If you want to learn the electric guitar, chances are good that sooner or later you will be in the market to buy one. I guess you could conceivably get by just by relying on the kindness of friends and strangers to let you borrow one to practice on, but that could get real old real quick. So, once you’ve decided you want to buy your first electric guitar, where do you begin?
Well, it’d be easy just to say something like “this model is good, buy that one,” but there’s a few reasons I won’t. Two electric guitars from the same brand can look quite similar and sound and play completely different, and might have been made in different factories or even different countries. You can take two guitars of the same model, made in the same year, and find that one is great while another has serious defects. This is particularly true of guitars made in the less expensive price bracket. And one guitar that feels right in one person’s hands might be awkward and horrible in another’s.
You need to think of how much money you want to spend. You do sometimes see people get so enthusiastic about their new hobby that they’ll wanna throw a few thousand on their first axe, so they can get the very best that they (or their parents) can afford. Unless you’ve done so well for yourself that this isn’t a lot of money for you, then this is usually a bad idea. There are so many details to consider in an electric guitar – like the timber, the neck profile, the neck joint, the bridge, the pickups, the finish – these things are largely a matter of taste. If you already knew what was best for you, you probably wouldn’t be reading this article. By all means, spend a lot of money on a guitar.. that’s great: but buy something inexpensive first, and leave the rest of the money aside for the next one, or the one after that. Because even if you are happy to spend a lot of money on something you might not even like in a few weeks or a few years, there’s something cool about holding off from owning a special guitar until you feel like you’ve really earnt one with time and effort dedicated to your playing.
Once you’ve been playing for a while you will get to know what you do and don’t like in an electric guitar, but until you get to that stage it’s a killer idea to go shopping with a friend who has been playing a little longer. If they play a similar style of music to you, then all the better.. a guitarist who plays grunge can have a radically different idea about what makes a good guitar to one who plays jazz fusion, for instance. If you’re looking for a left-handed guitar then it would help to get a left-handed player to go with you, so that they can have a play of it.
If you absolutely don’t know anyone who you can go guitar shopping with, you can go to an internet forum and start a thread asking what’s good.. pay more attention to those posters whose playing you like, and who enjoy the sort of music you are looking to play.
Be careful of advice from salespeople in guitar stores. There are a few out there who will sell you something and not give a damn whether you’ll be happy with it. But far more common are the staff who just don’t know a lot about what they’re selling. Guitarists from all round the world will have stories about sales staff who can say the most ridiculous things about their products. There’s that saying that people don’t go into retail because they didn’t feel challenged enough by neurosurgery. Which isn’t completely fair to the awesome people in guitar shops who are passionate about guitars and make an effort to be really cool to their customers. But if you’re new to guitar shopping then it’s difficult to work out who knows what they’re on about. Far too many sales reps have a knack for coming across as confident and knowledgeable, all the while talking complete nonsense.
There are a few things you will need apart from the guitar – a case or a bag to carry it in, a strap so you can play standing up, and a few picks. You will also need to buy strings, to replace the ones on your guitar. It’s definitely worth considering a good quality guitar lead, and a metronome. Metronomes are a great practice tool, there are also some free ones you can run on your computer, a lot of people even find they had an old wind-up one at home without realising it. An electric tuner is definitely a must.
You can get an amp if you want one, but you can learn your instrument just fine without one. Electric guitars are made to be plugged into something, but practicing unplugged is fine. I have a big collection of amps but I do all my practice at home unplugged. It’s less hassle and it’s easier on the hearing. Most great amplifiers are actually far too loud to be used for practicing at home. I won’t go into what to look for because shopping for amplifiers is a whole topic in itself. Guitars work just fine without effects pedals, you don’t need them bundled in with your guitar. Good tuition materials make learning a great deal easier, but there are a lot to choose from so try not to be sold something just because of pushy sales tactics.
If you find a guitar you’re happy with, it pays to ask what sort of after-sales service they can give you.. will they throw in a free setup, or show you how to change the strings? While we’re talking about strings, be aware they come in different “gauges” (that’s just a guitar-nerd word for the thickness of this string), and when it comes time to change the strings you’ll need to replace them with strings of the same gauge, or get a new setup. So get them to tell you what’s on there when you buy it.
I’ll leave you with one last rule of thumb: If a guitar feels good, and it sounds good – it is good. Have fun.
Great article. Thx…