new player

[Nimrod337]

ok, i have been directed to this website from a good freind of mine. i have a question for everyone here with knowlege about acoustic guitars:

i have never played guitar, and i know exactly nil about them. however, i want to play. i need a guitar to do so, and i need some advice on what i should get.

1. what should i expect to be spending? (i really just need a workhorse guitar to learn on, untill my skills warrent the purchase of a more expensive guitar.)

2. brand, does it make a difference?

3. best place to buy? (ebay, local guitar store, pawn shop...etc.)

4. any specific models i should look into to avoid wasting my time trying to learn everything about guitars and what type would fit me best? (like a freestyle snowboard, one type fits all deal. untill i find out what i really like in guitars.)

thanks for your time, and advice,

-Austin

[guitarist21]

Originally posted by Nimrod337 1. what should i expect to be spending? (i really just need a workhorse guitar to learn on, untill my skills warrent the purchase of a more expensive guitar.) 2. brand, does it make a difference? 3. best place to buy? (ebay, local guitar store, pawn shop...etc.) 4. any specific models i should look into to avoid wasting my time trying to learn everything about guitars and what type would fit me best? -Austin

 

1. Under $500, for sure. (BTW, skills are skills on any guitar)

2. Some brands (Taylor, Martin) are going to be higher-end than others (Yamaha, Ibanez), but for what you appear to need, Yamaha and Ibanez will suit you just fine.

3. I wouldn't go the ebay route just yet. Go to a guitar store and play the guitars they have. I think its very important to play a guitar before you buy it. If you don't like how it feels and sounds, you can always put it back, something you can't do with ebay.

4. I don't know "what type would fit you best," but the Ibanez AE series is a great line of relatively cheap workhorse acoustic guitars. But don't think that learning about guitars is wasting your time ! The more knowledgable you are, the better equipped you are to understand what your buying before you buy it.

 

Good luck!

 

Ellen

[recordingtrack1]

Since you don't yet know how, it would be very important to have someone you trust to help you. I would suggest start hitting the guitar shops and get someone to play them so you can hear the tone and volume, etc. Also, hopefully that person would be a good enough judge of quality to help you make a selection of a decent instrument.

 

In my opinion brand DOES matter, but only to a point. If nothing else, resale or trade-in value is important. As you progress you will likely want to step up to a nicer instrument and you want something you can work with.

 

You have

[Nimrod337]

i was thinking around 200 bones, for my new guitar.

it seems that i will need to know someone who can play huh? this might be possible, but not for sure.

should i go to a guitar store, try a crapload of them, then write down which ones i liked, and then check out evilbay?

and when i am in the store listening to my friend play all these guitars, what should i be listening for? just something i like the sould of? or are there more specific things?

also, are there any accesories that are a must have? any books, or websites particularly helpfull in learning to play?

thanks for the quick responses, and thanks for the welcome.

-Austin

[Stophe88]

i'd go here and figure out what tablature is(really easy)

http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/tab-notation.txt

then i'd find some songs/bands i like and look them up here, http://www.harmony-central.com/Guitar/tab.html, or any tab website(use google to find some), then use your new tab reading skills. lessons are good too, but might be slower starting. and if your friend can read tab have him help you learn your first song, this is how i learned

 

but that comes after buying. as far as buying, ask around. and i would recomend an art & lutherie. in my opinion thats the best quality you will get for anything 400 and down

 

and it will help more than you can imagine if you have a friend with you to help w/ questions whenever he can be there

[Tony Burns]

All good advice - Take someone with you who plays guitar- 200 will get you something half way decent - but after you play for a while you will want something better ( but dont spend the dough now until you know your going to stick with it ) an even better idea is to ask around in your family if anyone has a guitar in a closet , attic -- with the popularity of the guitar alot of people have them and dont use them ( passing fad ) You dont need the most exspensive guitar to play well but one with good action and tonation is one of the most important aspect to a newby's fist guitar- playing it alot and frequently will make you alot better player than one who spends alot on a guitar and doesnt play it -- then with exsperience buy a upper end guitar thats been gently used , youll get more of a better guitar than a new one -- the folks on this forum will help you with the rest grasshopper.

[MurderbyDeath]

I don't think there is much point in going to try guitars if you don't know what you are looking for. Plus I use to work in a music store and trust me, when they know you are a beginner they will try to rip you off.

