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Great Guitar Buying Tips

Buying your first guitar is supposed to be a fun and exciting experience, but it can be quite frustrating if you’re not prepared. 

This article will reveal eight ways to ensure you purchase the best guitar for your style and needs.

Buying a Guitar Tip 1:

You need to make sure you purchase the correct type of guitar for you and ensure the guitar is one which suits your style of music. The four standard guitars are:  Acoustic – This is the guitar which can be played anywhere and does not need amplification. The strings on the acoustic guitar can be wound steel or nylon Classic – This is an acoustic guitar which has been around for a long time, the guitar has been made with a wider neck.  Electric – This guitar is played by a number of top current bands and requires amplification for anyone to hear the sound.  Acoustic/Electric – This are a great alternative which can be played with or without amplification.

Buying a Guitar Tip 2:

When you are starting out it’s easy to pick the first guitar you see in a shop and buy it. You need to make sure you resist this and shop around until you happy with your choice. There are a number of bundle deals which you can get essential accessories free when you purchase your guitar, these bundle deals can normally be cheaper and give you a great starter pack. Make sure you browse any local guitar shops as well as on the internet, you can get great bundle products which give you a bag, tuner, strap, picks, strings and also guitar books or maybe even online guitar courses so you can teach yourself guitar. Perfect as a starter pack.

Buying a Guitar Tip 3:

Make sure the guitar you buy is the best suited in size, you can purchase ¾ or ½ sized guitars which will be ideal for children. The electric guitar and any nylon-stringed guitars are the perfect choice for less damage for your fingers.

Buying a Guitar Tip 4:

There may be some really cheap guitars which you find on the internet or your local guitar shop which you may think would be the best option. I would tend to stay with the more well known manufacturers. This will ensure you get a quality product and also great service.

 Buying a Guitar Tip 5:

Like I mentioned earlier it is great to visit your local store(s) in your area. These may well have a second hand shop where people will bring back their old guitars. You could easily pick up a great bargain on your first guitar which normally will be a well established brand. This is ideal to ensure you love playing the guitar first, which I am sure you will do and then later on you can purchase your first brand new guitar.

Buying a Guitar Tip 6:

While you are visiting your local store(s) also check if there are any promotional sales currently on or coming up very soon. These sales could be where you get your guitar as well as a number of free accessories or even your guitar with a percentage off. Make sure they take you details down so they can give you a call or even email you the details.

Buying a Guitar Tip 7:

Check out the free ads which will be online and offline, you may receive a free newspaper which has a classified ads section. This can be a great way to pick up a second hand guitar, also on the internet there are a number of websites which people post unwanted guitars ads. These are great places for some bargains and ideal for your first guitar.

Buying a Guitar Tip 8:

All over the internet there are great places to pick up guitars, just do a search on a search engine and a number of guitar selling websites will be listed. Make sure you have heard of the company or read all relevant policies online before buying a guitar through any company online.

Follow these proven tips and you will be able to purchase the guitar which you are best suited to and you will soon be able to learn electric guitar like a superstar.

Need help with learning the guitar? Click Here for a review of some online guitar courses that can teach you how to learn guitar fast and easy!

From the Blogosphere:

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Buying Beginner Guitar – You Don’t Have To Break Your Wallet
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Guitar Buying Tips
It feels really exciting thinking about buying a musical instrument, especially if it is a guitar. It is such a charming instrument that fills our life with rhythm.

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Tips For Playing Left Handed Guitar

 Left handed people can become guitar players but there are some adjustments you need to make to your guitar and your outlook.

First if you think that you “should” be right handed because that is how guitars are designed, think again. If the hand that keeps telling you it wants to perform actions is your left hand, you are better off listening to it. This is your active hand, which makes your right hand passive. So in a way, your left hand tells your right hand what to do.

Paul McCartney is one guitar player who tried to make his right hand do the picking and it did not work. He only started to get anywhere with playing the guitar after he changed the strings around and started picking with his left hand.

There are lots of left handed guitar players who have mastered their instrument and gained fame and fortune. I have already mentioned Paul McCartney, and there are many others like Curt Cobain, Tony Iommi, Jimi Hendrix and Slim Whitman.

Dick Dale, “King Of The Surf Guitar” is one notable exception to this rule. The first guitar he learnt to play on was a normal right handed guitar. So he forced his hands to learn to play without changing the order of the strings on the guitar. Even after he was able to buy custom made left handed guitars, he still played with the strings in the right hand positions because that is what he was used to. Bobby Womack and Albert King also play like this.

So what changes need to be made to a guitar to make it suitable for playing left handed? Well, when you hold a guitar in playing position the sixth string – the E string which is the thickest guitar string needs to be on top of the guitar, that is closest to your shoulder. To achieve this the order of the strings needs to be reversed.

If you hold a right handed guitar in front of you and look straight at it, the sixth string is on your right hand side. To string the guitar for left handed playing, the first string should be on the right hand side.

Also, the two parts of the guitar that actually hold the strings on – the bridge and the nut need to be changed around. If you look closely at these parts you will see that they have slots cut in them to hold the strings. Naturally the nut and bridge will need to be turned upside down to fit the strings in the reverse order.

Now for the question of buying left handed guitars. Many guitarists complain that left handed 1000 guitars cost around double the price of right handed guitars, so you will need to do some serious shopping. Tokai and Vintage make serviceable mid-range left handed guitars for a reasonable price,. Fender make all the ‘basic’ model Telecasters and Stratocasters for leftys, and Gibson make left handed versions of all their flagship guitars.

Now let us look at another challenge for left handed guitarists – chord charts. If you do a search on the web you will find a range of printed left handed chord charts and chord generators. A good one to start with is “Left Handed Guitar Chord Chart”, by Robert Tarchara. 

Fortunately there are many left handed guitar players who have been willing to share the knowledge and experience on line. Some can be found on forums, others have set up their own websites. Among other tips they can help with where and how to buy left handed guitars.

By: Ricky Sharples

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

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