Choosing Your First Guitar

So you have decided that you want to play the guitar. Great stuff – a very well informed choice of hobby. The issue is that most people do not realise that whilst the guitar looks quite easy to play, it is in fact very difficult to master and requires a lot of time, effort and dedication.

So what does this have to do with buying a guitar? Well there are plenty of options out there when buying a guitar. If you visit your local guitar store you will see prices that range from £40 right up to £4000 and beyond. If you are new to the guitar what do you buy? What are the differences between the guitars?

Well there are many factors here. As with any products there are brand names involved. Top brands such as Gibson, Ibanez and Fender will command a lot more money for the same quality of guitar by a lesser known brand. It’s the way the world works unfortunately – brand names cost more. I personally use branded guitars as with a brand name you do buy into a degree of trust. You know that the prices does reflect the quality of the product albeit a little more expensive.

Now if you are totally new to the guitar or you haven’t played much before then it would be crazy to go out and buy a high spec guitar as you could be wasting your money. If you decide a month down the line that guitar is not for you, you have wasted a fortune.

At the other extreme if you go for a really cheap guitar you could actually be put off of playing guitar. Why is this? Well, cheap guitars generally user lower grade materials and components. Whilst you can get very well built cheaper models some tend to deteriorate pretty quickly. Problems occur such as the guitar constantly going out of tune, the intonation not being correct, generally not playing nicely or fret buzz. All of these things can be very off putting

So for a first guitar I would suggest that you do not go for a well known brand. I would suggest that you also do not go for the cheapest – You can pick up a decent starter kit now for under £80 and, whilst this will not be an instrument that you will be taking to your sell out gig at Wembley stadium in a few years time, it will do the job of allowing you to learn the basics of the guitar.

If after a few months you still have the motivation and inspiration to continue with you learning then you may like to consider trading in your old guitar for something a little nicer.

This is how I began with buying a guitar.

Year one – bought a cheap electric guitar and amplifier pack. Used this to discover that I loved the electric guitar.

Year two – bought a second hand guitar off of a friend – slightly better specifications but still very cheap – (this was in fact them buying a reasonable guitar to find they didn’t enjoy it)

Year four – Splashed out on a mid range Jackson guitar – about £350 – well known, respectable brand although not the top name – High quality guitar with good pickups etc.

Year six – Bought a top end Ibanez guitar - £1200 approx. – Well made, plays lovely and still the guitar I use today.

So you can see from the above I certainly did not rush with my purchases – This is not to say I haven’t