View Full Version : Ideal acoustic guitar? Purchased one now, asking a few questions. :)
Steve1977
18-03-2004, 18:44
Decided Im gonna start to learn how to play the guitar! Me and my g/f are gonna put half each and try and be good enough to belt out our favourite tunes. Once we'v mastered an acoustic we'r gonna get an electric guitar to annoy the neighbours.
But...what would be the ideal acoustic one? Of course we would be looking for one that is sensibly priced, but dont want one which although may be cheap, doesent give out much sound at all. (i.e. one that sounds dead when you strum it) Cant think of the word im looking for.
Iv had a search but couldnt find similar threads.
Cheers
Dave 3:16
18-03-2004, 19:00
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/reviews/acoustic_guitars/
Ultimate Guitar is your friend :)
Check their forums out too for opinions on gear
Their Tab archive is top drawer as well
happy strumming :p
EDIT: Holy Crap! (http://albinoblacksheep.com/video/guitar.php)
The Bear
18-03-2004, 20:00
Originally posted by Dave 3:16
Holy Crap! (http://albinoblacksheep.com/video/guitar.php)
:notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy :notworthy
I can't think of an expletive to do that justice!! I shall book mark that for future impressing. :thumbs:
Dave 3:16
18-03-2004, 20:04
http://www.justinking.com/
There's the bloke's home page, bloody incredible :eek:
As for the guitar, you can't go wrong with Yamaha or Fender TBH :notworthy
Ho-ho, that guy rooooooooocks.
Wow impressive. That started my morning off great. Cheers for the link.
too be honest, if you are just learning it's far far easier to learn on a cheap electric. A cheap acoustic guitar will be really hard work and probably put you off playing, whereas it's so much easier playing an electric if you are learning. You don't have to plug an electric in to play y'know....
Anyways, if you still must go for an acoustic look for one of the canadian hand made ones. I beleive the main makers are Simon and Patrick, Seagull, Art and luthrie as these will give you a lovely hand made guitar for not that much cash.
Just to counter bumfrog's argument, yes i believe learning on an electric will be easier but it could make the transfer to an acoustic an unpleasant one.
My very first guitar was the cheap Encore jobby you can get in the Argos book. It was hell trying to form some of the chords on it, especially right at the top of the neck but i believe it was for the better as it really strengthened my fingers in the long run. When i got an electric around a year later it was almost too easy to play.
And i'd still say go for a cheap acoustic, yes it won't be the best sounding but 1; if you're not sure if you'll take to this or not it won't be such a wasted investment and 2; if you do you can learn the basics and look forward to getting a better model.
I've had the same acoustic for 8 years now and i'd really like to upgrade to something sleeker.
gary191265
19-03-2004, 14:24
Originally posted by bumfrog
too be honest, if you are just learning it's far far easier to learn on a cheap electric. A cheap acoustic guitar will be really hard work and probably put you off playing, whereas it's so much easier playing an electric if you are learning. You don't have to plug an electric in to play y'know....
Anyways, if you still must go for an acoustic look for one of the canadian hand made ones. I beleive the main makers are Simon and Patrick, Seagull, Art and luthrie as these will give you a lovely hand made guitar for not that much cash.
My brother-in-law has a beautiful Simon and Patrick acoustic that he never plays. I'd love it to replace my crappy old Prince...shame he's a left-hooker !!
Originally posted by gary191265
My brother-in-law has a beautiful Simon and Patrick acoustic that he never plays. I'd love it to replace my crappy old Prince...shame he's a left-hooker !!
surely you can just clonk him on the head and steal it :nuts: :D
Just been having a look myself for cheap acoustics and found these.
http://www.piedog.com/PDGShop.asp?WCI=htmProduct&WCU=PROD_PKEY=9964,DEPT_PKEY=250
(Free tuner and case too.) Tuner is pretty much an essential purchase unless you have a keyboard or Total Guitar CD :nuts: .
Never heard of Falcon before but for 50 notes it's not a bad looking guitar. How it will sound is another thing but again it's cheap 'n' cheerful enough to have a practise on. Buy one of them and a tab/chord book of your favourite band and you're laffing.
Originally posted by Dave 3:16
http://www.justinking.com/
There's the bloke's home page, bloody incredible :eek:
As for the guitar, you can't go wrong with Yamaha or Fender TBH :notworthy
I don't know who that guy is but it sounded like he was doing a cover of a song by Keller Willams. Check him out, you won't be disappointed. I've been playing for over 20 years and can't work out how he does most of his stuff.
Re the OP. I agree with the Robby. Get a cheap acoustic and build up your finger strength learning chords.
A Gibson J200 should do the job.;)
Originally posted by Jimmy54
Get a cheap acoustic ..........
