Hey guys, I need your opinion on Ibanez GRG170DX. Some says that it's a wonderful guitar while the other said that it has a horrible bridge that wont stay in tune for long. Help me decide between this and Squire Strat Standard.

Thanks.

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

ok total noob here, i just realised my brother bought kapok and lol before checking the first post in this thread...

sad, is it really not that painful playing other brands of guitar?
can i do anything about lessen the pain? switching strings perhaps? I read about adding superglue, wtf?

EDIT 2: Ok, so seems like it is impossible to not cut my finger while sliding... :'(
Part of the beginner route? I learnt the hard way lol...

EDIT 3: The secret is building callus!

Hi, what do you think about this guitar? suit beginner?

https://forum.lowyat.net/topic/3926643

yes, the guitar is quite decent for a beginner. if you have doubts, just go for the Yamaha F310.

Else, like i always comment (sorry, i'm bias), save up and go for a taylor.

haha, thanks for your feedback. am budgeting about 300-500 for the first guitar, dont want to spend so much as scare i will stop half way 
Also been thinking whether i should go for class or self learn, any advice?

RM500 can get you a pretty good acoustic guitar. Yamaha F310 is about RM500 new.

If you have a few hundred bucks to spend in a month, it is better to go to class to learn as they have a proper module for you to follow. Else you can try to learn from a friend. self learn can be a little tough if u don't understand the basics as you will try to memorize rather than understand the theory.

yes, the guitar is quite decent for a beginner. if you have doubts, just go for the Yamaha F310.

Else, like i always comment (sorry, i'm bias), save up and go for a taylor.

Guys
What is the best LP copies brand ?