How to buy your first guitar?

Are you considering to buy a new guitar, in order to start learning to play? With a limited budget, how are you going to choose your first guitar?

Basically you need to know several factors to make the right choice. They are:

(a) What type of guitar?
(b) Size of guitar
(c) How does it sound?
(d) How much should you spend?

What type of guitar?
Generally there are 3 types of guitar, namely classical guitar, acoustic guitar and electric guitar. Acoustic guitar strings are made of steel, and produce a big, bright, brash tone. Classical strings are nylon, and sound mellow. Electric guitars come in two main flavors, depending on the kind of pickups they have, whether a single-coil pick up or a humbuckers. For a beginner starting to learn guitar, an acoustic guitar would be much suitable. Acoustic guitar, or better known as folk guitar serves as a good starting point since beginners would normally learn to play some folk musics rather than classical music or rock music. On the other hand, a decent acoustic guitar is cheaper than a decent electric or classical guitar.

Size of guitar
This is especially true for children and people with small hands. A guitar that is too large will make it difficult for them to make the proper reach with both the right and left hands. Having their arm as high as their shoulder to reach over the guitar can become uncomfortable and at worst painful. Over reaching for the first fret puts them at a great technical disadvantage because their muscles are already stretched out making it difficult to properly move their fingers on the fingerboard. Generally, adults are comfortable with full size guitars.

How does it sound?
Well, this is something to do with guitar quality. The most important material in the construction of a guitar is the wood. At the lower level of guitar an important question is whether the top and the body of the guitar is made from solid wood or laminate. Solid wood means that the top is made from one solid piece of wood. Laminate is wood in which sheets of wood are layered on top of each other. Usually a thin layer of more expensive wood is placed over several layers of cheaper wood which saves money. The vibrations of the strings are transmitted to the air as sound waves through the wood of the guitar. Laminate does not vibrate as well as a single piece of wood which is why it does not produce a guitar with a beautiful sound and decent volume. It is, however, much cheaper than solid wood which is why it is used in making budget guitars.

How much should you spend?
This may seem a little difficult without giving you numbers but the old adage is almost always true, "You get what you pay for". Sometimes you even get less. As a general rule, cheaply made guitars are not really playable or adjustable. They are not worth your time or money.

Be sure to include an electronic tuner when you select your guitar.
A tuner is about as important as having picks and strings. Keeping your guitar tuned to standard pitch is important for several reasons. First, guitars are manufactured and set-up to withstand the tension of standard pitch, which produces the best musical tone. Second, guitars are initially set-up and adjusted for standard pitch and third, standard pitch is the musical standard for most instruments. If your guitar is tuned too high above standard pitch the excessive tension can damage your instrument and at the very least break your strings.

As to cater the needs of beginners, we have focused our products at the entry level range. In another word we do not sell expensive solid wood guitar, but instead we sell high quality laminate guitars at much affordable prices.

Anyway, thanks for reading this post and hopefully you will buy a great one!

This post is written and re-arranged based on the following sites:
http://www.heartwoodguitar.com/resources/buyguitar/
http://www.firstguitar.com/Articles/HowtoChoosetheRightGuitar.html