Hello all,

I just want to introduce myself to everyone, and ask for a bit of advice at the same time.

I'm looking at buying my first electric guitar soon, but I need a slight push in the right direction. I'm 38, and I've never touched a guitar in my life, so I don't feel I can walk into a store and try things out. My end goal is to be able to play some things purely for my own entertainment.

I figure my budget to be around $300. I'd like to keep it around that or less if possible. Since I'm starting from scratch, I will need at least the guitar, amp, and tuner to fit in that range.

Anyways, I've been looking a lot at the Squier HSS affinity packs. They have one that comes with a bullet 150 amp, and another that comes with a GDEC junior. I like the GDEC junior, but that version busts my budget by a bit. I'm thinking about looking at a used guitar with something like the GDEC junior to keep within my budget. This is where the inexperience comes in again. I'm a bit afraid to walk into a used shop and find something that works for me. I simply don't know enough about what I am looking at to know whether it is decent or not.

To be honest, at this point I'm not even sure what styles I want to play. I like Stevie Ray Vaughan stuff, and growing up in the 80's means that I would like to be able to create some metal sounds as well. This is why I'm looking at the HSS version over the SSS version. (I'm thinking that it will give a better options for distortion sounds) I have no particular attachment to any brand, so I'd like to hear any suggestions. I like the 2 amps mentioned because they affer me a variety of effects to play around with, and I'm open to anything that does something similar.

Thanks for listening.