Good beginner guitar

[cashflyer]

What's wrong with Ovation??


Anyway, this is from a pretty limited amount of experience but it may be useful to you.

My wife and I just recently (~6 months ago) purchase a couple of guitars with intent of learning. Here is what we have found.

I wouldn't buy anything online that you have not had a chance to hold in your hands. Feel and comfort are very important - more so than style and coolness factor.

Even if you don't know any chords, wrap your hand around the neck and see how it feels to you. Wider necks are sometimes easier for fat fingered folks to get the right strings mashed without buzzing the neighboring strings.

Start with an acoustic. If you want to be the next electric god, move to electric later. But start with acoustic.

If you must have an electric, throw the strings in the garbage and replace them with a new set of good medium weight strings. Super Slinkys are for sissys. Thin strings break easier, and the medium strings have a much better sound.

With any guitar, get a good hard case. Really. You'll be pissed that you didn't... right after the dog knocks it off the display stand and onto the brick hearth.

If at all possible, take a player with you to check out your prospective purchase. Some guitars have problems that a player would notice, and that a non-player would not. These problems will impair your learning, and you won't even know it. And I don't just mean cheap guitars... some major brands still manage to have that occasional axe that will never sound quite "right". A lemon, so to speak.



My wife bought a Samick D-5. Those in the know, know that Samick has been around a long time. They are the worlds single largest guitar manufacturer, and many a Fender and Gibson were actually made under contract by Samick.

The D-5 has a solid top, laminate sides & back. It has Grover tuners. We bought it new at a Labor Day sale in our local music shop, and paid about $220 with taxes.


YMMV. Guitar peeps may disagree with some of what I said, but these statements are based on my personal experience and advice I received during the process.

[stuartj]

Originally posted by craigster59
That Blueridge on Craigslist is a nice guitar. I have one and they are modeled after a pre-war Martin. Great tone and playability mostly for blues and bluegrass fingerpicking. Retail is $900 new, but can be found at musiciansfriend and maurysmusic for around $675.

And in support of older second hand....I have an Ibanez Artwood solid spruce top, that is a dead knock off of the Martin D45, as this Blueridge is.

Ive owned mine from new since around 1978, it was my second "decent" guitar. Nearly thirty years on, it is a a gem of a guitar. I recently did some work on it and it came up a treat. I have "better" guitars- none with 30 years on them tho. A good guitar will age well.

Ive seen these for sale on ebay for a pittance ($100-200). No one wants old JPN guiatrs. (Dont confuse these old JPN made ones with the new Indo-made (or wherever) ones.)

[Nostril Cheese]

I have a early 70's Aria acoustic I bought in a pawn shop for $75. Had it nearly 20 years and recently had it re-fretted. Sounds just as good as any Martin I've ever played. I've worn a hole through the front of it a-la Willie as well. Sometimes you get lucky and find a winner.

[stuartj]

Originally posted by Nostril Cheese
I have a early 70's Aria acoustic I bought in a pawn shop for $75. Had it nearly 20 years and recently had it re-fretted. Sounds just as good as any Martin I've ever played. I've worn a hole through the front of it a-la Willie as well. Sometimes you get lucky and find a winner.

An Aria of that era was probably made by the Matsumoko Company and is likely a very nice piece of kit. Some Aria elecs from the late 70's are quite sought after.

The mid 70's and early 80's JPN stuff, elec and accoustic, yeild some real treasures. The Japanese know a bit about stringed instruments, and certainly, in that era, were at the height of their post war manufacturing prowess.

[Rick Lee]

Pook, like Nostatic said, get what you think you will want to pick up and play. If you're a VH nut like I was at age 7 when I got my grandpa's old Stella acoustic, you will not feel like playing your acoustic. At that time, practice was like homework and I didn't want to do it in the 2nd grade. If you're a James Taylor nut and buy a Les Paul, then you will not want to play it. Decide what music inspires you to play because that is the kind of music that will be best for you to learn (unless it's Yngwie). Nothing's worse than trying to learn stuff that you don't care about. Learning to play your favorite song is a big thrill and will inspire you to practice and improve.

[Victor]

Originally posted by stuartj

Dont learn on an electric. It teaches bad, lazy habits. You can tell when someone has. They struggle with acoustics, and attempt to cover a multitude of sins with distortion, volume and and dodgy Warrant licks.

......yes, but we outnumber you 10,000 to 1, and chicks dig it. Or they did once apon a time anyhow.

[Victor]

Apparantly, this loud playing, distortion using, dodgy Warrant lick playing SOB learned on an electric..........and just look at who is wearing the leatherette pants now!

[Rick Lee]

Looks like Yngwie 50 lbs. ago.

[Victor]

Rick, that was Yngwie last Thursday here in Melbourne - snapped with my mobile phone camera.

[Rick Lee]

Looks like he's been eating a little more healthily. Last time I saw him his fingers looked like sausages.

[cashflyer]

Everyone knows that drummers get the chicks these days...

[IROC]

Originally posted by Victor
Apparantly, this loud playing, distortion using, dodgy Warrant lick playing SOB learned on an electric..........and just look at who is wearing the leatherette pants now!

Loud playing is an understatement. Why, there must be 57 amps on that stage (paraphrasing an old Steve Martin joke). :>) Seriously, how many of those Marshall heads were cardboard dummies? That's just nuts.

Mike

[Shuie]

Originally posted by IROC
Loud playing is an understatement. Why, there must be 57 amps on that stage (paraphrasing an old Steve Martin joke). :>) Seriously, how many of those Marshall heads were cardboard dummies? That's just nuts.

Mike

All of the amps on the backline of the stage are empty cases. He's set his stage up like that since the '80s and is known for using small box 50 watt Marshalls. It actually looks like a 100watt plexi, but you can see the older one to his left thats actually lit up.

[charlesbahn]

I just picked up a banjo, it's was only $179, it's a real hoot to play, and so far not too hard to learn some simple things. Just something to consider. Can't wait to be able to play "dueling banjos."

[Victor]

Originally posted by Shuie
All of the amps on the backline of the stage are empty cases. He's set his stage up like that since the '80s and is known for using small box 50 watt Marshalls. It actually looks like a 100watt plexi, but you can see the older one to his left thats actually lit up.

Precisely.

On a similar note, I saw Zakk Wylde and his "BLS" play in the same venue a month earlier. Funniest thing was he had 22 (!) quad boxes, 18 heads and get this:

A single Roland Jazz Chorus.......tucked away in the corner. And it was switched on.