The Search for your first Guitar...

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Walt Pilcher on July 29, 2011 at 3:38pm

Good advice, FloridaGull.  The only tricky point is "play as many as you can."  I certainly agree, but if you're a beginner, it'll be hard to evaluate based solely on your own playing, so I found it helpful not only to have the guitar store salesperson play it, but also bring a friend who is a good player and can speak to you objectively after playing it him/herself.

BTW, I have a Seagull S6 Original for sale at Don's Music City here in Greensboro, NC, for anybody in the area who's interested.  Like new and a great price!

Permalink Reply by FloridaGull on July 29, 2011 at 7:09pm

That is an excellent suggestion - thanks! I wrote this at work at the end of the day, so it is not as complete as I'd have liked...

Also, I should mention that Godin acoustics include Seagull, Simon and Patrick, Art and Lutherie, Norman, and LaPatrie. :)

Permalink Reply by Walt Pilcher on July 30, 2011 at 6:24am

Thanks.  Another benefit is you get to hear what the guitar sounds like to a listener, which is different from what it sounds like to you as you play it.

Permalink Reply by Michael Berish on July 29, 2011 at 4:23pm

I'm glad you started this group.  When I was about 8 years old, my Grandmother used to watch Lawrence Welk on TV and loved the Accordian player, so she HAD me take it up.  I got pretty good at it; could read music and went to recitals.  When I got to 12 years old, I took up the drums.  Played in the High School Band (a dance band for school dances, not a marching band).  I could read drum music and played in college in some bars.  Then you get older, a job, etc.  and you really just can't play by yourself to records when you're older.  So, I hadn't played anything for about 40 years.  And I missed the relaxation that a musical instrument can bring a person. Then about 1 year ago, I was at a fair in Jacksonville, Fl. and this guy had a sign that read LEARN TO PLAY THE GUITAR IN 20 MINUTES.  I figured what kind of a scam is this.  Well, what is was is the guy had tuned the guitar (not to standard tuning), but configured it so that a person could use one of these BAR TYPE  contraptions that went around ALL of your fingers and you could actually play a simple tune from a songbook he sold; it was a cheap guitar, so I figured: Why Not?  Try it out and see; it didn't cost  you much.  Well, I got to liking it, so I decided to up-grade and went to a real guitar store.  Not knowing what I wanted, the salesman sold me a Classical guitar because it had nylon strings on it and was easier to learn on.  It wasn't very expensibe (a Takamine EG124C).  Now, I couldn't cheat with that Bar Chord device.  I was forced to have a standard tuned guitar and to start learning how to play notes, tabs and scales.  This was starting to be fun.  By now, I had been on-line and subscribed to Free lessons, bought several books. learned about sized, tone woods, etc.  About a month or so ago, I up-graded again to a Epiphone EJ200CE Jumbo with Maple back and sides and Spruce top.  I just love that sparkling sound from the Maple.  Amyway, I'm still now very good, and it has only been about 1 year (I'm 65 , so it shows it's never too late to try anything in life) and am having fun on the guitar.  When I get better, I'm thinking of up-grading again to a walnut guitar.    Mike 

Permalink Reply by FloridaGull on July 29, 2011 at 7:15pm

Interesting. I've heard that electrics are easiest to learn on (lowest action, least pressure on fingers), acoustics next, and classical hardest, due to higher action and more pressure and precision required. Thoughts?

Permalink Reply by Mark on July 29, 2011 at 8:32pm

I may not be an expert Gull, but I agree 100% with that statement.    I would always steer a new (and mostly youth) player towards electric first.   For that reason. 

 

I learned on a classical, and it took me a LOOOOOONG time and a lot of hair pulling before I was able to play a normal steel string acoustic without my fingers always touching the other strings.   

Permalink Reply by Michael Berish on July 30, 2011 at 7:20pm

Well, it's not that Classical is the easiest to learn, what , I guess, I was trying to say was that the classical guitar was the easiest type of guitar to learn on (at least for me) becaus of it's a smaller size, nylon strings, etc.  I'm sure that it (Classical Music) probably is the hardest type of music to learn to play. I just wanted to play a guitar & stick with it...Period.  I just learned the scales , notes and a few simple songs (those songbooks where you can play a song that consist of only 3 chords) on the classical guitar I had.  I never, ever (in my wildest dreams) would have attempted to play any classical music on it.

Permalink Reply by Mark on July 30, 2011 at 9:15pm

I'm just saying....

 

Nut width plays a huge role in the learning process..especially after someone has mastered the basics.

here's an analogy.

 

When I was a small boy. my brothers and I learned to play table tennis on a table that was made from a 4X8 sheet of plywood.  The actual dimensions of a regulation table tennis table are 5X9.

When us boys were unleashed on the general public on regulation tables... Well let's just say that the only person who could come close to beating me was my brother...and visa versa. 

 

That extra foot all around made a HUGE difference!

