What Guitar Should I Buy Free
The best way to choose which electric guitar to buy, is to make a list of around 10 models in your budget that look suitable, then try them in the store. You should look for the electric guitar which sounds, looks and feels best to you, and consider how versatile the guitar needs to be.
what guitar should i buy
Semi-hollow and hollow body guitars are lighter and generally suit cleaner tones more, since they are susceptible to feedback. This is why they are often used for genres like jazz, blues and even indie. The advantage, is that they typically sound more resonant and acoustic, which suits some styles of music more than a solid body. They are also lighter than solid body guitars, despite having a larger frame.
For most players, a solid body guitar is usually the preferred choice, especially for beginners who are unsure of what music style they want to play, or have their heart set on using lots of distortion instead of clean tones.
Choosing an electric guitar that sounds great is of course, extremely important. However, tone is subjective and what sounds good to me, might not sound good to you. Some players are looking for a specific tone which is hard to achieve with many guitars, and others want something more versatile.
The pickups are the most important thing to consider here. There are multiple other factors you can consider including tone wood, shape and size, however the pickups are crucial in dictating how the guitar sounds. If you want to learn more about the other factors, then check out my article on 7 factors that impact how an electric guitar sounds.
Brands such as Fender, Squier, Gibson and Epiphone rarely have active pickups in their guitars. However, brands such as Ibanez, Schecter, Jackson and ESP which are targeted more towards metal players, will use active pickups more commonly.
The most common feature is a coil split/ tap function on a humbucker pickup. This allows you to switch from the classic humbucker tone, to a single coil type sound, simply by pushing/ pulling on the tone control of the guitar.
When I was looking for a new electric guitar, this was one of the features I specifically looked for, because I wanted to mainly play with high gain but also wanted to option to play more twangy and bright single coil tones.
Other guitars also have things like a phase/ parallel switch which allow you to change the tone of the pickups, however this is less commonly seen. You can usually find this function on some of the Fender offset models.
Usually more expensive guitars have better hardware, pickups, tone wood and more premium finishes compared to cheaper guitars. More expensive guitars are often made with more attention to detail and care (as opposed to being mass produced), and go through more rigorous quality control before being shipped.
One thing to note, is that a beginners can play affordable models, or the most expensive. There is no difference in terms of how complicated the guitar is to play when the price increases. So cost and ability level are not at all related, and you should just choose a guitar to suit your budget.
Keep in mind that the guitar will likely need a set-up, or at the very least a fretboard clean and string change. Often this can cost anywhere from $25-$75 depending on how much work it needs, so keep this in mind when buying a used model.
In terms of how much money you can save on a second-hand guitar, it really depends on the brand. Some brands such as Gibson and Fender hold their value better than other brands such as Ibanez and ESP.
The three most popular electric guitars are the Fender Stratocaster, Fender Telecaster and Gibson Les Paul. Squier also make more affordable versions of the Strat and Tele, whilst Gibson make a more affordable version of the Les Paul. These instruments look the most iconic and produce recognisable tones that are difficult to achieve with other guitars.
You can find affordable, entry-level versions of these guitars which start at around $150, and premium models which cost several thousands, plus everything in between. This is one of the reasons why these models are still so popular today.
Hey, I'm Heather. I started playing an electric guitar when I was given a Squier Strat for my birthday around 15 years ago. I now own an acoustic guitar and several electric guitars including my personal favourite, a PRS SE Custom 24.
This is worrisome, because a left-handed person might not be able to notice any immediate difference between the two guitars. But if you take two left-handed twins and give one a left-handed guitar and one a right-handed guitar, which one do you think will have more dexterity a year later?
If you were to take 100 guitarists and compare their pedalboards, you might notice that while the brands and models may change from board to board, there will be some pedals that stay the same. There are some guitar pedals that you will never outgrow and will always be useful. The last thing you want is to buy your first pedal and feel like you need to upgrade it six months from now.
