I Want to Take Up the Guitar...

Cafe Society
21

I would strongly disagree with this. Amps come and go, and even a terrible amp makes some interesting sounds. But a bad guitar is just plain no fun to play. You end up always fighting it. When I bought my first electric, I didn’t even have an amp, but since the guitar played nicely, I stuck with it despite the lack of volume. Hell, for almost no money these days, you can buy something like a Pocket Pod and instead of having one amp, you could effectively have dozens.

All that aside, as a long-time electric guitar player who finally bought a great dread, I now think I’d recommend starting with an acoustic. For one thing, it’s self contained. If you want to go over and play with a friend, you’ve only got one thing to bring, and it’s ready to go when you open the case, no looking for outlets, running cables, etc. Your technique will have to be better from the get go, and to be honest, I know lots of stuff that sounds cool on a solo acoustic, but not all that much stuff that sounds great rocking the electric all by itself.

It’s not really like I think you can go wrong either way, but I think I would have enjoyed starting with acoustic more.

22

Opinions from musicians are best sought in Cafe Society, so I’ll move this thither.

twickster, moderator

23

Starting with an acoustic is harder, but I am inclined to agree that it is better. It forces certain habits, mostly having to do with your pick/strum hand, that benefit both electric and acoustic playing. I think this has to do with the fact that there is no distortion clouding up the tone - with an acoustic, you’re just hanging out there, and it either sounds good/correct or it doesn’t.

As for the amp - well, if one starts with the basic assumption that you can acquire a decently-set-up guitar (because I agree that a poorly designed or set up guitar is a HUGE detriment to playing and progress), then, yeah, getting a good, simple amp can be a help. However, most newbies don’t know what a good, simple amp is. Sure, if you get a low-priced Fender, Marshall, Line 6, etc. you will end up with a decent amp - but not a “great” one that the other poster was referring to. For that you would need to buy a small-watt, “true tube” amp with very little in the way of features - something like a Fender Blues Jr. in the $300 price range used or on Craig’s list. This is a lot more than a $100 digital Fender or Marshall, and it has way few features - but if dialed-up properly it sounds much, much better - and it can help you improve your technique because it will sound better when you play better. But unless you have a mentor watching over you, dialing one up properly can be hit or miss at best.

Bottom line? Advice like “start with an acoustic” or “get a great, tube amp” can be helpful, but the ONLY advice worth following is “do whatever keeps you playing - at least at that point, you are still in the game.” So if you’d rather starting with a nylon string, or an electric (or a nylon-string electric ;)) played through a random amp - go for it. Just do what makes you want to keep playing - your technique will sort itself out over time…

24

There are a variety of neck profiles, so do try out several to get a feel. I have small hands, and gravitate toward daintier, thinner necks, so I know where you’re coming from. My son has a Squier Jagmaster, and it has the most petite neck I’ve played. Your discomfort is also just part of being a beginner; getting your fretting hand to behave is a tough nut to crack, and it takes a while to get limber. Persevere. I promise you that it does get better. You might also want to consider getting a hand exerciser to improve your grip.

Strongly agree. I started playing on some POS Hondo guitar, and it was awful. I didn’t really realize how awful until months later when I got a decent guitar, and I was surprised at the difference. With the new guitar, my playing improved a great deal because it sounded better and was much more fun to play, so I practiced more so I got better so it was more fun to play so I practiced more, etc.

Agree; a small Pod like this this guy is both cheap and flexible – you can use it as a headphone amp and have no outboard amplifier at all, or hook it up to any clean amp (I hook my Pod2.0 to my surround system, and it’s awesome*) and rock out. Also google headphone amp. there are a bunch, very cheap, but the tones are likely very cheesy. Do check out the Pod if you can.

+1. Follow your nose, do what inspires you to play.

Lastly, if you want to improve at a good pace, play every day, if only for a few minutes. You need to build muscle memory so your hand just knows where to go, and the only way this happens is by constant attention. You’ll feel like a klutz when you start, but once you get past that hump it is truly rewarding and a great deal of fun.

*Be cautious if you want to play through a home entertainment system. My main speakers are studio monitors and can take abuse; if you play through some Walmart home-theater-in-a-box setup, you’ll blow the speakers pretty much instantly.

25

Dittos to everything here.

