Well, I'm trying to start and I need some advice. Y'see, the only guitar I have available to me is a classical guitar, and...well that's really not what I want to play. It also seems like it's harder to play (especially since I just started..hm...3 days ago?) than acoustic guitars. I like the acoustic sound and portability, I like the idea of being able to just grab it and go play, but I'd also like the option to amplify it and change the sound up. So I've been doing a little bit of research and I'm guessing what I want is an acoustic electric? I'm still not exactly sure how those work. With Christmas coming up I'm hoping to find a decent guitar to ask for or buy myself with the help of christmas money, so if anyone knows anything about guitars, I could use some help!

Also, of COURSE, post your stringed instrument!

I used to have an Art & Lutherie steel-string acoustic back in the day, but I don't know if that brand is available in the US. Anyways, my thoughts:

-I think that saying one type of guitar is harder to play is wrong. It's entirely possible that your classical is poorly set up or something, but guitar (or any instrument) is as easy or hard as your practise routine makes it.

-I also think it's sort of wrong to make general statements about one brand over another. You need to try out a bunch to find one you like (and if you've only been playing a few days then you probably don't know what to look for. Go to the music store with someone knowledgeable, and get them to try out the axes for you)

-As far as flat top acoustics go, you could either get one that's already got the electronics built in or buy a regular flat top and get the pickup as an accessory. It's your call.

Sorry to be so general, but I really think the best plan is to get someone to test drive the guitars before you buy.

Some people at the Music Forum do.

well you can get an acoustic electric with an amp, but later on i suggest you get an electric guitar because they are teh secks : ) + you can try lot of stuff out if you get effects.

If you want to get something good i say a JEM7V (i will so much get that next year), and for amp+effects, a Peavey JSX (want).
But since you just started playing i dont think it's a good idea to get these, maybe if you get better, because getting this gear and not knowing how to play is a waste of money.

For starters if you want to get an electric acoustic, go on the ibanez site you'll find some. for example the Euphoria, it's a steve vai model i think, but you dont have to get that, it's probably expensive, something similar, make sure it has 6 strings, you dont want a 7stringer, 24 frets would be good. and for an amp, you can find some very cheap and good ibanez amps.
I like ibanez, i have a RG370DX, the sound is pretty good, what i dont like is the whammy bar... I also have an acoustic, which i bought for around 100bux and it has a fantastic sound.

Anyway, good luck with getting the guitar. (btw, dont buy guitar from internet. you have to atleast go to a shop and listen to the sound)

As much as I love Ibanez necks, I don't think they're the easiest guitar to pick up and start playing. It seems like the fatter necked guitars are easier for beginners to tackle. Though, I would suggest the OP wait for Seb to give advice.

I have a Tacoma guitar that I picked up for $500 used when I started playing. I still love it. As far as getting an acoustic electric goes.. I honestly don't think its worth it, acoustic guitars don't sound or play the same as electrics, so its not particularly useful unless you need more volume, which you aren't gonna need as a beginner. Also, classical guitar is probably harder because the neck tends to be a bit wider, so its a bigger stretch. Of course, this also means its easier to fret the individual strings, so its sort of a tradeoff. I would reccamend checking craiglist and various newspaper ads for used guitars, as they tend to be cheaper. Just be sure to make sure theres no major problems with it. What price range are you thinking of?

Oh, and stringed instruments, I dont have pictures but..
Tacoma dreadnaught style guitar with a cutaway, too lazy to go check the model number, its out of production anyway.
Ibanez piece of crap electric guitar, with a carvin 50w nomad tube amp to go with.. the amp sounds nice anyway.
"Fender" acoustic/electric mandolin(i NEVER use the electric bit, sounds horrid), I play this alot, acousticly it doesnt sound too bad. Fun to play too.
Unknown brand/maker violin.. I dont play this anymore, takes too much practice to keep a good sound going.
Used to have a crappy cello, and an extra acoustic guitar for traveling and such. Also borrowed an old Kay mandolin before buying my current one, it played awful, but was totally retro looking.

http://www.seagullguitars.com/products6.htm

seagulls are wonderful, their tiny neck is sleek looking, the bodies and top woods are all one piece spruce or cedar, (try out/ask if you prefer spruce or cedar, if the guy selling you the guitar can't tell the difference, go to another store.)

misconception 1:

Classicals are harder to play

wrong

classicals have a wider and flatter but fatter neck than acoustics. the strings are good for beginners because they force you to fret almost exactly the same way on all strings since they're roughly the same size, thanks to the nylon.

if you don,t like the tone though, well, acoustic is the way to go. it,s not worth going acoustic electric if you're a beginner. you're paying 200$ and more only for the pickup when you could spend this money on the quality of your guitar.

