Tech: What guitar is best for me?

Subject: Tech: What guitar is best for me?
From: GUEST,HackySack
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 11:41 AM

Been playing for about two year. Have the basic Fender Squire Accoustic steel string guitar. It was 2nd hand and the pegs rattle a bit (tried tighening but no good) and an el cheapo catalogue Spanish classical (I bought silver nylons for it that probably cost double the resale value of this mouldy bellied beastie), saying that it does sound nice to me.

Anyway, strings are too far apart on the SG, the ass on the Fender is too big and the fret board even on that seems a tot too wide. I fancy the look of a cut-away.

I have shortish-chubby fingers (like a hobbit). I am 6ft so I am not looking for a travel guitar or anything ( I have seen some cool ones though)

Just playing inside so it doesn't have to be the loudest.

I reckon £200 - £300 is my range

Feel like I should stick with steel strings 'cos the pain is good for me.

Any ideas greatly appreciated

Subject: RE: Tech: What guitar is best for me?
From: GUEST,999
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 12:09 PM

Go to guitar shops and try the ones in your price range. After two years, you should have some idea what you want the sound to be like. FWIW.

Subject: RE: Tech: What guitar is best for me?
From: alex s
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 01:33 PM

Adam Black, Tanglewood, Art & Lutherie for starters.......

Subject: RE: Tech: What guitar is best for me?
From: David C. Carter
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 01:41 PM

If you do find something that is in you price range,play it,see how it sounds and feels.

Then get the person to play it for you,so's you can here what it sounds like coming back at you.

Imo,that's VERY important.

Good luck

David

Subject: RE: Tech: What guitar is best for me?
From: Les in Chorlton
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 01:51 PM

Do what the others say. Hobgoblin is a great shop for guitars. Don't buy one the first time you go and give it plenty of time. Spend as much as you can and then a bit more probably

L in C#

Subject: RE: Tech: What guitar is best for me?
From: Big Al Whittle
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 01:54 PM

Leave guitars alone, son. The devil's sex toy......

Subject: RE: Tech: What guitar is best for me?
From: Don Firth
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 01:58 PM

String spacing on a classic guitar was standard om all guitars up until maybe eighty or ninety years ago, and of course still standard for classics today, so if you're having trouble with the strings being too far apart for you, it's probably because of your hand position.

This is a pretty good tip for finding the left hand position:   The Gorilla Grip. Internationally famous guitarist Sharon Isbin came up with this.

And for inspiration, to assurance that classic guitar fingerboards are well within easy reach of a normal hand in the correct position, take a peek at THIS!

Now, go thou and do likewise!

Don Firth

P. S. There's no law that says you can't have two guitars. I regularly use a classic, but I also have a steel-string when I want that particular sound. I don't have any particular problems with shifting back and forth.

Subject: RE: Tech: What guitar is best for me?
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 04:14 PM

Sound, sound, sound sound!

So long as a neck set is not needed and the neck is not twisted and the intonation is OK, a good guitar tech can fix any playability issues - unless you have HUGELY fat fingers and the guitar neck is very narrow - but look at the hands on BB King.

You will get a better guitar for the money second hand than new.

I have an old Morris acoustic I picked up for £70 on ebay years ago, and like a walnut tree the more I beat her the better she be. Really does sound quite good.

Subject: RE: Tech: What guitar is best for me?
From: GUEST,Hacky
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 05:16 PM

Thanks guys. Good advice. I'm on it.

Subject: RE: Tech: What guitar is best for me?
From: Bert
Date: 22 Dec 11 - 06:57 PM

Well you have to try it first as David Carter says. Start at your local guitar shop, then try pawn shops then go on to the chains, Sam Ash has good sounding guitars starting at around $100. Most other chains start at around $200.

I got my latest guitar at a pawn shop for $70. It has a superficial crack in the top, but as it is plywood (laminated for the snobs) it doesn't affect the sound.

Another alternative might be to get a new set of tuning machines for your Fender, which would be a lot cheaper than buying a new guitar.

The fret board on The Fender should be pretty standard. I doubt if you'll find a thinner neck. Unless you opt for a Tenor Guitar (which might be a good option for stubby fingers).

If the action is right you should not have too much pain from steel strings.

Subject: RE: Tech: What guitar is best for me?
From: GUEST,Ray
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 10:27 AM

I happen to have more guitars than you can shake a stick at. Knowing this, a friend asked me to go along with him to buy a guitar for his girlfriend. He ended up buying a "LAG". I'd never heard of them, not the sort of thing I'd have bought for myself, but all the ones I played sounded OK and had accurate intonation.

The trouble with asking the question you have is that if you ask 100 people what to buy you'll likely get 100 different answers. Unless you spend a lot of time playing above the 12th fret, I'd avoid guitars with cutaways. You will pay extra for one and if you're on a fixed budget you'll likely end up with a worse guitar.

Unless you're buying in the really cheap end of the market, I doubt whether you could buy a really bad guitar nowadays. I know there are people who will totally disagree with this and yes, some are better than others but a new guitar that you can't play, can't tune, won't stay in tune or won't play in tune, I suspect are long gone.

Subject: RE: Tech: What guitar is best for me?
From: GUEST,Bluesman
Date: 23 Dec 11 - 10:37 AM

Still using my 1957 Fender Stratocaster. It has a two-tone sunburst finish on an Alder body with a Maple neck. It has bakelite, not the later plastic.

Subject: RE: Tech: What guitar is best for me?
From: GUEST
Date: 03 Jan 12 - 04:43 AM

Just wanted to say that as a result of looking at that youtube vid re the gorilla grip and mucking about with guitar positions I did manage to nail a few chords cleanly that I previously thought were not possible for me.

Thanks