 

In all the time I spent playing new instruments, I've found it better to get the $40 cheapies to play on for a few months. Then you will know what you want, and what is good and bad about a guitar without spending much money. If you buy a beginners instrument, do not spend much money on it. When you buy those, you can never trade them up for anything. They are a wasted investment and you will want to replace them after, at most, a year. You may also end up spending alot of money on a guitar just to find out you aren't going to stick with it anyway. I also did take people with me to find guitars when I first started playing (guitar was one instrument I immediately went for $300 guitars and it was such a bad decision), but they all had different tastes in guitar than I do. So after a few months I knew what I really wanted, but no one would trade my guitars even though I spend more money than I wanted to.

[xXTheHerpesXx]

i'll sell u my guitar. alvarez rd-8 plus an added fishman pickup system (what was i thinking adding this to such a cheap guitar?) plus a hardshell case for oh, lets say $150. this thing has awesome action/intonation and actually doesnt sound half bad for the price. i have played this guitar on an average of mabey 2-3 hours a day every day for over a year and it has been good to me. it has a couple dings and scratches on it but its still pretty. go read up on the rd-8 and listen to me playing it at www.soundclick.com/highlyrefinedninja if ur interested

[nip]

#1. A guitar that is well adjusted easy to tune.

 

It's not that obvious that tuning a guitar is a bit tricky when starting. And if guitar i poorly adjusted it would not be possible to tune at all. Even with a tuner you can tune the loose strings, but when playing a chord is will sound awful anyway because it's not correctly adjusted.

 

So first buy might be good to do in a shop, where someone sees you as a returning customer buying more stuff in future, they will take care of you better.

 

So pay a little higher price and get personal staff that can guide you a bit.

 

With guidance from here on priceranges and so on, you simply ask for a good setup with the strings you prefer from the shop.

 

#2. Nice to play

 

You don't have so much references to this yet, but learn at least a couple of chords on a friends guitar first to get a feel for it.

 

Some guitars are set with string guage that sounds good, but is hard to play, especially when a beginner.

 

And on acoustic guitars, when you change to a liter guage of strings, the guitar might not be possible to tune correctly anymore. The amount of adjustments you can make on an acoustic is very limited.

 

In this sense it might be easier with an electric guitar, because they have much more range to adjust to different guages and make the guitar more playable. So depending of the kind of music you are aiming for would be electric guitars, you might consider an electric before an acoustic.

 

Playability and that you get clean sounding chords all over the guitar neck are good things to aim for.

 

My $0.02:)

[Darylb23]

 

Originally posted by nip [b#2. Nice to play You don't have so much references to this yet, but learn at least a couple of chords on a friends guitar first to get a feel for it. Some guitars are set with string guage that sounds good, but is hard to play, especially when a beginner. And on acoustic guitars, when you change to a liter guage of strings, the guitar might not be possible to tune correctly anymore. The amount of adjustments you can make on an acoustic is very limited. In this sense it might be easier with an electric guitar, because they have much more range to adjust to different guages and make the guitar more playable. So depending of the kind of music you are aiming for would be electric guitars, you might consider an electric before an acoustic. Playability and that you get clean sounding chords all over the guitar neck are good things to aim for. My $0.02:)

 

 

I am pretty new to the guitar as well and am in the market for an acoustic. This advice above is actually pretty good. If you can learn a couple of easy chords you can at least sit down at the music store and lightly play those chords to get a feel for the guitar.

 

I have gone out to try some guitars lately and my playing is really limited. But just by playing a couple of chords I can tell if the guitar feels good or not. It is hard to put in words but if you try a few you will see what I mean.

 

I agree that you should deal with a guitar shop especially for acoustic. I find that they vary in feel quite a bit. I dont know that brand matters that much as long as you find one that feels good. If you have a dealer that sells Samick guitars near you I suggest you give those a shot. They are good bang for the buck and are actually one of the biggest guitar manufacturers in the world. They make many of the other brands. Anyway, they just seemed to feel good in my hands and even the lower models played easy and sounded good. I think the D2 was less than $200 at a small shop including a gig bag.

 

Good luck.

[postalsock]

condrads brother guitar is a fun hobby. I prefer acoustic guitar.

 

I cant answer all cause i dont remember this is what i can tell you

 

First brand does not matter SOUND MATTERS what sounds best to you

 

if i were you i would get together 400 bucks and go buy a SOLID TOP GUITAR dont buy a LAMINATED TOP it doesnt matter if the sides are laminated you want a solid top. I have a Solid top guitar with laminated sides. It makes a big difference in sound. Another thing is you dont need a 2000 dollar guitar. I know people who have had 200 dollar acoustics and thats all theyll ever have. Get some lessons to or buy a chord book. Now i know all the basic chords. IM a strummer. Heres some good models you should look into purchasing.

