Guitar to learn on

mts

Ok, looking for some suggestions

My wife has expressed interest in learning guitar in the past so i thought it might make a nice christmas present.

so looking for some advice/suggestions on a decent bang for the buck guitar to learn on.

Costco has a bunch of packages that are cheap, but don't know quality wise if they are worth it and i am not against spending more to get better


#1

Kona package

yamaha package

fender starcaster pack

tips wold be appreciated since i know nothing about guitars

RenegadeSilence

I hear takamines are excellent starting guitars, but sadly I've never played/heard one so its just word of mouth advice.

Earthenrock

I would strongly recommend going to a shop dedicated to musical instruments for your first guitar, or any instrument for that matter.
a starter electric or acoustic package is fine, which is what I started out on.

limester816

It really all depends on each guitar... even within a model by a certain manufacterer, the fact that they're usually made in Korea or China means that there's varying levels of quality.

The key to a good beginner's guitar is a good setup, with low action. Try a bunch out and see which is easiest to play.

Monolithic_Dome

I assume that she wants to play an acoustic given the stuff you linked. I wouldn't purchase any instrument without being able to inspect it in person. Like limester mentioned, the problem with low-cost guitars isn't that they are terrible per se, it's that the QC process is pretty loose so a few bad apples will make their way to the store.

The best way to examine a guitar is to bring along someone who plays enough to know what they are doing. If you can't do that, at least do the following:

-Tune the guitar (or ask a sales rep to tune it) and strum it for a few minutes to make sure that it holds a tune
-Test for dead frets, IE play every fret with every string and make sure they all ring clear
-Check the intonation. On each string, play the 12th fret and then play the harmonic on the 12th fret. They should be the exact same pitch
-Check for defects in the finish/trim, mostly because this is a gift and you want it to look nice.
-Try to find a guitar where you can feel some oomph in the bass notes. This is where most low end acoustics have the biggest sonic weakness.

Red_Cascade

Earthenrock wrote: »

I would strongly recommend going to a shop dedicated to musical instruments for your first guitar, or any instrument for that matter.
a starter electric or acoustic package is fine, which is what I started out on.

Seconded, I bought my first bass a month or so back and after looking at deals on the net I finally decided to go down to a music store. They guys there were really helpful and they talked me through the differences between the kit and let me get hands on with the instruments to see how they felt.

Sure the prices you pay may be a little bit more than Amazon or someplace similar, but it's worth it for the advice and getting a good bit of kit.

mts

So checked out the local store, and saw a bunch of stuff. Saw a classical and a 2 different "Startup" kits by Ibanez. So i am sure this is the age old question but steel vs. nylon strings, i figure its mostly type of music, but any difference in learnability

Rook

Yeah, steel hurts, nylon doesn't.

Aphostile

Personally, I would suggest learning on a nylon string.

And Takamine are great starter guitars. My brother learned on a Takamine and I can vouch for it.

Drew_9999

It depends on what kinds of music she wants to play. Most modern pop type stuff uses steel strings. Yes, they hurt your fingers for a week or two, but you can't get the same sound with nylon strings. If she's more into classical, she'll want nylon strings and maybe a different guitar body than what you're looking at.

Local H Jay

not to thread-steal, but i didn't think i should make a new guitar thread when this one's here

i recently received an old acoustic guitar with new nylon strings. only thing is, i can't tune the damn thing.
i've tried tuners online, and i guess i just don't have the ear for it, since it always comes out so... wrong. help?

pinenut_canary

it might be because the guitar itself is in pretty bad shape. I'm going to guess you tuned the guitar correctly. If you can, instead of tuning by ear, find an online tuner with a mic application that will take in the sound of your guitar through the mic, and then show you if it's in tune or not.

Your strings should be tuned to EADGBE, the first E starting with the most thickest string, to the last E being the thinnest.

Also, do what Monolithic_Dome has said. If it turns out that your guitar is completely out of tune when you do that, then that means there's something wrong with the fretboard.

How much guitar experience do you have?

Local H Jay

i took a half-year beginner guitar course. i know like, 12 chords, at most.
mostly can only read tab. i've stringed it before, but dunno if i did it right...(i imagine it got it, though).

pinenut_canary

I see. So you basically know what you're doing. Try out what Monolithic_Dome recommended. That's usually the case with free acoustic guitars. (classical guitar in your case, judging by the strings)

romanqwerty

Steel or nylon depends on the type of music. Steel is far better imo, but it hurts quite alot to begin with. Nylon is far easier on your hands, but you cant do some things on it (large bends).

Rook

Local H Jay wrote: »

not to thread-steal, but i didn't think i should make a new guitar thread when this one's here

i recently received an old acoustic guitar with new nylon strings. only thing is, i can't tune the damn thing.
i've tried tuners online, and i guess i just don't have the ear for it, since it always comes out so... wrong. help?

Hook up a mic, then install
http://www.aptuner.com/cgi-bin/aptuner/apmain.html

i n c u b u s

Dont make the mistake of going off-brand or extremely low quality for your first guitar. It WILL come back to bite you in the ass, reasons being this:
-If what you start out with is crap, it will only make your experience with it unenjoyable thus turning you off to the guitar which is NOT the goal correct?
-Your playing comes a lot easier when your instrument is comfortable to your liking, getting crap will only make learning harder.

My advice: stick with the trusted brands (aka Fender/Squier and Gibson/Epiphone). You know you will be getting good equipment because they're trusted names (I have owned all 4 brands). Now you don't have to go all out and spend a fortune to get quality found in Fender and Gibson, there are a LOT of models under Squier and Epiphone that have the looks of theyre pricier brothers and are great quality instruments for beginners/intermediates.

