Beginner's Guitar

Regardless of whether an acoustic or an electric guitar is right for you, the first thing you need to understand about shopping for a beginner's guitar is that there is no such thing as a beginner's guitar. What most people mean when they say “beginner's guitar” is "cheap", and a cheap guitar is not easier to play. In most cases, it's more difficult. The quality of the construction of the neck of the guitar is the key factor. If the neck has twists, or humps, then the strings have to be placed higher up off of the neck to clear over those flaws, which makes it harder and more painful to press the strings down against the neck to play it. Odds are, if you completely cheap out on your first guitar, you will find it painful and frustrating to play and that will increase the odds that you will give up. The resale value of a poor quality instrument is almost nothing, so you will not have saved any money. You will have wasted it. Don't worry, though, you don't have to break the bank to buy a great quality guitar. You can get a great quality guitar for far less than a week's paycheck at minimum wage.

 

What the Price Means

As a buyer, you should understand what goes into the cost of a guitar, and how to judge the quality of an instrument. It's just not as straightforward as “cheap = bad, expensive = good”. Three things affect the price of a new musical instrument. Where it was made, how well it was made, and how good it looks. Exchange rates, local pay rates, cost of living, etc, of where a guitar is made affect the cost of a new guitar. Fancy aesthetics like trim around the neck and/or body, elaborate paint, special “flame” or “quilted” effects in the wood of the body, all these visually appealing effects cost money to produce. If you see a new guitar that looks very fancy but doesn't cost much, then it's likely that there was some sacrifice in quality. Cheap guitars that look nice do have a place in the world, image certainly matters to a performer and in the hands of an experienced player a little more difficulty is not a problem, but as a beginner, you should probably avoid these guitars. Look for a guitar that is a bit on the plain side, aesthetically speaking, unless you're prepared to spend a lot of money if buying new. Keep in mind that this is only a general rule, exceptions exist. I cannot possibly comment on the overall quality of every make and model of guitar, and some guitars are better than others even within the same make, model, and year. Just, generally speaking, know that if a new guitar looks fancy and has a low price, then there will be some trade-offs.

 

New or Used?

Buying used usually results in a good deal on a good guitar, but as a beginner, you don't yet know how to check for signs of structural problems or flaws that might not be obvious to the untrained eye. You also, as a beginner, don't know what models and brands are worth their weight in gold and what ones are dime a dozen. Regardless of whether you go new or used, I strongly urge all beginners to buy a guitar from a reputable dealer who has an on-site guitar tech who has inspected the guitar and made sure it has no defects or damage. A brick-and-mortar guitar store. Not eBay. Not Craigslist. Not a pawn shop. Otherwise, you risk over-paying and/or buying firewood. If you buy a used guitar from a private seller or a pawn shop, you almost never have any recourse if it turns out to be defective.

 

Online or In-Person, Guitar Store or Retail Giant?

There are men and women out there, most of whom are very talented musicians, who toil tirelessly amid the daily cacophony of the unskilled because they care about music, care about musicians, and care about having a steady paying job. Don't be afraid of them, though, because, contrary to popular belief, most of them do NOT want to simply sell you the most expensive guitar. What they want is to sell you the right guitar so that you become a musician, too. Then you'll keep coming back for strings, straps, cases, accessories, amplifiers, more guitars for different sounds and styles of music. If they sell you the wrong guitar you'll just return it. They make the most money when you succeed, when you're happy, and when you remember how much they helped you so that you keep coming back to see them. They don't want a sale, they want a customer for the long haul. These dedicated musicians can help you identify what the right guitar is for you, your tastes, your goals, and your budget. You can't find these people online, or at Wal-Mart, or Best Buy. You can only find them at your local brick and mortar guitar store. In addition to the professionals on the sales floor, most guitar stores have on-site at least one guitar tech who specializes in the repair and maintenance of guitars. They can look a guitar over and check for flaws or defects, and make any minor adjustments necessary before you take the guitar home. This is especially important if you insist on a guitar that's still in its box. A guitar still in the box is a guitar that no one has inspected or adjusted since it left the factory, which might have been some time ago.

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If you DO buy online, make sure it's from a reputable store that specializes in musical instruments. Sam Ash, Sweetwater, and Guitar Center are the most well-known giants, but most smaller shops have online sales as well and will have the advantage of more personalized service. Again, as a beginner, avoid retail chains that don't specialize in musical instruments. They won't have the expertise to help you answer questions that you don't even know you have.

 

When you order from a large music store, the guitar you buy will have been sitting in a box in a warehouse for a while until a person comes along and pulls it off the shelf and slaps a mailing label on it. The guitar probably hasn't been looked at since it left the factory. If buying from a smaller store, odds are the guitar you're buying has been seen and checked over by someone at the store before they mail it to you. A larger chain, though, will have call centers for help and service and has the bulk buying power to keep prices low, whereas a smaller store will likely have only one person to handle any questions or concerns you may have and might sometimes (but not always) be slightly more expensive. There are pros and cons to both so I can't really recommend one over the other, though I personally prefer to deal with smaller businesses. I prefer the more personal touch. After all, a guitar is a personal choice.

