In
response to several requests from students, parents,
and friends, I've put together a brief list of recommendations
for purchasing a new acoustic or electric guitar,
bass, amplifier, and accessories.
| In
the following recommendations I've included links
to the Musicians
Friend website (owned by Guitar Center). |
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I still strongly recommend you hold, play, and listen
to any instrument you hope to purchase. The best scenario is to have someone with you that understands the difference in quality and craftmanship. That being
said, the Musicans
Friend site is a great way to do research and
find the product and price range before you enter
a music store. I'd also advise you visit the site
for accessory items or those things that can be purchased
straight out of the box.
A great start is to visit a specialty music or guitar store. My favorite is Harry's Guitar Shop downtown at Glenwood and Peace Street. Their staff is very knowledgeable and helpful, and they can determine the best fit for your style and level of playing. Please be aware that they only carry quality instruments so you will not find Walmart style pressboard or "jammin' groovy gig pack" guitars and amps. They also do some of the nicest repair and guitar set-up work in the area.
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The fine people at Brook Mays Music in Raleigh (Pleasant Valley Rd up from Best Buys) have been very helpful in putting together starter instrument deals based on my recommendations. They've also exteded a 10% discount offer to Backwoods students on any guitar related accessories. If you do decide to look for instruments at BMMG please let them know that you are a Backwoods Music Studio student. |
I highly recommend you browse over to Gibson™
Guitars wonderful "How
To Buy An Electric Guitar: Common Sense Rules To An
Informed Purchase". Many of these common
sense rules apply to both electric and acoustic instruments. This is a great way to educate yourself on the main issues and concerns in purchasing a quality instrument.
I'm
a big fan of good quality starting instruments and try to impress
on my beginning students and parents the strong need to buy the very best quality
they can afford the first time. Anything less will
bring regrets as skills and experience improve.
Please
avoid anything from Walmart or Target (these are TOYS not instruments), or with "pack" in the name (i.e.
jam pack, gig pack, jamming groovy gig'n and pick'n
pack, whatever). These are usually bottom of the barrel
for the companies quality control standards, and much much better
instruments and accesories can be pulled off the rack
for slightly more money.
Remember and try to avoid Rob's "New Instrument Aversion Law"
If a parent can find a cheaper, practically unplayable Guitar from
their Aunt Flotilla, Target, or Walmart, they will.
GUITAR
RECOMMENDATIONS:
Acoustic
- For beginning students - Start here at Musicians Friend in the $200 to $300 range. You really don't want to go below that price if you can help it since you start getting into the TOY guitar range with pressboard or laminate parts (NOT good). Epiphone, Yamaha, Fender, 'Baby' Taylors, 'Little' Martins, are all good quality brands. At this range you should look for a spruce hardwood top - key to good resonance
in the instrument.
I also like the Epiphone AJ-200E Acoustic-Electric for about $200. It has a solid spruce top with the ability to plug into an amp. With the somewhat lower price you can purchase a small practice amplifier and spend about the same amount of money as a higher grade acoustic.
Second
choice for slightly more money is an Alvarez. Better and deeper sound and
much better quality. Good intermediate guitars. You can find these down at several stores around Raleigh and Cary.
I've
played a Guild G-50 for about 15 years and love
the tone, quality, and playability. Guild was
purchased by Fender and they're currently restructuring.
Buy the old ones if you find them and watch for new ones as they come out.
Top
of the heap would be anything Taylor®
($1200) or anything Martin®.
These are professional level instruments.
|
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You
may want to consider gettting an acoustic/electric
highbred, basically an acoustic guitar with a built
in electric pick-up. Personally, if I need to amplify
my acoustic Guild I just slap on a "sound hole"
pick-up. These can be purchased for about $50 (and
up) in any music store.
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Electric
- Anyone who knows me or has seen me play knows
I love Stratocasters by Fender. Heck,
Leo Fender invented the electric guitar and
I believe Fender makes the quintessential rock,
pop, folk, country, alternative, funk, whatever
guitar.
One
of the main reasons (again... my humble opinion)
is the sound versitility of the instrument.
With three pick-ups and separate tone knobs
you can get everything from classic twang to
round jazz tones. Add pedal effects and you've
got all you need for almost any music situation.
