Tips on Buying Your First Guitar
I still can remember when I wanted to buy my first guitar.
The Beatles had just stormed the U.
S.
and every kid my age wanted to go out and get a guitar.
I'd sit and look at the Sears catalog and their three models of electric guitars they offered and finally got up enough money to buy one.
I was on my way.
I was going to get a guitar and start up a band.
I went out and picked up a 10W amp and I was in business.
Now I was faced with one remaining problem.
I didn't know the first thing about playing a guitar, or any other musical instrument for that matter.
In a way I was fortunate that I lived in a small town without much to do, plus there were only three televisions stations and the only computer I was familiar with was a Univac.
Because of this I had a whole lot of time to practice.
As far as learning how to play a guitar, I'm not sure I did it the right way.
I went out and took a weekly lesson for about 2 years, but I feel looking back I could have gotten by with about 3 or 4 lessons just to get the basics down such as how to hold the guitar, which fingers to use and how to read music.
After you know the basics it comes down to applying what you know by practicing, practicing, practicing.
With all of the information available on the internet today, it is very possible to learn how to play a guitar without the aid of any privatized lessons.
There are courses on DVD that I have seen that would be just as valuable now as any of the lessons I took many years ago.
Plus the tabs that are available are so much better than any of the sheet music that we had available at that time.
The first rule in going out and purchasing your first guitar is this.
Don't buy the most expensive guitar that's available.
If you can find a well known used guitar for a couple of hundred dollars you're in business, if you can't find the used guitar there are plenty of new models made by reputable companies that aren't their top of the line but still have quality craftsmanship.
When starting out go with the cheap guitar over its expensive brother.
What type of music will you be playing? If you plan on playing rock you will be looking at a different type of guitar than if you were playing folk, or jazz.
Go online and research what types of guitars go with the different types of music.
There are two type of electric guitars.
You have the solid body which I am sure you are familiar with and likewise for the hollow body.
As far a personal preference goes I would sit down with each type of guitar and see how comfortable it is to hold and to play.
You may find a large hollow body guitar to be a bit to cumbersome to handle and opt out for the solid body guitar.
You will need to be familiar with the term pickups.
It in a very basic sense is the microphone for the guitar strings.
You can have single pickup, duel pickups and even treble pickups on a guitar allowing you to alter the tone of the guitar.
A single pickup is adequate if you are just starting out.
You can either have a fixed bridge or a vibrato bridge.
The vibrato bridge has a long metal arm coming off of the bridge which allows you to tighten all of the strings producing a different tone.
The fixed bridge is as the name implies fixed.
A fixed bridge is all that is needed when first learning the guitar.
The hollow body guitar produces a different sound than the solid body.
It is usually a richer sound used in jazz and blues.
Much of the hollow bodies price is determined by the type of wood that is used in producing the guitar.
Because of the rarity of some of the trees used to produce these guitars they have become quite expensive.
To get around this they have begun using the high quality wood only on the top and using a cheaper wood for the rest of the body.
With everything available as it is on the internet today I would suggest checking out purchasing a guitar online.
You will probably find your best deals since there aren't any store overheads plus they can list an enormous number of products to choose from.
We have a large number of guitars and accessories at http://cheappricedguitars.
com
The Beatles had just stormed the U.
S.
and every kid my age wanted to go out and get a guitar.
I'd sit and look at the Sears catalog and their three models of electric guitars they offered and finally got up enough money to buy one.
I was on my way.
I was going to get a guitar and start up a band.
I went out and picked up a 10W amp and I was in business.
Now I was faced with one remaining problem.
I didn't know the first thing about playing a guitar, or any other musical instrument for that matter.
In a way I was fortunate that I lived in a small town without much to do, plus there were only three televisions stations and the only computer I was familiar with was a Univac.
Because of this I had a whole lot of time to practice.
As far as learning how to play a guitar, I'm not sure I did it the right way.
I went out and took a weekly lesson for about 2 years, but I feel looking back I could have gotten by with about 3 or 4 lessons just to get the basics down such as how to hold the guitar, which fingers to use and how to read music.
After you know the basics it comes down to applying what you know by practicing, practicing, practicing.
With all of the information available on the internet today, it is very possible to learn how to play a guitar without the aid of any privatized lessons.
There are courses on DVD that I have seen that would be just as valuable now as any of the lessons I took many years ago.
Plus the tabs that are available are so much better than any of the sheet music that we had available at that time.
The first rule in going out and purchasing your first guitar is this.
Don't buy the most expensive guitar that's available.
If you can find a well known used guitar for a couple of hundred dollars you're in business, if you can't find the used guitar there are plenty of new models made by reputable companies that aren't their top of the line but still have quality craftsmanship.
When starting out go with the cheap guitar over its expensive brother.
What type of music will you be playing? If you plan on playing rock you will be looking at a different type of guitar than if you were playing folk, or jazz.
Go online and research what types of guitars go with the different types of music.
There are two type of electric guitars.
You have the solid body which I am sure you are familiar with and likewise for the hollow body.
As far a personal preference goes I would sit down with each type of guitar and see how comfortable it is to hold and to play.
You may find a large hollow body guitar to be a bit to cumbersome to handle and opt out for the solid body guitar.
You will need to be familiar with the term pickups.
It in a very basic sense is the microphone for the guitar strings.
You can have single pickup, duel pickups and even treble pickups on a guitar allowing you to alter the tone of the guitar.
A single pickup is adequate if you are just starting out.
You can either have a fixed bridge or a vibrato bridge.
The vibrato bridge has a long metal arm coming off of the bridge which allows you to tighten all of the strings producing a different tone.
The fixed bridge is as the name implies fixed.
A fixed bridge is all that is needed when first learning the guitar.
The hollow body guitar produces a different sound than the solid body.
It is usually a richer sound used in jazz and blues.
Much of the hollow bodies price is determined by the type of wood that is used in producing the guitar.
Because of the rarity of some of the trees used to produce these guitars they have become quite expensive.
To get around this they have begun using the high quality wood only on the top and using a cheaper wood for the rest of the body.
With everything available as it is on the internet today I would suggest checking out purchasing a guitar online.
You will probably find your best deals since there aren't any store overheads plus they can list an enormous number of products to choose from.
We have a large number of guitars and accessories at http://cheappricedguitars.
com
