Ive received some PM about buying guitars lately, all ask the same question

"How i buy my first guitar"

buying your first guitar is not easy, my first guitar was an el cheapo given by a drummer , i paid him RM50 out of courtesy. how much that guitar is really worth i dont know but i doubt it will be a lot. i made a few mistakes, first i didnt know it was a classical and used nickle strings on it, needless to say during the time i was playing that axe it was problematic.

fortunately the guitar market improved very much well since then, for a mere 300-400 bucks today you can get a number of OEM brands and there are a lot of sellers today compared to those i knew existed. (bentley n guitar store).

firstly,

to Kapok or not to Kapok

for those that dont know, kapok is an indonesian budget brand of guitars often made of some man made form of wood (i think its plastic) with super high action and strings that can pierce your fingers. the guitars cost about RM80-150.

kapoks hold very dear influence to a lot of musicians in malaysia because its cheap, but its an ill advised move. kapoks are notorious for their high actions that cause a lot of pain and most times that pain doesnt help with anything. the gutiar is also hard to stay in tune and generally very hard to play.

IMHO,buying a kapok its not buying a instrument; its buying musical self mutilation.

The simple answer

if you ask me any day, "what acoustic i should buy?" my answer will be the yamaha 310. what eletric? yamaha's pacifica 012

are there better value guitars? yes
better playing guitars? yes

so why this guitar? the answer is simple - safety, and this will be the basis of my lesson for today. when you first start buying your first guitar you would have 0 knowledge over this "thing", so to me the best way to go about it if you know nothing, is to get a safe bet. im not advertising for yamaha, but i acknowledge that under the beginner field they are pretty hard to beat, a lot of their instruments rank in top 10 best budget/beginner lists for a reason.

for an eletric guitar you have a range of choices, a squire tele is a good guitar so are some of the GRG models, i would however recommend you to stay clear of non-fixed bridges of any form, they kill your tuning fast.


the more complicated answer

but if you dont want a yamaha and want to dwell deeper to find the "right" one here are some tips:

Budget

First you need a budget and my recommendation for a budget? Rm300 - 400 (if you can afford a taylor well i wont stop you). why RM300 minimum? cause well you want to improve your choices. there are some folks that naturally try and sell guitars to you cheaper, you dont want to get stuck in 100 land and only see crappy guitars.

for electrics i recommend RM500-600, for the same reason as the above

What i need to look at?

When inspecting a guitar the first things you need to see are dents and scratches, similar like how you buy your first car. you dont want the guitar to come dented and stuff. some major ones is to see the straightness of the neck, easiest way i can think of is yuo look at the guitar from teh headstock towards the bridge, if its straight you are good to go.

in eletrics it becomes a bit harder, you need to test for eletonics wear and tear, do the pup selector/vol knob and pickups work? i find eletronics being the first thing that fail in cheap eletrics. you also need to do a tuning test which can be found Here

The harder stuff

playability

why i recommend yamaha comes down to this and this alone, if you have a friend that knows guitar he can test it for you. you need to play the guitar, being someone with 0 knowledge this will be challenging. why play the guitar tho? you want to find for bad frets, dead notes, or bad action. unfortunately to know those is the most important aspect of guitar selection and the part that needs experience. this doesnt mean that yamaha wont have such problems, but considering their reputation its a safer bet.

how do you check for bed frets or action? first to the bending test, bend each string on the guitar to see if there are any metallic rings ((the ring comes from the string hitting the frets). if there is, it means that the action is either too low or the frets are too high. dont buy the guitar

how do you check for bad frets and dead notes, play each ntoe on the guitar, if you hear a note that doesnt have a metallic ring but doesnt seem right in any form or function of the guitar (like a muted note). you might have a dead note: dont buy the guitar

what is a mute note? well put your plam on the guitar hole and strum one note, you will notice that it doesnt vibrate and produce sound. that is muted notes, dead notes sound like them because the frets might be doing the muting for you.

