Tips On Buying a New Guitar
When buying any new instrument, it can be very stressful trying to figure out whether or not the instrument is a fitting piece to the musician. When the instrument is the first guitar, there are many things that should be taken into consideration. The age of the musician, which would help to determine what size guitar to get, the sound that is being sought after, which would influence the style of guitar, and the overall feel to the guitar. Also, the condition of the guitar is a key point to be considered when buying a second-hand guitar. These topics and more are covered in the following paragraphs.
The first thing that should be considered when buying a guitar is the age of the musician. Whenever buying a guitar for a smaller child, a good idea is to get a smaller scale guitar. The result of this often works out well because not only are they relatively inexpensive and widely available, they play the same way as a normal one. The most common scale sizes are1/2 scale and 3/4 scale both of which function well.
As you are ready with your decision, you should also invest in tools that will help you in safely hanging my guitar so that you can keep your guitar safe for accidents when you are not using it.
Also, the decision of buying an acoustic or electric guitar is something to be considered. The idea to learn songs and practice on an acoustic guitar first really helps a whole lot with hitting clean notes and being a smoother electric guitar player because you fret harder to hit the notes. Often, once someone has learned the basics of playing on an acoustic guitar they can then pick up an electric and will find that fretting the guitar is typically a lot easier on an electric guitar. Therefore, the ability to learn is jump-started after changing off to an electric. An advantage of starting out on an electric guitar is the range of sound that you are able to get out of it with an amp.
Nothing is better than giving the gift of music, but if the idea of surprising someone with a new guitar can be overlooked, a good idea is to let the musician pick it out instead. The reason being, the more comfortable they feel is to the guitar player, the more inspired he or she will be to play it. Though this way is a recommended idea, the concept of playing is adaptable to most any guitar.
The next thing that needs to be taken into consideration is the quality of the instrument that you are buying. If the guitar is coming from a pawn shop or being bought from another person it is very wise to have it looked at by a guitar shop or experienced player no matter how good of shape it looks to be in. The best way to ensure good quality is to buy it new, but getting a second-hand guitar is the next best option. As long as the guitar has working hardware and good components it can still sound as it should.
A lot of times, guitars that sit in pawn shops or haven’t been played in a long time suffer abuse from the strings setting tight and unchanged on the neck. If the guitar isn’t set with good tuning keys, then when the strings are changed the keys will lose the ability to hold a solid tuning A shining example of this would be the butchered piece of wood that Willie Nelson has played on for years, even though it wears really bad and looks to be unusable, the quality of the pick-up that he has in it makes the guitar sound as good as any.
A good choice to make whenever buying the first guitar is to look around for package deals. Some companies offer just the electric guitar, a small amp, and a cord, while other companies will throw in strings, cleaners, tuners, and beginners’ videos or books. The addition of these things will be a great asset in teaching the musician how to care for their new instrument, which is important to do for the fact that quality is sacrificed if proper care isn’t in effect. The added instructional books and videos are always a perk and help to motivate young players.
It is with great hope that this article was useful in some way to anyone looking to buy a first or new guitar. The gift of music is a truly amazing and inspirational step in anyone’s life, help to support young musicians and unique artists everywhere.
