Choosing an Electric Guitar
Choosing your first electric guitar

Your first guitar should be a solid-body guitar

There are three types of electric guitars: hollow body guitars, semi-acoustic guitars, and solid-body guitars. Although it ultimately depends on what kind of music you want to play, it is recommended that you choose a solid-body guitar for your first instrument. These types of guitars are typically used to play rock and pop music, they can be obtained for very reasonable prices, and there is a wide variety to choose from. Incidentally, hollow body guitars and semi-acoustic guitars are often used to play jazz and the blues, respectively. If you plan to play in either of these genres, you may want to consider a hollow body guitar or semi-acoustic guitar.

Tremolo bar: yes or no?

Guitars equipped with tremolo bars are convenient as the bars can be easily screwed/inserted in and removed. A guitarist will typically remove the bar before putting his or her guitar in its case. On the other hand, adding a tremolo unit to a guitar that did not come equipped with one will require some major modifications. Although you can send a guitar to the shop to have this modification done, the work could cost up to several hundreds of dollars.
It therefore makes sense to buy a guitar that has a tremolo unit installed, regardless of whether or not you will actually use the bar.

Rock tremolos are not meant for beginners

Although guitars equipped with rock tremolo units (such as those from Floyd Rose) allow for some showy tremolo playing, it can be difficult to tune them and replace their strings. Playing the guitar depends on accurate tuning, so these kinds of tremolos are not recommended for beginners
Beginners are better off buying a standard electric guitar, then considering a rock tremolo guitar once they are used to playing and have improved their skills.

Amplifiers

Your first personal amplifier will likely be the one you use mostly to practice at home, since you can use the amplifiers furnished by the practice studio when practicing with a band.
A 10 to 15 W amplifier will produce enough volume for you to practice at home. Many stores sell starter sets that include a guitar and amplifier-a perfect first purchase for the beginning guitarist.