0:00:04.942,0:00:09.908 Hi, how you doing? Justin here. In this lesson today we are going to be checking out the 0:00:09.908,0:00:15.275 different types of guitar that exist in the world, well, just the three main types, 0:00:15.275,0:00:19.287 and talking about the pros and cons of each one. If you are a beginner guitar player looking 0:00:19.287,0:00:22.104 to buy your first guitar, [br]what sort of things you should be looking for. 0:00:22.104,0:00:28.447 So there are three main types of guitar. The one that I am holding in my arms now is a 0:00:28.447,0:00:34.303 steel string acoustic guitar which is what most guitar players think of when they think of 0:00:34.303,0:00:39.608 an acoustic guitar. The other two types of guitar are an electric guitar and a classical guitar. 0:00:39.608,0:00:44.273 Classical guitar is also a type of an acoustic guitar as well so we end up in this 0:00:44.273,0:00:50.051 funny area where these things are not falling into one of the three categories. But those are the most important three. 0:00:50.051,0:00:53.043 Now when you are choosing which one of them you are going to play there are a few 0:00:53.043,0:00:57.657 things that set it off straight away. If you want to play rock guitar get an electric guitar. 0:00:57.657,0:01:03.394 Full stop. Easy. Done. Sold. If you have got not very much money to spend and you are 0:01:03.394,0:01:08.074 looking at as cheap a guitar as possible get an electric guitar. I know that sounds kind of funny, 0:01:08.074,0:01:11.893 like oh it's an electric guitar. It has got more fancy stuff in it but actually the 0:01:11.893,0:01:17.371 problem with acoustic guitars, especially steel string acoustic guitars, when they are 0:01:17.371,0:01:21.592 really cheap they are really difficult to play. They have got what is called a High Action, 0:01:21.592,0:01:25.287 that means the strings are quite far away from the fingerboard, usually. 0:01:25.303,0:01:30.358 So they are really really difficult to play barre chords on. They tend to not sound very nice as well, 0:01:30.358,0:01:35.343 cheap acoustic guitars, because they are made of laminated wood and my general opinion is 0:01:35.343,0:01:40.644 that if you have got not very much money an electric guitar is a far better way to go. 0:01:41.674,0:01:45.433 If you want to play classical guitar you should definitely buy a classical guitar. 0:01:45.463,0:01:52.512 Hey, a little bit obvious there Justin, thanks. But it is true. You don't really want to be trying to play 0:01:52.512,0:01:57.160 classical music on a steel string guitar or an electric guitar. That said I am not 0:01:57.160,0:02:01.192 really a classical guitar teacher. I don't cover classical guitar as part of my course. I 0:02:01.192,0:02:06.427 don't really think it is the best, most fun thing to learn guitar on a classical guitar 0:02:06.427,0:02:10.077 because it is all about learning to read notes and playing one note at a time and stuff. It 0:02:10.077,0:02:13.154 is a bit easier to just get going if you are playing chords and stuff. 0:02:13.154,0:02:19.463 Anyway, this is a steel string acoustic guitar. The things to look for when you are 0:02:19.463,0:02:24.059 checking out an acoustic guitar is 1) does it sound nice? The best thing you can do when 0:02:24.059,0:02:27.769 you go shopping for a guitar is take somebody who knows what they are doing. 0:02:27.769,0:02:31.174 Take somebody who has played guitar for a bit, who can strum a few chords, who can have a 0:02:31.174,0:02:34.765 listen to it and see if they like the sound of it. If you are a complete beginner and know 0:02:34.765,0:02:39.033 nothing you kind of have to rely on the sales people and a lot of the time they are full of 0:02:39.033,0:02:43.038 it and don't really tell you the truth because they are trying to sell you something. 0:02:44.100,0:02:49.946 On the website there is a link from BC-102 which will give you some links to some 0:02:49.946,0:02:56.902 products and stuff and some stores that I recommend. But the big thing that you are looking for here on a steel 0:02:56.902,0:03:02.092 string guitar is that the action is not too high. That is the distance here between the string and the fret. 0:03:02.092,0:03:11.015 When you press the string down you probably don't want it to be more than like 3 or 4mm at the twelfth fret. 0:03:11.784,0:03:18.283 Definitely not 5mm or more because you will get them that high on a cheap guitar. 