First guitar

[paulie-mafia]

At the age of 29-and-too-many-months it's high time I stop playing air guitar, get my arse in gear and give the real thing a go. I had a few lessons back when I was about 12, but wasted the opportunity.

I've got about £300 to spend - what should I go for? I love Pink Floyd, Led Zep, Mott the Hoople, Klaxons, Arcade Fire, Bowie...

Also, there are a number of guitar tutors on Gumtree in the South East London area. Is that the best bet? Not sure I can self-teach with a book...

Ta very much!

[andy_quantum]

There's a couple of similar topics on the Music forum

Consensus seemed to be a Yamaha Pacifica wasnt a bad starting point, if you've got spare cash get a half decent amp as well, some little Marshalls kicking around for not much money

[RobDickinson]

Make sure you dont buy a cheap strat/ibanez copy with a whammy bar that will detune every time you look at it..

IMO get a good Les Paul Copy & little amp + tuner.

[fleetelise]

get either an epiphone les paul or a fender (mexico) strat or tele.

or a yamaha pacifica

10-15 w practise amp

try holding a couple of guitars - everyone finds different guitars more or less comfortable (e.g digging into you if you sit down). Go to a guitar shop on a weekday, saturdays will be chaos!

away you go!

[paulie-mafia]

Thanks chaps! And how about keeping it tuned? Where on earth do I start?

[RobDickinson]

paulie-mafia said:

Thanks chaps! And how about keeping it tuned? Where on earth do I start?

Initialy the easiest way is with an electronic tuner, they should be about 20 quid I guess.

Or you could try using tones and tuning by ear. Should be tuned before you play every time realy.

[andy_quantum]

There's online tuners if you get stuck

[minimoog]

I tried a few guitars out the other day as I had half an hour to kill. All tried unplugged so as not to expose my inability to actually play

I'd heard good things about Epiphone but I tried an Epi LP and it felt like utter ste. Not sure what model it was but is was stickered at £270 reduced from £400+. There was a whole stand of them thus reduced. Not bloody surprised...

Conversely they had a nice Reverend for £320. Looked and felt great. An Ibanez ART100 also looked alright for £210.

Just to add to the confusion a PRS SE at £420 felt rather nice, but a Godin at £1100 felt no better (might have sounded better amped of course...)

Lesson being try before you buy

[Ordinary Bloke]

I started one year ago with a Yamaha FG730S acoustic and night-classes.

Next month I'm off to GAK Brighton gak,co,uk to get my Fender Strat, I already have a Line6 Pocket Pod and some headphones (or use my hifi).

I liked the look of Epi Les Pauls but prefer the sound of a Strat. But it's good to learn on an acoustic, you just pick it up, nothing to plug in.

Best of luck, stick with it, you're never too old...

[smiller]

minimoog said:

Lesson being try before you buy

Good advice.

I've always liked the sound and feel of Les Pauls, and always been uncomfortable playing Strats. My current PRS is a nice middle ground.

For novices, a Yam Pacifica is really very good.

[ganglandboss]

Another vote for the Pacifica.

I wouldn't touch the Squier Strat though, the earlier Japanese Squiers badged as 'Stratocaster' were OK but I don't think much to the newer Chinese ones badged as 'Strat'.

As for tuners, get a decent chromatic tuner, i.e. one that tells you the note you are playing rather than having to switch to the note you want. It makes things easier when you want to play with altered tunings.

[gbbird]

As above,

A squire Strat, Yamaha or Les Paul Copy. You won't go far wrong

g

[paulie-mafia]

Thanks very much for the advice - no doubt I'll be back on here in a few days with more questions!

[Stamp]

I have a nice PRS santana SE I will be parting with very soon. Lovely blue with trem....

[bigbadbikercats]

minimoog said:

Just to add to the confusion a PRS SE at £420 felt rather nice, but a Godin at £1100 felt no better (might have sounded better amped of course...)

I think the PRS SEs are 'kin brilliant for the money, and you may well be able to do a little better than £420 if you're not too bothered about having this years model and colour... If there's a model which suits you (if you're a Tele or Strat guy then there's nothing in the current PRS SE line which is going to hold much appeal) I'd reccomend them without reservation.

I got my son a PRS SE Singlecut for £360-ish a little while ago and was very taken with it (much nicer in all respects than the similiarly priced Epiphone Les Paul Standard we were also looking at), so much so in fact that we ended up walking out with a Singlecut "Soapbar" for me as well :-)

--
Jonathon

[ralphk]

to be honest, most guitars these days are pretty good.

Someone said don't go for anything with a whammy bar, thats brilliant advice for a first guitar, you don't need to be messing about with one of these when you are trying to learn the basics!

Your best bet will be something japanese probably, such as a pacifica, or a Jap strat of some sort. You could get something pretty good for that sort of budget. maybe have a look at a few ibanez guitars

[Ordinary Bloke]

I kind-of said it in my previous post, there's a lot to be said for an acoustic for learning. You don't have to plug anything in, so you can pick it up a few times a day - which is really important.

If you have an electric geetar you have to have a lead, FX (probably), amp, and switch them on before you start. And an electric weighs a lot, and moving it and all the other bits from one room to another is a pain. And those extra's cost a lot, too.

So as a learning guitar, there's a lot to be said for an acoustic...

[bga]

Ordinary Bloke said:

So as a learning guitar, there's a lot to be said for an acoustic...

I agree, though vaguely remember having this discussion on here a while back & there was plenty of difference in opinion.

Personally I think something like a Crafter electro/acoustic + £60 on a setup will give the best of both worlds for a beginner.

[Ordinary Bloke]

bga said:

Ordinary Bloke said:

So as a learning guitar, there's a lot to be said for an acoustic...

I agree, though vaguely remember having this discussion on here a while back & there was plenty of difference in opinion.

Personally I think something like a Crafter electro/acoustic + £60 on a setup will give the best of both worlds for a beginner.

Oh yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of difference of opinion. But for dipping in and out (ie not a teenager with hours to spare every day) an acoustic is good. I have both, but I'm currently so busy I rarely plug in the electric.

Electro-acoustic, IMHO, are neither here nor there. It's an acoustic which you can amplify if you want to go on stage. But my acoustic is already quite loud, so I'd see no point in being able to amplify it. And for a first electric guitar, you'd need a real one: Strat (not Squier), Epiphone, PRS etc.

[gbbird]

Ordinary Bloke said:

bga said:

Ordinary Bloke said:

So as a learning guitar, there's a lot to be said for an acoustic...

I agree, though vaguely remember having this discussion on here a while back & there was plenty of difference in opinion.

Personally I think something like a Crafter electro/acoustic + £60 on a setup will give the best of both worlds for a beginner.

Oh yeah, I'm sure there's a lot of difference of opinion. But for dipping in and out (ie not a teenager with hours to spare every day) an acoustic is good. I have both, but I'm currently so busy I rarely plug in the electric.

Electro-acoustic, IMHO, are neither here nor there. It's an acoustic which you can amplify if you want to go on stage. But my acoustic is already quite loud, so I'd see no point in being able to amplify it. And for a first electric guitar, you'd need a real one: Strat (not Squier), Epiphone, PRS etc.

I too support the use of an acoustic guitar for lots of reasons. In general, they are harder to play in terms of string action, neck and tightness, plus they are more unforgiving, so if you get it right on an acoustic, you will find the move to a good electric very easy (and flattering )