Buying a guitar.....?

[RicksPick]

Guys you are so knowledgeable

this is so helpful as I'm wishing, dropping big hints to the wife
Please I'm begging pleading, lol she is tired of my whining now.

Hoping to play some guitars soon

RicksPick

[quincy451]

goldleaf wrote:

Solid spruce top and wood back and sides, wow sounds like it would be hard to go wrong. Is it at a store or have you had a chance to play it or is it on-line?? Gary

online. The one I spoke of is listed here among many others:
http://www.sunlitedrum.com/guitars/index.htm
I have only found reviews for there electrics. And those reviews where not bad.

[heyjoe]

In addition to all the fine points made, I'd also say " go with your instincts", off all the guitars I've bought over the years, and its been a few, I've pretty much known within the first 30 seconds of playing it wether it was right for me or not- my gut instinct-so to speak- seems to know what is right and wrong for me.

As others have said before, try lots of options, do your homework beforehand, leave some space for the possibility that something from leftfield msay surprise you, and trust your instincts when you play.

Good luck..christmas is coming, so maybe your wife could help you buy a new guitar as a present??

Joe

[Music Junkie]

When I was trying to find my acoustic, I tried as many as I could get my hands on (not a lot, being a lefty). I tired a few that were well over $2,000 US and some that were as little as $129.99 US. The results......I bought at guitar for $900.00 US. It felt good in my hands, and I felt comfortable making the chords. It sounded great to ME. I always felt self-conscious when playing in the stores as well, but I finally just figured to heck with everyone there, it was my money, and I was the one who was going to be playing this instrument in my own home. You certainly do not need to justify your purchase to anyone but yourself (and your wife if she will kill you otherwise.....lol). Have fun with the process, and learn as much as you can about all of them. Then, stick with YOUR feel for the guitar.

Cheers!

MJ

B)

[goldleaf]

Wow, if you want advice on buying a new guitar you are at the right web-site. Lots of excellent advice coming from different parts of the world. Here's some more. Practice on your old guitar different things barre chords up and down the fretboard w & w/o pick. Strum lightly and listen carefully for sustain, bass, treble and fullness. Plan all the little riffs, chord changes, finger pick, semi hard attack w/pick as many different tests to see how the guitar performs w/ each one. Then start the comparison process (these guitars should be within your price range of course). If you have a little test routine when you go into the store they will think, this guy really has a process down for testing guitars he's probably done it many times. They are sure to be impressed so you can forget how well you play and being judged on that and feel at ease when you go into the store to start your assessment process!! Do the same basic thing on each guitar so you get an equal comparison and you will look like you know what you are doing, cause you will. The wife, yes the bank manager, hopefully she will understand you are not just buying a guitar, but buying a tool, a very special tool that is going to help you learn how to play the guitar properly and this tool will last you for many, many years if you purchase one of good value it will be worth as much in the years to come as it is now, if you buy a cheapo you are just wasting money and surely she wouldn't want you to do that. Hope this helps, just remember TOOL, VALUE, NEED TO DEVELOP SKILLS FOR A LIFETIME. Good luck. Gary

[reiver]

Great advice everyone - thanks a lot.......

Just to confound everything - I walked into a local guitar shop today and fell in love at first sight. Slowly turned over the price ticket. £3250 Doh!

It was a Fylde Leonardo and looked absolutely stunning. I know, appearance is shallow, but we have to start somewhere. There some other guitars in the range which are a bit closer to my price range - anyone out there with any hands on experience. The salesman told me that they get the Achemist model in as often as they can - and sell them straight away. Not bad for a £2000+ guitar

For those of you who are intersted Fylde have a nice website featuring all of their models.

If anyone out there has any hands on experience I'd like to hear it.

And thanks again for the responses.

ps No, I didn't actually play anything - but there were a couple of Seagulls that caught my eye, and very reasonably priced. One was a Maritime Jumbo, the other a 25th Anniversary model.

[BigBear]

reiver wrote:

Great advice everyone - thanks a lot.......

Just to confound everything - I walked into a local guitar shop today and fell in love at first sight. Slowly turned over the price ticket. £3250 Doh!

It was a Fylde Leonardo and looked absolutely stunning. I know, appearance is shallow, but we have to start somewhere. There some other guitars in the range which are a bit closer to my price range - anyone out there with any hands on experience. The salesman told me that they get the Achemist model in as often as they can - and sell them straight away. Not bad for a £2000+ guitar

For those of you who are intersted Fylde have a nice website featuring all of their models.

If anyone out there has any hands on experience I'd like to hear it.

And thanks again for the responses.

ps No, I didn't actually play anything - but there were a couple of Seagulls that caught my eye, and very reasonably priced. One was a Maritime Jumbo, the other a 25th Anniversary model.

I am a huge Seagull fan! IMHO, the best value in mid-priced guitars on the planet!! I bought one for my son while he was in college and he loves it! You can't go wrong there!! Cheers!! :cheer:

[goldleaf]

I noticed on a post you said you are going to listen to as many guitars as possible in the next 3 or 4 months. Did you intend to play these guitars or just listen like on line YouTube etc. That would make a big difference on the advice you might receive. If you could clarify that it would help getting better advice. Gary

[michaelaaron]

I just bought a Taylor, and I LOOOOOVE it. I have been wanting one for a long time, and did all the research I could, and went to try out as many as I could. Being left-handed, that was frustrating, since you can only do so much when playing backwards, as no one usually stocks the guitars for us poor southpaws. But, generally, and only generally speaking, like with most things in life, you do get what you pay for. If you buy a $100 guitar, it's a piece of plywood and not much else. If you buy a $500 guitar, you have an ok, not bad, respectable mid-priced guitar. If you buy a $1000 guitar, you are moving into quality. If you buy a $2000+ guitar, you have a seriously sweet sounding and beautiful instrument. If you are like most, you want the top of the line, but can't swing the money, so you find the best your money will buy. Obviously, there are Martins and Takamines out there for the same money I spent on the Taylor ($999), but for me, and this is only a preference, I don't like the playability, or the neck of a Martin, and having been a mid-range model Takamine user for 20 years, I found the size and the feel of the neck to be a little painful. The Taylor, while not the model I wanted from them, was what I could afford, and it is a vast improvement over what I had. The neck feels so good under your fingers, it almost glides, and it is a little smaller in width than standard. It just feels great and sounds so rich and warm. The result? I am playing more than I had before, and I WANT to play more than I was. That's what a new, quality instrument can do - give you a push to improve and to enjoy playing more. So don't feel your playing ability must dictate what you "deserve." Get a good one and it will last for a good long time and grow with you!

Oh, the model I got was a Taylor 210ce (dreadnought, cutaway, acoustic-electric). Lefty, of course!

[goldleaf]

Taylor makes an awesome guitar. I just went to San Diego for vacation, also it's my hometown/family still lives there - I went on a tour of the Taylor factory on 9/8/09 and was really impressed with all aspects of how they make Taylor guitars and of course with the final product. It was very interesting seeing the rough sawed wood they had outside but covered in the drying process and seeing how that wood turns into a beautiful guitar. I think the best thing about the Taylor is the neck and how easy it is to play, it is more like playing an electric guitar w/ the narrow neck. It just makes it easy to finger and barre chords and play in general plus they are a high quality instrument. If you get a Taylor you know you are not getting a guitar off of some assembly line in some asian country, even though they are making some decent guitars there now, it's just not the same quality. In the Taylor factory with each step of the process a person is responsible for whatever it is they do and if it isn't right, it comes back to them to be corrected, so the employees have a very high incentive to do it right the first time. Gary