Feel

everyone talks about feel, i do also its the most important thing in your guitar which decides which guitar you will use for most of the time. unfortunately, feel comes with experience, you dont know which guitar you want by just picking it up and strumming it. you need to go through tons of guitars, get used to some styles and functions to know what exactly you want. some people spend years and never find a guitar that feels right, this is perfectly normal.

end notes

i personally will recommend an experienced guy to look at it for you, but if you know nothing at all i would recommend a yamaha just because they have a reputation. but if you like to venture out on your own and find one that is right, then i hope this article helps.

you can find mroe indepth details on the guitar parts and function in this thread

cheers

UPdate: i was made aware that yamaha F310, has increased in price and now is not cheap anymore, hence the previous advise to take the F310 should be taken in the context that it used to be a budget guitar. there are plenty of options to day that can replace the yamaha, unfortuantely i am not familar with any of them

This post has been edited by +3kk!: Sep 23 2016, 08:43 AM

i've never felt pain while playing kapok, cos it has a shorter scale, so lesser string tension.
but also due to that, and also crappy construction, it was never easy to get the low E in tune.

kapok(and the likes) isn't really that bad, just swap the damn steel string with a classical set and it's pretty playable and decent. it's not meant to be an acoustic(no trust rod), but still some shop owner would recommend it .

also, you might want to address acoustic body type. i would never buy an F310. why? because for some reason, i could never play anything perfectly on a dreadnought body . it just don't feel right, and i'm not a small person .

requesting tips for "buying guitar guide for poor people : how to get your dream axe"

i would say recommending someone a kapok as bad advise, generally bacuse its lazy. "hey you want cheap? here kapok!"

i didnt touch on specifics because i dont think people will understand stuff like dreadnought body or solid/laminated top. it poses a lot of questions which have no solid results.

its like thin neck vs thick neck, i dont like thin necks despite everyone saying its great, but generally it doesnt make the guitar a lesser guitar.

doing freelance moonlighting does make some good dough

This post has been edited by +3kk!: Feb 21 2013, 11:32 AM

back then 20yrs ago, kapok was the cheapest.
of cos nowadays, with plenty of china made guitars at rm150 or so invading the market, there is no real reason to buy a kapok.

basically, a china made rm150 guitar, while almost twice as much as a kapok, will probably play 3-4 times better.
while a china made rm150 guitar compared to yamaha f-310, the china guitar being more than twice as cheap probably will play the same as the f-310

inspecting the neck for wrap/bend/twist is not easy.... requesting tip for this too....

the only way i can tell is by testing to play note on each fret. i can look at wrap neck from the bridge to the headstock and still look straight to me

This post has been edited by PVCpipe: Feb 21 2013, 11:42 AM

kapok good for learning...

btw

checking guitar neck..

I remembered back then I don't know about tunings, string gauge, simply change tuning/string tension.. all hentam saja - lucky my axe no prob

while i agree the choice of solid/laminated top is too technical and specific(i'm still not too sure about it too). body type is hard to ignore, even for beginners. if one can't sit comfortably with a certain body type, all the other arguments becomes useless(neck type, top, scale, action and what not).

generally, just check the neck relieve on all strings. press the string on the 1st fret and on the fret where the neck joints the body(eg, 14th on an acoustic, 12th on a classical etc). your neck should be a little concave right in the center. in most cases, if it's the same on all strings, your neck is in good condition. much easier than lifting the guitar up and risking dropping it . my 2cents on how i do it.

This post has been edited by zeroglyph: Feb 21 2013, 12:03 PM

i do somewhat agree, then again the recommendation of the f310 is cause of the safety, you can opt for a c310 (i used to own one, quite nice guitar) if you want a smaller classical built.

i do admit that im not too familar with the differences in body types for a acoustic guitars, personally tho i never really judge a guitar because its hard to play. my fav 2 guitars are probably the hardest two to play

i'm not disagreeing or anything. i'm no expert . i just thought it'd be a good addition in the "feel" section. i've seen new players aiming for a V, when clearly a V is not that comfortable to play with.

Yeps, this is a problem when young players idolize players so much (ouch I am one myself back then as well )

not meaning you are, i do understand very well

unfortunately as far as it goes, to tell folks that "feel" is kinda hard. ive tried explaining before, got me no where. then again on a totally different level, most experienced players also fall for the same trap.

i remember when i got my first non-contoured guitar, it was damn hard to play. the body kept hitting my arm

i still gas for an RR tho

haha...i'm guilty as well. i used to idolized hetfield(oh wait....i still do), glad i didn't fall into buying a bloody explorer.

when it comes to feel and comfort, it's all about you, not your idol.

i've had a V, didnt find it any harder to play cos i just stuck it in the classical playing position.

that's probably the only position you can play a V sitting down .

no la.
thats why u see some have a rubber strip on the outside of the low V, so u can somewhat play in normal position.

hmmm...i've never seen that. maybe because most people i've seen playing a V was standing up. good to know.