The PolyTune range has been incredibly popular mainly due to the polyphonic tuning capability. This feature allows you to strum all strings on your guitar at once and instantly see on the screen which strings are out-of-tune.
There are countless delay pedals available today. Some guitarists prefer simple analog delays that are limited in features but can give you a nice warm effect. Other guitarists prefer digital delays for the range of different delays they can produce as well as the precise control they give you over the delay. Many digital delay pedals allow you to dial in the delay to the exact millisecond you need.
Apart from the above pedals, every guitarist has a different idea on what is considered an essential guitar pedal. For some guitarists, zero pedals is the right number. For others, they might feel there are ten or more pedals they consider essential.
Once you buy a couple of pedals, you might wonder what order to position them. Does the wah pedal go before or after the drive pedal? Which pedals go into an effects loop? Where should the compressor go in the pedal chain?
This article was co-authored by Ron Bautista. Ron Bautista is a professional guitarist and guitar teacher at More Music in Santa Cruz, California and the Los Gatos School of Music in Los Gatos, California. He has played guitar for over 30 years and has taught music for over 15 years. He teaches Jazz, Rock, Fusion, Blues, Fingerpicking, and Bluegrass.wikiHow marks an article as reader-approved once it receives enough positive feedback. This article received 19 testimonials and 98% of readers who voted found it helpful, earning it our reader-approved status. This article has been viewed 848,717 times.
Learning to play the guitar can be exciting and lots of fun. With so many models to choose from, however, picking your first instrument may feel overwhelming. Start by choosing to get either an electric or an acoustic. Then, narrow your options further by choosing the features that suit the style(s) you want to play. Check with brick-and-mortar and online shops to see which specific guitars are available that meet your criteria and budget. Make the purchase, and start playing!
Pay attention to the sound and the feel of the guitar. When you're purchasing a guitar, it needs to feel good in your hands and it needs to sound good to your ears. Ask yourself if you like holding it, if you can put it into a comfortable position. Give the strings a pluck to see if they sound like they're good quality.
This website does not officially endorse any specific brands. For guitars in the $300-1000 range, we can confidently mention Alhambra, Cordoba, or Yamaha. These companies make instruments with consistent quality.
Companies like Taylor, Martin, Fender, Gibson, Washburn, etc. are famous for steel-string and electric guitars. They generally do NOT make very good classical guitars. Instead, they tend to make nylon string guitars for steel-string players.
Important: the tuning keys (tuners) on very inexpensive instruments are usually very low-quality. This means the guitar will not stay in tune and can be difficult to tune. This is a daily annoyance and can break the will of new guitarists, as the guitar always sounds bad.
Some woods can add considerably to the cost of the guitar. Brazilian Rosewood, for example, is difficult to find (legally) and can be quite pricey. For boutique woods, the benefit is primarily aesthetic.
If you would like the option of using a guitar support, get a guitar with a shiny finish. The suction cups on many guitar supports will not stick to satin finishes. Also, suction cups can remove French polish over time.
3/4 and 7/8 size guitars are available from many manufacturers. These are typically for children, and the build quality varies. These are quite small for most adults, so try one before you purchase (or make sure you can return it if need be.)
Shorter scale length full-size instruments are harder to find. These are usually built by luthiers. The body of the guitar may be the same size as a 650mm guitar, but the string scale length can be down to 630 or below.
The very first thing you have to ask yourself is how much do you want to spend. Having this figured out early on will save you lots of time when searching your local guitar shop. A starter guitar can go for around $50-60 and the prices after that point increase with things like the brand, materials, quality, and accessories such as a built in tuner or pickup.
As you can see, both types of guitars are a great choice for a first guitar. The learning curve to playing an electric guitar is considerably shorter than learning to play an acoustic. This one fact is usually enough information for most beginners to choose to play an electric when first starting out, even if they make the switch later down the road.
Let me be clear, I am not saying learning the acoustic guitar is twice as hard as learning the electric guitar. What I am saying is the electric guitar has a much easier and shorter learning curve when you are first learning to play the guitar. 041b061a72