0:03:18.283,0:03:24.220 So I wouldn't be looking at really cheap steel string acoustic guitars, but you can do if you want. 0:03:24.220,0:03:28.805 You can get a thing called electro acoustics as well which is an acoustic guitar with a 0:03:28.805,0:03:35.208 pick up system, which this is. I have got a volume control and stuff here. This guitar has 0:03:35.208,0:03:38.821 got a microphone built into it. You don't really need that when you are beginner. 0:03:38.821,0:03:44.359 If later on if you are going to do gigs and stuff you can retrofit it later. You can get the electric 0:03:44.359,0:03:49.539 system put in afterwards. Or you can buy yourself another guitar, a better guitar 0:03:49.539,0:03:53.802 maybe. So if you learn on one guitar you can get a fairly cheap one to learn on. 0:03:53.802,0:03:58.893 you can decide that you are a professional now and you want to go and do a gig then buy another guitar. 0:03:58.893,0:04:01.723 I would be more inclined to do that than spending a whole lot of money, 0:04:01.723,0:04:05.540 especially on a budget guitar you don't want to waste money on an electric system 0:04:05.540,0:04:09.439 because it is a budget guitar. The electric system is not going to be very good either and 0:04:09.439,0:04:12.540 it is going to take more money away from just having a nice guitar in the first place. 0:04:12.540,0:04:15.381 So that is a steel string guitar. 0:04:18.596,0:04:26.080 OK, this is a classical guitar. These are quite easy to play. I learned on a classical guitar. 0:04:26.080,0:04:30.440 Also called a nylon string acoustic because the strings are not metal any more, we are 0:04:30.440,0:04:34.406 talking about nylon. They used to be made of cat gut believe it or not. Definitely glad 0:04:34.406,0:04:38.885 my cat wasn't around in the days when they did cat gut guitar strings. 0:04:38.916,0:04:45.206 Anyway, the strings are made of nylon now so you don't have to worry if you are an animal liber (animal rights person). 0:04:45.206,0:04:50.366 These can be quite cheap. I started off on a Yamaha GC-100 I think, or a 110. 0:04:50.366,0:04:56.661 And it was a fantastic guitar. It didn't cost very much. Yamaha make really good nylon string acoustics. 0:04:56.661,0:05:01.769 I highly recommend them. I don't play them any more but for a beginners 0:05:01.769,0:05:05.823 guitar they are really wicked. Don't worry about getting one with an electric system, you 0:05:05.823,0:05:12.732 don't need it. They are slightly wider in the neck here. The width of the neck can be 0:05:12.732,0:05:21.663 considerably wider. 10mm wider I suppose, so quite a lot. So a nylon string guitar can 0:05:21.663,0:05:27.113 be great for people with really big hands as well. That is a really helpful thing there if 0:05:27.113,0:05:31.509 you have got big hands. The strings as well are a little bit further apart so it can make it 0:05:31.509,0:05:36.161 a little easier to fret your chords out when you are starting for a big handed dude. 0:05:36.161,0:05:41.526 You will have a little trouble getting further up the fingerboard here because you don't have any 0:05:41.526,0:05:46.227 access to the higher frets which could cause you problems, but probably not. 0:05:46.227,0:05:52.325 A lot of children learn on these because of the nylon strings. They are a little softer on the 0:05:52.325,0:05:58.034 fingers. I don't really recommend it. The one thing they are really good for is people 0:05:58.034,0:06:02.194 with really big hands, a classical guitar is great for that. Or really young children if they 0:06:02.194,0:06:06.909 are worried about playing on the metal strings and the skin on their fingers is too soft. 0:06:06.909,0:06:11.704 Generally nice. They don't have the same sound. 0:06:13.842,0:06:15.765 Classical guitars have a very different sound 0:06:15.765,0:06:18.910 . . . 0:06:18.910,0:06:21.872 To a steel string acoustic guitar. A lot more suited for 0:06:21.872,0:06:26.348 . . . 0:06:26.348,0:06:28.655 That kind of thing. Or you know 0:06:28.655,0:06:30.993 . . . 0:06:30.993,0:06:35.301 For doing that kind of guitar, [br]more so than for strumming along. 0:06:35.301,0:06:38.747 They don't tend to sound so good when they are strummed. So that is a classical guitar. 