cLASSICAL GUITARS
For beginners, or those on the rusty side, find a Yamaha C-40. C stands for Classical style guitar. These have wide necks and nylon strings, both of which are easier on the fingers than on a steel string guitar.
You can find these on used instrument sites like Reverb.com, Facebook Marketplace, and most guitar stores. New $150, used about $100. Make sure it comes with a guitar case.
steel string GUITARS
For those with some years under their belt, or those who are ready to perform or play with others, you may want to move onto a steel string guitar.
Steel string guitar have a narrower neck than a classical, and steel wire strings, both of which are harder on tender fingers. But the sound is much louder and more brilliant than the classical.
You can find these on used instrument sites like Reverb.com, Facebook Marketplace, and most guitar stores. Martins and Taylors are most expensive, but you can find plenty of great less expensive options – Takamine (slightly cut off), Alvarez, & Washburn, for example. Play a lot of guitars to find your future mate. Make sure it comes with a guitar case.
If you look closely at the upper left bouts (roundy parts) of these guitars, you can see black panels. These are controls for the built-in pickups, so your guitar can be played through a sound system. You want this. Maybe not now, but you’ll want it later.
Electric guitars
Alright! Playing electric guitar can be SO much fun, but it can also sound really bad and at a high volume. The secret is to control the instrument. But first – crank it to 10 and blast!
An electric guitar is a piece of solid wood with strings. There’s a pickup under the strings that “picks up” the vibrations of the strings. The electrical pulses are sent through a guitar cable from the guitar to an amplifier, which allows us to hear the sounds we love.
Electric guitars are usually easier to play than acoustic guitars. The sound relies on an amplifier, rather than on the projection of the guitar itself. The strings don’t have to be as heavy as on a steel string guitar, because the pickups and amp can make you as loud as you want, regardless of string weight.
The history of the electric guitar has largely been a competition between two major brands, Fender & Gibson. Eric Clapton plays a Fender Stratocaster, Jimmy Page a Gibson Les Paul, and Keith Richards plays a Fender Telecaster. Some of the Johnny Come latelys offer great guitars at varying prices – Ibanez, Gretsch, and Epiphone, just to name a few. PRS builds fantastic guitars at a fairly hefty price.
Go to local guitar store and play all kinds of guitars, like your fav guitarist’s pick. Then look on Reverb.com to find a used one. There are millions of used guitars on sale that are just as good or better than anything you’ll find in a store.
AMplifiers
Electric guitars require an amplifier. This is a speaker in a box with some controls built in. It projects the electric guitar signal out into the world where we can all enjoy it.
Find a practice amp. Big amps and high wattage are things of the past. The Fender ($100) and the Orange Crush Mini ($75), , are small and adequate, and include distortion. The Mini is surprisingly good, given its size.
You connect the guitar to the amp via a 1/4″ guitar cable. 1/4″ refers to the diameter of the plug which is inserted into amp jack. 10 feet is a good length. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of difference in quality between cheap cables and expensive cables.
Accessories
You will want
- a clip-on tuner – the only way to tune nowadays
- guitar picks – of varying thicknesses (trust me, you will lose them)
- a guitar stand – keep your guitar out so you play it more often!
