Guitar Lessons For Beginners – “What To Look For When Buying Your First Guitar”

Guitar Lessons For Beginners and Buying Your First Guitar – Buying your first guitar can be very overwhelming. You probably don’t want to spend a whole bunch of money because afterall: your just starting out, you don’t know if you’ll stick with it for very long, you’re not not even sure if playing and learning guitar is something you’ll want to pursue. However, be very careful because this way of thinking can end up being a BIG mistake and waste of money. I want to set you up for success so here’s my beginner’s guide to buying your first guitar.

Guitar Buying Tip #1 “Always start off on an acoustic guitar, don’t jump to electric”

If you start off on an acoustic, you’ll be setup for success when it’s time to “graduate” to electric. The acoustic guitar naturally has thicker strings, a thicker fret board and builds strength and dexterity in your fingers. The acoustic also toughens up your fingers and makes the skin thicker.

Guitar Buying Tip #2 “Buy From A Lower Inventory/Mom and Pop guitar shop, not the big guys”

Best Buy is even selling guitars now… Please. Let’s stick to what we know people. I wouldn’t buy a guitar from Best Buy, just like you woulnd’t buy a computer from Kmart. All these big department stores just got into musical instruments only to test the market and push products, they really don’t care what instrument works best for you. Support the little guys. You’ll find their guitars are in better shape due to lack of people who don’t care testing them out, dropping them and constantly messing with them. A good sign is if a guitar shop doesnt’t let you play their guitar without a salesman helping you. Keep the little mom and pop shops in business.

Guitar Buying Tip #3 “Fall In Love, Don’t buy on impulse”

Walk into the guitar shop and “fall in love”! Ha sounds weird but its true. You need to find a guitar that you are absolutely in love with. Don’t settle for just any guitar and have the attitude that “I have to get one today”. Save up the money and then go out and over the course of a month, pick one out. If you buy just to buy, I guarentee you’ll be dissapointed. You want to be crazy about your guitar. How it looks, how it plays, etc. Fall in love with it.

Guitar Buying Tip #4 “Expect To Spend Atleast $150-200 on your first guitar”

Don’t buy the starter kits at Walmart, the First Act stuff and the stuff that costs 89.99 – 129.99, it’s crap. It will actually turn you off from playing guitar because you’ll realize that playing guitar sounds like crap and you’ll realize that if guitar playing sounds this bad, you won’t really want to do it.

Guitar Buying Tip #5 “Visually inspect the guitar for physical damage

Watch my video, it goes through everything. Look for the obvious, physical dammage, nicks, dents, cracks, etc.

Guitar Buying Tip #6 “Check the hardware and functionality”

Make sure that the guitar stays in tune, the guitar sounds good when played, has low action… watch the video – I go into detail.

Guitar Buying Tip #7 “Ask for the free add-ons”

Ask for the FREE Addons!!! Alot of the little places and big will through in addons like free guitar cases, free picks, free guitar tuners, etc! All you gotta do is ask! Make sure to ask and if they don’t throw in a free hard case, threaten to “walk”. They almost everytime will do it.

My Recommendation – Alvarez Guitars

The Don’ts!!!

DON’T BUY ONLINE

“You gotta test drive the car before you buy it”

DON’T BUY A STARTER GUITAR KIT

These kits are crap!!! They are horrible, poorly made, sound terrible and will turn you off from guitar playing. Some even hurt your fingers. Don’t be cheap, spend the extra $50-100 and buy a little nicer one.

I hope my tips have helped you. If you have any questions, please comment and let me know. I hope you’ve enjoyed this and all of my guitar lessons for beginners.

Tags: guitar buying tips, guitar lessons for beginners