How to Choose Your First Guitar

A beginner acoustic or electric will generally cost the same, around $100. In general, an acoustic guitar is much cheaper than an electric guitar. Why? When buying an electric guitar, you must buy an amplifier and a guitar. An amplifier is an object used to amplify the guitar, make it louder, there are also many effects and other details on an amplifier to change the tone of the guitar. I won't go into detail on this yet. A beginners amplifier is normally at least $100, possibly doubling the price of getting a electric guitar. Acoustic guitars don't need an amplifier, so it would be the cheaper option. For either guitar, you would have to purchase a case. I would recommend a hard case, because it does a better job of protecting the guitar, these can be expensive though, $50+. If you won't be doing much traveling, then get a soft case, as they are much cheaper. You will also need picks (only a couple dollars for a dozen), a beginners tuner ($10-20), and possibly a strap ($10-20).

For instance, Rock, Metal, Classic Rock, Blues, genres like that, you would get an electric. If you're more of a mellow person who likes genres such as folk, bluegrass, hawaiian slack key, or country, then an acoustic is right for you.

There are some pros and cons to getting an acoustic guitar, and there some are pros and cons to getting an electric guitar that I have listed here.

Acoustic Pros:

-Cheaper
-Learn better playing habits
-Get callouses* faster

Acoustic Cons:

-More difficult to play

Electric Pros:

-Easier to play
-Many children enjoy electric more

Electric Cons:

-Costs more
-Gets callouses* slower
-Doesn't develop technique as well

*Callouses are important to have as they keep your fingers from being injured while playing, the first week or so of playing it may hurt a lot to play for long periods of time. This is simply because your callouses aren't developed yet.

First, the most common beginners electric guitar is called a Squire Statocaster, around $120 each brand new. You can get acoustic guitars from companies such as Ibanez, Squire, and Yamaha, for only around $100. However, if you decide you really enjoy the guitar and want to keep playing, you will probably want a new guitar, as these are only beginner guitars. If you KNOW that you will want to play for a long time, I suggest starting off with a better guitar. These guitars are $250+, but they will be worth it in the long run. For electric, Ibanez, Fender, and Epiphone are the more common intermediate guitars. For acoustic they would be Epiphone, Dean, and Takamine (I own one of these and it's the best acoustic guitar I've ever played).

New is always better, you can be sure that the guitar has no defects. It's more expensive, but it pays off. Used guitars are cheaper, but you must thoroughly check them before you buy, or get someone more experienced to check them out, as they may be knockoffs of a more expensive guitar. One last thing, always try the guitar out before you buy, to make sure you like the feel of it.