@@joshiuahallenbeck531 I had too much time on my hands one day and was reading on Korg's website that you can set your own lyrics for it. I think Rob should set one up for Catalyst.
@@jerryx2000 I think you'll find most of them do. If someone wants to play Taylor swift or ed sheeran. The likelihood is they'll buy an acoustic because that's what they want. The same goes for someone who wants to play heavier music. They'll probably start with an electric
The best guitar buying advice I ever received: buy the one you'll enjoy playing. I took that advice, bought a bass guitar, and have been happy playing ever since! 😁
I started learning in freshman year. My school had a guitar program, a "lab" where you learned, and an ensemble where you learned a little bust mostly performed. We had to use the Yamaha Nylon Classical guitars in Lab, but we could bring our own guitars in Ensemble. So I went and bought an Epiphone SG and used that. Also, for Christmas of my freshman year I got a BC Rich Warlock for Christmas, so I had that to use at home, and my brother had initially lent me an Esteban acoustic just before freshman year. So in a way I learned on all three guitars. I'm very lucky to have had the opportunity to learn on all three. And now, five years later, I still prefer electrics, and would generally advocate most people learn on them over the other two options. Also they're just better :p
One thing I found as a kid: changing the strings on an acoustic or electric guitar is pretty damn straight forward and basically the same on either. I never ever had to change my nylon strings but I hated the idea of ever having to try.
@@SkullCrusherStudios brings me back to the days when i'd learn every single ac/dc song (i was a huge fan at the time) on my first acoustic for like 4 years, now i've been playing for almost 12 years and own a '61 reissue gibson sg just like angus'. man time flies
@@SkullCrusherStudios I do that as well! I play everything on my classical guitar.. I do own all three kinds but my classical is just so light and so easy to play so I sometimes pick it up and play some fun metal on it :D very fun!
@@SkullCrusherStudios, nothing cracked me and my friends up more than playing Metallica on our Classical/Spanish acoustic guitars. Two dudes rocking away with a singer playing Shortest Straw is one of the funniest things you can play IMO.
@@SkullCrusherStudios same 😂 it was a piece of crap but I still learned to play simple Nirvana riffs and some Metallica... Glad I got a cheap strat and an amp a few months later though
I was bought a £28 "student" size nylon guitar in 1984 because my dad didn't trust that I was serious about playing. I'm still playing. It taught me the fundamentals of how a guitar works and forced me to be creative. Weave a thin necklace chain around the strings at the bridge and you get a nice "fuzz" type effect. I'm a bit eclectic though so anyone who likes one sort of music should get the guitar that reflects their tastes, like Rob said.
I would always recomend starting on an electric guitar. In my experience acoustic guitars have really high action from the factory which makes them harder to play. While an experienced player might be able to just fix this, a beginner would most likely not have a clue which would inhibit their progress. Also there is a wider variety of music available to electric instruments, especially modern styles like pop, rock, metal, etc. Nylon string guitars are fine if you want to play classical or flamenco and steel string acoustics are good for a portion of many different styles but generally has less songs available to it than the electric guitar.
I started on a nylon. I think what you start on influences how you play, it changes the way you learn/approach the instrument. And it may also have you pickup different habits along the way. If I were to do it over again, I wouldn't change anything... well I guess I would've liked to start playing sooner.
I started on a travel electric guitar with a speaker built in back in 2008 when I was 5 years old, after that I moved to a Dean Tele copy and a Fender Malibu acoustic (I really liked the Strat headstock and my parents wanted that it would be small enough and easy enough for me to play on) and both guitars are still in my collection (with the Malibu being my only acoustic), and 10 years later I'm a proud Chapman owner :)
I work at a guitar shop and I always say I personally love playing nylon string, but it really depends on what you feel drawing you in to play the guitar.. you can always change guitars once you know how to play one as well so it's not a big problem...
My first guitar was the cheapest classical guitar my parents could possibly find... I painted it green so it sounded even worse 😋 but it stayed in tune (enough) to learn chords on for the first few months... I just attacked those strings with a hard pick but they still lasted for months until I had the money for a Samick strat and practice amp... It's all I had so I didn't know better... But I would definitely recommend an electric guitar and a good(!) amp to learn on
I am a guitar teacher. Nylon strings are the second easiest strings to press. Electric is the easiest to press and the dreadnought is the hardest to play. When you teach little kids the dreadnought is the enemy.