I don't know if you can get norman's or seagulls where you are, but you owe it to yourself to try them out. Also, stay away from brand names, their entry level models are decent, but overpriced. these companies kick *** at their big expensive models but they usually botch up on the entry levels. smaller companies have a better quality control and usually have a much better "soul to wood" factor on each guitar.

if you want to amplify and change the tone a bit, you could go for a semi-hollow, but you,ll lose the portable factor. the point is there's no such thing as a "guitar who'll do it all for less than 300$" so i'd say the best bet is to go for acoustic.

if you want to carry it around alot, go for a laminated top (multiple wood layers glued over another) instead of a solid top.

Solid tops gain alot of tone over time so that's really the best bang for the buck if you're patient. but they're more susceptible to heat and humidity and might warp faster if you take it outside next to a campfire and on and on. for this kind of guitar i've found out Walden makes some nice not-expensive but really good sounding and good looking acoustics. at my store i sell them for 200$CAD with the gig bag included. and i love the way they sound too, for the price. of course it's nothing compared to a good acoustic. but that's like comparing apples and oranges.

check these out, personally Norman guitars are the way to go. high grade woods with nice prices. at least here in quebec. as a beginner, stay away from fender, ibanez, takamine, tanglewood and crafter. while nice guitars, you pay for the name tag. check out Norman, Seagull, Walden, Epiphone too, to some extent, but i feel they're more plastic and less alive than the previous two.

http://www.seagullguitars.com/

http://www.normanguitars.com/intro.htm

any questions just directly ask me. it's my living

also, don't buy online. unless you can easily make sure you can honor your warranties.

Thanks a lot for the help, guys! I just re-strung my current guitar (while attempting to tune the decade-old strings on it properly the other day the D string popped) and now it's a bit better (except without realizing it, I got silver and clear strings, which are quite weird-looking). I'm thinking that probably I'll get myself a decent steel-string acoustic guitar sometime, but I am in no rush. Maybe next time I'm in a city that sells those Norman guitars I'll try one out. I've gotten used to the sound and feel of this one already, haha.

I like Ibanez guitars. They feel very smooth and polished. My guitar is only a 'beginner' guitar for $180, but I've had it for three years, and it serves me very well.

Metal!!!

ESP, Ibanez

Crate, Marshall

I HATE Ibanez.

I have never heard an Ibanez that I didn't think sounded muddy. And then the kids downtune them way low on top of that and make muddy sounding music.

Well personally, I hate Fender. They feel rough and hard to play with, and the high E string is always set so close to the edge of the fretboard that it goes off the frets whenever I press on it. But that's my opinion. How can a guitar sound 'muddy'?

Listen to the tone.


I personally don't like fender either.

I would really love a Gibson ES-335. (BB King plays one, but his are all custom. I forget how they're different)

Gibson is nice, yes. I got to play a 12-string guitar for the first time a few weeks ago... god damn is that hard. Picking is impossible. They're just for strumming, right?

I want a 12 string tuned FCGDAE from low to high. No more difficulty playing fiddle tunes \o/

Classical guitar will also be easier on his fingers if he's just starting out, as the strings will be nylon, rather than steel. But he may also get some bad habits of laying his fingers down poorly that he won't notice because the classical has such a wide neck. A straight up electric is cool. Usually the strings are softer, but the neck is not widely spaced. The problem is an electric can't really be enjoyed without an amp so it's much less versatile.

In short, I'd go with an accoustic. Try to play often at first, but for short periods of time. (ie 20 minutes at a time, 4 to 5 times a day). Your fingers will hurt a bit, especially after the first day, but you'll be able to keep playing. If you pick up the guitar for the first time ever and play for a couple hours, you may develop blisters or cuts on your fingertips that will cause you to have to break until they heal. In short, pace yourself.

Find an accoustic guitar with an electronic pickup. I'd strongly reccomend a pickup with a "drop in" battery slot (I think that's pretty much standard now, but I've used a guitar where to change the battery you had to take the strings off and reach in through the middle). Also, buy a tuner and keep your guitar tuned at all times. It will help you develop your ear much more quickly.

i have a takamine acoustic-electric. i bought it at a guitar center around here and i recommend that you also buy from a place that lets you play the guitars before buying.

the guitar sounds fine and feels good to play. im not at the point where i can honestly distinguish the sound from say, a martin acoustic (maybe that was a little too much, but you know what i mean). it's definitely stupid to buy an expensive guitar as a beginner. who knows if you'll lose interest in a year?