You don’t need to buy a super expensive acoustic to start, but don’t buy a piece of junk, either. Go to a couple of good guitar stores, tell them what you are looking to accomplish and listen to their recommendations.

26

I don’t have a whole lot to add here, other than encouragement.

I’m 44, and took guitar lessons for 2 years when I was a kid. I never practiced back then, and I gave it up. Ever since, I’ve had moments where I wished I hadn’t given it up.

Finally, this year, I decided to try again. My wife gave me an electric guitar “starter set” for Valentine’s day (an Epiphone Les Paul Standard II, with an amp). For about 2 months, I tried to teach myself, but (a) I had no idea if I was really doing it right, and (b) I felt like I wasn’t getting very far.

So, I signed up for lessons. There’s a music school near my house, and they asked me what sort of music I wanted to learn (answer: classic rock). They lined me up with an instructor who specializes in rock, and I’m having a ball. I practice for maybe 90 minutes a week, and wish I practiced more, but I’ve definitely seen progress. And, yeah, my fingers hurt like hell until I built up the calluses. :smiley:

Ultimately, I concur with what others have already said: whatever it takes to get you to enjoy it and keep at it, is worth doing.

27

My $0.02 = Sing!

Whatever kind of voice you have –or think you have- start working on singing along as you play sooner rather than later. Whether you can carry a tune or not is irrelevant and you can practice in the confines of your own private laboratory if you must. But if you’re taking up the guitar simply for the enjoyment, then you belting out the words whilst playing adds multiple dimensions to the process.

28

I want to second that. I’ve messed around on acoustic guitar for years and years, but not having much of a voice it’s only been fairly recently that have I started actually singing along while playing. It’s so much more fun and really adds to the experience, and I think it makes you more inclined to practice. I have a couple of favourite songs that I just never tire of playing. God forbid anybody hear me, though.

29

Joining the pile-on for ‘start with electric’…

I got my first guitar about 18 months ago. It was a far-from-cheap Stagg acoustic-electric and I was getting very frustrated that I was not getting any better. One day, I picked up my son’s cheapo electric and I COULD PLAY! I was so much better than I had ever been on my own guitar.

I was on the verge of giving up, but now I am shopping for an electric of my own. The quality of the sound and convenience are nothing compared to the frustration of not being able to play barre chords because I can’t push down hard enough on the strings.

My problem now is that I don’t know where to start shopping. Any particular guitar will sound crap when I play it and great when the guy in the store plays it so I feel like I am left with choosing by the styling (I’d like a red, shiny one please!) or by copying what my favourite guitarists have.

There must be a more scientific way!

30

Oh - and a handful of lessons at the start are essential.

As to great online sites: Neil Hogan is awesome http://www.totallyguitars.com/ he was even better when his site was free :slight_smile:

He still has a lot of free lessons - especially for beginners, but he also has for $$ lesson plans and will give one on one feedback over a webcam for more $$$.

31

Go to a music store and pick up a bunch of guitars. If you can find a quiet spot in the store, play them just as you would an acoustic, no amp. One of them (more likely several) will feel more musical to you in tone, in playability. Play everything you can, at least half a dozen instruments, more if you can. Try out a range of instruments: Gibson, Fender, Ibanez, PRS, Schecter, Epiphone, Jackson, Peavey, yada yada. Try out a range of guitar types: solid body, semi-hollow, hallow; rosewood or maple fingerboard, etc. Remember which ones spoke to you. At some point, start plugging into an amp (a clean one, since you like acoustic guitar) and just fiddle as you like. Now, go home, and come back in a week, and do it all again. Which instruments still speak to you? You will put some axes back in the “nope” pile, and probably gather a few “hmm, maybe this one?” guitars as well. Do this maybe 3 times. By third time, you’ll be feeling much more comfortable in the store, and you’ll likely know quite a bit about which instruments you like and hopefully why you like them.

Shorter version: there is no scientific way. Without doubt, some instrument is already calling your name, you just haven’t heard it yet.

Anyway, don’t feel all embarrassed in the store. There is always, always someone who’s better (at something) than you, guitar is no exception. And there will nearly always be someone as noob as you, on that same day in the same store. And hell, you’ve played acoustic, so you’re a leg up on a lot of folks. Don’t sweat it. I promise the Guitar Police won’t arrive and drag you to Gitmo. :slight_smile:

Here’s a thread I started when I went guitar shopping last year, and detailed the ins 'n outs of how I bought a couple of electric guitars. It might be fun if you wrote a thread like that; all the guitar heads around here could jump in and help with any questions that came up when you were shopping.

