounds fantastic. Not good for any high gain. I don't think it has the presence to get any grit from but it would suit any of the genres you mentioned, budget permitting. Not cheap. That said. I used to use a Fender Princeton 50 as a practice amp and that was a tonally amazing amp. Especailly for a solid state.

Going off on one....valve amps are generally going to sound better but my amp of choice for all kinds of music (I play in a few projects) is a Line 6 HD147 with matching cab. I stick a Blackstar HT-Boost valve pedal in front of it and while some people will claim its pants becasue its not valve, putting the HT-Boost in there really helps with adding valve dynamics...but most importantly, I use this amp because not only have I got "my" perfect tones from it, you can mimic just about any amp you would want to level realistic enough for live use. I use the Fender twin setting and plexi settings for use in rock covers bands.....great allround amp in my opinion.

Otherwise a Marshall TSL will fit most your needs....

:)

Ok, so if you had to choose between the following guitars:

Epiphone Les Paul
Esteban Electric
Kent Electric ES-175

Now, which of the above could fit into the upbeat pop, edgy pop, and pop ballad categories? Would the sound corresponding to the genres of music be compromised with these less-than-great guitars?

Epiphone Les Paul
Esteban Electric
Kent Electric ES-175

Those are all crappy guitars. You should seriously look in to Agile guitars. See the link below for their strat. I just about crapped my pants when my $230 Agile arrived and it was built at least as well as a Gibson.

http://www.rondomusic.com/st802n3ts.html

You also might check in to Carvin bolt guitars:

https://www.carvinguitars.com/catalog/guitars/index.php?model=bolt

NCdan wrote:

Epiphone Les Paul
Esteban Electric
Kent Electric ES-175

Those are all crappy guitars. You should seriously look in to Agile guitars. See the link below for their strat. I just about crapped my pants when my $230 Agile arrived and it was built at least as well as a Gibson.

http://www.rondomusic.com/st802n3ts.html

You also might check in to Carvin bolt guitars:

https://www.carvinguitars.com/catalog/guitars/index.php?model=bolt

So.. okay. I'm currently using the software instruments from Kore Player to use as guitars, so do you think actual guitars will sound better then the kore software ones?

And are those honestly really horrible guitars?

So.. okay. I'm currently using the software instruments from Kore Player to use as guitars, so do you think actual guitars will sound better then the kore software ones?

You're not even using a real guitar? Yes, a real guitar will sound better. Make that a good quality, real guitar will sound better. If there are any corners that should not be cut in recording, it is with the actual instruments. If you don't have good sound to record, then the end result is never going to be good. Look past cheap Chinese guitars and go for something a bit better. Agile guitars are seriously as good as any $1,000 guitar, and of course, Carvin guitars are on par with any Hamer or Ibanez JEM, but they cost a bit more, but that bolt guitar is pretty cheap. What's even cheaper is to do the bolt kit (which is really easy to assemble, no tools required):

https://www.carvinguitars.com/catalog/guitars/index.php?model=gk1

But I still recommend looking at the Agile guitars as they have a rather large selection to choose from.

And are those honestly really horrible guitars?

Yes. Epiphones are garbage and I won't even speak of the other ones, which are even worse. A guitar needs to be constructed to very precise measurements, and there are quite a few parts that need to be good quality in order to function well and last more than a couple of months.

mannyr wrote: Ok, so if you had to choose between the following guitars:

Epiphone Les Paul
Esteban Electric
Kent Electric ES-175

Now, which of the above could fit into the upbeat pop, edgy pop, and pop ballad categories? Would the sound corresponding to the genres of music be compromised with these less-than-great guitars?

None of these in my opinion will do the job brilliantly. The Epiphones are OK. I can only stress OK there though. But you are looking for 1 guitar to fill every need basically so everyone here so far has made some great allround suggestions. To add another into the mix Schecter make some great guitars for the money. With flexibility. Generally the mid-range ones come with lovely pick-ups, play brilliantly but in addition to all this you get a coil tap so when you want to soften it up a bit you can get nice and close to that tele sound or flick back to your humberckers for a bit more depth and snap. search "Schecter Guitar Research" for them.

I use an Omen Extreme which isnt what you will be looking for really but I got it used for about £200 (so that got to be about $250) and I use it over my Ibanez Iceman, ESP Viper & Epiphone SG all the time....and it was by a long long way the cheapest of them!

I suppose what im saying is....find your sound. Then you can adapt it to fit what you want. Rather than find the sound 1st then struggle to copy the sound you hear. Experimentation is the key for you.

Good luck!