 

Tips for Buying Your First Electric

If you're interested in playing heavy metal or hard rock, tell your salesperson so but stress that you are a beginner who will want to change your own strings. Remember what I said earlier about "whammy bars". Most of the time those are for experts only, unless of course it can be adjusted "flat" for greater stability. Whatever you do, do NOT get as your first guitar one that has a type of "whammy bar" called a "Floyd Rose". It is seriously a piece of expert-only equipment unless you want to pay a pro to change your strings for you every single time (and they usually need changing every couple months or so). For rock or heavy metal, you'll probably also want "humbucking" or "noiseless" pickups. There are numerous types and styles of electric guitar pickup, and I could make a whole website dedicated to them alone, but for now just know that a "humbucking" or "noiseless" pickup has less unwanted interference from wifi, radio, cell phones, fluorescent lights, et cetera. That interference is not very noticeable while playing under normal circumstances, but can get completely out of hand when hard rock and heavy metal effects such as distortion and over-drive are used to make the sound grittier. If you're going to play with those styles of effects, you need humbucking or "noiseless" pickups.

 

If you're more interested in playing less aggressive music, then single-coil pickups may be a better choice. There are "noiseless" single coils that resist signal interference, but purists argue that the cleanest, sweetest tones are from standard single-coil pickups. Humbucking pickups can produce clean tones, but they're usually not as good as single coils for that. In general, I recommend you look at your favourite guitarist and choose a guitar that has pickups similar to the one that guitarist uses, but not necessarily the same model guitar. A seasoned pro's guitar might be wildly inappropriate for a beginner.

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Tips for Buying Your First Acoustic

Some acoustic guitars come with built-in pickups that allow the guitar to be plugged into an amplifier or public address system. These guitars are called "acoustic/electric" (not the same thing as hollow-body electrics) and cost a bit more than acoustic guitars without electronics built-in. As a beginner getting your first guitar, this is a feature you don't need. Odds are, after you've developed your own style more, got some serious chops under your belt, you will want a different guitar that conforms more to the way your playing style has evolved. There's no harm in your first guitar having pickups built in, but chances are you'll be wanting a different guitar by the time you're in the type of public performance situation that requires a pickup. Even if you don't get a new guitar once you hit the stage, a pickup could be added to your guitar later. For now, just be aware that an acoustic guitar that can also be plugged in to an amplifier is an option but at the very beginning stages is neither particularly helpful nor harmful.

 

Get the Guitar Checked by the Tech

As mentioned before, most brick and mortar guitar stores have at least one on-site guitar repair technician. Take advantage of that. Just like with most things, the guitar has minor adjustments that need to be made regularly to keep it playing well, and I don't mean just the tuning. The more complicated the guitar and the higher the string tension, the more that there is that needs to be kept properly adjusted. A nylon-string acoustic guitar with no electronics will need the least adjustment. An electric guitar will have the most screws and nuts for varying the neck curvature and string height, and those will need regular adjustment. Performing this regular maintenance on a guitar is called a "set up" (more on that on the next page) and many stores will have the tech make regular rounds of the guitars on the sales floor performing these adjustments. Have the tech look it over before you take it home, though, just in case it's been a while since it was adjusted. Maybe it's been a few months. Maybe they did it yesterday. Ask.

 

If you're buying a steel-string acoustic guitar, then there is one more reason you might want to see the guitar tech before taking it home. Try the guitar out in the store, get the salesperson to help you make some simple chords. Feel how it feels on your fingers. If it feels ok, then fine. But if you lack much strength in your hands and it feels painful, then see the guitar tech. Steel-string acoustic guitars tend to have thicker, higher tension strings than any other type of guitar (except for bass). This can mean some difficulty for the fresh, uncalloused fingers of a beginner if they lack strength in their fingers. Talk to the guitar tech and tell them that you're a beginner and that you'd like lighter gauge strings put on the guitar to start with. This will make the guitar easier to play while sacrificing a little bit of the fullness and volume of the sound. This will cost extra, but it's worth it. The tech will not be able to just swap strings and be done with it, though. Changing the size of the strings changes the tension, which means the whole guitar will have to be adjusted. I cannot stress this enough: Any stringed instrument exists in a state of balance between the tension of the strings and the rigidity of the neck. Changing the size of the strings changes the tension, which then requires re-establishing this balance. When the string tension changes, the rigidity of the neck must be changed (Google search "truss rod" if you're curious how) so that the neck has enough backward tension to keep the strings from pulling the neck up into too much of a curve but not so much that the neck bends backward and mashes the strings against the neck. As this back tension on the neck is changed, the tension of the strings changes, which changes the pitch, which requires re-tuning, which changes the tension of the strings again, which requires adjusting the neck again. Et cetera. This is time-consuming but eventually a new state of balance is achieved. Be prepared to pay anywhere from $40 to $100 extra for this service, depending upon where you live. Some stores might offer a discount on this service if it's part of a new guitar purchase. It doesn't hurt to ask.

 

 

Accessories:

Regardless of what kind of guitar you get, you will likely need a few accessories. Ask your salesperson for a clip-on tuner and ask him or her to show you how to use it. You might also want a gig bag or hard case, and a humidifier (more on that on the next page).

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