Fender
has three price points, Asian made, Mexican
made, and American made. As you can imagine,
each of these geographic jumps improve the quality,
playability, and durability of the instrument. |
A
good entry-level instrument is the Fender®/Squire®
Affinity ($150 - 200) series (Squire is a sub-company
of Fender). I have helped several students purchase
these as first instruments and we have not been disappointed
with the playability, sound, and general quality.
Next
up the line (but exponentially better in quality)
would be a Fender® Mexican made Stratocaster.
I believe they often refer to this one as the "Standard
Strat" ($350+). These are terrific instruments,
although I highly recommend having someone play the
guitar before you think of purchasing. Quality control
on these is usually great, but I have found some dogs
at music stores.
Another
high mid-range guitar for an intermediate player is
the Ibanez
RG2550EX ($650).
Last
is either a Paul
Reed Smith® ($3000) or the American
made Fender Strat ($1200+). I just recently picked up an American Deluxe V-neck strat with a custom aged maple v-neck in a two-tone sunburst. "Addy" plays like a dream and I can't put her down.
AMPLIFIER
RECOMMENDATIONS:
I'd advise looking at two basic "practice"
type amps. These are typically perfect for the beginning
student, with just enough umph to jam with friends,
but portable and not plaster peeling.
| Fender just put out the G-DEC Guitar Digital Entertainment Center for beginning guitarists. This thing is a blast and I highly recommend it for those of you just starting out. The price may seem high for a simple practice amp, but this is anything but simple. It includes: Selectable drum beats, bass lines, and other instruments, 70 preset drum loops and metronome, 100 Performance Presets (50 factory, 50 user), 17 amp models, 29 studio-quality effects. Basically it's a band in a box that allows the player to solo with backing tracks. This one runs about $250.
|
|
Guitar
player magazine rated the Line
6 - Spider II 30™ ($240) as a great amp
for the price. Lots of fun features including sound
modeling and effects. Several of my students have
recently purchased these and they seem like a very
good bargain.
We
also just purchased a Fender
Frontman 25R™ ($140) for my older son and
it rocks! It's got a 12 inch Celestion speaker housed
in an extremely sturdy but portable cabinet. Highly
recommended. This one goes to 11.
ACCESSORY
RECOMMENDATIONS:
TUNERS:
| I
use and recommend the Intellitouch
PT1™ ($45) or PT2 ($35) Tuner for several
reasons. This tuner clamps onto the head stock
of either an acoustic or an electric guitar and
measures the vibration produced through the body
and neck |
|
of the guitar for each note. The result is a very
accurate measurement with a very easy to understand
interface.
This
also means that you can tune in almost any environment
without worrying about other instruments or outside
noises. Very tasty!
The
PT1 has a backlight for dark (club gig) environments,
but the PT2 is fine for most students. Both of these
run on those funky flat lithium batteries that last
for about 30 or so hours. That's a lot of tuning.
Second
choice, and one I often purchase for my private beginning
students is the Korg
GA-30™ ($15). This has a small microphone
on the front that picks up the sound from an acoustic
guitar. Obviously this then needs to be used in a
pretty quite environment very close to the guitar
to work accurately.
 |
The
Korg also has an input for a cord from an electric
guitar. You'll need to have the cord handy to
use this in practice, but it's accurate with this
method. |
CABLES/CORDS:
I'd
go with established name brands here, OR; if you're
buying a house brand guitar cord (i.e. Sam Ash) be
sure they have a free replacement deal on it.
I
like Planet
Wave or Monster
Cables, although these can be pricey. You very
much get what you pay for with cables and tone is
everything with an electric or acoustic/electric guitars.
You risk broken plugs or loss of signal with cheap
cords.
STRINGS:
AGAIN!...
I'd go with established name brands here and avoid
the multipack store brands. You need quality strings
to make a quality sound.
ACOUSTIC
- Get Elixir, Martin, or D'Addario regular light strings.
These can be purchased for anywhere from $5 to $15
dollars per pack, so shop around and watch out for
rip-offs. Be sure you are getting an Acoustic string.
Electric
- Try Ernie Ball Regular or Super Slinky, Elixir,
or D"Addario light strings. Be sure you are getting
strings for an electric guitar.
Avoid
the medium or heavy guage strings since these are
harder to push down and make good tones with the beginning
student.
Please
remember that these recommendations are based on my
humble opinion. Your milage may vary. Driver on closed
course - do not attempt.
Good
luck! - Rob
