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Guitar questions.

L

loudog9999

Member
I want to learn to play the guitar. I saw a deal for a beginners guitar today for around $80. I think the guitar was a Mark II (?). I am a real novice when it comes to instruments. Should I buy this, what looks to be a cheapo, or splurg for something more expensive. I dont want to get something that is going to break me and then I not like playing but I dont want to get something that is gonna sound like crap and may possible hinder my chances of learning. Any suggestions?
 
I too have been tossing around the idea of buying a guitar and seeing how I like it. Most people have told me to buy a cheap, but decent guitar first, an then once you're sure you like it, to buy a better one. Most people recommended Ibanez guitars, although the name Yamaha surfaced a few times as well.
 
Yamaha makes good low end guitars. As Total Guitar magazine said, it best for those who "are not enslaved in the must be Fender fashion".
 
So, cool. I love playing guitar! If you just keep practicing you will get to the point that you will choose your guitar over your computer...seriously :Q

Yah get a cheap guitar first. I recommend yamaha too.

peace
sean
 
If you just keep practicing you will get to the point that you will choose your guitar over your computer...seriously

LoL... Whats the learning surve gonna be like. How long did it take you to be comfortable enough to say that you "play guitar"?
 
When learning it really doesn't matter. I started with an el cheapo $50 acoustic then upgraded to a Hondo electric... When you are starting out, you just
want to train your hand to play scales and chords... the tone/sound of your guitar doesn't matter much at this point. Many people have tried to learn how to
play and then gave up after a couple months. There is no point in spending hundreds of dollars for something you don't know for sure if you will keep up
with it.

I have been playing for 6 years and I still don't feel comfortable playing... although people thought I sounded awesome after 6 months 😉. People who
don't know how to play can be impressed rather easily.
 
My advice would be to get an acoustic first, but thats just my opinion. Its bit harder to play an acoustic, but once you get it down, the electric will come much easier. If you start out on electric and then go to acoustic, it can be a bit rough... but thats just my opinion.

As for the guitar.. Don't "totally" cheap out on the guitar ($80..) because you'll outgrow it fast if you really get into playing guitar. I'd get something on the low end but not too cheap (200ish) I think you'll probably be more happy in the end run. Like the above people said. Yamaha makes pretty good low end guitars, I think Epiphone electrics arent too bad, but probably too pricey. I've heard squier Strats arent too bad for the money.... Good luck.
 
I've "had" a guitar for 12 years, I just started taking lessons 3 months ago at The Old Town School of Folk and I'm at least twice as good as I ever was. It's an awesome and Nationally famous school.
From my experience I would reccomend taking lessons I'm really excited about taking the next class....
 
I too think lessons are great too! I had an awesome teacher... he would alternate between theory and just teaching guitar techniques. I really learned
fast with the lessons. I am actually thinking of going back for a refresher for a couple months.
 
in my experience, a decent beginner's guitar is usually around $300.

also, try to buy it from a local, small-town, type of dealer. You can usually get much better deals from them, and you can usually the prices are more negotiable. Plus, who wants to buy music instruments from a corporate dealer? That's just wrong, hehe.
 
If you have any friends who play guitar play, have them help you pick out an instrument. You really want an instrument that plays well -- That is, it has good action and plays in tune over the whole neck. A bad instrument is a major turn off because, even when you get it right, you won't get the reward of the music.

You may get a better deal if you can find a good used instrument. In any case, spend whatever is necessary to get a good one. A good instrument, especially a good used one, only gets more valuable over time, so you can consider it an investment, not an expense.

Playing music is one of the grand pleasures of this planet. Good luck. 😀 😀 😀
 
DO NOT GET A CHEAP GUITAR!!! cheap guitars (especially acoustics) tend to have very high action because the manufactors are pumping them out fastly. High action is the distance between the strings and the fretboard of a guitar. This high action (unless you like it - which most people dont) tends to make guitar hard to learn for beginners as it is harder to push out notes. Also cheap guitars tend to get out of tune very frequently (so you would have to tune the guitar mabye every 1.5 hours) which really is quite annoying, so you will become out of tune freuqnelty while playing which can also be annoying. Im not saying buy a $1000+ guitar, but i think a good beginners guitar would either be: acouistic: a seagull dreadknot S6, which can usually be found for about 200-250. Ive only played on one once and it sounded very good for the price. that guitar also has quite a bit of recommendations buy guitar magazines so its well known. Seagull S6 is a very good buy.