She will have all the time in the world to upgrade to a high quality guitar once she learns some and starts to like it in the coming years. Good Luck!

i n c u b u s

i n c u b u s wrote: »

Dont make the mistake of going off-brand or extremely low quality for your first guitar. It WILL come back to bite you in the ass, reasons being this:
-If what you start out with is crap, it will only make your experience with it unenjoyable thus turning you off to the guitar which is NOT the goal correct?
-Your playing comes a lot easier when your instrument is comfortable to your liking, getting crap will only make learning harder.

My advice: stick with the trusted brands (aka Fender/Squier and Gibson/Epiphone). You know you will be getting good equipment because they're trusted names (I have owned all 4 brands). Now you don't have to go all out and spend a fortune to get quality found in Fender and Gibson, there are a LOT of models under Squier and Epiphone that have the looks of theyre pricier brothers and are great quality instruments for beginners/intermediates.

She will have all the time in the world to upgrade to a high quality guitar once she learns some and starts to like it in the coming years. Good Luck!

Also you will want to check this site out, Rondo. I own and have played a few of these guitars and basses and they were all on par. Pretty good quality for a damn good price.

wasted pixels

i n c u b u s wrote: »

Also you will want to check this site out, Rondo. I own and have played a few of these guitars and basses and they were all on par. Pretty good quality for a damn good price.

Seconding this. Their SX (Fender-clone) line is easily on par with most Squier guitars at a lower price, and their Agile (Gibson-clone) line just blows Epiphone out of the water. Their service (which is to say Kurt, the guy who handles orders) is also second-to-none; I had a pickup in an Agile go dead a few days after I got it, so I emailed them to find out how much a replacement would be -- Kurt emailed back and offered to either replace the guitar entirely (shipping on him) or to drop a new pickup in the mail that very day, no charge.

The Agile and SX lines are both upgradeable as hell, too. They're playable out of the box, great after a professional setup ($50 or less at most guitar shops, and a good idea when you first get any instrument), but man... I dropped some nice vintage-style electronics into my Agile, and it sounds every bit as good as the Gibson '58 reissue I used to gig with.

Rondo tends to pop up in every guitar thread around here, and with good reason. For a first guitar, it's hard to go wrong with them.

Pheezer

You need to play the guitar first. You want to go to a real music store and play around with every guitar that's under $200 and you should really probably start out with an acoustic. Even if you don't know what you're doing, decide if you like how it feels under your arm, if the neck is too wide or too thick, make sure you're comfortable sitting with it.

Realistically, you're not going to find much quality differentiation under $200. Features at this point are meaningless to you, and when they do matter, anything within your price won't be satisfactory by that point anyhow. The real key is just finding one that you personally feel comfortable with so that you don't get buyer's regret the first time you touch a different guitar.

Icemopper

mts wrote: »

So checked out the local store, and saw a bunch of stuff. Saw a classical and a 2 different "Startup" kits by Ibanez. So i am sure this is the age old question but steel vs. nylon strings, i figure its mostly type of music, but any difference in learnability

I would get the guitar that goes with the style of music you want to play. Nylon strings are pretty much only for classic and flamenco and whatnot music. Steel strings for most "pop" music.

If you want to play "pop" get a steel string. Trust me. I would highly recommend against nylon unless you really want to play classical. If you start on nylon and play non-classical music, you will eventually switch to a different guitar that was made for very different music, and that change is noticeable and will require a learning curve.

pinenut_canary

Also, if you can see yourself playing guitar in the future, and really wanting to pursue it, I would avoid the starter kits. They're good starter kits, but with a bit of saving money and looking around, you're going to find something much better for you to practice on and to get better.

blizzard224

Icemopper wrote: »

mts wrote: »

So checked out the local store, and saw a bunch of stuff. Saw a classical and a 2 different "Startup" kits by Ibanez. So i am sure this is the age old question but steel vs. nylon strings, i figure its mostly type of music, but any difference in learnability

I would get the guitar that goes with the style of music you want to play. Nylon strings are pretty much only for classic and flamenco and whatnot music. Steel strings for most "pop" music.

If you want to play "pop" get a steel string. Trust me. I would highly recommend against nylon unless you really want to play classical. If you start on nylon and play non-classical music, you will eventually switch to a different guitar that was made for very different music, and that change is noticeable and will require a learning curve.

There are certinaly things that Classical (nylon stringed) guitars can do that steel can't, as well as the opposite way around. Neither is superior, they're just different. There is some pop stuff (think cruisey tunes like Jack Johnson or something) that works better on Nylon than Steel anyway.

Go to the store and try both - Steel can certainly pack a hell of a lot more oomph than nylon, and if that's what you're going for then it's your best choice. At these entry level prices though, no steel stringed guitar is going to have much in the way of subtletly of tone, and if that's something that matters to you, then do consider nylon. They're also a hell of a lot easier to learn the dreaded barre chords on.

rayofash

Sorry to raise the dead, but I figured since this thread is here it'd be better then to start a new one. I just got an Ibanez V V70CE, it's my first real guitar (I had a cheap $40 Stargazer I learned the basics on) and I'm looking for some books to help supplement my learning. I've seen this recommended before:

Guitar Grimoire

It seems pretty good, but I wanted some more opinions before I bought it. What do you guys recommend?

Pheezer

There is an announcement about not doing this SPECIFICALLY! RIGHT NOW!

It has NEVER been suggested to EVER look for an old, unrelated thread to your question and try to get your answer there instead!