@@wesshepard that's a good point 👌 also... I've had an operation on my chest and all my ribs were broken... I can't play a guitar with a huge body poking into my ribs... But apparently without that other people often seem to have the same problem... It just gets really uncomfortable after 30 mins of playing or so
When I told my parents I wanted to learn when I was younger my dad was on board. My dad is a traditionalist so he believes that no matter what you should start off on acoustic. He got me an acoustic, me wanting to play metal, I let the guitar sit in the corner for a while bc it did not inspire me. My mom realized this so one year for Christmas she gets me an electric starter pack. The amp with it had ridiculous bee like distortion but I did not care. After that my guitar playing took off and I was heavily invested in it. So with all that being said, when choosing a first guitar, go in the direction that inspired you to make the decision to play guitar. Side note: That acoustic now gets proper treatment as I ply it almost every day.
Couple of observations from my personal experience: 1. Motivation is key. Get a guitar that looks nice, but also *plays* nicely - and you can feel that even if you have no experience. Run your hand up and down the back and sides of the neck, hold the strings down in what vaguely resembles a chord shape, etc. 2. For the same reason, don't buy your first guitar sight-unseen from the Internet. It may look good on the online picture, but you have no idea of how comfortable/uncomfortable it'll be, how it's set up, or whether there are any outright issues with the build quality of the guitar. 3. Ideally, avoid guitars with a floating tremolo bridge (an arm you can push down or pull up to make the strings go higher or lower in pitch) as a first purchase - or, if you do get one, put a little shim in the back of the guitar so that it'll stay in place. Floating tremolo bridges add a few steps to the maintenance and setup of a guitar that as an absolute beginner you don't want to be dealing with.
Guys, it´s totally worth it to start and learn an instrument. Look, in my case, i had a 20 euro (dirt cheap crappy) guitar and I learnt it a little for like 1 year when I was 7, then stopped BECAUSE IT DIDN´T MOTIVATE ME, i decided last year to pick the guitar back up again but play ONE that motivates me to play every single day for hours and hours. So i got a squier affinity telecaster, which is an electric guitar (the one you see in my profile pic), and im absolutely loving the journey. YES if you start on acc/classical you might get a tiny tiny headstart on technique, but it doesn´t matter, in the end you will learn everything nonetheless, as long as you enjoy it and love both what you do and the instrument you play. :)
I got a my first guitar when I started to play, but my Father didnt want to take a risk so I got a cheap classical guitar. And that was the best idea ever. I learnt the fundementals. Next stage was a western guitar then a few years later an eletric guitar. That was a JOURNEY to be on. If you want to drive a racing car then firstly you have to learn how to drive a regular car, right?
My first guitar was a nylon string Yamaha G-50A my parents gave me for my 15th birthday. For me, it was a great thing to learn on. My attempts to imitate Robin Trower and Jimmy Page on that guitar probably sounded odd, but so what. I had many, many hours of enjoyment. I eventually "graduated" to my 1st electric in 1978 (a Peavey T-60, if anyone remembers those). Now I've moved on to others but remember those first guitars fondly. (Still have them, too.) Whatever inspires the new player is best. There seem to be so many good modest price guitars of every kind that you can get these days.
Good overview. Rob's right - it's all about who inspires the student. I've found electric guitar to be the easiest to teach on though. Top tip: Rob recently had great video about tuning your student's guitar to open E - just to get them started on strumming and left-right hand co-ordination. I tried it and it worked out great. After just a week of this method a recent student was in standard tuning without the weeks of frustration of trying to initially hold down chords. Helps them 'believe' they can make music on day one as opposed to trying to master chord changes for weeks before they can bang out a tune.
The best guitar to learn on is that guitar that inspires you to keep picking it up to play, even when progress does not seem to be forthcoming. I would also recommend headphones/earbuds and a jam machine with amp simulation (like Boss Mico BR80). So you can make as much noise as you like, get accustomed to playing in time and learn to blend your guitar contribution to other parts just like being in a band.
