It seems easier to choose an acoustic guitar. Many people recommend to purchase an acoustic one as the first guitar. However, if you feel like having an electric guitar is a preferable option for you – go for it. Things will be a little rough in the beginning, but later on you`ll be able to completely understand how good your instrument is.
Choosing style
Appearance is important. Although it has no influence on sound qualities, it affects player`s mood a lot. Therefore choose a guitar, that you`ll enjoy looking at and holding in hands. A good decision is to get a guitar with basic pattern, like coloring or sunburst.
Choosing body type
There are several shapes of guitar bodies:
- Single cutaway
Cutaway is a small cavity in the body. It is there for making the access to strings easy.
- Double cutaway
Double cutaway is like a single cutaway, but the cavity is on both sides of body. This is made for letting players perform advanced tricks.
- The V-Type bode
Probably everybody knows the Gibson Flying V. Guitars of this type have a lighter body. They are designed specifically for aggressive and fast players.
Well, as an experienced guitar player, I would say that the plain body or a single-cutaway are the most suitable for the beginners. While the plain one will let player fully concentrate on the process, the single cutaway is a nice purchase in a long term.
Choosing a pickup
Pickup is a magnetic little thing that makes sound amplification possible. There are two types of pickups:
- Single-coil pickups
Single-coils are thin. They are used mainly in melodic music genres, like blues or country. The sound, produced with single-coil pickups is usual bright and sounds kinda majestic.
- Double-coil pickups (also known as humbuckers)
Double coils are like single coils, but there are two of them. The construction is designed this way to destroy hum, that is usually produced by single-pickups. The other thing is that they produce heavier sound, which will be more suitable for metal, hard rock and jazz.
Actually, there is no strict rule, telling that exact type of pickup is required for specific genre. The best way to find out is by trial and error. Pickups don`t cost much and they are rather long serving, so get two examples and find out which one is more comfortable for you.
The Bridge
The bridge is the place where strings are anchored to the body. There are three types of bridges:
- Hard bridge
Hard bridge is fixed. It makes handling and adjusting guitar easy. They are stable and make maintenance easy.
- Tremolo bridge
Tremolo bridge can be moved, so it is possible to adjust the tension of strings. The tension influences the pitch. It means that experiments with sound are possible.
There are more types of bridges, but these are the two that fit the best for the beginners. I would recommend a hard tail for a complete beginner and a tremolo one for the player, who has experience.
Recommended guitar
There are many manufacturers, producing guitars for the beginners. I can say that Fender, Gibson and Dean are the best ones. There is Les Paul II from Gibson`s child company – Epiphone. Check this review out to find out more.
Good luck and thank you for reading!