A Gibson J200 should do the job.;)
:lol: :clap:
I've been looking for one myself and the yamaha f310 imo is your best bet for a total beginner.
Its about 80-100 pounds.
Steve1977
20-03-2004, 17:10
cheers for all your replies folks. Much appreciated. Going to read reviews of the ones recommended and then compare prices...then buy one! :D
Couldnt have done it with you.
CraigKORE
20-03-2004, 19:58
Originally posted by Dave 3:16
http://www.ultimate-guitar.com/reviews/acoustic_guitars/EDIT: Holy Crap! (http://albinoblacksheep.com/video/guitar.php)
Very impressive. Never seen that stlye of double tap on an acoustic before. :eek:
My friend had the same dilema - he just wanted something cheap and cheerful to play on for under £100.
I managed to persuade him to spend that little bit extra and get a Tanglewood TW28 solid top for £135 and believe me, it was well worth it. It's gonna sound better as the years go by and it plays wonderfully for the price... I can't recommend it highly enough:)
Steve1977
29-03-2004, 19:15
Iv basically narrowed it down to 3 at the moment...
Fender DG5
Fender DG8
Yamaha F310
Does anyone here have or had any of these? Also, can anyone recommend any books for the beginner? Guitar playing for Dummies any good?
:thumbs:
Originally posted by Steve1977
Iv basically narrowed it down to 3 at the moment...
Fender DG5
Fender DG8
Yamaha F310
You're going to need to go to a shop and try some out, I'd say.
In general, if you're only looking to learn on your guitar then my advice is don't spend more than about £100 - £200 (I see the DG5 is in that range anyhow so that's good).
Off hand I'd say Yamaha tend to rule in terms of nice easy guitars to play.
They'll all sound about the same in volume, and if you're spending more than that, then it's probably due to stuff you can't appreciate unless you're a guitar god, or the electronics for amplification, which you need not worry about.
String it with electric strings to begin with as these are much lighter, but get a set with a wound G-string (fnarr). Daddario XL's are my personal favourite here as they do Electric 11's with the wound G, and they sound good on acoustics IMO.
Does anyone here have or had any of these? Also, can anyone recommend any books for the beginner? Guitar playing for Dummies any good?
:thumbs:
Actually, beyond a book with all the chord ideas in it, I'd recommend getting yourself the chords to songs you want to sing and just strumming them.
My advice is always to make sure your strumming hand is good before your fretting hand: Your fretting hand will naturally get quicker at forming the chords, but if you neglect a good steady (and accurate) rhythm with your strumming hand, everything will sound a bit lame.
Steve if you've got £200 to spend on a guitar then do yourself a favour and buy an Art and Lutherie, these are made by Godin in Canada and have a solid spruce top, and will blow any of guitars you have mentioned out of the water.
When you buy an acoustic guitar tone is everything, the better tone a guitar has more likely you are to stick with it, the guitars you are looking at are laminates ( plywood ) and after you have started to make progress with your guitar playing you will realise that they are crap.
I have played on a couple of Art and Lutherie's and was well impressed by the tone ( Ok it's not a Martin D28 but it not £2000 either)
Have a look at www.hobgoblin.com to see one.
When you get your guitar then check out some of these websites
www.wholenote.com
www.guitarlessonworld.com
www.acousticguitar.com
www.acousticfingerstyle.com
Steve1977
04-04-2004, 16:27
Well we finally did it! :clap: Cheers for everyones help in this thread...much appreciated! :D
Went for the Yamaha F310 in the end for £89.99. Also brought Guitar for Dummies and two guitar tab books of our two fave albums.
Question is, the guitar only has one strap pin....so where do you connect the other side of the strap to?
Steve1977
04-04-2004, 18:05
Doing the A, D and E chords now. But why are they called this? I can remember where I put my fingers to do this but is their a reason why they are called what they'r called? As in your fingers positioning? Is it important I know this? I can read the guitar tab music now.
Damn, this is so exciting!
It's just the standard of how to read music, as in each chord/note represents a letter of the alphabet: A,B,C,D,E,F & G There are numerous variations of those whith flats and sharps and diminishes and all sorts of nonsnse that not even i know. It's the same for all music and instruments.
Learn those seven and you're laughing as that's the basis of what everything else builds on.
As for you strap issue, it sounds like you have the prob i had. Basically you have a pin on the base of the guitar but nothing else, that right?
You can buy a small dongle/thingy from any music/instrument shop that will tie to the other end of your strap and then you can slide it over the neck of the guitar.
Originally posted by Steve1977
Doing the A, D and E chords now. But why are they called this? I can remember where I put my fingers to do this but is their a reason why they are called what they'r called? As in your fingers positioning? Is it important I know this? I can read the guitar tab music now.
Damn, this is so exciting!
