Recommend a guitar for beginner

[Mad Mel]

Just make sure that it has a good action. So many beginners struggle because they bought their first real 6-string and played it 'til their fingers bled, which was mostly because it was a tough guitar to play. If you buy a secondhand guitar, it might be a great guitar that just needs a trip to the shop to get set up. Moving from dry Calgary to uber-humid Brisbane sure did a number on my instruments.

As long as it plays well and sounds good to you, that's all you need. You play an instrument for the enjoyment and sound and to impress chicks. Chicks don't know what you paid for a guitar.

By the time you're shredding and need a cutaway, you'll be an addict with a $1000+ guitar or three. You might need the electronics eventually, but for your first guitar, I wouldn't consider it to be essential, I'd put it on the nice-to-have list. The built-in tuner is handy, but tuners are cheap, too.

[Berger_4_]

Originally Posted by Mad Mel

Just make sure that it has a good action. So many beginners struggle because they bought their first real 6-string and played it 'til their fingers bled

Was this in the summer of '69 perhaps? I know me and some guys from school had a band and we tried real hard...at least until Jimmy quit...then Jody got married and it all went downhill from there.

When I got back into guitar, I went and bought a Yamaha F370, and it's still probably my favorite or second favorite guitar to play (I've got an 60's or 70's Kawai, a Strat and a Walden acoustic as well). One thing that I found was really helpful was switching to lighter strings than what the guitar came with. I think it had 12's on it and I swapped them out with 11's. The tone is a little brighter then, and it makes barre chords so much easier to play.

[boogerz]

Godin makes Art & Lutherie, Simon & Patrick, and Seagull(listed in order of worst to best). The latter two brands are the two to go with if you go that route

Check out Yamaha, Ibanez, S&P, Seagull, Takamine, Ovation, Epiphone, etc. Almost all the major brands have some decent acoustics in the $300-500 range.


Go down to a guitar shop and play a bunch of acoustics. I'd normally say buy one that feels "right" in your hands, but since a beginner most likely doesn't know what they want, just play a bunch of guitars and buy something you like. If you stick out the initial beginner phase, you'll eventually figure out your preferences and end up "upgrading" anyways.

[troutman]

I won the Yamaha Pacifica in the Fan960 contest for Guitarworks. I figure it is about a $200 guitar. VOX VT 15 amps are on sale for $150.

I think this is a good set-up for a beginner.

[wooohooo]

I bought this cheap crap $200 yamaha guitar... still serves me well to this day. I could spend $500+ on a new one, but I figure I rather spend it on something else. I'm not hard core, I like playing every now and then so I don't see how a new guitar would do me any good besides it being new.