 

Fender DG14S

Yamaha Fg700s

Seagull S6

Cheap talkamines are nice

 

you basically want a solid top guitar. I personally have a yamaha fg700s and love it.

[chiro972]

I would disagree about the solid top bit. For a beginner, it doesn't matter. In fact my best sounding guitar is all laminate. But the bottom line is don't spend a lot of money until you're sure you will stick with it. In the price range you are looking, Yamaha makes nice sounding guitars that hold up well to a beginners abuse.

 

If you get something and stick with it for 6 months, then go buy a $500 guitar with a solid top. You may never need anything better.

 

Definitely try them out. Find one that sounds nice to you and is easy to make chords on. Even if you only learn one chord to shop with.

 

Good luck and let us know what you end up doing!

 

P.S. there is a solid top yamaha guitar on sale somewhere brand new for $199 I think it was at music123.com. Do a search of this forum, it was just discussed a few days ago.

[babablowfish]

Hey chiro972,

 

How come your Yamaha FG-340 isn't listed in your gear? Just asking.

[MyM.O.]

I'd get an Alvarez for a beginner. They can be downright cheap, sound very good for the money, and usually play very easily, a big advantage when you're learning - especially since most noobies don't know about setups or want to spend more cash for one.

[Freeman Keller]

I am going thru a similar thing with a friend who wants to start playing so I'm going to chime in here.

 

What would I suggest for a starter guitar? Lets be brutal here - odds are good that this person will not be playing it in a year. Yeah, right. I hope they will, but I know a lot of people with a guitar sitting in a closet and a stack of "learn guitar in 10 easy lesson books". Lets face it, that first year is often the most difficult to get through.

 

So, what can we do to get through this? Make the guitar as easy to play as possible and find instruction that will make it both easy and fun to learn. I really don't give a hoot about sound if it ain't easy to fret. I could care less about solid tops or shape or brand name on the head stock if it ain't fun. So, to paraphrase Nip

 

(1) A guitar that is well (correctly) adjusted

 

If it is not set up right, and there is no reason an inexpensive guitar can't be set up right, it won't be fun to play. Therefore, my humble advice includes both buying it from a store who will work with the new player to make sure it is well set up, and staying away from those used guitars that are on evil bay because their action is high, necks are warped, or for some reason, can't be played.

 

(2) Nice to play

 

Yeah, baby. To me that means the action, but it also means you want to take it out and play with it. It doesn't have to sound great, but it should sound "nice". I really like the advice of learning a couple of chords so you can strum it and decide for yourself. If that isn't possible, at least take a friend who will play several guitars in the price range for the new player, or, last resort, have the salesperson strum the same chords on several guitars.

 

(3) Get help

 

I'm a strong believe of finding an instructor or mentor who can guide the newbee thru this - preferably someone who plays the same kind of music you want to learn. Preferably not someone in the shop - they have a vested interest, but I do believe in buying from a quality store. Buying a piece of crap off e-bay is probably one reason for the gits in the closet - I work with a guy who did that earlier this year.

 

And a used guitar can be great or awfull - find out why it is being sold. Many times it goes back to (1) - it is just plain unplayable. If you are going to buy something used get someone who can check action and structural issues and run away if it isn't perfect. But if it is a fairly new git and the owner couldn't get through the initial learning curve and the action and sound is "nice" - might be a good way to go.

 

Last, and far from least - I told my friend that if he sticks with it he will probably want to buy a better guitar in a year or two - start saving now because he will know what he wants by then. But otherwise, don't worry too much about it now - just get something that will be easy and fun.

[ESL94]

Freeman,

 

Has writen some wise words.

[Queequeg]

Originally posted by ESL94 Freeman, Has writen some wise words.

again.

[Old_Joe_Clark]

somewhat against the grain here, I'd add that if the guitar doesn't have a magical acoustic ring to it....that complex tone which can call you to meditation with one note and inspire you to put two...then three...then a thousand more notes beside it.......then you might just say "Why bother?"

 

In other words....it should sound nice.

[chiro972]

 

Originally posted by babablowfish Hey chiro972, How come your Yamaha FG-340 isn't listed in your gear? Just asking.

 

 

I just haven't put it back in. I had given it to my daughter and now I have taken it back. I gave her my Ibanez which I loved, but it gave me the excuse to buy a breedlove that I haven't put in my equipment list yet also.

[postalsock]

I personally think its better just to get a solid top, compared to buying a laminated top-200 then spending 300 for a solid top, just get a solid top to beigin with. My solid to yamaha was 200 bucks!