Recommend Me An Acoustic Guitar

Iv seen a few threads on here about people learning guitar and there seems to be some good knowledge on here.

So iv been learning to play guitar on this old crappy spanish thing that i found down the cellar.

The strings are too far above the neck, i think the strings are actually knackered. It wont go into tune and its chipped in places.

So iv decided i dont want it to hamper my learning anymore and will buy a proper acoustic.

Ill have about £100 to spend, is that going to be enough for a half decent one?

Which one would you recommend for a complete novice like me?

Thanks guys

Best thing to do is to go into a music shop and actually strum a few chords see what feels best and sounds best for you. You want steel strung unless you're looking to play classical which will mean you will be ideally suited to nylon strung. In the steel strung market, Fender make acoustic guitars at that price. Some music shops sell 2nd hand guitars. You can get some good buys 2nd hand because decent guitars will get better with age as they have what is called a "Solid top". A clued up person in the music shop should be able to tell you what the score is.

Originally Posted by robchester

A clued up person in the music shop should be able to tell you what the score is.

Absolutely. Get some advice from someone who works in a guitar shop. They should be able to make some suggestions. If its a decent sized shop they should have several that you can try. Make sure you try them...I can't stress that enough. I nearly spent in excess of a grand on a new bass on the strength of owning two others by the same manufacturer...glad I played it first!!

Anyway - stop reading this tosh and get yourself down to a shop!!

As above.

£100 will definitely get you a decent one, the twelve string acoustic I got 15 years ago only cost a bit more brand new, and it still plays perfectly (unlike me...).

[northwind]

Try and avoid electros- at this price, you want every penny to have been spent on timber and construction.

Crafter make nice budget acoustics... Though they only do juniors in that price range. My travel acoustic was £160 and it's magic, sounds great despite the small body. The spec and build is better than I ever saw on a £300 guitar even 5 years ago. It's a TRV23, they come up pretty cheap on Ebay sometimes. If I was looking for a bigger acoustic, I'd check out Crafter first purely because of that, it really knocked me out.

Not played any of the cheaper Freshman guitars but they have a good rep... Washburn and Yamaha are traditional "cheap but good" options but the cheaper Yamahas I've seen recently have been fairly nasty. Good quality control, but poor spec.

This is a lovely thing at £130 http://www.guitarsuperstore.com/imag...s/lrg_3348.gif

... I played one and it sounded dead as a doornail, but that can vary a lot from guitar to guitar

Vintage did incredibly good budget models when they first started out, not sure how they measure up now but they really raised the game. I wanted to like the wee Epiphones, but I've never found one that sounded any good at all. The cheap Fenders tend to be diabolical too, I had a DG5 that we burned at Reading one year. It didn't even burn very well. I think it's the same as the Squier MA1. Do not, under any circumstances, buy one of those Stratacoustic or Telecoustics, they're dismal. OK plugged in, mind, good in a feedback environment since they're so acoustically dead.

Buying used is very often a good way to go with guitars... As robchester says acoustics, especially real wood ones, often get better with age and very rarely get worse, unless abused. But I'd be wary of Ebay, since condition's so subjective on guitars. I've done well with Ebay but it's a bit of a gamble.

Thanks guys, ill go down to my local music shop on monday and have a mess about.

Playing a few chords is about all i can do anyway so ill try it out.


Im glad 100 notes will be enough, my dad also said to go for a 2nd hand one too, like fine wine he said!

I think it will be steel stringed one, i dont really fancy playing classical.

Do i just go for the one that sounds best to my ears, its not like i have much else to go on?

Cheers for the advice

[northwind]

Yep, just look for something that's comfy to play, sounds good, and doesn't buzz all over the place. Muck about with the tuners to make sure it takes and keeps tune OK- you'll need to watch quality control a wee bit at this price, so you want to be sure the strings pass through the nut smoothly when you tighten the tuners. If not, it'll be hard to tune and it'll wander off immediately. Oh aye, if it looks like it's made out of MDF, you don't want it