Choosing a Guitar | Wanna Play Music

Electric guitar is a good choice for a beginner. It's usually easier to play than an acoustic guitar because its strings are close together, they're a lighter gauge and its neck is narrower. It won't be less expensive than acoustic guitar, though. You might think that an electric guitar is an instrument all by itself, but that's not entirely correct. The guitar needs an amplifier to create the sound you hear. The tricky part is picking the right ones to put together to get a good sound. Luckily, you don't need to spend an arm and a leg for a good beginner's setup, and can in fact find beginner's kits consisting of a guitar, small amplifier, strap, and cord for less than $300.00. An electric guitar alone can be had for well under $200.

Your local music store should have a selection of guitars at all levels. When you're starting out, you don't have the same concerns as someone who's been playing for years. Here are the most important features in an instrument:

• Affordability
• Durability
• Playability
• Portability

Affording an decent-quality electric guitar is easier than ever. Years ago, an inexpensive guitar usually meant one that played badly and sounded worse. Most of them were hard to keep in tune and were hard to play. And that was a major reason why a lot of guitarists gave up early. It took a long time, but manufacturers finally got wise to what everyone else seemed to know: If you get a crappy guitar, you'll quit, and you'll never want to play one again. In just the last 10 years, the quality of inexpensive electric guitars has gone way up, and the prices have come way down. As a result, for less than $200, you can get an electric guitar that has virtually all of the features of a more expensive model, but without some of the deluxe features that you don't really need anyway.

What should I look for?
If you know someone who already plays guitar, then ask them to come with you to the music store to help you check out guitars. If you've already talked to a teacher about lessons, you might want to ask him or her for some suggestions, too. Go into the store with a budget in mind and ask to see guitars that fit that budget. Let the salesperson know you're just starting out, so that he or she doesn't try to distract you with more expensive guitars, or ones with features you don't need right now. Ask whether they have beginner's kits, which may save you a lot of shopping and a lot of money.

If you have to shop separately for an electric guitar and an amp, focus your main attention on the guitar. Why? Because you're going to have a very close relationship with your guitar, and it has to feel right. Skimping on a guitar for a better or louder amp will only find you with a guitar that doesn't play as well as you'd like, which will make playing it harder and less enjoyable.

Do looks count? Sure, but they don't affect the playability of a guitar. If you don't like the way a guitar looks, but love the way it feels and sounds, looks probably run second. That's what they make stickers for anyway.

If your local store sells a lot of a particular brand or is an authorized service center for a particular brand, that could be a big plus for you. They'll know a lot about the construction and features of that brand and they'll know how to service it when and if you need it.

How big or small should it be?
Even though electric guitars are available in more shapes than anyone can keep track of, there aren't very many different actual sizes. The most common difference in size is in the neck's length, but even then, with few exceptions it may vary only about an inch or so, at most. Because there are only a few smaller guitars for beginners, it may be best to look for a regular-size guitar with a neck that you feel you can get your hand around. If you're over 10 years old, go with a full-size guitar.

One pickup? Two? Three?
A pickup is a coil of wire that sits under the strings and is set on top of, or into, the body. It senses changes in magnetism when a string vibrates, and sends a current to an amplifier, which amplifies it into the sound you hear coming from the speaker. Some guitars have one pickup, while others have two or three. Because pickups "sense" different tone at different places along the length of the strings, a pickup located at one place will deliver a different sound to your amplifier than one located at a different place, even if they're identical pickups.

There are two main types of pickups: Single-coil and humbucking (or humbucker). A single-coil pickup, as its name implies, has one coil of wire, while a humbucking pickup has two coils of wire. Because its two coils of wire are cleverly connected together, a humbucking pickup cancels out a certain amount of hum and noise that come from other electrical sources, such as fluorescent lights. Having two coils also can make a guitar with humbucking pickups sound "darker," meaning with less bright treble. Note that these are generalizations, and that some guitars with humbucking pickups sound plenty bright, while many guitars with single-coil pickups don't sound like a beehive when you play them in a garage.

What does this mean to you, when you're choosing a beginning guitar? Not much, really. Your main concern right away isn't your tone, but rather gaining technique. The tone part comes later. If you buy a guitar now that you hope to use later on, when you're in a band, then listen to someone who knows how to play, and take note of the guitar they use. A single pickup is all you really need on an electric guitar when you're starting out. If the guitar has two or three, that's fine, too. But don't expect a guitar to be louder or sound better because it has multiple pickups. It just doesn't work that way!

Solidbody or hollowbody?
As you might expect, a solidbody guitar has a solid body, usually made from a hard wood such as maple, alder, ash, mahogany, etc. Even though it's solid, a solidbody's body may be two, three, or more pieces of solid wood glued together. Sometimes, the guitar's face, or top, has another nice-looking piece of wood glued onto the body. A solidbody guitar can be sculpted in many different ways, sometimes for comfort (a "tummy cut" on the back of the guitar is a scooped-out area that makes it feel better, especially when you're sitting down), sometimes for fun looks.

A hollowbody electric guitar is usually a couple of inches deep, making it more like an acoustic guitar, except without the big soundhole (some have f-holes, like you'd see on a violin, cello, or string bass). Except on the most expensive models, a hollowbody electric guitar has a laminated top, meaning that it is several layers of wood glued together, much like plywood. This gives it a lot of strength and makes it easy to shape when it is being made. A hollowbody guitar has a more boomy sound than a solidbody, although its tone is not so different that you wouldn't recognize it as an electric guitar. The only down side to a hollowbody guitar is this: When it is plugged into an amplifier and the amplifier is at a high volume, feedback occurs more easily than with a solidbody guitar. What is feedback? It's that howling sound you hear when the sound is recycled from the amp's speaker through the guitar and back through the speaker and back through the guitar. It builds up and can be really annoying. If you're playing at a low volume, or are standing far away from the amp, then feedback is less likely.

A third type of electric guitar, the semi-solidbody, is a hybrid of solid and hollow designs. Think of a hollowbody guitar with a slab of wood that runs through the body from the neck to the butt end. This makes the guitar stronger, helps to reduce feedback (a little), and makes it possible to build the guitar with a thinner body, from front to back.

Which type of guitar should you buy? Initially, your best deal will be a solidbody because basic solidbody guitars are cheapest to build and therefore cheapest to buy. In addition, they're the most durable.

What are all those knobs and switches, and do I really need them?
Some electric guitars have one knob, while others look like the cockpit of a 777 jet, all covered with knobs and switches. Do you need a lot of knows and switches? The short answer is: No. The long answer is this: If you have multiple pickups, you usually have a volume control for each one, and there may be a tone control for each one, as well. In addition, when you have more than one pickup, there's usually a switch for selecting which pickup is on. The switch often has settings for more than one pickup being on, too.