My husband and I are both interested in learning a new instrument. Guitar would be my fourth instrument, and my first stringed instrument. Banjo would be his first instrument of any kind.
We don’t want to spend a lot of money, but want to get nice instruments that will last us for a while, at least.
Recommendations? Brands? Used? Places to look? Price I can expect to pay? I’ll probably be learning the banjo too, so I can help him learn and because I won’t be able to keep my hands off the thing.
Also, books for learning? Websites? I taught myself the clarinet with just some books of music and the internet, so I’m pretty confident in my abilities.
There are better people than me who will be along shortly, but my first suggestion would be that you get at least a handful of real one on one lessons. It’s easy to form bad habits with guitar and hard to break them. Some will simply hinder your playing, others can cause actual long term injury. I have yet to see a book that can teach you hand proper positioning as well or as easily as a teacher.
Ok, that being said…you have a lot of options. I don’t know from banjos (sorry no help there) but you have a wide variety of choice when it comes to guitar. My first question would be, what type of music do you want to play? This will make the difference between an electric guitar, an accoustic steel string or an accoustic nylon string. They all have their advantages and disadvantages and are better at different things.
My recommendation to most beginners is to get an electric guitar because it is easier to learn on and the quality to price ratio can be very good. Stay away from Fender Squires and most of the “beginner packs” if you go this route. Squires are crap and not worth anything really, and most beginner packs aren’t really that much of a deal. You will also need to get a little amp if you go this way. A small practice amp will run you around $100 (I think, the last time I bought one was in 1992) and a starter guitar can be had for around $300. Epiphone is made by Gibson and makes fine low price electric AND acoustic guitars.
Steel string acoustic will be your basic acoustic guitar. Good for folk music, blues, or just strumming along. I think they are the most versatile in terms of lending themselves to a style. Again, Epiphone makes good acoustics, as does Talkamine and Yamaha all for not much money. They will be a little harder to learn on, and you should probably have the action (distance between the strings and the fingerboard) lowered and the strings changed to a lighter gauge when you get it. I would recommend that a beginner start with 10s on an acoustic. 9’s on an electric. As strings get thinner they get easier to play and bend, but also lose tone and will have more of a tendency to buzz. This is more obvious on an acoustic and can be discouraging, so that’s why I recommend the slightly thicker strings.
Nylon string is a world I don’t know as much about, but they are mostly used for classical and flamenco. They are better for finger picking single notes than steel string guitars, but not great for strumming chords. If you want to learn classical or flamenco though, they are the way to go. They probably have the highest learning curve of the three styles though due to thickness of the strings, the range of tones you get, and the thickness and length of the neck. The can be beautiful when played well though. Mellow and rich sounding.
If you have a mom and pop shop in your area, head down and ask for help. (You probably do, look around). If you don’t a Guitar Center or Sam Ash will be fine, but probably less helpful. Don’t order guitars online, buy a guitar you haven’t touched, or buy any instrument from a place that isn’t a music store (like a target). You probably already know all that, but it never hurts to emphasize the point.
Ok, now the experts can just in and give you more details.
I’m definitely interested in acoustic, as I don’t much like the sound of electric guitars. I’m thinking classical.
My goal is to play Dueling (feuding) Banjos. So, fingerpicking is definitely a must. I’ve been told by a friend of a friend I want an acoustic steel string.
My first banjo was a Washburn that I bought used at a music store for $125. The starter Washburn bluegrass banjo (resonator instead of open-back) goes for around $225 brand new, I think. It was definitely good enough to get me started. It plays well enough but doesn’t have the solid feel of the nicer banjos. If you have a stringed instrument store in your area that would be a good place to go for a used instrument set up properly. Most banjo music I come across is in tablature so it’s pretty easy to pick up the basics. Between the open tuning, picking patterns, and tonal characters you can coax out of the instrument, it’s a lot of fun.
The first thing I always ask in situations like this is, “How much do you want to spend?” simply because the spectrum of acceptable guitars is so broad that it’s really a matter of getting the best value for the amount you are looking to spend.
Give us a ceiling of what you are looking to spend and we’ll go from there. Keep in mind that when looking at acoustic guitars, the minimum you should be looking to spend on an acoustic should be in the neighborhood of a few hundred dollars, because otherwise you won’t enjoy learning and will simply put it down and let it collect dust, ultimately wasting your money. You can sometimes get away with a cheap electric, but cheap acoustic guitars are exactly that, and in most cases will be almost impossible for a beginner to learn anything on because the awkwardness of the instrument is too distracting.
I am by no means an expert in this, but I second or third the advice to go to a local non-chain music store. Everybody says my guitar is very nice and has a good sound, although it’s technically part of one of those “starter sets” - I told the nice young people that I wanted something suitable for a beginner but not a piece of crap, and they set me up right. Also, they gave me a hell of a discount. They only charged me $150, and it came with extra strings, a tuner, a case, a strap, etc. They were really helpful and actually undercut the online dealers. I won’t go anywhere else now for anything I can get there.
I have a couple of Oscar Schmidt “by Washburn” guitars that I like. One’s an OG-2N and the other’s a 12 string (which I wouldn’t recommend…as 12’s go it’s ok, but 12’s aren’t for beginners). The OG-2N cost me maybe $150, but that was at a small, non-chain store. I think Guitar Center has a similar Oscar Schmidt for about $100.
You can get reviews on other models and brands of guitars in there as well. If you’re really looking to do it on the cheap, you might haunt a few pawn shops.