Choosing a Guitar: Guitar-Type, Cost and Sound Considerations

Whether you’re someone who’s planning on making his first guitar purchase, or a seasoned pro who’s might be looking for an upgrade, buying a guitar can be a lot of fun. However it is important to make the right purchase – something that can be pretty difficult. Buying a guitar can be a daunting prospect for someone buying his very first axe.

In order to make a smart purchase, there are certain factors which need to be kept in consideration:

1. Acoustic vs Electric – One of the first decisions that you’ll be required to make when buying a guitar is choosing between an acoustic and an electric guitar.

Personally, I recommend that new guitar players or newbies start off with an acoustic six-stringer – because acoustic guitar is a bit harder to get use and generally play. The reason behind is simply the fact that steel-stringed acoustic guitar are tougher to hold down, and have a much higher action than electric ones.

Therefore, it is always recommended to start off with the tougher instrument, as it conditions your fingers and your muscles in the long run. Ultimately, when you do decide to switch to an electric, you’ll have a relatively easier time doing so.

Acoustic guitars also produce their own sound, and can be used as stand-alone musical instruments – unlike electric guitars which need to be hooked up with amplifiers and remain close to an electric source. This makes acoustics more portable and gives you the ability to be able to carry them easily and play them any time or anywhere.

Good acoustic guitars include those made by Yamaha (my personal favorite), but you can’t go wrong with a Martin, Takamine, Seagul, Gibson or an Ovation acoustic guitar.

If you are looking to upgrade to an electric, make sure that you pair it up with a good amplifier and maybe even an effects processor. The best, most expensive electric guitar won’t sound any good if it’s hooked up to a cheap amp. Make sure that you have a budget that’s big enough to fit in a good electric guitar and an equally good amp.

Some of the best electric guitars are made by well-known companies like Fender, Ibanez, Jackson and Gibson. Similarly, amps made by Peavey are quite popular and work very well. You can easily pick any one of these up online on stores such as GuitarCenter.

As a newbie, I recommend trusting your instincts when choosing your first guitar, and buy a guitar that sounds the best, because you can always upgrade to something better later on.

2. Never Buy Cheap – Personally, as someone who’s been in the business for a good number of years, and has come across his fair share of guitars, I almost always discourage compromising on the cost, and ending up with something that’s cheap or non-branded.

Because as you’ll soon find out, it is always better to buy a good, branded instrument that sounds good and feels good when playing. A cheap axe might look like a good deal at first – and who knows, you might even get lucky when buying cheap and land a real bargain or a fixer-upper – however in most cases, the guitarist almost always ends up regretting it.

This is due to the simple fact that if a guitar doesn’t play well, sound well or feel well (which cheap guitar almost always don’t), you won’t really play it a lot, would you?

Most of the people end up buying cheap because they’re unsure if they’ll stick with playing the guitar in the long run or not, because if they don’t, that’s money wasted. However that is the wrong approach to take. What if you DO decide to stick with it? What happens then? You’ll be stuck with a cheap guitar that plays bad and sounds worse!

Remember that nay guitar that you buy can be easily sold on Amazon or eBay (or anywhere online) with a minimal loss on investment – if you do decide guitar is not your thing. With a cheap acoustic guitar, expect to sell it for a lot less than what you paid for it.

If budget’s an issue, go for something like a Squier Stratocaster or an Epiphone Les Paul. Both of these are budget-line products, and provide just about the same sound, feel and look as their more expensive counterparts (namely the Fender Stratocaster and the Gibson Les Paul). So in the end, you get more for less!

My advice: go for a cheap branded guitar that fits in your budget.

3. Sound – Last but most certainly not the least, sound is one of the most important considerations when it comes to choosing a guitar.

Different guitars produce different sounds. For instance acoustics and electrics produce totally different sounds. Furthermore, even though all electric guitars are produced from wood, they can end up sounding very different – which depends on the type of wood used to construct the body of the guitar.

Different wood types produce different sounds, so make sure you do your research by asking a friend, getting help from the salesperson and reading up online.

Electric guitars, on the other hand, can produce just about any kind of sound as you’d like them to. For this purpose, it is necessary to pair them up with a powerful effects processor (commonly referred to as an effects pedal).

As mentioned before, electric guitars, unlike acoustics, don’t produce any sound of their own – something to be kept in mind before making the purchase. This is due to the fact the electric guitars are solid-body instruments, that use a set of electronics and electromagnets to produce sound, which is then processed and sent out through the amp. Acoustics, on the other hand, are hollow-body guitars; their body acts as a chamber, through which the sound is produced as a result of string vibration.

Even then, the sound varies when it comes to different electric guitars and electric guitar brands – especially in terms of the genre of music you intend on playing. For instance, it is widely accepted that Gibson’s Les Paul produces a thick, distorted sound that is more suitable for ‘heavier’ music such as the rock and metal genres. Conversely, a Fender Strat is a much more versatile guitar that is known for producing a sharper sound – suitable for genres such as country, jazz, rock and blues, among others.

Additional Read: here are some great guitar buying tips, courtesy our friends over at LearnGuitar.org.