How to Buy a Cheap Guitar For A Beginner

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1 – Avoid High Action – but not so low that it buzzes

High Action can be assessed relatively easily, visually. Play the guitar – if you like an electric guitar but it seems a bit hard to play, ask the store to adjust the action. If it’s an acoustic guitar, you’ll have to pay to have the action lowered. Don’t be overly picky in the store about action before purchasing; skill still matters. If the luthier tells you “it can’t get any lower without buzzing,” then believe them, and take a few lessons so you learn about how to avoid buzz.

2 – Don’t Buy at Guitar Center

A deal from Guitar Center is not a deal, it is a waste of time and money. If you’re buying a NEW guitar, you just spent $300 on something that would have cost $100 otherwise.

 If you don’t play in bands,  being in a music store may seem intimidating; but you won’t learn how to interact in a music store by going to Guitar Center. Go to the local shop first. Even if you don’t buy anything. You’ll save thousands in the long run.

3 – Great shops often have no sign

Unmarked recording studios and shops are a hallmark of music industry tradition. Nondescript, small shops are generally the higher quality, better reputation places for guitar purchase and repair.

4 – Great shops employ musicians, not “sales pros”

The best shops are the quieter, local shops. The quiet, local, cool shops attract quiet, cool people who know their stuff. They are there to build a good reputation. 

6 – Ask Your Guitar Teacher To Go With You

I offer this service for free to my students; owners of music shops love when I bring in customers who buy things. It’s symbiotic, there would be no reason for me to charge students in helping them buy guitars. Contact me to make an appointment. Good teachers generally accompany their students to guitar shops, because a teacher would rather spend an hour helping a student, instead of helping that student deal with a low quality instrument for years.

7 – Avoid A Heavy Guitar

Again, if you like it buy it, but try to avoid the Les Pauls and heavier guitars at first.

This is a picture of an oak Telecaster. By the way – if you’re starting out, don’t buy a Telecaster.

ONLY CAN HULK HAZ.

8 – If You’re Not An Expert, Don’t Buy A Telecaster

Keith Richards, Muddy Waters, Jimmy Page, James Burton, and Curtis Mayfield play(ed) Telecasters. They’re cranky, tough guitars.

Get a Squier Stratocaster, an Epiphone Les Paul.

 

Almost anything else that you pick, will be easier to play than a Telecaster.

-Amanda Machina

squirrel at whirling squirrel dot com