Buying Your First Guitar Gear – Guitar Center
Purchasing Your First Guitar
So, you’re a budding musician looking to purchase your first guitar but don’t know what to behold for? We were all there at one point or another with dreams of being rock gods as well. The problem with trying to figure out what type of guitar to buy when you first start out playing is that when you slither into the music store, the walls are decked out with guitars from floor to ceiling and there are far too many options to decide from. Then the high pressure salesmen approach and sell you on something that you’re not too comfortable with. Arm yourself with the knowledge below and bring it to the store with you or an online retailer like musiciansfriend.com to buy your first guitar with pride and ease.
1. Know the type of music you’re trying to play. If you’re just starting out this information doesn’t do grand for you as you will probably be limited on your options, but if you’re looking to rock out like your heroes right away, knowing what type of music you’re interested in playing is a titanic help. All guitars have what’s called “pickups” that make the sound come out of the instrument and into your amp. If you’re into metal music, the type of pickups in your guitar are going to be very different from those of someone playing country. While there is always lenience in the rules, this is a general rule of thumb. Single coil pickups provide a brighter sound and humbuckers have a warmer sound, so decide what you’re looking for and notion accordingly.
2. Find your price range. If you’re a beginning guitarist, setting aside about $200 for your first bit of gear should be more than enough. Your guitar should cost you about $150 and your amp the rest of the cash. If you’re planning on playing an acoustic guitar, use the extra money for your acoustic guitar.
3. How do you find guitars that are “obedient? ” Start by browsing websites of music retailers like Sam Ash and Guitar Center and sort the options in your price range (all music websites have a label range setting) by how accepted they are and their rating. You’ll score a good belief by reading reviews what it is that makes a particular guitar so popular or why it would be beneficial to you. If you see that the reviewers are playing mostly country music and you’re more into rock, move on to something else until you procure your niche.
4. Finally, prefer something that looks cool. Because you’re starting out there’s no need to really worry about quality at this point. Sure everyone wants a decent guitar when they start playing, but the truth is that most people don’t know anything about guitar when they first start out, so buying one of those bundle packs or a cool looking guitar from a pawn shop may be the best way to go. No instruments sounds so appalling that people will turn away, so don’t worry how you sound in the beginning. You’ll learn very like a flash what kind of sound you want to make and how you can achieve it with your second guitar purchase.
Getting That First Amp
The first rule of thumb when purchasing a guitar amplifier is that quality always takes precedence over quantity. You may think that the roaring amplifier on sale at Guitar Center is going to be the best way to go in the long run, but before you pull the trigger and empty your wallet, reconsider. When you’re just starting out playing guitar you probably don’t want to pour a lot of your hard earned money into buying gear as you’re not sure if you like it well enough to stick with it in the long term. Remember that $50 you have left over from buying your guitar? That’ll be plenty to prefer a very nice sounding beginning amplifier that you can crank from your bedroom. Let’s get down to the nitty gritty and my opinions of what you should grab.
1. The first thing you should do when walking into a guitar store looking for amps is turn well away from the Marshall section. Most people see their favorite guitar players playing Marshall gear on stage and they think if they get on the same boat, they’ll have a great sounding guitar tone. Wrong. While Marshall makes some really great gear, the majority of their lower end gear, think sub $1000, is useless. Lines like the Marshall MG should be well avoided as you’re objective asking for trouble. Most players will tell you that unless you’re ready to drop big cash, stay away from big names. Marshall just isn’t afraid about their lower end products and the craftsmanship and quality of parts in their cheaper amplifiers pales in comparison to what other companies offer at the same imprint.
2. Avoid modeling amplifiers. Companies like Line 6 and Crate have made names for themselves making modeling amplifiers that are basically miniature computers within the amplifier that can reproduce your favorite guitarist’s sounds. The problem? They don’t sound right. Modeling a guitarist’s tone is all well and great if you’re willing to do it the right way by buying the same type of gear as them. Thinking a $100 amplifier is going to emulate all of the pedals and effects Van Halen or Slash has going on is wrong. Line 6 amps are of the higher waste starter amplifiers, but they’re not worth that extra bit of money you’ll have to pay for them.
3. So what do you get? There are a few small amps on the market that you can purchase for a good beginner tone. Of course, this is all subjective and I serve you to try all of the amplifiers you can before taking the plunge and buying an amplifier for yourself. Assuming your starter guitar didn’t come with an amplifier, you’re definitely going to need one if you want to rock out. My highest recommendation is the Fender Frontman 25R. It’s a nice solid state amplifier that boosts a lot of volume. You can procure them or the sister model, the 15R, at pawn shops almost everywhere. And if you can’t find one of these at a pawn shop, try looking for a Roland Cube. The cube is a compact powerhouse of tones and sounds that is as versatile as you want it to be. Of course, you’ll want to upgrade down the line, but these two diamonds in the rough are a ample stepping stone to the big leagues.
Your First Effects Pedals
Part of the fun of playing guitar is getting to experiment with different sounds and textures so that your guitar tone sounds more full and attractive than just a few chords here and there. Effects pedals are frowned on by some as not proper playing, but if you’re just looking to have some fun, or know how to not overuse effects in every song you write, there should be no pain in actually buying a few. But where do you begin? Because there are so many different types of effects and purposes for the different effects, figuring out which ones to acquire first may be tough. You’ll have to have an idea of what you’re after sound wise first, but for general effects and tone tweakers, the following few effects are generally found on every player’s pedal board.
1. Wah-Wah Pedal: Made famous by Hendrix’s Voodoo Child and many other songs of that era, the wah pedal does fair what it’s called. It makes your guitar sound like you’re saying “wah wah.” These pedals are made by a variety of companies but a approved of most players is a wah pedal made by Dunlop. The Dunlop Crybaby has been the guitar player’s staple for decades and has probably been used by your well-liked shredder as well. Give it a try in the shop to see if you’re digging the motion of the pedal and if you could use it in your rig.
2. Reverb: If you’re just starting out, chances are your amplifier doesn’t have any form of built in reverb. If that’s the case, reverb should be your first investment. There are far too many reverbs out there on the market, from what’s known as spring reverb to plate reverb. They all vary in their levels of “wetness” and “dryness” and how long they ring out. Some popular models to check out are the Electro Harmonix Holy Grail, the Boss RV3/RV5, or the Line 6 Verbzilla. All of these pedals will cost you a fair bit of money, but build a great tone. As always, test the waters first.
3. Delay: Finally on the list are delay pedals. Delay pedals take a guitar tone in and make it echo out through the amp at a decaying level. Just like if you were to stand in a large cavern and scream, your remark (or guitar sound in this case), would echo befriend and forth until it was no longer heard. Delay pedals always have basic functions like delay time, which sets the amount of time in between each command, a delay level knob that sets how loud the repeats are compared to the initial guitar strum, and number of repeats, which of course sets the number of times the riff is repeated from initial strum. You can check out a video of it below.