BB King's guitar (Lucille), is acctualy a 355 and it doesn't have 'F' holes.
The 355 is different in that is has the big block inlays, multi-ply binding everywhere and a 6-way veri-tone switch.
I've got a veri-tone switch on my Blueshawk and it's sexy.

HERE are my guitars.

My main accoustic is a Brownsville.
It's a store brand of Sam Ash.

It's a fantastic guitar, doesn't really have the best volume but it's got good tone.
And it was only $160.

Only thing is, I've never seen any more since I got that one.

If you've got a Sam Ash store near you, I recomend looking to see if they have one of those, great guitar for a fantastic price.

ahhh.

misconceptions.

3/4 of the tone is in the player, not the guitar. the guitar just shapes and reacts to how you play. my guitars sound amazing in my hands. but when i give them to someone else they aren't the same.

Ibanez is good, but overpriced. their 1500$ models are just about of the same quality as Godin's 400-500$ models.

half of you people here probably like it because someone else told you so.

And then there's crate.

oh, and also. don't listen to Sarn. it's better to do a big sitting of an hour a day instead of small bits. when you can do it at least. your hand will be properly warmed up and then you'll get better.

have you ever heard of anyone training for their sport for like 20 minutes? no? guitar's the same. at least if you want to be decent.

I don't think you have to spend $1500 on a Ibanez guitar to get good quality. Mine was $650, on sale for $300. I also went ahead and threw in a Seymore Duncan distortion pickup at the bridge.. This guitar has an awesome crunch and a great metal/rock tone. And honestly, I dont think I've ever seen more than maybe 1 or 2 Ibanezs priced over $1500.. so overpriced, no.

of course. you're in the states. where the market isn't the same as up here in canada. and yes, overpriced, for the quality you get. cheap grade woods, weak electronics. you even had to change pickups. i dunno about you but i paid 500 for mine and didn't have to change anything and it beats any ibanez hands down.

of course, you don't have to beleive me. Just remember i'm doing a living with this

I dunno.. I mean yeah Ibanez does make guitars that are lower grade materials but I'm just saying you don't have to spend $1500 on an Ibanez to get a quality Ibanez.. atleast in the states.

My next purchase will be either an ESP or a Jackson.

why do you want either a jackson or an ESP?

marketing? your favorite player has one? made your opinion from seeing pictures?

I get so many people like you everyday who want things that they don't really want but only because of the psychological effect of artist endorsing well they get it anyway. the bigger a company gets the smaller their quality control gets. they **** guitars like someone who ate laxative, so who cares if they got a few rotten apples here and there? that's what bugs me the most about these companies, inconsistencies for the same price.

it's irritating when i see this guy who has difficulty stringing togheter two chords or a simple scale claim he has played only vintage strats for god knows how many years and claim that X and Y brand is pure crap. I'm not talking about anyone though, just commenting on some customers i get -_- trying to survive and then have people who don't even know what the hell a G+ or a A7 is tell me the gear i sell and play is crap.

My personal favorite.

Well my suggestion was not to *only* play for short periods of time, but to start out slow and work your way up to longer intervals.

Actually yes. Say you want to be a runner. You've never run before in your life. You have two options. 1) You go out and run until you pass out. Then you take a week to recover. 2) You go out and run for 20 minutes the first day. You're tired when you get home, but by the next day you've recovered. Day two you run for 30 minutes. Eventually you're to the point where you can run for as long as you like without getting fatigued.

Anyway, I read in a Beginner's Guitar book that that's the best way when you're first starting out, because that way you get plenty of practice in, but you're not over-exhausting or overwhelming yourself.

if you practice exhausting stuff when you're a beginner you've got a teacher that doesn't guide you well. because most of the useful and effective stuff isn't that much of a strain on the tendons.

You want to start with simple stuff, but stuff that works on technique. Proper technique is a must if you want to progress. Also, longer sessions instead of short, frequent ones will help build endurance. It's tiring at first, but eventually it becomes less so, and then you can work where you can play longer periods. This stuff is not just for guitar. This applies for learning any instrument.

