People ask me, when they are about to start taking lessons, what kind of guitar they should buy?
You have a few choices, but let’s divide it into 2 basic categories:
Electric Guitar or Acoustic Guitar.
In the “electric” category we can find different choices to consider. The first one is the style of music you want to play on your guitar.
Electric guitar is best for pop, rock, blues, alternative,country, metal but you should also consider that the learning materials that you are going to find, related to electric guitars are more oriented to scales, exercises, tricks and guitar solos. In other words, electric guitar learning material is going to take more effort on your side.
There are also, different types of electric guitars. Basic, with tremolo, Big Jazz electric guitar,even 7 string guitars, smaller size for young children, etc.
If you are just starting, an electric guitar with a ¨Tremolo¨ floating bridge (Floyd Rose type bridge) is going to be really hard to tune, compared to a regular electric guitar. You can recognize this type of guitar by seeing screws at the end of the neck (side close to the tuning keys).
In acoustic guitar, we have 2 basic choices:
The “classical guitar” which comes with nylon strings and is your best choice if you like to sing and just play chords or seriously study classical music. The styles that better match the classical guitar are: pop, soft rock, ballads, rhythm guitar styles, bossa nova and classical of course.
The second basic choice is “folk guitar” or “Steel-string guitar” which is acoustic but comes with steel strings.
The sound is much brighter and louder than the classical guitar (nylon strings). The down side is that steel strings get corroded pretty fast if your fingers tend to sweat.
As a result, you might need to change strings more often (every 2 months or so, if you are not a performing artist) but the benefit of a nice bright sound is worth it. Pop, rock, blues, alternative and country are the best match for the steel-string guitar.
You can also find electro-acoustic guitars. They are the same as acoustic guitars with the extra feature of an output connection to plug into an amplifier (amp) so you can have a louder sound to perform in public. They come with nylon strings or steel strings. Modern electro-acoustic guitars even include a tuner built in the body of the guitar. This is a great feature to consider.
Check guitars and accesories at Guitarsimple’s Online Store which operates through AMAZON. Or this Amazon Catalogue:
Best Regards,
Alvaro Avila,Teacher
Beginner Online Guitar Course
Curso Guitarra Para Principiantes
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