Find The Right Guitar For You

A common pitfall for beginning players of all ages is getting the wrong guitar. It's important to find a guitar that's right for you. This has a lot to do with the size of your hands, and the size of the guitar.

Parents should think carefully before buying their son or daughter a guitar. Many parents instinctively buy full-sized acoustic guitars. These instruments are bulky, delicate, more expensive and harder to play than either reduced-scale acoustics, or electric guitars of comparable quality.

Advantages Of Electric Guitars   I usually recommend beginning on an electric guitar, for several reasons. Chances are most of the guitar music you listen to, and most of the guitar music you want to play was recorded with an electric guitar. If your goal is to learn to reproduce the sounds you hear on your CDs and music files, then you will need an electric guitar to imitate those sounds.

An electric is easier to play than an acoustic, if it's properly adjusted. Steel-string acoustic guitars tend to used heavier strings than electrics. If you put lighter strings on a steel-string acoustic, it doesn't play in tune because of scallopping produced by high frets. If you want to set up a steel-string acoustic to play like an electric, you will probably need to have the frets levelled (lowered), and the bridge and nut adjusted accordingly. Dave Matthews and Adrian Legg use light strings and low frets in order to get electric guitar response from an acoustic.

You will learn faster on a guitar that's easier to play than on a guitar that is harder to play. Some people think that learning to play on heavier strings, or on a wide-neck classical guitar will make them better players, because it forces them to work harder. But the fact is the student with the 'faster' guitar will learn faster.

Unless you have a specific interest in classical or acoustic music, you will probably learn faster on an electric.

What makes a guitar 'faster?'  Sometimes you hear someone describe a guitar that's 'fast' or that has 'fast action.' A guitar's action depends on several factors, like the guage (thinckness) of the strings, the height of the strings above the fretboard, the height of the frets, the overall width of the neck, and the distance between the individual strings.

There are many inexpensive, high-quality electric guitars available. Manufacturers like Fender, Ibanez, Epiphone, Yamaha and Washburn offer beginner's packages including a guitar, amp and cord which go for between $200 and $300. These are good quality, durable instruments.

You can also save money by buying a used guitar and amp, and there are always good deals around if you look. There have been hundreds of thousands of beginner's packs (like the ones mentioned above) sold over the years, so there are always people selling them used. Electric guitars and amps are fairly durable, so you don't have to be afraid of buying used instruments or amps, as long as someone with some experience looks at it first.

Some people think there is an advantage to beginning on acoustic instead of electric, but there isn't. People say they are afraid they will form bad habits from starting on electric. You are no more likely to form bad habits on electric than on acoustic. Some people think they will become better players if they learn on a guitar that's harder to play, but this only makes them learn more slowly.

The most important thing when you are getting the first guitar is to get one that is easy to play. Playability is determined mostly by the height of the strings from the fretboard, the spacing between strings, and the width of the neck overall.

Small Scale   I recommend to some of my students that they start on a small-scale instrument for the first couple of months at least. Reduced-scale acoustic guitars are available for about $125, and you should be able resell it for a little less than you paid for it.

Before you buy a guitar, check to see if you can reach around the body of the guitar with your right hand. Also see if you can reach around the guitar neck with your left hand. If the guitar doesn't pass these two tests, then it probably isn't the right instrument for you.

Large Necks   Some people have the opposite problem - their fingers are too big to get between the strings on some guitars. This is not unusual. The solution is to find a guitar with a wider neck. Neck width and string spacing vary greatly on different guitars. Nylon string acoustics tend to have very wide necks. Among electrics, Gibson Les Paul style guitars tend to have the widest necks. The Peavy Van Halen electric has an unusually narrow string spacing, and a very round neck.

Warmoth Replacement Necks   Warmoth Guitars makes a 'Super Wide' Strat neck that is 1-7/8" at the nut. (Search for 'warmoth super wide strat neck'.) Before you go to the trouble of changing your guitar neck, take a few weeks to do some of the still exercises on the 'hand conditioning' page. Even people with large fingers can usually adapt to a regular-size guitar neck.

If you have a guitar that is too big, there are still a couple of things you can do. First, you can use a capo to basically shorten the guitar neck. If your guitar is too big, concentrate on playing on the higher frets first. This site offers a chapter on playing open chord shapes with the capo on the 5th fret. There is also a chapter on the pentatonic scale that can be played with the capo at the 5th fret.

Even if you don't have the perfect guitar for you, always look for what you can do with the instrument you have. If your guitar is too big, work on playing single notes, and playing chords with a capo. A capo basically shortens the guitar neck.

If your guitar is too small, concentrate on single notes and power chords. Don't worry about open chords.



© 2002, 2007 Greg Varhaug