Being plugged in as a guitarist feels awesome. The feeling of being totally wired drives anyone wild. The majestic look on you, playing an electric guitar got no equal. Everyone loves the electric guitar like a magic wand, but not many know to pick a good one. The best of best collection of guitars can fall short if your preferences don’t suit it.
Understanding guitars and understanding yourself should go hand in hand before selecting a good electric guitar. You should know guitar’s construction and features like back of hand.
Why is Having a Good Electric Guitar So Important?
- Selecting a good electric guitar will help you to play and practice better during your electric guitar lessons and guitar performances.
- As you will probably use your electric guitar for some time before changing it, having and investing in a good long-lasting electric guitar is very important, especially if you are taking guitar exams with it.
- Your electric guitar teacher will be able to use the electric guitar to show you tricks and tips for playing the guitar.
- Your electric guitar would not need repairing or tuning very often.
- Your private guitar teacher would be able to help you practice better and teach you guitar songs which require better electric guitars and equipment.
Tips When Choosing a Good Guitar
When choosing your guitar…
- Taking inspiration from stars of music industry: Follow your favourite stars with all heart and know what guitars they use. Best guitarist in industry wouldn’t blunder getting an under-par instrument. Make sure the guitar suits you, even if it is used by your music idol.
- Be open to all price range: You need to always pay the extra pennies to get the awesome additional features. However it is not a rule that the expensive gears are always the best and cheap ones doesn’t work great.
- Choosing the body style: Punk and metal fans, would find solid body guitar, built with single piece of wood, much helpful. Acoustic and hollow guitars would help jazz music with low volume amplifiers.
- Knowing basic components: Volume knobs facilitate adjusting output volume in electric guitar. Tone knows help switch over various frequencies with ease. Output jack helps connect to amp, thus it needs to be placed in comfortable spot.
- Tone wood component: Pickup determines the sound that your guitar would produce. However the type of wood used for built plays a vital role in determining sound of the electric guitar. Maple ensures sustainability and mahogany ensures warmth. Poplar wood produces lovely bright and crispy tone.
When studying your guitar…
- Checking guitar’s intonation: At music store, pick various guitars and feel the fret board. Try to play various individual notes to determine whether the intonation suits your style. The tune should be alright in both 12th and 5th
- Evaluating action: Action would mean the height of strings from fret board. Strings are far off the board for “high” action. The strings just off fret board with less height are referred as “low” action.
- Measuring scale length: Scale length needs to be measured off the neck of guitar. Gibson scale measures 24.75” give a rounded tone. Fender scale measures 25.5” accounts for crisp playability. Standard 25” is used by few manufactures to produce a unique tone.
- Checking the pick-ups: Like we discussed before, the sound is generated from pickups in guitar. Pictures determine the type of sound you get to a great level. Single coil have a type of glossy tone for taking. Hum-bucker is an improvised single coil pickup, offering more growls while going loud. Distinctive pickups have been developed by brands to add variety.
When purchasing additional gear…
- Amplifier is a must-have: Without an amp, electric guitar should feel like PC without internet. Amp is the biggest hidden costs involved in buying electric guitar. Try to add as many features as you can, including tremolo, reverb etc…
- The quarter inch cable: How much would it make sense if you own an electric guitar and amp, but not a cable to connect them? Guitar cable is the cheapest little accessory included in your complete electric guitar set.
- Miscellaneous purchases: There are many other purchases involved with electric guitar shopping. The list would deceivingly run much longer than you expect. Prepare to have a fatter wallet to accommodate guitar strap, electric tuner, picks and few other components.
- Don’t invest too much: When you start up with any passion, you don’t invest too much in initial stages. For basic notes you don’t need sophisticated distortion pedals. For a start, your amp should be more than enough for practice.
We hope the pointers we have discussed give you a crystal clear idea along these lines. Electric guitars offer the highest level of variety. Selecting the best electric guitar is possible if you follow this guide carefully.