Acoustic guitars had steel strings put on them to compete volume wise with banjos. Prior to electric amplification banjos and mandolins were the loudest acoustic instruments being played in bands. Martin began building steel string guitars to compete with these for volume starting from the Single-O on up to the dreadnought.
i love nylon, when i was a lot younger i picked up an acoustic wanting to learn, but instantly was put off feeling like my fingers where getting shredded and ended up stopping playing it. Few years later someone had a nylon string guitar so i had a go and it felt much better, especially since i have big hands the fretboard spacing was great! So i took the plunge and got a nice Tanglewood Nylon guitar for something like £60 in my local shop, after a year or so of that i moved onto (but not forgetting about the nylon) electric then acoustic last, now almost 5 years later, i enjoy playing all types of guitars and still have my first Tanglewood guitar, even thought now at the open chord part of the fretboard its almost as if its been scalloped because i'v played it so much, and sadly i think the neck is warping, near the 12th fret the strings feel like they're a mile above the fretboard, still though its a joy to play, i literally used to play anything on it, from folk, to rock, to heavy stuff. Only downside is, from using a classical guitar first i didn't learn to use a pick, and even 5 or so years later still can't quite get to grips with a pick so still pick/strum with my thumb/fingers, haven't found it to be an issue though, managed to play the first few rush albums without using a pick at all!
Learn to play on what you want to play. I always wanted to play electric guitar and one of the coolest sounding guitar bands I liked when I was a kid was AC/DC so when I finally convinced my mom and dad to buy me a guitar when I was 14, I found a cool Epiphone SG that looked near enough to Angus's to a 14yr old kid for $199 and got a cheap amp for $50 and the music shop threw in a strap, and I was off to the races. So again, learn on what you'd like to play.
I agree with Rob on getting a guitar similar to what inspires you to want to play. My mom asked me what instrument and just said guitar. By my confirmation in 1988 I got a new Jasmine acustic steel string S60. The only problem was the lack of inspiration to get to know it and still is these days. After 2 years in hell 9 and 10 grade pre Black Album I was now inspired to play electric guitar and I have not stopped since
I’ve been playing guitar for 12 years and i have had half size classical a Asda full sized classical a Yamaha classical and another Asda steel acoustic then I brought a cheap starter electric strat by rock burn and that was amazing until about 3 years ago I changed the pickups and lost the springs. Now I play a Lindo strat and I love it it’s got a amazing sound and especially neck pickup .
My mate bought an acoustic steel string and put nylon strings on the 6th 5th and 4th string. Not for the sound but bc it allowed her to practise for longer with out finger tip soreness.
I learnt on acoustic for the first 2 years and I love that sound, however it really did set me back with out realising bc its so much harder to play and learn on that an electric. Barre chords are a breeze on an electric compared to an acoustic. Also much less painful on the fingers.
Learn on what ever style of guitar you can, it all helps in the long run. If you truly love learning and enjoy the guitar it won’t matter one iota the style/cost of the guitar, you will just love learning and playing, whether it be an old battered acoustic with very high action or an expensive slick electric, as long as it gives you pleasure.
Well I started at the age of 22 after dreaming of learning guitar all my life basically. I started with a nylon (just like in the video, same style of tuning pegs) that I had laying around since ages (Grandpa gave it to me as a gift) but I realized that I would never get an electric sound of it. It was still enjoyable, but fingers hurt as hell still. For about a month, at least. Then I started going out with my current gf, and she has a steel string acoustic BELOW 100 pounds price, way below. It's a nice sounding instrument but acton was challenging, to put it mildly. I liked the sound much more. Finally I could play acoustic stuff as I heard it on the records. A year after I started playing I got my first (and only so far) electric guitar - Steinberger Transcale, and that was the game changer. A year after that I got a Yamaha 12 string. Now I am looking forward to getting something a bit more high end, like a Strat Pro or smth. My verdit is - you wanna learn and electric guitar is what you're into - electric guitar is the way to start. If you like acoustic and electric - get acoustic first (like a cheap Yamaha), and it will prepare you for the electric nicely. Nylon, however, is way too specific. Only case of me needing a nylon guitar is to play the solo on And I Love Her. )))
I often recommend a fender/squire type guitar for new players both acoustics and electrics just because of how easy and comfortable their necks are to play. I learned on a big full sized nylon string classical as a kid though
Just my opinion but I think a good feel on the neck and moderate bridge height are the most important aspects of a beginner guitar. Lots of people get frustrated getting the finger pains even without having strings they can fit their hand under.
