Guitar Wannabe

Hey guys! I've been interested in learning guitar ever since my real musical revolution began last summer and I just had to get in on it. I have a ton of questions. However, there's only a couple people I know who play guitar and they're beginners too, so I thought I'd ask you cool dudes.

First of all, what guitar should I buy as a beginner? I'm interested in playing electric eventually, but do I start with acoustic? I've heard beginners should use nylon strings, is this true?

How much should a beginner's guitar cost?

I guess, at the moment, all I'm asking for is a description of what my first guitar should be.

-Dan

well, I was into guitar back in middle school...back then it was too expensive for me to continue...Though now, only 6 or so years later i'm getting a real nice deal on an acoustic. A washburn acoustic w/gold inlay...normally for 100 or so, but i'm getting it for 75. I would suggest starting out w/acoustic first. As electric can wake the dead. But, I love the acoustic and the elec. I don't know about the nylon strings...I've just been so used to picking or just not caring about the blisters...
try to pick up a guitar either acoustic or electric, your choice, that you feel in tune with. The music comes from the union of both man and the music...just feel around for something that you like. well, there be me 2 cent.

well, an acoustic is much more difficult to fret than an electric, because the strings are higher up from the board and you have to press them just right--its easier to mute them, i think. what i did was start out with an acoustic but it got too frustrating because it was so hard to learn on, so i saved up and bought an electric, and it was easier. however, after a while i went back to the acoustic and bought some real heavy strings and played exclusively on it for about six months. then when i went back to the electric it was about twice as easy to play on it.
here's two sites for you that i have in my favorite's that might help you out a little--one that helps you tune it and the other has a comprehensive list of like 500 possible guitar chords.
http://www.houlston.freeserve.co.uk/tuning.htm
http://www.jmdl.com/howard/music/guitarchords.html
i've never had lessons and i learned ok i think. you just have to know what you want to play, maybe download some tabs, memorize some chords, and have a little discipline. black sabbath and nirvana are real easy to learn--a lot of punk is easy to play also, for beginners.

people who are "serious" about their guitar playing tend to buy acoustic first. i dont know how or why that happens, but a lot of my friends over the years have bought guitars, the ones who have stuck with it bought acoustic first and then electric later.

and yea, the ones who started with acoustic go on and on about how much easier electric is.

Green Day is a really good bad to use for practice, youll probably end up hating them from hearing their songs so much, but most of their songs are very simple and easy to learn.

I agree Wyote, most people that pick up acoustic tend to stick w/playing guitar. Now another thing to check out are older songs. In particular any Elvis or Blues. Also w/ an acoustic, try not to get one thats like 2x your size w/the body. I've never had to string a guitar, so I'm not too sure on the types of strings to buy.

Acoustics are really easy to just pick up and practice with, electrics are a bit more cumbersome, and they have a unique sound and are highly recognizable and relatable.

You can get electric acoustic but I have no experience with those, I'm poor.

Ok, if you want to start learning guitar, i suggest you go down to a local guitar/shop centre and pick up an aucoistic and an electirc strum them both and see which you prefer. Then buy one of them. The problem with cheap aucostics is that, they are never particualry well made and have a high action (distance from fingerboard, to strings) which makes learning difficulct. If you were to start on an aucostic i suggest you get a semi-decent one to make your life a lot easier. Now, if you were to start on electric, guitars are generally better made, if you go with a well know name (i.e Squire, yamaha) they will be easier to learn and play on.

With regards to nylon strings vs. steel strings, its all prefernece, but i strongly suggest you start out with steel strings, because if you ever want to play electric you have to get used to steel strings anyway. They will hurt your fingers, but the more you play, the less it will hurt.

If you were to start off on an electric, i suggest you buy a small practice amp (no more then 15 watts MAX, i would go for 10 watts) a decent lead, and Either a Squire Strat, or a Yamaha Pacifca 112, these are both regarded as good starting guitars, and if you get the Yamaha, you can play it for qite a while as your progress in your playing.

BUt again, its all up to prefernece and what kit you feel comfortable with.

Hope this helps.

Thanks for all your suggestions, guys. A few weeks ago I got a little 115 dollar Squire electric and started lessons. There've been time conflict since I started and probably won't get to do lessons again until like December, but I'm still having fun attempting to teach myself some things.

If you wanna learn, i suggest you learn tabs, and some scales.

www.mxtabs.net

You can get tabs off there and start learning.

http://www.worldguitar.com/start.html

scales and advice.

Get started

This sucks. I broke a string Friday. I got it like a month and a half ago! Maybe I'm just too angry when I play.

Nah, if you got it brand new, the strings would of been cheap, and if it was 2nd hand, the strings were probably already dead.

Best thing to do know is to learn how to restring it

strings break all the time anyway, most people think they are invincible at first youll go through countless amounts though probably.