The 4 Important Things You Need To Know Before Buying Your First Guitar

To learn how to play the guitar, you’ll have to start by buying your first guitar. Buying your first guitar is an important decision that shouldn’t be hastily taken. Before passing by the store, clarifying four things in your head is convenient. In this way, when the time to make the purchase arrives, you’ll have already narrowed the field to look at.

If you go to a guitar store before thinking about what you’re looking for and tell them that you need a guitar, you’ll realize the amount of material available. It’ll be overwhelming! Choosing the wrong type of guitar will make things even more complex and create unnecessary frustrations.

It’s okay to go back and forth. It would be best if you considered a series of factors to avoid problems caused by a wrong choice. I’ll go into detail about every factor that, in my opinion, you should consider when buying your first guitar.

Buying your first guitar according to your favorite music genre

This is, without a doubt, the main factor that will tell you what type of guitar suits you best. You have to choose a guitar that fits the musical genre you want to play.

So the first thing you have to do is consider what guitars are commonly used in that genre. Please take a look at some videos and the instrument profiles used by the ton musicians of tton in tot an idea about the type of guitar you need.

If the guitar bug has bitten you because you love an artist and want to imitate him, you already have an essential piece of information. It would be best if you got a guitar of their style. I mean style because famous artists typically buy top-range products that are extremely expensive.

If the guitar bug has bitten you because you love an artist and want to imitate them, you already have an essential piece of information. It would be best if you got a guitar for their genre. I say “genre” because famous artists usually buy top-range products which are extremely expensive.

• If you want to play rock or heavy metal, you must buy an electric guitar.
• If you want to play flamenco, it will be a flamenco guitar.
• If you want to play folk music or to accompany songs while singing, purchasing an acoustic guitar or a classical one will do.
• However, if you’re unsure about which direction you want to take or if you want to play a variety of genres, check the following points to know what type of guitar suits you best.

You can always buy another guitar later, so don’t worry if you change your style after buying your first guitar. You can always buy another guitar later, so don’t worry if you change your musical genre after buying your first guitar.

Buying a guitar according to the ease to play

For a beginner, the ease of playing the guitar will influence the progress and improvement of the developed activities.

If you start with a steel-string acoustic guitar, you’ll quickly realize that you must strain to press the strings. Many students will have problems with a steel-string ustic guitar because it requires strength on the fingers.

If it could be a problem, consider getting a nylon-string classical guitar. These guitars require less strain on the fingers to press the strings. For this reason, most teachers recommend their students start with nylon strings, so their first months will not be too painful.

The classical guitar’s fingerboard is a bit wider than the two others. This could be beneficial for people with big fingers and beginners to play chords better.

Pros and cons of each type of guitar

Pros of electric guitars	Cons of electric guitars
Easy finger Easy to do highly personalized techniques such as vibrato and bending Suitable for many different styles	Not suitable for developing finger strength Difficult then move to acoustic guitar You need a way to output the sound like an amplifier. Finding the right tone is not easy for beginners prospers
Pros of acoustic guitars	Cons of acoustic guitars
Good for developing finger strength Easy to switch to electric guitar No need for any cables or an amplifier to start playing	.Start much more difficult Much tougher on your fingers Wider fretboard, something beginners will not always enjoys
Pros of classicalguitars	Cons of classical guitar
Soft finger Fretboard is a bit wider to facilitate fast and clean fingerstyle movements. Cheap	Limited music styles

I didn’t directly include the flamenco guitar in this list, but I consider it to be in the same box as the classical one. It has some technical characteristics of construction and woods that produce that typical flamenco sound and facilitate the performance of those devilishly fast scales used in this musical genre. If it’s your genre, don’t give it a second thought and get one of those.

Buying An Acoustic/Classic Guitar Or An Electric Guitar?

There’s a big difference between starting with an acoustic/classical guitar vs. with an electric one. The electric guitar is more accessible than the acoustic and the classical ones. This is good for a lot of people. The problem is that it is more difficult to change to classical or acoustic later. This way, changing from acoustic or classical guitar to an electric one is more accessible. So if you want to play the electric guitar and the acoustic or the classical one, start with the acoustic or classic one first.

If you only want to play the electric guitar, then it’s a simple choice. If you decide later to play the acoustic or the classical one, it might be difficult for you at the beginning, but with practice, you’ll master them as well.

Buying A Guitar For The Budget

The budget will also influence your purchase, but when you get to this point, you’ll have to decide whether you will buy an electric, classic, acoustic, or flamenco guitar. The price should not lean the scale on what type of guitar you will buy. Limit the range you will move, but don’t buy a guitar because it’s cheap. For every type of guitar, you will have a wide variety of prices.

After investigating the prices of the type of guitar you want, you need to fix a maximum amount to spend. It would be best if you tried buying a guitar of the highest quality in your budget. Don’t think that only the expensive guitars are the ones of good quality. There are good quality guitars available at low prices.

The best thing to do is to bring a friend or someone in your family who plays the guitar with you to try the guitars that you might like and who helps you only to identify problems like:

Your budget will also influence your purchase, but at this point, you have already decided whether to buy an electric, classical, acoustic, or flamenco guitar. The price shouldn’t tilt the scales toward what type of guitar you will buy. It will restrict the range of products you could choose, but don’t buy a guitar because it’s cheap. You’ll have a wide variety of guitar prices for every type.

After doing a quick price research on the type of guitar you want, put yourself the maximum amount you are willing to spend. It would be best if you bought the best quality guitar that fits your budget. Don’t’ think that expensive guitars are the only high-quality ones. Quality guitars at low prices are available.

The best is to take with you a friend or a relative that plays the guitar, so they try the guitars you might like and helps you to identify the possible problems of the kind:

• Difficulty to be played
• Tuning problems
• Too high strings
• Too low strings

With their help and the store seller’s advice, you’ll have an excellent guitar to start enjoying your new hobby.

Not going over the agreed budget is essential because you’ll find beautiful guitars you’d like to take home at the stores. If you let yourself go, you may get out of the store with a fantastic guitar but a hole in your pocket that any tailor could fix.

Conclusion Of Buying Your First Guitar

You have to keep in mind that it’s mostly about getting a decent guitar. One that you can play with. Even an expert guitarist will have problems playing it if it isn’t well made. You’re interested in buying the best guitar you can afford and checking it is in perfect condition. Most of the beginners that quit do so because they tried to learn with a bad guitar. The guitar that suits you best depends mainly on the musical genre you want to play and on your determination to work on the early stage of learning (the hardest one).

The safe option for many beginners is to start with a classical guitar. It’s easier to play, and it will be less likely to quit learning because of frustration related to a lack of progress at the beginning. So if after reading this article you’re still scratching your head, it could be an excellent option to buy a cheap classical guitar to learn the basics and then decide which direction you want to take.

Here you have my guide to buying a classical guitar. If you take your time to look for your best option and then look for the best offer, you’ll save money and take an excellent instrument that could last your whole life.