I took the traditional route to learn the guitar. Started with a rubbish classical, saved up and bought an electro-acoustic steel string, borrowed an electric for a bit and then bought a decent electric, then bought a quite expensive classical. I teach guitar these days and what Rob says about getting the instrument that best reflects your musical tastes and inspires you is spot on. On occasion, I have helped a student to buy a guitar. The last time I found a squire strat for £30 in a 'cash converters' store! I'm into all sorts of music, my jokey line when someone asks me what I listen to is 'I like everything from Carcassi to Carcass!' So my three main instruments are a very good Granados classical, a great Japanese made Ibanez and a really nice Takamine that was a bit of a bargain at only a little over £400. The best thing about guitars these days is how much the quality has improved in the more affordable models, cheap guitars used to invariably be absolute crap, now you can get something half decent without shelling out a month's wages.
Agree 100% with Rob, buy a cheaper version of the kind of guitar you want to end up playing. I learnt on a jazzbox style electro-acoustic which gave me access to both worlds but then, Squirer hadn't been thought of and Epiphone were making their own distinctive guitars for too much money rather than cheaper Gibsons.
My very first guitar was an Ibanez starter pack. That said, every time anyone asks me what they should get their kid starting out, I have always only pointed them to either Epiphone or Squire. But yes, it was all about who the kid admires. Who does the kid want to be? * Pete Townshend: Squire Telecaster * Kirk Hammet: Squire Stratocaster * James Hetfield: Epiphone Explorer * Billy Gibbons: Epiphone Les Paul * Angus Young: Epiphone SG
Would disagree on what you said about the Metallica guitarists. I wouldn't suggest a Strat (unless it has at least one humbucker) for a Metallica fan, and Explorers are not the most practical guitars to play sitting down, especially for a beginner. I would suggest a Les Paul instead
@@Mr.Goldbar Kirk Hammet does play a Les Paul. I will give you that. However, that is not the shape he is know for, which is where I have always based my suggestions. You want something that looks like what the student's favourite musician is playing in the posters. In the case of Kirk Hammet, he is known for his ESP super strats. So, if you want to emulate that, you want something strat-ish. As for the humbuckers, Squire does make HH versions. As for James Hetfield, or at least when I think of James, I think of Ken Lawrence, not the ESP Eclipse. That said, this is where proper technique must be taught from the beginning stage. As you mentioned with an Explorer shape being not very practical, that is mainly due to it being held resting on your right leg. That forces your wrist into a flat parallel to the ground, which is a turn beyond where your wrist wants to be. That will fatigue you, and could cause pain. Not only Explorer shapes, but really ANY guitar in general is much better played when held between your legs. Think of how a classical guitar is played. That position more accurately emulates the location where it would be if you were standing, which is the height where your strap should be set anyway. Plus, that position forces the guitar to slant upward, which is the orientation where your fretting hand wrist naturally wants to be.
It's a cultural thing to me. Being from the spanish-latinamerican-brazilian side of the world, the nylon guitar is a MUST if you want to be a guitar player. It's an absolute noble instrument and it's pretty easy to play on basic mode, but it's a whole world inside it if you want to play better. Then, steel acoustic or electric are derivations and options of the old spanish-nylon string guitar. I love all kinds of guitars, I learned from a nylon one.. it was a great adventure to me.
Volume demands necessitated the steel string as part of an eternal yearning for loudness in the evolution of lute family instruments, culminated in the electric guitar. Slide may have been a nice byproduct and or coexisting demand but again you’re talking about a fundamental volume quest.
Just get the guitar that makes your heart beat faster. I started on an acoustic as that was supposed to be "better" or "easier" and it never got me excited. Only when I finally got an electric, I found the inspiration to play every day -and I'm sure it's different for everyone. (in fact, the guitar I play the most is a semi-acoustic. So there you go.)
I had an acoustic that had strings that were really heavy to play. I didn't know how bad it was until I picked up my first electric. It did, however, make every other guitar super easy to play, once I'd learned that I didn't have to strangle them to death.