For electrics I would say go with something like an (well it depends on what your gonna play), for just rock and standard stuff you cant go wrong with an fender strat (normal not fat), or a texas special strat. You can get them at musiciansfriend for about 340, but if you go to a large retails like guitar center they you can bargain them to sell it to you for, so like 300 or something with free stuff like strings and a strap. Or if you think 300 is too high, you can get a squier strat, they are similar to the fender strats except the sqiuers are made in mexico or something (they aren't as good as fender versions, but worth the money, you can get one for about 200 or less) If your gonna play alot of punk music, you wanna get Epiphone SG a They are about 290 at musicians friend, but as i said you can get them for cheaper at big outlets. As for amps, im not to sure whats a good cheap amp, and its hard to find a good cheap amp because most cheap amps are tiny. But if you just wanna play by yourself a small amp should do fine.

But again i repeat do not get one of those guitar starter sets that gives you a guitar, strings, case, strap for 80. They are no good guitars, probably for parents to buy their 5 yr old children, or someone who dosent' really have an interest in playing.

I suggest you buy an acoustic guitar first (can't go wrong with the seagull, i like the s6+ cedar (but that doesn't matter much, the cedar is the type of wood used, its a bit more expensive) but, if you wanna start playing in a band very quickly you have to go with an electric.

Anyways, feel free to ask me anything if you have any more questions

epiphone sg
 
Mucman: i disagree with you that the tone and sound does not matter much at first. IT IS KEY AS A BEGINNER TO DEVELOP YOUR EAR TO GOOD INTONATIONS(as in being in tune). Essential! If you start with good intonations and sounds, it will build throuhgout all your playing, and develop your ear. So mabye in a year or two, you won't need a tuning fork or digital guitar tuner anymore, for your ear becomes the tuner.
 
alee25 - What you are saying could be true... I guess it was the exception for me 🙂. I enjoyed getting calluses that were hard as rocks... The transition from acoustic to electric was so easy too. I now play on a custom built yahama/kramer frankenstein beast with low action and I love it, but I think the training on the crappy acoustic really helped. I actually didn't play it that often, I usually sat in front of the TV fingering chords and scales to train my left hand.
 
I second getting a seagull, that would be a great first guitar. Can't touch my Gibson Gospel though, hehe.

Tim
 
Mucman: i agree that playing on a high action guitar will make electrics (with low action) seem simple, but as a beginner its not always best to learn the hardest way. I thik that if he learned to play on a low action electric or steel, then decided to play for example a classical nylon stringed(high action) guitar he wouldnt have too much a problem transtitioning, as he already knows what strings to fret and where to place the chords. However it becomes more difficult to start out a beginner on a high action guitar because when you combine not knowing the notes to fret along with having trouble pushing down the string of a guitar it tends to make the player loose patience and confiendce.

I myself started out on a high action classical, guitar and later went to a sweet Guild DCE-1 steel string guitar, and i remember the frustration i was having with getting huge amounts of fretbuzz and not being able to push the strings all the way down. I think that if i started out with something with lower action and easier to play i would have progressed faster.
 
i actually bought a guitar at the end of the summer. an Ibanez AW100 acoustic guitar. it was a moderately priced guitar but still good quality.

from what i've heard, you shouldnt get the cheapest guitar you can find b/c you wont feel like playing it. not sure if tyhis is true, they say if you get a guitar that you LIKE, then you'll probably play more.

because i dont have time to play with classes and all, i try to sit down and just play for even 15 minutes(still working on chords) :Q

again, this is what i've heard. also, they say to buy a guitar stand rather then leave your guitar in the case b/c if th guitar is sittin on the stand where you can see it, you'll play more

who knows, good luck and have fun 🙂
 
see if you can borrow a guitar from a friend... a lot of my friends bought one and then quit when it was too hard for them... you wouldnt wanna waste even 50 bucks on something you wont be able to sell..

if not id head on over to guitar center and ask the guy to help you out. then when u start playing u can get a rig like mine 🙂

50th anniv american strat, emg active pickups (model 81 humbuckers), lsr roller nut, locking tuners, ernie ball super slinkys

mesa boogie dual rectifier 100w solo head, 4x12 mesa cab (2 celestion and 2 electrovoice). good stuff 🙂
 
alee25 - I guess you are right, most people would rather not deal with those sort of issues... it just never bothered me. btw, I just restringed my classical and am loving every moment of it 🙂. I prefer classical, but I have a problem trying to grow my nails long (I bite my nails). People always complain that I play
my electric too loud so I don't even bother to bring it out anymore.
 