A shoe-lace is the classic way to attach your strap - it goes round the headstock of your guitar, before the nut and the fretboard. Looks quite 60s! :D
As Robby said, the letters come from the notes of standard music. Each octave consists of 12 semi-tones:
C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A#, B
Note there is no E# or B#.
Also, C# is the same as Db: # = sharp, b = flat.
The open strings of the guitar are E, A, D, G, B, E (going from the bass to the treble) and each fret marks a change of one semi-tone in pitch on the strings. Hence, the 1st fret of each string sounds the following notes: F, A#/Bb, D#/Eb, G#/Ab, C, F.
The 12th fret will sound the same notes as the open strings, but an octave higher in pitch, which is why it traditionally has two dots marked on it.
Once you get to barre chords you'll see how this knowledge is helpful, since by 'barring' E and A chords, you are able to make them sound as higher-pitched chords. Barring involves your first finger holding down all the strings at a fret, and the other three fingers making the given chord shape (A or E).
Chord theory is actually fair long to go into, so I don't think I'll bother just now. It's all in your 'dummies' book, I'd guess, anyhow. :D
Steve1977
14-04-2004, 21:12
Been doing it just over a week now and we'r amazed as to how well we'v done! We can just about play Kumbaya. ::clap: :lol: But our fingering is getting quite quick. But in our book it has a short exercise for the "d" group of chords and in this it has you strumming upwards.
Now strumming downwards sounds great but strumming upwards? it sounds like my nail is gliding upwards over the chords...and thats because it is. So I use my index finger but it still sounds off. Instead of just hearing the music you can hear the hands gliding the strings.
So we brought two picks. One which is 0.5mm and one which is 1.0mm.
Are these only ideal for Electric guitars? if so, how do I make the strumming upwards sound better....but if you can use these plastic picks for Acoustic why does it sound like plastic hitting the strings? sure you can hear the sound and its much louder yet just before the sound you can hear the pick. :( Any ideas? Are there special ones for Acoustic? Or is it the fact we brought a budget one (Yamaha F310) and so when you do stuff like this it shows off its basic-ness.
Then again we'v only done A Chords and now D! lol.
Your assistance would be appreciared. :)
I don't think there is any hard and fast rule. Really it's down to your own individual strumming technique and the strings on your guitar, as you say you're only learning a few chords so a natural rhythym (SP?? i hate that word) will come with practise.
I usually use the same 0.5mm (i think ) plectrum for acoustic and electric guitar, but again it's down to preference, you may find a huge chunky pick/plectrum sounds better or perhaps in time you'll prefer the warm sound of strumming with your hands.
I used a 2pence piece t'other day through sheer laziness to find my plectrum. Sounded quite good but had a metal on metal grating sensation in the teeth. *shudder* :D
Yeah, metal plectrums can be quite nice. :)
I only ever buy Jim Dunlop Nylon plectrums personally. My favourite thickness is 0.88 mm, but it's a fairly stiff one (ooh-err missus). A 0.73mm is nice as is a 0.60, but the thinest I have (0.38) is really only for playing acoustics.
Off-hand I think I started wanting to play much firmer plectrums and went down to 'flappier' ones, or the other way around! :D
I would say 1mm plectrums will be too hard and will make you more likely to snap strings; 0.5mm is probably okay, but if it's quite a 'stiff' type (i.e. not the nylon type) then you may still find it's too 'clicky' on the strings.
My advice would be to get one of each of the six or seven sizes of the Jim Dunlop plectrum next time you're in the guitar shop to try them all.
You will get a harsher sound with a plectrum, but that's normal and you'll just get used to it. It's quite a nice noise, I think. :)
Oh and as your strings get older, they'll make less of those noises.
I just have a big bag of 1mm's :)
Never really got the hang of playing with anything thinner. I suppose thin picks are okay for playing big strummy chords (as there's more give in the pick, so it doesn't fly out of your fingers when it bumps across the strings).. but for anything else I find them too flappy.
That maybe just because of the way I play, though :thinking:
TheoGB has given good advice (as always) but I have to agree with Bumfrogs original post on this:
"if you are just learning it's far far easier to learn on a cheap electric."
this is so true, essentially, a crappy electric is easer to learn on than a crap acoustic. But you'll learn if you really want to regardless.
I have no suggestions for acoustics.. not my bag, Takemine I thought were really good but I don't think they fit in with "Sensible Price"
P.
Hmm, cheap electrics are easier but they already bought the acoustic, papalaz. :)
Ah.. That'll be a problem then :thinking:
Steve1977
17-04-2004, 09:28
lol. As people have stated its really a case of what you think is best. Really appreciate all the advice you'v given us...really couldnt have done it without ya!
After posting this I tried the 0.5mm one again and it sounded quite good! Just need to get used to using one.... extremely loud when compared with my thumb but I didnt buy a guitar to keep quiet. hehe
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