Official buying advice thread

sceloporus said:
First off, whats your price range for buying?
What are your goals? Going to play in a band?
What i can say is that with commitment guitar isn't that hard when starting out. You just need to pick easy things to begin with and work your way up.
As far as the guitar you want to buy, what are you looking for acoustic or electric?
What style do you want to play?
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- Price range: I'm honestly not sure; but as a beginner I would want something of good value that wouldn't break the bank.

- Goals: I'm just keen to learn.

- Choice: I was thinking electric, but is it better to start learning with an acoustic guitar?

- Style: I was thinking metal, and also jazz.
 
If you want to play metal and jazz, you're better off with an electric guitar. You'll have a few additional expense, such as amps, cables, and any effects pedals that you think are necessary, but you'll be able to switch between clean and distortion at will.

I have an ESP F-50 that I bought for about $200 on musiciansfriend.com and a 15 watt Spider III amp, that I also bought on musiciansfriend.com for $99.
 
Take a look at Epiphone guitars. They are generally made out of the same wood and specs as their Gibson counterparts, are put together well and sound good. The only thing that will be crap is the pickups (which you may eventually want to replace for better ones) but that goes for any low end guitar. My first guitar was an Epiphone LP-100 (around $250-$300 now days). I still own the thing and it plays better than some other guitars that are more expensive.
 
For starting i recommend the following:

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/prod...-Pack-With-Fender-Frontman-15G-Amp?sku=513288
The stratocaster models have very versatile tone and can have a close to acoustic sound if the tone is right. This might be good for metal and jazz.I have one and though i've had to do some repairs with the wiring it still has a great action and feel.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Ibanez-IJX121Metal-Guitar-Jumpstart-Package?sku=518877
Very good guitar for metal, Ibanez has a great line of guitars and are very reliable.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/product/Epiphone-SG-Special-Electric-Guitar-Players-Pack?sku=518745
I'm going to tell you this is a solid guitar but the tone is rather bland and dead-sounding.
 
Great replies by everyone. I would say take whichever advice suits you best. I'll give you mine....

Find someone who knows how to play guitar that is a friend or in your family etc. It doesn't matter what style they play, be it metal, country jazz, anything. Take them with you to the local pawn shops and let them help you pick out a guitar (if it is an acoustic and that is what you want to start with) or an electric and an amp. If they have been playing a few years, they will know what is a decent instrument for a good price. If you do choose an electric and an amp, then go to a music shop and get a mid-grade cord. It sounds silly, but cheap cords are terrible.
Knowing what I know now (been playing 23 years) if I were starting out, I would go with a Korean Ibanez and a smaller Peavey solid state amp with a chorus on it. Almost any amp will give you some cool distortion for playing the heavy stuff, but without effects, the "clean" sound usually stinks with cheap solid state combos unless they have a built in chorus.

Bryant
 
ESP = BAD! i wish people would get off ESP's cock. crap construction, crap materials, and crap tone! theyre entire market strategy is to get high school kids who know nothing about guitars. theyre like cigarette companies!

ibanez makes a fantastic guitar for cheap. i would reccomend anything in the S or SA series. good guitar for a good price. i own an SA series and its a great all around guitar.
~gR~
 
genocide roach said:
ESP = BAD! i wish people would get off ESP's cock. crap construction, crap materials, and crap tone! theyre entire market strategy is to get high school kids who know nothing about guitars. theyre like cigarette companies!

ibanez makes a fantastic guitar for cheap. i would reccomend anything in the S or SA series. good guitar for a good price. i own an SA series and its a great all around guitar.
~gR~
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Hai 5, good sir. ;o
 
Maybe get a guitar with a Humbucker and single coil pickup, meaning you could get both clean and distortion stuff, instead of getting like a strat with just single coils (although some strats have humbuckers). If you want to play metal and clean stuff, or are you undecided? A price range and style of play would might generate some better responses.
 
BurningWitch said:
Maybe get a guitar with a Humbucker and single coil pickup, meaning you could get both clean and distortion stuff, instead of getting like a strat with just single coils (although some strats have humbuckers). If you want to play metal and clean stuff, or are you undecided? A price range and style of play would might generate some better responses.
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You honestly couldn't read the third post in the thread?
 
Any recommendations for a beginner in bass guitart, what metal songs are easy to learn(not that easy) for somone who started lessons 2 months ago
 
recommendations? just keep practicing. most metal songs are pretty wasy bass wise, so pick one you like and just hammer on it
~gR~
 
Try some Black Sabbath songs.

If you ever come to a part in any song (by any band) that you think you can't play, don't be discouraged; just take small parts and practice them at a slow speed. Once you feel comfortable with one speed, try it a little faster. Most people recommend a metronome for this purpose, but I've never felt the need for one.

A good free program to learn songs with is called PowerTab. It's a guitar/bass tab program that uses MIDI to play songs back while you try to learn them; it also has a built in metronome. While this program and others like it make it easier to learn songs, you should still try to figure out stuff using your ear.

I haven't actually tested this, but I thought about a technique to help with ear training. Learn all or part of a song using a tab, then stop playing it until you pretty much forget how to play most of it. Listen to the song again and see if you can figure out how to play it, by using both your ears and your memory.
 
Ok guys thx for the advice, i began black sabbath songs on guitarpro to see tabs and its going gd although it takes time but practice shall do it :D
 
Yeah, I taught myself to play bass and started with songs like Sabbath's 'Paranoid' and Motorhead's 'Religion' and some punk songs ... I searched for tabs on the internet as I can't read music. ALso Guitar Pro helped my. Depends if you want to play with a pick or fingers. I use a pick because I need to sing too so can't multi-task all that good yet.
 
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