Seems like there is more than one guitar aficionado around here so…
That is right, looking to get one. I have no idea where to look, where to start. I want to get something new, not a fan of getting used stuff usually. Something on the cheaper end would be nice, around 300$ or under for the guitar.
I’ve got no idea how to play… at all. Any tips would be cool. I’ve got a lot of free time this summer and wanted to do something to burn some of that off.
Thanks.
Screw brand right now. At $300 range, most everything quality wise will be equal. Just dont go First Act.
Go to you guitar center or whatever shop. Tell them exactly how much money you have so they dont offer you something that the tax goes over what you have. Then just find all the guitars in your range, and hold them. Sit with them, and find the one that feels the best to you.
The feel of the instrument is going to do more to you than any amount of expensive strings, piezo pickups, brand name and price ever will. Once you find that one that feels the best to you, you found your guitar.
Then, start to learn. Learn the name of the strings, finger picking, and picking with a pick. Be strict on yourself. The hands will be sore, fingers feel bruised, youll be putting too much and too little pressure on everything at first, but that will come to you in short time.
Pick up a beginners book. That will at least teach you basic chords, strumming, song patterns, and if you want, how to read notes. I just stick with tabs.
After these basics, I highly suggest getting the program ‘Guitar Pro’. Torrent it, or buy it.
With Guitar Pro, you can now get guitar pro tabs. Tons of sites will have thousands of thousands of bands and their songs, exercises, and random things, like game music.
You open the file into guitar pro, and it will show you the notes, or the tablature, you can play the song and hear it back, or slow it down so you can see whats going on and work on scales.
Always start slow, build up your speed, but never rush it.
Learn your favorite songs from your favorite bands, then forget them, cause (No offense) they probably suck when it comes to what they offer you for playing guitar. Avenged sevenfold = suck. Branch out to players like Guthrie Govan, Steve Vai, John Petrucci, Yngwie Malmsteen and I could list more.
Yep. That is how beginners play, and that is how the best guitarists play.
The answer to everything on guitar. Practice.
Check out Musicians Friend website, and see if there is a Mechey’s Music store in your area. Maybe they are not over in your part of PA.
Do you think you will want an acoustic electric guitar(meaning you can plug it into an amp or just play it normally)?
I have had some good experience with Epiphone guitars. They are not the cheapest of cheap and they don’t get too expensive. The two Epiphone guitars I played were bought off Ebay.
Are you looking for an acoustic or electric? At $300 you should be able to find a new decent beginner guitar. You could probably find a used one of higher quality but it will take some searching and testing. If you go used, I would suggest trying a bunch of new ones anyway just so you get a feel for what you are comfortable with.
At that price range, there are quite few acoustic brands like Epiphone, Jasmine/Takamine, Alvarez, Ibanez, Cort, Yamaha and more. I think most of these are fairly equal in quality at this level. Most of these are mass produced overseas but the quality of construction is fairly good. The price is kept low by using lower quality materials. These days, this tends to mean that you get a very playable guitar but the sound isn’t great. That being said, you can play two of the very same guitar and one can sound much better than the other. Go into some stores and try all the guitars in your price point (even of the same model) and you might find a gem. If you feel like you wouldn’t be able to feel and hear the difference yourself, bring a friend that plays and have them play for you.
I believe that the advantages of buying locally, outweigh the money you save by buying online. You get to feel and hear what you are buying. As well, shipping from another area can stress the guitar through humidity/climate changes and cause it to crack/warp (especially with cheaper guitars as they often don’t take the time to age the wood before building). Buying locally might mean that the guitar has spent some time in the climate that you live in before you buy it (although some stores keep their instruments in a humidity controlled room making this point moot).
I hope this helps. Good luck and have fun!
electric
If you wanted to go electric fender starcasters are decent if you cant get a stratocaster. I got one with amp, strap, case, and cable for 200 when it was on sale. That was a year and a half ago tho. Dunno how much they go for now.
clears throat squier. Theres no way in hell you got a real strat for 200. They go for 400-700 easy on ebay.
squiers are alright, good beginner guitars. Fenders been selling them since the 80’s, you can get the single guitar for around $90 on ebay, beginner packs go for like $200. (just shedding light on electric)
The man from Spokane is making a lot of sense today.
On the question of which guitar to buy, compare it to advice you would give to a new-ish unicycler.
You wouldn’t recommend the cheapest and they probably won’t understand what ‘more’ they’re getting for the extra money.
It’s comparable.
Buy good, not cheap.
The speed issue, critical.
if you learn to do it right, you can learn to do it at any speed.
If you do it wrong, it’s going to remain wrong, at any speed.
Learn to do it right and then learn to do it faster.
(I’ve had to relearn that AGAIN with the bagpipes, so I’ll forgive you if you ignore at first and then have to redo at a later stage.)
And yeah, practise regularly.
Steven King said something to the effect that you don’t always know when your muse is going to come visit you, but you can make sure that she’ll know where to find you.
I’ve always had a lot of value in recording myself and listening back to it.
It generally sound better when you hear it back and it’ll help with the temptation to speed up because you think it sounds better that way.
Have fun.
PS: and no, he was talking about a real Strat, it’s even got the duct tape on to prove it.
aimed at unibikeling I said Starcaster not strat. It is a remake of a strat not quite as good but decent.
Thank-ew for the helpzorz.