32

Thank you. You have inspired me. i am going to CB Perkins tomorrow.

33

If you see a guitar you like, is there any chance you could bring a friend who knows guitar with you back to the store? Anyone who plays who you can trust when it comes to actually knowing gear?

The most important things are how it plays and how it sounds. From a playability standpoint, it is “set up” correctly and will it stay in tune? If you are looking at a guitar, hold it up to a few other guitars at the same price point and ask a few clerks which of those options are the most “stable” - i.e., most likely to be a guitar that stays in tune reliable, doesn’t require a regular adjustment, etc. Guitars with very simply designs and layouts - i.e., Telecasters, Les Paul Specials and Juniors (and some Epiphones), PRS SE-One’s, etc. - are good this way…

34

You might want to look into this tutorial system called “Guitar Hero”. It lets a novice player play complex songs pretty much instantaneously, without requiring any finger callouses.

35

;):smiley:

But to succumb to my initial whoosh instinct, to be clear: playing GH is nothing like playing actual guitar…

36

Here’s one thing that I’ll add. I don’t think that anyone would dispute that an acoustic is a little harder to play than an electric, but I really don’t think it should be as difficult as your experience has been.

To put it another way, I’ve played a lot of friends’ guitars, and have found that very few of them are optimally set up. In fact, some of them are so wrong it’s goofy. Not cheapie brands either. Either the relief is wrong, or the action is too high, or maybe there’s just an inappropriately heavy gauge of strings on. Almost all guitars could use some set up work before they leave the shop, and that goes double for acoustics.

I bought an I-don’t-wanna-say-how-much Huss and Dalton after days of comparisons. It played very nicely as is, but after a little consultation with a local guitar tech and a little adjustment here and there, it’s just that much better. And it’s really only a little bit harder to play than my electric. The gap isn’t that huge.

37

Hey, you’re in Sillicon Valley? Howdy neighbor! I hadn’t heard of CB Perkins, looks like a neat place.

You may want to also visit Guitar Center, which I won’t praise as a wonderful place, but they do have a huge selection and if you’re doing real diligence, you should play all the brands and guitar types you can. Maybe CB Perkins is fine, but I can’t tell from their web site how big and varied their stock is. OTOH, CB Perkins looks like a place where you can get a decently setup guitar and probably very knowledgeable people in the store, where GC has a bunch of teenagers that generally know little about guitars, and the instrument setups are all over the place sometimes. And supporting music stores that aren’t GC is a worthy activity.

38

This is a good point; its worth taking your acoustic to CB Perkins and asking them to set it up better, whether or not you eventually buy an electric guitar.

39

I’ve been playing GH and RB for a long time now - if I had spent as much time practicing/learning the real guitar as I have on that - you all would be paying to hear me play by now. (well, in my mind anyway).

I really want to learn how to play the guitar - I have 2 now - a Taylor acoustic and a B.C Rich hardbody - next on the list is a Gretsch HollowBody.

One of these days I’ll get someone to teach me some stuff - I’m at the point I don’t really tink I can learn, threads like this inspire me that its still possible, even at my advanced age (just turned 43), but until then, I’ll just keep playing to the virtual audiences.

My poiint is that GH and RB are not “tutorials” in any way shape or form - yeah, you’ll learn a little bit of coordination, you’ll strengthen some muscles, may even limber up your fingers, but it simply will not translate to learning the real guitar, and its so much fun that it will more likely prevent you from learning than anything. Its much easier to go pick up GH or RB and belt out a lot of songs than it is to build the callouses and maybe get thru “mary had a little lamb”.

40

This thread has inspired me to finally take lessons to learn how to play the acoustic guitar I’ve had for 3+ years. I played electric jazz bass back in the day (over ten years ago) and I’ve tried self-teaching w/ the acoustic, but it’s never gone well and I get frustrated and stop.

I just found someone on the northside of Chicago that offers one-on-one lessons for $15/hh. The guy is young but seems to have some good credentials and references. If anyone in Chicago wants the info, PM me.