The age old beginners question of which type of guitar should I buy to start off with, is best answered by asking yourself which type of music you want to play. Here is a brief lowdown and the points to look out for when choosing a suitable acoustic.

There are two main categories here – acoustic and electric guitars. Acoustic guitars are great for accompanying yourself singing in a singer-songwriter role and also can be used in a band situation for virtuoso style group playing, say in a soloing jazz style. Electric guitars are mainly used in a band or group situation for guitar solos and rhythm work.

The description acoustic guitar covers all types of guitar, designed to play and sound without further or necessary amplification. They come with either steel or nylon strings. Steel stringers sound very much different to their more rounded and mellower cousins. They can be heard on all types of music too, from Pop to Elvis, to swampy old bottle-neck blues licks, to the mighty Travis. Great for banging out moving tunes or dropping it down to subtle finger-style chicken-pickin’. They are versatile to say the least, and the most common amongst bedrooms I would imagine.

Nylon stringed guitars are typically suited to and heard in Classical, Spanish and Flamenco style music. For a wonderful example of nylon-stringed magic check out Paco De Lucia or John Williams. These guitars are also to be heard in many other popular styles, such as Sting’s wonderfully simplistic but effective fret work, in the well known and beautiful song Fragile.

Tip: If you want to play traditional classical or flamenco style guitar, get a good graded teacher ASAP.

An important point to note here is that strings are the lifeblood of any guitar so make sure to invest in a quality brand at all times. Start off with a set of medium gauge (12s or 13s) and see how you get on. The heavier the gauge the more body in the sound. The price? Harder on the fingers to play but you get used to it. A typical medium size acoustic set would contain the following size strings in a set.:

E string .013
B string .017
G string .026
D string .038
A string .048
E string .058

Experiment over time until you find a good set that suits YOUR style. Go with a respected brand-name such as Martin or Fender.

Acoustic guitars can also be amplified on stage and recorded in various ways if desired or necessary. The simplest and most direct way is to mic them up with a microphone or install/stick on a pickup. Acoustic/Electro guitars as their name suggests, are simply acoustic guitars with the ability to plug into a suitable amplifier. This just means that they can be heard over say, a noisy pub racket of cheering…yeaahhh. Normally this feature is used for live gigging. In the recording studio it’s usual to use the studio’s recording facilities to capture a guitars sound to tape. It’s far superior, but feel free to experiment in your own time.

A good tip is that when looking out for an Acoustic Electros, or a Semi-Electric as they are also commonly called, is to make sure that the guitar sounds great un-amplified as well as great when plugged in. If the guitar sounds weak un-amplified, chances are it could sound weak amplified too.

Also watch out that your chosen guitar has a nice playable action. This relates to how high the strings come up off the fretboard. A cheap and badly made guitar has a very high action, and is therefore very hard to play. This is to be avoided like the plague! If you simply lower the action on a cheap guitar it will buzz and fret out (not sound) all over the place. And so onto Electric guitars which we can have a look at next – in the meantime happy strumming.

David O’Toole is a guitar player, music fan, and musician from Ireland. He is the webmaster at the UniGTR? Center and editor at the BellaOnline Musician Site

A keen player and experienced guitar teacher, he is also the author of the popular standard, lefthand, reverse guitar, and piano / keyboard series of Basic Chord Families — Not just another random selection of 1000s of chords, but the key to fast learning and playing 1000s of songs with under 60 chords!

This article may be freely reproduced as is, provided it is keep it intact, and that the above resource box is maintained – thank you.

Most guitar tuning problems on a Stratocaster, arise from the old style whammy bar or vibrato bar as it’s correctly called. And although a wonderful, fun, fantastic, and great invention, it does have it’s shortcomings. Newer Strat designs and double-locking systems have mostly overcome these annoying side-effects, but they do have a very different feel to them.

But if you set an old one up properly, and keep it well lubricated (use sewing machine oil), you can reduce your guitar tuning vibrato-bar problems to a minimum.

It is well worth your while learning all you can about your guitar and music gear, as regards keeping it serviced and running smoothly. If you don’t do it yourself, it means taking it to a repair guy or someone else, every time the slightest thing goes astray. I have a mountain of books like this for reference and it’s another interesting side of playing. Guitar mags such as the excellent and long running Guitar Player, or try Guitar One Magazine, Guitar Amps and so on are also a mine of information. I’m sure I’m not alone there.

An important point to remember when it comes to choosing strings is don’t Cheat on the Cheese. This too is a major source of Guitar Tuning problems even nightmares! Try a few different brand types out, and only buy from recognized and reputable guitar-string makers. Different players, styles and guitars have different needs. Always go with a respected brandname such as Ernie Ball or Fender.

I like 9′s on a Strat and something heavier on an electric guitar with no whammy bar. You can experiment with gauges yourself, find one you like and stick to it, especially on a guitar with an old style hand-vibrato on it, ok whammy-bar. If you intend to play slide on electric or acoustic guitars, use heavy gauge for the best tone and tuning. In general the heavier the string the heavier the tone, but they are harder to play and control. Try bending a g string on a heavy set and you’ll see what I mean. Strings are your guitars lifeblood, and as mentioned elsewhere, no Lee Chang or Red Dragon 50c Specials!

Sometimes you might hear a pinging sound when you use the whammy. This is caused by stored tension in the Nut being released as you dip the bar, and then bam, you’re out of tune. If it’s an emergency, i.e. it happens in the middle of a song during a gig, try pulling the bar up a bit and depending on how far you have slipped out of tune, this might just get you back in. At least to the end of the song. Hallelujah…

To solve this annoying and interfering nuisance, some good ol’ lubrication is needed here. The best thing to lubricate the nut-end of things, is graphite. An easy way to do this, is to use an ordinary pencil, and literally write onto the nut underneath where the strings slot in (lifting it up first, loosen if necessary), and give it a coating of lead. Then the strings just glide along the grooves instead of sticking there until you ping and release them.

This simple little trick works wonders for Strat guitar tuning dilemmas. Depending on your style and how often you gig, once a week of this treatment should be fine. Vaseline is also recommended for this task but I think it’s a bit messy and more suitable to nappy rash .

Remember Guitar Tuning is half the battle as they say, so it’s seriously worth getting right at an early stage. Good or excellent guitar tuning skills, will automatically improve your musical ear and this also helps you play better. There’s nothing worse or more unprofessional than a lazy ear player, who flies around on the guitar no problem, but the guitar is constantly out of tune. So pay attention to your strings and look after them and you will be repaid back a hundred times.

Next we are under the bridge, plus we will be having a look at the all important monthly guitar-neck massage.

David O’Toole is a guitar player, music fan, and musician from Ireland. He is the webmaster at the UniGTR? Center and editor at the BellaOnline Musician Site.

A keen player and experienced guitar teacher, he is also the author of the popular standard, lefthand, reverse guitar, and piano / keyboard series of Basic Chord Families — Not just another random selection of 1000s of chords, but the key to fast learning and playing 1000s of songs with under 60 chords!

This article may be freely reproduced as is, provided it is keep it intact, and that the above resource box is maintained – thank you.