I'd been playing electric for 4 years when I got my first acoustic (western)... The thing is, I wanted to learn electric guitar, I'm a Blues/Rock/Metal player, so I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had a lot of fun with an acoustic in the beginning. And I still wouldn't really recommend a nylon, I just really don't like the necks on those things
Both really. I started on a parlor size acoustic but I always knew I wanted to play electric and after a while of playing the acoustic my dad bought me a first act strat copy from Walmart. And eventually I started on a long journey of swapping pickups and trying strats, super strats , lps and various other guitars chasing tone. But still it’s nice to have a minimum of one acoustic and one electric.
You'll just get really bad habits that way since you can get a decent sound with bad form and technique so you'll keep on doing it wrong. Starting with electric guitar if you don't have a teacher is hard to pull off unless you're pretty mature when it comes to learning new skills don't quit when it isn't so easy. Also learning should be done with a clean tone so you can actually play and not just drown mistakes with distortion, another thing for which acoustic is good or a thing a teacher can tell you.
@@Valto4life I find it a bit reversed in my opinion, from dealing with some students. I find kids who started on electric to naturally develope cleaner playing. Due to the eclectic guitars natural tendency to make sloppy playing a bit more noticeable. Where as what I found with acoustic students. Sloppy playing was much more subtle. As a result, I found when electric students would pickup a acoustic, they found the string spacing and fretting a bit more difficult, but ultimately played faily cleanly after a slight learning curve. Where as the acoustic students required allot more of a learning curve to play clean again, as it Just let sloppy played notes ring out a bit more. But again, my opinion.
@@brainstewX Mostly fretting hand stuff. With an electric guitar (especially with a high gain tone which beginners will probably use without the guidance of a teacher) you get way more leeway when trying to fret a note or play a chord shape and you can use methods that just will not cut it when you increase the tempo/difficulty of a piece. You can immediately tell that you didn't fret correctly on an acoustic since you can't really hear the note under the buzzing, also notes have to be pushed closer to the fret itself to make them sound properly which is hard to notice through an amplifier. It's pretty often that electric newbies literally can't play through a clean tone, they mask their mistakes with distortion. The bad habits concretely are usually; not playing with just your fingertips (you fret with the pad of your finger and collapse the first joint, which again just wouldn't cut it on an acoustic), slanted and unnatural left hand positioning, tense right hand technique (with acoustic finger style you literally can't do it tense after a certain level of difficulty) and most common of all: going faster than you "can" play since you can't tell if you hit all the notes through your amplifier tone. There is also the reverse situation like not having to worry too much about other strings ringing while you play on acoustic but damping is a big part of electric guitar technique, though I'd still lean on acoustic having less detrimental effects on your overall technique. "how would the body being hollow prevent these bad habits?" - What you have to remember is that they are two completely different instruments just with significant overlap when it comes to technique. There are subtle dynamics in acoustic technique and tradition that require you to play, well, better to get out the same notes. There are of course idiosyncrasies with electric guitar as well but from the perspective of a beginner they aren't as poignant. All this is based on the assumptions a) your acoustic is a nylon string, b) you'd play electric guitar with a distorted, driven or high gain tone most of the time. I make these assumptions from experience from working at a musical conversatorium, it would be rare that many of our big classes' of beginner students deviated from them.
Great video. Thankfully I came to the same conclusion 2-3 weeks ago, searching for my sons first guitar (for Christmas) , and that is: electric. He likes rock / metal, and you can’t really try to play that on a classical acoustic! Plus like you say, they have wide necks, which put me off when I was his age. So electric, with thinner neck, lower string height and some gain (!!!) I hope will result in him learning and playing for years to come!!
I learned to play through school on a Yamaha classical nylon stringed guitar. To a studious learner, who has to hit certain learning milestones as part of their grade and is fueled by discipline rather than (the often treacherous) inspiration or motivation, classical guitars are the best tools to learn on from day one. You build up your strength, precision, speed, and toughness. That said, for independent learners (esp. younger ones) who either don't have or don't want to rely on discipline -- people who strictly because of passion, inspiration, motivation -- Rob is 100% right. The best guitar for them, is what they want to play. In my experience, most of these people will get over it and move on to the next thing they want to do. A rare few will make it a lifelong passion. People who rely on discipline to learn will keep it up their whole life, even if it's not THE THING they want to do with their life.