i just found this on musicans friend. Fender DG-7 for 120 + shipping (probably somwhere around total 150), go to www.musicansfriend.com and scrool down to see the internet specail. That is aslo a very nice guitar comparable with the Seagull s6. Ive heard that the seagull has a bit higher action than the fender DG 7 (but there is a tradeoff. High action means low chance of fretboar buzz, lower action means higher chance of fretboard buzz) so its all basically opinion. the reason why the DG-7 is cheaper than the seagull is becasuse the big retailers (mainly guitar center -owns musicians friend) for some reason does not carrry the seagulls, and only smaller chains carry the seagulls. And since guitar center does massive price cuts, i can assure you that if the seagull were at musicans friend they would be about the same price. As i said before the costs will probably be very similar in the end becasue if you buy it at a retailer, you can coerce them into giving you some strings and stuff along with the guitar.

If your gonna buy the Fender DG-7 off musicans friend pick up a few packs of rogue strings (PLF51 Acoustic 80/20 All Bronze Light Strings) for only 1.50 a pack, they are really good strings for praticing with and incredibly cheap as well. Also pick up a dozen of Fender Medium picks, they are hands down the best picks (for the price) out there.
 
There are a couple basic questions that you should ask before getting a guitar. What kinda music do you like? What kinda guitar do you want (electric, acoustic)? And do you want it to last a long time?

for electric:
I'd say that an epiphone SG is great for the price, and its badass. Not quite as good as a Gibson SG, but can't be beat for the money. It'll probably last you awhile, though the quality isn't "spectacular". If you want a guitar for life, get a Fender Strat, or maybe a Tele if that's the kinda guitar you like. If you want a stepping stone POS that you'll trash in 6 months once you can play more than one chord at a time get a crappy Ibanez, Yamaha, or Squier. I wouldn't buy anything off the internet as a first guitar, just because its good to have a place to go to for help for a first guitar. I got a strat a couple months ago and I love it, definately a fine guitar 😀 Also, bring a friend along to a store to help you out if you can, anyone who can play is valueable to have with you when you buy a guitar.

If you want something like a strat but can't afford it, get it used. I'd say used are just fine and you can really get some good deals, much better than buying a guitar new. My friend got a year old strat as his first guitar for $150 because someone dropped it and it had an ugly crack in the back. It sounded fine though, and he still uses it 3 years later for gigs and stuff, you can't even see the crack since its on the back. Just always bring along a friend to test it out and make sure it plays ok.

oh and get lessons, they really really help
 
I started out with an el-cheapo guitar as well. It was an crappy acoustic, and the strings were so freaking high (that is, the distance between the string and the fretboard). No joke, the action was about 3 times the action on my les paul, at around the 7th fret. Although once I got my electric, it was so much easier!

My advice: buy cheap. You might not even play it after a while. And dont worry about sound quality. Even if you had a great electric, you'll still need a great amp to get a great sound. That's a big investment, considering you might not even want to play after a month. And when you first start out, everything will sound bad anyways, no matter how good the guitar is. If you have a bad guitar, then you can blame it on the guitar. 😀

Actually, now that I think about it, I'd get an acoustic, since you wont have to buy an amp. In fact, I'd look to spend under $100, and hopefully as little as possible, short of buying a broken guitar. If the strings stays on, I'd probably buy it. I wouldn't even worry about getting a decent guitar, since a POS will still do, more likely than not. The learning curve is fairly steep, imho, so there's little to no chance of an el-cheapo making it much worse. You might be wishing you had a stronger left hand though. 😀

Choose my guitar over the computer? Hrmm, let me look over at my guitar in the corner... well, I'm still here on the computer. 😛

dfi

edit: I'm biased since I already had years of piano experience and music theory background, as well as ear training, before I bought my first el-cheapo. So I knew what chords etc sounded like, and whether it was me or the guitar. I had been doing finger exercises for the piano as well, so the action didnt matter as much to me.

I still think you should buy as cheap as possible, EXCEPT you should check the action (distance from string to freboard). I just checked my electric, and the action of the thickest string is slightly less than the height of a cd. I'd say any acoustic with action around 2 cd's height is good enough for a beginner. Action is probably the only thing I'd worry about, since that will make learning a bit easier.

Also, I wouldnt worry about the intonation too much. I've never played a guitar, no matter how crappy, that wouldnt suffice for a beginner. Well, that's not technically correct... my friend has a "made in the garage" POS guitar that was not so good...
 
Oh ya, dont forget picks. I'm always trying new picks, and I was really hooked on orange dunlop tortex picks for a while. But I always go back to fender mediums.

dfi
 
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