What guitar should you buy? (Guitar Lesson BC-102) Guitar for beginners, Getting started

Justin's Beginners Guitar Course v2.

This is the second video in Stage 0 - the "Before you begin" stage, and in this video discuss the common types of guitar and the ever present question of what guitar to buy if you are a beginner.

The Justinguitar Beginners Guitar Course, a series of over 100 lessons on guitar for beginners. Text support is on the web site and also in a proper old skool paper book which can be ordered from the web site of your local music store :)

Taught by Justin Sandercoe.

Full support at the justinguitar web site where you will find hundreds of lessons on a wide range of subjects, and all the scales and chords that you will ever need! There is a great forum too to get help, no matter what the problem.

And it is all totally free, no bull. No sample lessons, no memberships, no free ebook. Just tons of great lessons :)

To get help with this lesson (and for further info and tabs), find the Lesson ID in the video title (like ST-667 or whatever) and then look it up on the Lesson Index page of justinguitar.com

http://www.justinguitar.com

Have fun :)

.

Hi, how're you doin? Justin here.

In this lesson today we're going to be checking out the different types of guitar that

exist in the world. Well actually, just three kind of main types,

and talking about the pros and cons of each one. If you're a

beginner guitar player, looking to buy your first guitar, what

sort of thing you should be looking for.

So, there's three main types of guitar. The one I'm holding

in my arms now, is a steel string acoustic guitar. Which is

what most people kind of think of, like guitar players think of,

when they're thinking of an acoustic guitar.

The other types of guitar are an electric guitar and a

classical guitar. And a classical guitar is also a type of an

acoustic guitar as well, so we end up in this funny area

where things are not quite falling into one of the three

categories. But that's the most important three.

Now, when you're choosing which one of them you're going

to play, there's a few things that kind of set it off straight

away. If want to play rock guitar, get an electric guitar. Full

stop, easy, done, sold. If you've got not very much money to

spend and you're really looking at as cheap a guitar as

possible, get an electric guitar. I know that sounds kind of

funny, that you think "oh, it's an electric guitar, it's got more

fancy stuff in it", but actually the problem is, with acoustic

guitars, especially steel string acoustic guitars, when they're

really cheap, they're really difficult to play. They've got

what's called a high action, which means that the strings are

quite far away from the fingerboard, usually, and so they're

really, really difficult to play barre chords on. They tend to

not sound very nice as well, cheap acoustic guitars, 'cause

they're made of laminated wood and my general opinion is,

that if you've got not very much money, an electric guitar is

a far better way to go.

If you want to play classical guitar, you should definitely buy

a classical guitar. Hey, a little bit obvious that one there,

Justin, thanks! But it's true. You don't want to be trying to

play classical music on a steel string guitar or an electric

guitar. That said, I'm not really a classical guitar teacher, I

don't cover classical guitar as part of my course.

I don't really think it's the best, most fun thing to learn guitar

on, classical guitar 'cause it's all like learning to read notes

and playing one note at a time and stuff and it's a bit easier to

kind of just get going if you're playing chords and stuff.

Anyway, so, this is a steel string acoustic guitar. The things

to look for when you're checking out an acoustic guitar is:

1: does it sound nice? Now, the best thing you can do when

you're going shopping for a guitar if you're a beginner is:

take somebody who knows what they're doing. Right? Take

somebody who's played guitar for a bit, can strum a few

chords, you can have a listen to it, see if you like the sound

of it. If you're a complete beginner and you know nothing,

you kind of have to rely on the sales people and a lot of the

time, they're kind of full of it and don't really tell you the truth

because they're trying to sell you something, right? So,

On the website, there's a link from the BC-102, which will

give you some links to some products and stuff and some

stores that I recommend. But the big thing you're looking for

here, on a steel string acoustic guitar, is that that action is

not too high. And that's like the distance here, between the

string and the fret. If you press the string down, you know, you

probably don't want it to be more than, I don't know, three or

four millimeters at the twelfth fret. Right? Definitely not five

millimeters or more. Because you will get them that high on

a cheap guitar. So I wouldn't be looking at really cheap steel

string acoustic guitars, but you can do if you want.

You can get a thing called electro-acoustics as well, which is

an acoustic guitar with a pickup system, which this is. I've

got a little volume controls and stuff here. This guitar has

actually got a little microphone built into it, you don't really

need that when you're a beginner. If later on you're going to

do gigs and stuff, you can retrofit it later. You can get the

electric system put in afterwards. Or, you can buy yourself

a guitar. So, another guitar, a better guitar maybe. So if

you're learning on one guitar, you can get a fairly cheap

one to learn on. When you decide that kind of professional

now, you want to go and do a gig, then buy another guitar.

You know, I'd be more inclined to do that than spending a

whole lot of money. Especially on a budget guitar, you don't

want to waste money on an electric system. Because it's a

budget guitar, the electric system's not going to be very

good either and it's going to take more money away from

just having a nice guitar in the first place. So, that's a steel

string guitar.

