• mbcl
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  • Registered: 2008-05-01
  • Posts: 1,491

Topic: Guitar for a beginer?

Sorry if this is the wrong thread to post in. Looking for a guitar, pretty clueless but did have one briefly in the USA (now back in the UK). Unfortunately time restraints stopped e from giving it much time. It was just one of the cheap beginners package guitars and even though I was a beginner i was not up to  much and was very hard to tune and keep in tune.
Have some lessons lined up and looking for a guitar. What would you recommend without going OTT. Have been recommended these guys at worshipguitars (dot com) who are new are seem to be offering value for money But with me being clueless I need help:) Many thanks.

Martin
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  • From: Lancashire
  • Registered: 2008-02-26
  • Posts: 700

Re: Guitar for a beginer?

I tend to steer clear from packages, I few months ago I was looking for a small cheap acoustic for my nepthew I ended up in a charity shop who had a small selection of cheap acoustics which to my ears sounded fine for starting on they had a strap, bag of picks a stand and and a tuner for about £50... Im a bit dubious about guitar shops and starter packages I think they tend to palm off total crap by hyping it up and if you dont know what your talking about or looking for....

Anyhow I thought it was a bargain and it was for charity so win win...

If you want something that may last a little longer Epiphone have an alright cheap acoustic line £150 onwards and the quality from epiphone now imo is really good as do Yamaha and Takamine.

Stuff like this is hard over the net because everybody has a different requirement from his/her instrument and looks for dif things i.e. I look for a nice bassy sound... If you really struggle go to a guitar shop and ask someone whos in there to buy... theres nothing worse than pressure off a sales man.

  • From: UK
  • Registered: 2008-08-18
  • Posts: 93

Re: Guitar for a beginer?

The first thing I'll say is avoid cheap electric guitars with vibrato bridges because they're likely to be quite bad at staying in tune, or at least more prone to going out of tune compared to a fixed bridge.

For electrics there are lots of cheap but good guitars out there. It really comes down to working out what you like the look and sound of and trying a few, even if you can't play yet. My first guitar was an Epiphone Les Paul Special II and while it was crap it was only £30 second hand. It was good enough to learn the basics on. My second was an Epiphone Les Paul Standard and, while the electronics aren't great, it is fundamentally an excellent guitar for the money.

If you can recruit a friend who plays when you're looking then you might get an informed opinion on it. Going to a decent shop to see and try them is important though (and fun!). If you're near me in the UK I'd recommend Guitar Village in Farnham. It's an excellent shop and has huge choice.

For acoustics I'd recommend Yamaha. To my fingers / ears they are unbeatable for the money. I got my brother one for about £140 and it was better than my old £300 Takamine by a large margin. Unfortunately Guitar Village don't stock them for some reason. No idea why because they stock just about every other guitar known to man.

I hope that's some help to you.  smile