Picking A Wrong Acoustic Guitar - A Beginner's Disaster
Beginning guitarists sometimes experienced a lot of problems in their guitar journey and decided to quit. Some gave up because they never produced good musical tones with their guitar while others complained they could not take the pain.
Some people think that a budget acoustic guitar is good enough for beginners because if they decide to quit they don't lose much money. This maybe half true but sometimes people forget that beginning guitarists often stop playing because they feel they can't take the pain anymore without realizing that they picked up the wrong axes.
Cheap guitars are OK as long as they meet the condition below:
The first thing to check is the guitar neck. Don't buy a guitar with bowed neck. To check this you can press the sixth string at both first and 12th frets. It should leave a tiny gap only between the string and the frets.
The second thing to check is playability. If a guitar has a good playability you can play any chords on its fretboard at different position without problems or finger pains. You should feel comfortable playing all over the fretboard.
A guitar with good playability normally has a low action. Action is the distance measured from the top of fret #12 to the bottom of the 6th string. Try to get an acoustic guitar with action 3mm to 4mm.
The last thing to check is intonation. Good intonation means each note pressed on any fret across the fretboard should stay in tune. A guitar may sound OK when you play open chords but once you are moving your chords along the fretboard you may experience out of tune chords. This is a due to bad intonation and nothing related to the guitar tuning at all. Use guitar tuner to take some measurement in case you are in doubt.
Cheap guitars tend to sacrifice the guitar playability and/or intonation. If you are unsure it's a good idea to get one of your friend that has guitar experience to guide you and recommend you some guitars to test. Based on his/her recommendation you then choose one that is comfortable in your hand. Guitar appearance may fool you easily.
A budget guitar that meets the basic criteria above is worth buying. With very limited budget you can't expect much but you won't get a crap guitar either if you follow this guideline correctly. - 18418
Some people think that a budget acoustic guitar is good enough for beginners because if they decide to quit they don't lose much money. This maybe half true but sometimes people forget that beginning guitarists often stop playing because they feel they can't take the pain anymore without realizing that they picked up the wrong axes.
Cheap guitars are OK as long as they meet the condition below:
The first thing to check is the guitar neck. Don't buy a guitar with bowed neck. To check this you can press the sixth string at both first and 12th frets. It should leave a tiny gap only between the string and the frets.
The second thing to check is playability. If a guitar has a good playability you can play any chords on its fretboard at different position without problems or finger pains. You should feel comfortable playing all over the fretboard.
A guitar with good playability normally has a low action. Action is the distance measured from the top of fret #12 to the bottom of the 6th string. Try to get an acoustic guitar with action 3mm to 4mm.
The last thing to check is intonation. Good intonation means each note pressed on any fret across the fretboard should stay in tune. A guitar may sound OK when you play open chords but once you are moving your chords along the fretboard you may experience out of tune chords. This is a due to bad intonation and nothing related to the guitar tuning at all. Use guitar tuner to take some measurement in case you are in doubt.
Cheap guitars tend to sacrifice the guitar playability and/or intonation. If you are unsure it's a good idea to get one of your friend that has guitar experience to guide you and recommend you some guitars to test. Based on his/her recommendation you then choose one that is comfortable in your hand. Guitar appearance may fool you easily.
A budget guitar that meets the basic criteria above is worth buying. With very limited budget you can't expect much but you won't get a crap guitar either if you follow this guideline correctly. - 18418
About the Author:
Visit beginner-guitarlessons.com to learn more about acoustic guitars and get other practical information to spice up your guitar playing!
posted by X - Men at
8:33 AM
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