Seb's nailed it right on the head with the fact that the player has the ultimate control on tone. Still, lesser quality instruments will not sound nearly as good as a better quality instrument.

Because I like the style of them, I like the hardware, and the name.. For now, I know exactly what guitars I want and if the makers let me down. Then I'll search for something else.

You can't tell me what I don't want because you don't even know me, my style, how long I've been playing, or my musical background..

Steve Vai is one of my influences and role models, but I HATE that that THING under his lower lip.


Fugly

It's called a chin

Not sure if you're suggesting that he shouldn't , but if you happen to be: I play an ESP F-100, and for it's price it's an amazing guitar. The neck is fast and sleek and easy to play. The hardware is good, it looks bad-***, and it just has that 'mojo' feeling when I'm playing it like it was built with my hands in mind. Depending on the type of music you play, you might find the tone to be too twangy, but I prefer it over many more expensive guitars that I've been able to try out.

.02?

Like the bass, djwguitarman, although I've never heard of the brand. Then again, I don't look around for basses either.

I used to work at the local guitar store, and I would tell parents buying stuff for their just-starting-kid to look at the cheaper guitars and amps. If after 6 months little Johnny's guitar is collecting dust in the corner, then they aren't out a lot of money. If after 6 months little Johnny's frets are worn, it's time to look at a nicer rig.

I've been playing bass since 1987.

For a beginner, Seb, I'd be more concerned with the feel of the strings on your fingertips, rather than strain on the tendons.

And right, I agree.. I'm not saying that a schedule of many short practice sessions will be good in the long run. Just that it will help get you going. After the first couple weeks, he will want to start increasing the time that he spends playing each session, and cutting back on the # of sessions. I'm only suggesting that right at the beginning as his fingers are toughening up, it's much easier to do many short sessions. I'm talking about building callouses, not endurance.

Except that in this case hes playing a classical guitar, which hurts the fingers about as much as typing on a keyboard. >.>

In other news, I experimentially tuned my electric guitar to FCGDAE today, and it sounded like all hell. low E tuned up to F, worked fine. A tuned all the way down to C, sounded godawful.. Didnt tune up, as I was afraid of string snappage. D down to G, worked sorta okay, still too low though. G down to D, worked decently,lil low. B down to A, worked great. E all the way to E, this one worked incredibly well.>.>

Now I need different string guages to make it work.. No idea how to figure out what I need beyond trial and error though.

Right.

I guess i don't know anything, i mean, i haven't been teaching guitar to 20 kids/adults a week for 3 years now.

Callouses come and go after a while. incorrect strength repartition while playing ( using your thumb as a support while it should only be there to hold the hand there, playing with your wrist crooked, etc) is far worst for the hands and wrist on the long run. their fingertips hurt? oh well, 5 minute break, hand stretch, and we're back to business. it always works.

and i personally own an ESP LTD H-1000, and it's nowhere near as meaty and fiesty as my Godin Exit22. and there's a 1500$ price difference between both. it sounds fine and all, but for this much of a price difference, the godin sounds much better for the price than my LTD.

but of course, there's no brand attached, oooo, scary. no brand to make me feel safe about my opinion. oooo. who cares?

I have a ESP LTD M202bb. It's really nice. They retailed for $700 and I got mine for 200 bucks. I threw some custom paint on it. I'll post some pics as soon as I can, but it looks pretty badass. I need to practice some, though. I've been so damned busy lately it's insane.

Anyway, my guitar has a mahogany body and EMG H4 pickups in the bridge and neck. It sounds damned good even through a little Peavy box amp. Only problem with ESP is if you don't have a lot of money to spend, or you don't find a moron out there willing to sell it to you dirt cheap, you're not going to get a decent one.

In other news, a guy my best friend went to high school with recently bought a '62 Strat for 100 dollars at a garage sale. A week later he sold it for 35 grand. Hello one years tuition.

Seb, I'm not saying that I would purchase a guitar just because of a name. When I go to a guitar store I try out guitars and decide if I like them.. Usually most places I go to carry I wide variaty of Ibanez's, ESP, Jackson, Gibson, ect. and any guitars that are cheap no-names usually suck.. If I came across one that didn't suck I would buy it. Seb I think your ESP is badass though for sure.

A friend of mine has a guitar with a pine body. I kid you not. The tone is so bad it almost makes it good.

for starters, squire by fender is about as easy as you can get, they run for like 120-150, its what i started on, your not investing that much money so if you decide you don't like the instrument its not like you went out and spent a boat load of cash