Okay, this is a classical guitar. And these are quite easy to

play. I learned on a classical guitar. Also, they're called a

nylon string acoustic because the strings aren't metal

anymore, we're talking about nylon. Used to be made of cat

gut, believe it or not. Definitely glad my cat wans't around in

the days when they did cat gut guitar strings. Anyway, the

strings are made of nylon now so you don't have to worry if

you're an animal lover. These can be quite cheap. I've

started off on a Yamaha GC-100 I think, or 110. And it was a

fanstastic guitar. It didn't cost very much. Yamaha make

really good nylon string acoustics, highly recommend them.

I don't play them anymore, but for beginner's guitars, they're

really wicked. Don't worry about getting one with an electric

system, you don't need it. They're slightly wider in the neck

here. The height, or no not the height, the width of the neck

can be considerably wider. You know, 10 mils, I suppose,

wider, so quite a lot. So a nylon string acoustic guitar can be

great for people with big hands as well. That's a really, really

helpful thing there if you've got big hands. And the strings

are also a little bit further apart. So it can make it a little

easier to fret your chords out when you're starting again if,

you know, for a big handed dude. You'll have a lot of trouble

getting further up the fingerboard here, because you don't

have any access to the higher frets which could cause you

problems, but probably not. A lot of children learn on these

because of the nylon strings and they're a little bit softer on

the fingers. Don't really recommend it. They're good for,

the one thing they're good for is people with big hands.

Right, a classical guitar is great for that. Or really young

children if they're worried about playing on the metal strings

and their fingers, the skin on their fingers is too soft.

Generally nice, they just don't kind of have the same sound.

Classical guitars have a very different sound

. . .

to a steel string acoustic guitar. A lot more suited for

. . .

that kind of thing, or you know

. . .

you know, for doing that kind of guitar, more so

than kind of strumming along, they don't tend to

sound so good when they're strummed. So, that's a classical guitar.

Okay, the last type of guitar we're going to have a look at, is

an electric guitar. Now, this is a Fender Stratocaster.

Which are a really good, kind of standard electic guitar. You

know, they sound good, they're quite versatile. There are

thousands of different types of electric guitar and the one

that you choose is really up to what you like and what sort of

sound you want to get and what guitar players you think

look cool or whatever. You know, there's not really a big

deal about electric guitar. But there is some big deals on

electric guitar that are really important when you're

considering buying one as a beginner.

In fact, I really recommend getting an electric guitar as a

beginner guitar player, for a few reasons. First of all: they're

easier to play. Generally, the strings are closer to the neck,

so it's easier to press down the chords. The neck is a little

thinner, which for most people is an advantage when they're

trying to stretch out for the chords. It's a little bit easier to

start off with. They're a lot quieter. You can still hear an

electric guitar without an amplifier. So don't be under the

impression you have to buy an amplifier if you get an

electric guitar. You don't, you can play acoustically. You're

not going to be very loud, right? Which is maybe a good

thing for your neighbours when you're learning guitar.

But you'll hear like

. . .

it's perfectly audible for you to hear while you're playing.

You know, no question. So, getting an electric guitar is good

for that as well. There's some really good quality budget

electric guitars around. The Yamaha Pacifica is the one that

springs to mind. Ibanez do some really good budget electric

guitars, Fender Squiers are okay, there's been a few quality

control issues in ones I've seen lately and they're really

cheap ones, but definitely like the Pacificas great. I don't

have a deal with Yamaha, it's just I think they're really,

really good, cheap electric guitar. You know, pretty decent

sound, play well. So it's really, that'll be the thing that my

personal recommendation is that if you're going to learn

guitar, you're just starting out, you don't know what sort of

guitar to get, get an electric guitar. Simple. Don't worry

about getting an amplifier and stuff yet, save that for a little

bit later when you know what you're doing, what sort of

sounds you want to make and stuff. Don't worry about

anything fancy, just standard, you know, Yamaha Pacifia or

Squier Stratocaster or, I don't know what the Ibanez one's

called. Or whatever, you know. Any of those. Again, there'll

be some links on the website for some specific guitars that I

recommend and why. And I just wanted to discuss with you

the ideas of the pros and cons between the electric,

classical and the steel string guitar.

Another thing that you might see is a semi-acoustic guitar.

Or a hollow body electric guitar. Which are kind of a regular

electric guitar, they're mainly used in jazz. And their bodies

are a little bit thicker and they're actually hollow inside.

So they're kind of somewhere between an acoustic guitar

and an electric guitar. But definitely, in my opinion, in the

electric guitar family. Not a bad thing if that's what tickles

your fancy, then that would be a great thing. Otherwise,

just get yourself a nice, simple electric guitar and off you go.

And instead of thinking about, or spending too much time

thinking about what guitar to get, think a lot about doing

loads of practice and getting good real quick. Much better

idea. Okay, hope that's helped you in your dilemma a little

and I shall see you for another lesson very soon. Bye bye!