[Roy MM]

Originally Posted by Gareth

/me plays a Fender Strat - a genuine American Fender too, not a Mexican one. It's about 10 years old now, but still plays absolutely perfectly. It is easily the best guitar I have ever played in my life. Oh, and it's black

Prior to that, I had an old Yamaha SG200... it was a beast of a guitar, but it's what I learned to play on. It was pretty difficult to get used to, and I wouldn't really recommend one to others (even though I loved mine). I played around a bit with a Pacifica (the 112 model, in a nice lake blue colour) which was so much easier to play than my old SG200. I would recommend the Pacifica if you don't fancy stretching to a true Fender.

Oh, and as for the noise factor when you just want to play... I find that I prefer to play an unplugged electric rather than an accoustic. The electric makes enough noise that you can hear it when it's unplugged. The accoustic will make a lot more noise than an unplugged electric, even if you're playing it softly. When you just want to play a bit at 3 in the morning, you don't want to be making a lot of noise
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oo-er, that last line sounds a bit rude

mine is well dated & dented, blood red from early 70s, cost me more than my car at the time.