Posts Tagged ‘Acoustic Guitar’

Choosing a Guitar, Electric Guitar Or Acoustic Guitar

Saturday, October 31st, 2009


What type of guitar do you want to own? Do you want an electric guitar, or do you want an acoustic guitar. The choice is obviously up to you. You will have to take a few things into consideration such as what type of sound are you looking for, ease of playing, and price. There are so many out there that you should easily be able to find what you are looking for.

So you want a guitar, and you are finally going to go out and try and find one.. If you’re on a budget then you might think that your buying options are limited. The truth is that you can probably find a better deal on discontinued models that have barely been used. There are a lot of these items laying around waiting to be sold either because the original owner upgraded, became disinterested, or just changed models.

High quality woods are more expensive and often difficult to find. This has led to the construction of low priced guitars made out of alternate wood varieties such as red cedar or mahogany. Low priced guitars can be found with laminated backs and solid wood tops. You can also find cheap acoustic guitars made out of non-wood materials such as plastic or graphite. Although it’s a well accepted fact that the top, back, and sides made of solid wood are key factors in contributing to a guitar’s pleasant sound, the use of cheap wood materials in acoustic guitars is becoming an acceptable alternative.

The 12 string acoustic guitar has different ways of altering the price between cheap and expensive. Much of the sound originates from the top and your more expensive guitars will feature a solid wood top to get the rich sound you are hoping for. The remainder of the guitar on more expensive models will also be made of solid wood. These methods contribute largely to the sounds produced by an acoustic guitar. Lower priced ones may use solid tops with laminated backs and sides. Acoustic guitars made for amateur guitarists are usually completely laminated. As high quality wood becomes more difficult to obtain guitars have resorted to use other acceptable materials such a plastic and graphite.

Because of the high price of new electric guitars many amateurs have chosen to buy a pre-owned model. Used electric guitars are sold when an owner decides to upgrade to a new model or has stopped playing. Usually the only thing that needs to be done with a used model is to replace the strings, as all other parts of the guitar should remain in good shape.

When you are planning on buying your guitar, don’t compromise on quality. Try to find a good name brand used guitar that appears to be in good shape. In the long run you will be glad you did since the cheaper model will either run up a repair bill, or just end up being thrown away.

Be prepared with a guitar budget. Don’t go out and buy a $5,000 used guitar because it’s the same type of guitar Jimi Hendrix used. Find a quality used guitar that has a reasonable price. Don’t go real low on a good name brand as there is more than likely something wrong with the guitar.

Try to find a guitar that is around 10 years old.. You’ll find some great bargains in this category in classified on websites like eBay. They have a section on vintage guitars that are pretty attractive pricewise. Take a look at the sellers feedback to make sure he is respectable and make a deal. So there you have it, now go out and find that guitar you are looking for, be it an electric guitar or an acoustic guitar. Practice and enjoy!

Best Guitar Lessons Online

Saturday, August 8th, 2009


Learning to play the guitar using an online course has become increasingly popular since the Internet boom. You no longer have to drag yourself to a guitar class or pay expensive personal tuition fees; you can simply download one of the popular courses available and be learning within minutes.

The majority of courses offer tuition for those who want to learn traditional acoustic guitar. However, if you have more specific needs, there are courses for electric and Spanish guitar and even specialised courses for those more advanced players that want to learn electric lead guitar.

So if you want the best guitar lessons online, what should you look for? While most guitar courses come with a video tutorial section, the quality of the videos is paramount. You need to learn from videos that have step-by-step instructions. The problem with some videos is that they do not give that much detailed information, this can lead to frustration, and you really need high quality close up videos.

You should also look for a course that has been proven, that’s had a significant amount of people enrolled on the course. The Jamorama Insider Secrets to Playing Guitar course has had over thirty thousand satisfied customers and is the sort of course that a beginner would progress well with.

Whatever course you download in order to get the most out of your online guitar lessons, you need to put in the effort. While any reputable guitar course is capable of taking you from a complete beginner to an able guitarist within a year, you must be prepared to work at it. Sore fingers and initial frustration is the price you have to pay in order to master the guitar.

Learn Acoustic Guitar – The Difference Between Steel String and Classical Guitar

Sunday, March 8th, 2009


The term “acoustic guitar” commonly refers to two distinct types of instruments, the steel string acoustic guitar and the classical guitar.

For a person learning acoustic guitar, which type of guitar to choose is primarily based on the kind of guitar style the player wishes to learn. While both types are very similar to one another, the differences between the two do tend to favor certain techniques over others. While by no means is it impossible to play the same material on one or the other, it can be more difficult than necessary to use a classical guitar when a steel string might be more appropriate or vice versa.

The Classical Guitar

The classical guitar is not surprisingly the favored version of the acoustic guitar used by classical guitarists. Somewhat more unusually, it is also quite commonly used for acoustic parts by metal guitarists, due to several prominent guitarists in that genre also being classically trained.

The main difference between the classical guitar and the steel string acoustic is that the classical guitar uses nylon strings for the three treble strings rather than metal strings. This lends a fairly different quality to the sound of those strings, even in comparison to the bass strings of the guitar, which are metal strings. Beyond that, classical guitars also tend to have significantly wider fretboards. Classical guitars are virtually always played with the fingers rather than a pick. There is a reason for this beyond tradition.

Classical guitar strings are usually much lower tension than comparable steel string acoustic strings, and there is also a noticeable difference in tension between the nylon treble strings and the metal bass strings on a classical guitar. Those two factors can make it quite awkward to play pick style strumming with the same kind of evenness that can be achieved on a steel string guitar.

However, with classical style finger technique, the classical guitar is much better. The wider fretboard favors the fretting hand technique commonly found in classical style guitar. In addition, the lower string tension gives much greater control over string dynamics for finger playing. For someone interested in more classical style or even just finger style the classical guitar may be the better choice.

The Steel String Acoustic Guitar

The steel string acoustic guitar is perhaps the more prominent of the two types when the term “acoustic guitar” is used. Outside of classical style, the steel string acoustic is fairly common in just about every other genre that uses guitars.

Lacking the specialized nature of the classical guitar, this is probably the more comfortable variant for an electric guitarist to pick up and use, as well. The closer string spacing and more even string tension favor the chord strumming techniques that are often associated with acoustic guitar.

The reverse is that classical style playing is a bit more difficult. While both are quite similar in form and function and the same techniques can be played on either, the differences in strings and fretboard spacing do favor different styles of playing.