There are 1000's of different guitars for all kinds of people.
To find what's right for you answer this simple questions:
What style of music do you enjoy the most?
As a general rule your answer will fall into 3 categories:
- Acoustic (chill out, campfire strum along, folk, pop, fingerstyle) eg: More Than Words - Extreme
- Electric (You love to rock out and you like your music loud) eg: Highway To Hell - AC DC
- Classical (You enjoy flamenco and traditional classical fingerstyle) eg: John Williams - Cavatina
Easy to play and a great sound. The perfect beginners budget guitar.
The Yamaha F310 is my personal recommendation for beginners. This is for 2 reasons:
- It's easy to play (The worst thing about some budget guitars is that they're difficult to play, the F310 is very easy to play)
- It's price. (This guitar is excellent value for money, and it sounds a lot better than many other guitars in the sub £150 category)
Find Out More - Amazon.co.uk
Find Out More - Amazon.co.uk (This links to the FG700s which is very similar to the F310)
Although I started with a Yamaha F310 I've now upgraded to this Furch D31-SR
You'll inevitably outgrow your first guitar so what happens when you want to upgrade?
To give specific recommendations is more challenging as by now you'll have a better idea of what you like the sound of.
However, follow this checklist when choosing your new guitar (and please go to a guitar store and try out different guitars. DON'T buy from the internet right away)
- Ease of play-ability (Does it feel comfortable to hold? Can you press down the strings without hurting your fingers and how do barre chords sound?)
- How does it sound? (When you play it what feelings do you get? Does it excite you? Does it feel like returning home after a long holiday? Does it sound like your favourite style of music?)
- What does it look like? (Guitars are works of art. If it looks stunning then you'll always want to play it)
- Your budget. (Someone once told me that when buying a guitar you should take your budget and "double it". What they meant is that you'll be playing this guitar for a long time, so don't scrimp on quality as you always get what you pay for.
Some brands to try out (and my personal favourites) are: Cort, Martin, Taylor, Gibson, Furch (Stonebridge), Tanglewood, Takamine and Guild.
When buying an electric guitar there's 2 popular styles to consider. To make your decision decide on what style of rock music you most want to play:
Do you like bassy, bluesy, harder sounding rock (Gibson Les Paul) or the more classic indie, 50's 60's rock n roll (Fender Strat)?
P.S. The above rule is VERY general and there are 100's of other brands to try, but Fender and Gibson are the biggest hitters in the electric guitar market.
Once you've made a decision here's my recommendations for each sound:
A classic guitar designed by Les Paul himself.
I'm not sure how they've made it so cheap, but this guitar is great quality for the price tag.
It's perfect for beginners and experienced players alike.
The tone is full and those humbucker pickups and thicker body shape give it a classic hard rock sound.
Artists like Jimmy Page (Led Zeppelin), Slash (Guns 'n' Roses) and Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) use Les Paul guitars.
I learnt to play electric guitar on a Telecaster. I prefer their sound (and how light they are in comparison with a Les Paul)
Although I've never played this model, Fender have a great history of making awesome entry level guitars at an affordable price.
One of the big differences between a Telecaster and a Les Paul is the pickups (a device that captures the string vibrations and turns them into an electrical signal that goes through the amp)
Telecasters use single coil pickups, which means they have a brighter and crisper sound, where as Les Paul's use humbuckers which are darker and heavier sounding. It all depends on your music taste.
Artists such as Keith Richards, Bruce Spirngsteen, George Harrison, Joe Strummer and Muddy Waters use Telecasters.
Once again, Yamaha have made a great budget option for beginners.
The Pacifica has a single coil and a humbucker pickup which you can change between. So, if you're not sure what sound you're into then you can try both.
Here's a great review for the Pacifica - Music Radar - Pacifica Review
The link I've included is to a basic pack, which has nearly everything you need to plugin and start playing.
It includes a 15 watt twin channel amplifier, electronic tuner, picks, strap etc. The only think you might need to buy is a guitar lead.
Find Out More - Amazon.com (Link to guitar only, not the Basic Pack)
This is where my knowledge begins to run short. Even though I enjoy playing classical and fingerstyle I've always preferred the brighter sound of a steel string acoustic (even when playing classical).
As you may have guessed Yamaha excel when it comes to making beginner guitars, and the C40 is no different.
I found a great review of it here: Guitar Adventures - Yamaha C40 Review
There's also some positive reviews over at Amazon: