So you’re thinking about buying a new guitar or even your first guitar. If you don’t have one or if you are in the market for your first guitar; then it’s time to buy an acoustic guitar. There you go, blog post finished. Now you know what to buy. Be the best player you can be.
Well, maybe you want more information. Maybe you have an acoustic already, or you want to know what kind of acoustic guitar you want. Let’s dive in a little bit more just for the sake of learning. Your decision of what guitar to buy is based on a lot of things like: style, cosmetics, sound output, weight, and the level of craftsmanship. But like I said, if you don’t already have one, it’s time to get a good acoustic guitar.
Why buy an acoustic guitar? There are a lot of different benefits of buying and owning an acoustic guitar. The main benefit that I want to focus on is that an acoustic guitar is the best tool to help you in your daily practice regimen. You don’t need an amplifier, cable, and it’s much easier to tune an acoustic with a mic type tuner. You can keep an acoustic guitar handy in the room that you practice. Easy set up to help guide the path as you practice.
Something else to consider is that you should purchase a guitar to your level of playing. If you are just starting out, you don’t need to buy the most expensive guitar you can afford. Start out small, there are great guitars that are built at the economy level. You don’t need a 1,500 to 3,000 dollar guitar to get started. You don’t even need that high quality of a guitar to started gigging. As you grow in your ability to play the instrument, your taste in styles of guitar and tones are going to change. It’s best to put off the bigger purchases until you know exactly what you are going to want.
Styles of acoustic guitars include dreadnoughts, grand auditorium, jumbo, auditorium, classical, and grand concert. A quick Google image search will let you see the visual difference among the styles. Each style has their own acoustic differences that I may cover in another blog post. However, I would suggest that your first acoustic guitar be a dreadnought. This will be an excellent tone for you, it’s widely available through several guitar makers, and it will be the most comfortable to hold and play.
Electric guitars come in a variety of flavors as well: solid bodies, hollow bodies, and semi-hollow bodies. The most recognizable of these styles is the solid body guitar. Many are based on the fender stratocaster with single or humbucker style pickups and a bolt on neck. This will generally get you whatever tone and sound that you are looking for. There are other styles of solid bodies that include the Les Paul style, PRS style arch tops, and the fender telecaster style guitar. These will provide you several different sounds and I would encourage you to try all of the styles at your local music store. Hollow body and semi-hollow body style guitar can be specific to the genre of music that you are trying to play. Hollow body guitars can be found heavily in jazz, big band, and rock-a-billy. Semi-hollow body guitars, like the Gibson ES-335, can be found in early rock and roll records. Don’t feel bad for wanting to buy a guitar because it looks cool. Be sure that you are buying something with good quality. If your guitar looks cool, then so so do you. Remember, looking cool is half the battle.
Sound output is important with either acoustic guitars or electric guitar. Louder is better isn't always necessarily the case when considering the genre you want to play. Active electronics are usually found in you solid body electric guitars that are geared more to heavy metal players. You certainly wouldn't want that style of electronics on an arch top acoustic guitar. The sound would bounce around in the sound chamber and feed back so much that you’d might only be able to play the the guitar with the sound pot on level one. Different style of guitars will have different potential of volumes as well. A jumbo or grand concert should be louder than a smaller dreadnought, but sometimes the bracing across the soundboard (top of the guitar) can increase the volume of the guitar.
It’s okay to consider the weight of the guitar too. If you are planning on playing two hour gigs, you might want to consider finding a guitar that isn't so heavy that you are slouching by the end of the night. The weight of the guitar will have significant effect on the tone of the guitar. Generally speaking, heavier guitars will have a darker tone. In contrast, lighter guitars can also have a more 'trebley' timbre. Comfort is important as much as the tone. You need to find a guitar that marries all of the factors that you are looking for. You can find a guitar that has excellent craftsmanship that isn't too heavy. You don’t have to spend a ton of money on tone and comfort.
In conclusion buy an acoustic. I hope you gleaned a lot of information from this post. I can expand tons on each paragraph from this post. I’d love to expand more on each style of guitar and the tonal properties of them. I may do a part 2 of this post and include a list of great economy guitars. The best way to purchase a guitar is to go to your local music store and pick one up and strum it. If it sounds good, feels good, and looks good, then it’s right for you. Don’t spend a ton of money, especially if you are new to the instrument. Get out there and have fun. Be the best player you can be.
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