The Music Instrument Store

Guitar For Dummies Acoustic Guitar Starter Pack (Guitar, Book, Audio CD, Gig Bag)

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Retail Price: $159.99

Amazon Price: $96.00

by Jaspal Egdaire

As a beginning guitarist, have you ever thought of quitting your guitar? Why your guitar sounds bad no matter how good you squeeze the fretboard? Why your fretting fingers can’t stay longer on the fretboard without having pain?

Some people think that a budget acoustic guitar is good enough for beginners because if they decide to quit they don’t lose much money. This maybe half true but sometimes people forget that beginning guitarists often stop playing because they feel they can’t take the pain anymore without realizing that they picked up the wrong axes.

Cheap guitars are OK as long as they meet the condition below:

Check for warped guitar neck. Press one string at the first and 12th fret and look at the gap between the string and the frets on the fretboard. You should see a little tiny gap only between them.

The next important thing is to find a guitar within your budget that has a good playability. Good playability means it should feel comfortable in your hand. Getting a right guitar will help eliminating the unnecessary muscle tension because the strings tension is softer. You should be able to play any chords on the fretboard at any place without sore fingers.

A guitar with good playability normally has a low action. Action is the distance measured from the top of fret #12 to the bottom of the 6th string. Try to get an acoustic guitar with action 3mm to 4mm.

The other important thing to check is intonation. Good intonation means you will get any note at any place on the fretboard tuned right. Have you experienced out of tuned notes when you press your fretboard but when played open chords the pitch is perfectly fine? This is a good example of bad intonation. If you can’t tell the difference between good and bad tuning you can always use a guitar tuner.

It is quite difficult to find cheap guitars that can meet those criteria, especially for beginners. Get an experienced friend to guide you in the guitar store and let him/her recommend some guitars for you to try. Choose one that feels right in your hand and don’t pay attention too much on the guitar appearance. You don’t need a fancy good looking guitar. It may fool you easily.

A budget guitar that meets the basic criteria above is worth buying. With very limited budget you can’t expect much but you won’t get a crap guitar either if you follow this guideline correctly.

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