Buying the Right Guitar-Best Guitar Tips for Beginners

Is this your first guitar purchase? When you are new to playing the guitar, it is only natural to be anxious about which guitar should you purchase and how much you should shell out for it. Most important issues rest on the quality and playability of your instrument. The type of guitar you choose depends on the kind of music you want to play. If you want to sound like Bob Dylan or Jack Johnson, you probably want an acoustic guitar. On the other hand if you want to play folk, alternative, jazz, flamenco, etc.  your choice would be a classical guitar. Electric guitars are differentiated by their pickups, one is a single coil pickup and the other is a humbuckers. Humbuckers sound great with distortion, so they're the pickups of choice for the hard rockers, while the single coil pickups have a brighter tone and thus preferred for un-distorted guitar playing.

What should be the size of my guitar? It is very important to be, as well as look comfortable while you hold a guitar. Most children up to their teen years may want to start on a ¾ size guitar. A quality ¾ size guitar will normally sound very good, but have a less “full” tone than a full-size guitar. Most adults will choose a full-size guitar. Most full size guitars will be 37 to 38 inches in length and have a fret board with 21 frets. One must ask a salesperson to help you decide if your guitar fits.

Some technicalities you should look into before choosing the right guitar: Tuning machine keys should operate smoothly. The fingerboard should be level with the top of the guitar. Most guitars should have an adjustable truss rod. A functional truss rod will usually make slight changes in a neck with as little as a 1/4 to 3/4's of a turn. Neck angles that are too far forward or backward will tend to have or develop adjustment problems. A helpful visual indicator of a good neck angle is a bridge that is about as high off the top or soundboard of the guitar as the fingerboard. String height or action at the nut should be low at the first fret, which results in all six strings being easy to play.

How much should you spend on your first guitar purchase? A good beginner acoustic guitar will range from Rs.2500/- to 7000/- Average price of acoustic guitar for beginners can be around Rs.3500/-

Higher the price the better is the wood quality and craftsmanship that makes it a good sounding acoustic guitar. As acoustic guitar does not have any amplification it is very necessary that it sounds good!

If it’s your electric guitar, choices are more as many brands are available in different shapes and specification. A starting range of electric guitar is from Rs 4,000/- onwards; of course a branded one starts from around Rs.8000-9000/- onwards. Many Indian stores have a good websites now-a day’s which gives complete details of their product range and even specifications for all their guitars which can help one to choose the right guitar for himself. So you can always check the product reviews before you actually check them.