0:06:41.547,0:06:45.443 OK, the last type of guitar we are ging to have a look at is an electircal guitar. 0:06:45.443,0:06:54.509 Now this is a Fender Stratocaster which are a really good, standard electric guitar. They sound 0:06:54.509,0:06:58.326 good, they are quite versatile. They are thousands of different types of electric guitar 0:06:58.326,0:07:02.977 and the one you choose is really up to what you like and what sort of sound you want to 0:07:02.977,0:07:08.642 get. What guitar players you think look cool or whatever. There is not really a big deal about electric guitar. 0:07:08.642,0:07:13.226 But there is some big deals on electric guitar when you are considering buying one when 0:07:13.226,0:07:18.209 you are a beginner. In fact I really recommend getting an electric guitar as a beginner 0:07:18.209,0:07:23.875 guitar player for a few reasons. First of all they are easier to play. Generally the strings 0:07:23.875,0:07:28.126 are closer to the neck so it is easier to press down the chords. The neck is a little 0:07:28.126,0:07:32.343 thinner which for most people is an advantage when they are trying to stretch out for 0:07:32.343,0:07:38.175 chords it is a little bit easier to start off with. They are a little bit quieter. You can still hear an electric guitar 0:07:38.175,0:07:42.843 without an amplifier. Don't be under the impression that you have to buy an amplifier if you get an electric guitar. 0:07:42.843,0:07:46.742 You don't. You can play acoustically. You are not going to be very loud, which is 0:07:46.742,0:07:50.553 maybe a good thing for you neighbours when you are learning guitar. But you will hear, like, 0:07:50.553,0:07:54.042 . . . 0:07:54.042,0:08:00.147 Perfectly audible for you to hear while you are playing, no question. So 0:08:00.147,0:08:05.060 getting an electric guitar is good for that as well. [br]There are some really good quality budget electric guitars 0:08:05.060,0:08:11.849 around. The Yamaha Pacifica is the one that springs to mind. Ibanez do some really good budget electric guitars. 0:08:11.849,0:08:17.639 Fender Squires are OK, there have been a few quality control issues in the ones of seen 0:08:17.639,0:08:22.043 lately of their really cheap ones. I definitely like the Pacifica's. I don't have a deal with 0:08:22.043,0:08:29.574 Yamaha. I think they are really good, cheap electric guitars. Pretty decent sound, play well. [br] 0:08:29.574,0:08:36.941 So my personal recommendation is that if you are going to learn guitar and you are just 0:08:36.941,0:08:42.015 starting out, you don't know what sort of guitar to get, get an electric guitar. Simple. 0:08:42.015,0:08:45.303 Don't worry about an amplifier and stuff yet. Save that for a little bit later when you 0:08:45.303,0:08:49.433 know what you are doing, what sort of sound you want to make and stuff. Don't worry 0:08:49.433,0:08:55.367 about anything fancy, just standard Yamaha Pacifica or a Squire Stratocaster or I don't 0:08:55.367,0:09:00.304 know what the Ibanez one is called. Whatever. Any of those. Again, there will be some 0:09:00.304,0:09:05.042 links on the website for some specific guitars which I would recommend and why. 0:09:05.042,0:09:12.011 I just wanted to discuss with you the pros and cons between an electric, a classical and a steel string guitar. 0:09:12.626,0:09:18.072 Another thing that you might see is a semi acoustic guitar or a hollow body electric guitar. 0:09:18.072,0:09:22.401 Which are like regular electric guitars but they are mainly 0:09:22.401,0:09:26.798 used in jazz. Their bodies are a little bit thicker and they are actually hollow inside. So 0:09:26.798,0:09:29.785 they are somewhere in between an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar, but in my 0:09:29.785,0:09:35.467 opinion more in the electric guitar family. [br]Not a bad thing. If that is what tickles your fancy then that 0:09:35.467,0:09:41.283 would be a good thing. Otherwise just get yourself a nice, simple electric guitar and off you go. Instead of 0:09:41.283,0:09:46.473 spending too much time thinking of what guitar to get think a lot about doing loads of 0:09:46.473,0:09:50.953 practice and getting good real quick. Much better idea. OK. Hope that has helped you in 0:09:50.953,0:09:56.640 your dilemma a little and I shall see you for another lesson very soon. Bye, bye.