Buying Your First Guitar
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Everybody has fantasies of being famous in their own way. But each and every one has different reasons. For a lot of people, music is simply the best and popular course. This of course means that you have to get an instrument. The most popular instrument happens to be the guitar
First Decisions
The first thing you’d have to decide on is to whether or not you’d like to have an electric guitar
Shopping
Don’t buy your first guitar online. Rather, go to a local shop that sells these instruments. Never hesitate to ask the store clerk to test for yourself a guitar that catches your eye. Ask him to tell his opinion of guitars in general and listen carefully. Bring a friend who knows how to play too for more input. Get a feel for the guitar as you hold it while standing at first and then sitting down. If the guitar doesn’t feel natural in your hands, move on to other guitars to see which one you’d feel most comfortable with. Verify if the guitar is tuned properly by asking the clerk to show you an electronic tuner right in front of you. If it seems that the clerk is having a hard time tuning that particular guitar, then it might be broken. All guitars should be relatively easy to tune up.
Further Advice
After you’ve decided which guitar to buy, make sure that you have extra money for a couple of picks, new sets of strings, electronic tuners, a gigbag and at least one strap. If you buy an electric, you’ll also need to buy an amplifier and at least one cord to start rocking. Get a basic guitar book and chord diagram too because they’re very useful even if you already have a private tutor. Also, make sure that there is a warranty for that new guitar of yours. Getting a guitar bag or guitar case is recommended too but that’s mostly up to you.
As a parting note, it’s important for you to know that the shops that offer guitars for sale usually have excellent guitar players with mad skills. Don’t get fooled into buying a particular guitar just because it sounded great when that clerk played around with it and made it look and sound beautiful than it really is for the average player. This also applies to shops that have clerks who play guitar badly. A good guitar might sound awful if handled by a player who has deficient skills. Tread carefully when shopping for one.
How to Buy Electric Guitar
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There are probably millions of electric guitars
The Wood
Contrary to what some people think, the wood on an electric guitar’s body matters greatly. It’s not just a convenient place to put all those electronics and pickups. It’s basically the soul of your electric guitar’s sound. Below are three types of wood that is made for the body:
• Low-Level. If you don’t have the budget yet, consider getting this type of body wood. Some of them can be damaged easily however, but there are some wood-types, like the Agathis, that have good enough tone.
• Medium-Level. This type happens to be the most common (or popular) type of body wood around. Some of them are very light with a wide range of tones available.
• High-End. This type of wood for the body has usually superior qualities in tone but most of them are very heavy.
Body Types
It’s important to know that there many kinds of body types regardless of what kind of wood they are. Most electric guitars
Pickups
• Single Coil. Single coils are the ones that are usually mounted onto most Fender guitars such as Stratocasters. The sound they make usually has those thin qualities with a twang and therefore makes it ideal for solos that can cut through other instruments in a gig.
• Humbuckers. This type of pickup is basically a double coil. They have warmer tones and are usually the ones mounted onto Gibson guitars (Les Pauls). They are slightly more superior in gain and output compared to those of single coils but is sometimes unable to cut through high tone density especially during concerts.
Neck
• Bolt-ons. Most Fenders have these types of necks. Sustain is dependent on which type of bolt-on you choose. Four bolts have more sustaining power than the one-tip necks.
• Set-Necks. This type actually means that the neck is glued in, as opposed to that of the bolt-ons. They’re usually found in Les Paul guitars and have more sustain than the bolt-on types. Make sure you buy the ones with no glue residue.
• Neck Through. Opposite to that of the bolt-on and set-neck, this type means that the neck and body is one piece of a single large carved wood. This provides superior sustain compared to the other neck types.
Those are the basics. In closing however, you must take into account the controls/electronics of the electric guitar you’re buying. Make sure to test them yourself when you’re shopping. If it makes crackles and weird noises, then you’d better find another one. Also, if you choose to get one with a tremolo or whammy-bar, make sure it can be replaced. And finally, it’s up to you if you want to get a 21-fret guitar, or 22 or 24. It’s all up to you; just make sure that you’re comfortable with what you pick.