Of course.   There's always someone better, faster, stronger... etc...

I finally met my match on the table tennis table.  

 

But that guy went on to win two Silver medals in the olympics, and was ranked number one in the U.S. professionally...

Permalink Reply by Dean Tyler on July 31, 2011 at 9:55am

Started learning guitar seriously this January 2011.  The search of my first guitar took more than 12 guitars... LOL 

Well, actually I had many "first" guitars, everyone of them felt like a "first" for a while...

The real first one was a brand new $70 no-name deal from online, no truss rod, I played it till my fingers bled, literally, after callus and blisters, the action was so damn high now I realized.  Being the kind of person who have this tendency to reinvent the wheel (and refused to engage a teacher), I plowed on, blister or not.  But then the guitar kept getting out of tune, so finally broke down and went downt to the local store and got a real guitar, a used beat-up Yamaha for $150.  Still use it for my next-to-computer guitar after converting to 5-string and making the action super low, using it to arrange the new songs.  What I love more about it was that somebody installed a pre-amp inside, that puts out a real loud and clear signal (no volume control), and the battery has yet to run out.

Then my electric guitar friend made me realize THAT is easier on my fingers, so bought a new Squire, looked the same color as that one in Wayne's World.  It was OK, but the strings are so close together...  So I bought another cheap electric online, one with WIDE NUT, but the wiring inside is so crappy, lots of unwanted noise.  I have a Roland Micro Cube by now.  Got really frustrated  with the noise, so I went down to the local store and bought a brand new regular-nut Ibenez Gio, no noise, very nice.

But alas, after a couple weeks I realized I really wanted the wide nut, so I bought an Agile wide-nut online.  Loved it, bought a 2nd one (don't ask me why).  Then I realized... electric guitars are NOT for strumming/singing, the sustain is too long, especially an Agile 3000.  And being a beginner, I don't know how to hand-silent the strings.  Back to accoustic/electric, and Ovations, since in my regular playing position I am standing up instead of sitting down, Ovation allows you to see the strings in that in that position.  And 4 Ovations later, I found my "true love", in a $320 shipping-included refurb CSE24, modified to 5-string of course and truss rod and nut properly adjusted (by me).  Sweat sweet guitar. 

Did try to get rid some of the unwanted, or all if I can, but no luck.  Seem like guitars are so cheap to make, it constitute very little of the selling price.  The the beautiful (sound and look) purple Ibanez Gio is still in the original brand new on condition, paid $200 locally, the guy would only take it back for $50.  In my head I thought, I rather smash this guitar and burn it at that price... LOL 

In the end did get rid of a couple ones I bought new online, at 30% loss.  The rest are resting on my wall high up, around house, as decorations, well actually more than decoration since I can take any of them down and strum...

Definitely get a teacher who can save you some money instead of buying a dozen guitars like me, unless of course you can afford it w/o the wife bitching...

Permalink Reply by Dean Tyler on August 1, 2011 at 12:48pm

Well, nut width is important, because it indicates the E-to-E distance.  Regular guitar has a 35mm E-to-E distance, too small for adult beginners IMO, Seagull guitar is excellent for adult beginner with their adult-size fingers, 39mm E-to-E.  As the student get better, they can go back to regular guitar which has a 35mm E-to-E distance.  I don't own any Seagull, but tried one at the store and varified the E-to-E distance.  Instead I convert regular guitar with its regular nut to 5-string, and replace the regular nut with a 48mm sawed-off nut (to 42mm) , axing off the 6th string (low-E) of course, which resulted in a Seagull-like spacing for the remaining 5 strings.

But the last few dasy I wondered if I could ever play a regular guitar with regular nut, so I tried, a bit tricky, so many strings lol, so little space.  So today I convert one Ovation using a 44mm sawed-off nut so that the spacing goes half-way back toward regular nut, it works.  A lot more "seamless" in the transition.  The 44mm nut has a 37mm E-to-E distance. 

So now to convert all my guitars to this new nut... yes, I am learning more to be a self-taught luthier than guitar player LOL.

Permalink Reply by Dean Tyler on August 5, 2011 at 9:41pm

Well, slap me silly, just found out today that sometimes you hold down TWO strings with one finger, especially if they are very tight in there against the nut on the 1st fret.  Silly me, trying to use two fingers to do that LOL.  So this is one reason to keep the strings closer together. 

Permalink Reply by Craig MC on September 6, 2011 at 5:27pm

When I decided to take up guitar in my early 50s, a friend suggested Seagulls as a well-built, reasonably priced instrument. I decided to sell one of my canoes to get one, ended up with a Craigslist ad offering to trade the boat for a decent guitar like a Seagull. The guy that responded had a Simon & Patrick Pro Rosewood collecting dust, we traded and I've been an S&P fan since. I got very lucky with my first guitar. I love the feel, sound, smell (yep!). I may buy other guitars (and have using the play-as-many-as-you-can advice) but I'll wager I never part with that one.

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