The guitar can be broadly classified into two categories:
- Acoustic: These are the standard guitars. It can also be called simply “a guitar” with no adjectives as it simply projects sound based on the vibration made in its strings.
- Electrical: As the name suggests, this type of guitar has an electronic amplification system.
How Is the Acoustic Guitar Best for Beginners?
An acoustic guitar is a very simple organized wooden plank with holes and strings. It doesn’t need to be plugged in and can be listened to as it is. It sounds quite simple yet totally in rhythm. It doesn’t have any amplifications, volume and tone control, amp tuning, etc. and this probably is what most of the beginners are looking for. Despite being simple, how can it be heard so well? It has a hollow chamber which makes the sound echo and hence easier to be played without any further amplification. Well, the fact is that many people aspire to learn guitar but only 2 out of 5 succeed. The reason perhaps is that their expectations are too great in their initial learning days.
If we compare these statistics with the acoustic guitar, 9 out of 10 aspirants turn out to be successful. All they have to learn is mix and match a few strings with timing and voila! It produces good music. In short, it’s easier to put less effort yet sound good with an acoustic guitar which is nearly impossible with an electric guitar.
Since the electric guitar amplifies the good work, guess what, it amplifies your shortcomings too, which is the reason it becomes a disaster for beginners and they get demotivated. Hence, the best guitar for a newcomer can be concluded as a steel-stringed acoustic guitar.
3 Tips to Find an Acoustic Beginner Guitar
- Budget
Even after shortlisting the acoustic guitar as the one you would buy, there is still lots of confusion in the market. So, the best way to rule out many guitars is your budget. Fix a budget and stick to it. It’s always better to start with a low budget guitar. Once you master this skill, the sky is the limit. Many professionals keep tens of guitars just for jamming sessions and let’s not count the ones for performances.
- Feel
Now, the next important thing is the feel and comfort. Most of us decide to learn guitar out of love for music or this instrument and not just for the sake of doing it. So, don’t let anyone impose the decision on you, go to the guitar store, try all the guitars under your budget. Try to put it across your thigh, which is how you play it, and strum one chord. How does it feel? That one guitar will instantly make you fall head over heels with it. You will feel like it is meant for you and once you love your equipment, the whole thing will become a happy experience and hence eventually a passion.
- Sound
This indeed is an important factor but not a compulsion. As a beginner, it’s obvious for you not to understand the details of how it should sound. However, you can decide as a listener, if it’s melodious or not, will you enjoy the music if a pro is playing this guitar and so on. Compare a few guitars in the store and find the one which sounds best to you. That’s the key, after all, it’s you who has to play it, so your choice should matter the most.
A Few More Facts About the Acoustic Guitar
- Acoustic guitars can be played without much preparation. It simply needs to be taken out, prepare your mood and go on with it.
- As they don’t have an extension for the volume and tuning, it is the size of the acoustic guitar which influences the volume. The reason being, the bigger the hollow the higher the volume.
- Acoustic guitars are usually larger as compared to electric guitars.
- They also have a heavier gauge string as compared to other guitars which make it heavier and difficult on fingers as you will have to put more pressure.
- It’s not just about beginners, many professional guitarists prefer an acoustic guitar as there are audiences that prefer to listen to the unplugged acoustic version of even popular songs.
- For beginners, laminated guitars are advisable as it is less prone to breakage.
- Bigger guitars may have better sound but if you are a beginner, you mostly will be traveling with it to learn guitar, hence opting for a smaller guitar would be wiser which will make it easy to carry.
- Smaller guitars will also have a good balance between neck and body and will fit better in your hands too.
- Choosing a good material and durable guitar will save you a lot of money in the future.
- The sound of an acoustic guitar may not be as good as an electrical one, but once you gain the experience, you will notice that the guitar also sounds good, the reason being aging of the wood makes it mature and good with sound.
Conclusion
Budget, feel, and sound, these should make your choice collectively, which means there cannot be 3 different guitars; you have to choose one which has all 3 of them. Now, if you find a clash between feel and sound, go with the feel. Feel is any day, a better bet than sound.