I think its worth saying though, that I've played for years, and if I started with a Nylon, I dont think i'd be playing still today. In fact, I did originally take classes with a spanish and hated it, and only got back into guitar with an electric bass. Saying that, I've just purchased a Nylon Classical today, and its probably now my favourite guitar that isn't a bass. Kids want to make noise quick, not spend hours labouring over fingerstyle and not making anything that sounds good for literally months, especially if they're like me and love rock and metal and only wanted to play Iron Maiden, but now I'm a bit older I appreciate the classics and fingerstyle, and absolutely love the sound of nylon and spanish. Rob is spot on with what he said around the 9 minute mark. Apart from when he said that that if youre given a nylon for metallica, youd be lost, because Battery and Nothing Else Matters :^)
Beginner here, and I took the approach of buying several less expensive guitars because I don’t know what in the heck I want. I’ve got an Ibanez js100 (most beautiful of my guitars), squire strat (had to file fret ends, maybe over filed), Gretsch (streamliner G2655, that I’m going to return), and a Gibson LPM (heavy weight, and gorgeous trans black, best sustain and slightly richer sound on the neck), and last but not least, Mitchell acoustic double cut. Hours and hours of TH-cam videos later, I found out a little of why I like what I like about each one. Here’s my problem, with all of your videos that I’ve watched, I haven’t yet heard you advise a beginner towards a guitar with a shorter scale length and a slim c style neck. School me please! My Gibson/Gretsch =shorter scale length (Frets closer together, less stretching, but skinnier, less comfortable (for me), D style neck) and my Ibanez/Strat=longer scale, but more comfortable, slim/fast C style neck. Is there a 24.5 scale length with an Ibanez style neck? There are a lot of things to like/disklike about any guitar, and I think scale length and neck shape should be highlighted more to us that may not know the difference.
It comes to what do you want to play and why do you want to play guitar, and I think there's something it's needed to be pointed out about that "nylon strings guitar": Pros of a nylon strings guitar: he's talking about a classical guitar. It's used to play classical guitar pieces. You can use it for flamenco, jazz, folk, and all sorts of popular, though. Cons of a nylon string guitar: not suited for rock, metal, funk, and anything worried about shaping your tone from another thing than the wood, the strings and your own body.
If I could turn back time to when I was 12 and first learning guitar, I would get a 3/4 size steel string acoustic, a pack of Ernie ball hybrid slinky ELECTRIC guitar strings, a $5 magnetic sound hole pickup and the cheapest electric guitar amp I could find with at least 8" speaker. Take the guitar with you everywhere you go and get used to playing in front of people. Use the amp when mum and dad aren't home and don't forget to ask for some pedals or multi effects for your birthday
It doesn’t matter! As long as you think it’s good, you’ll be inspired to pick it up and practice!! From your perspective, a guitar either feels good or bad.. it’s either a guitar or a shitar
i was really lucky i learned to play on a 11 gauge strings and it had horrible action steel string guitar and it doesn’t sound good at all however i stuck at it and love playing every day for hours even tho my guitar was only 60 quid and i still love that guitar
I'd agree the nylon is likely not a great first guitar, but it can be a really good tool if you want to write music because the different sound can make your brain go in different directions creatively.
For entry level acoustic guitar, buy the F335 Yamaha. You will not regret. I am betting you . It is a guitar which is above beginner level but sound is pure enough to transition into intermediate level. It is a pretty sweet sounding acoustic guitar.
Surely the whole point of steel strings on acoustics was just to be louder? If you learn on an acoustic I would suggest to start out using exactly the same gauge of strings as for an electric; like 9s or even 8s and make that finger tip hardening period a bit more bearable. You may need to slacken off the truss rod tiny amount tho.
Good idea on having that electric brand setup for players, that's the weakness of all the low priced guitars. Lee, the reason steel string guitars came about is in the era of the big bands with horns, the nylon guitar was drowned out. Then bigger bands with more trumpets and steel strings were drowned out so they figured out guitar amps. Then pushed those amps into distortion and Rock n Roll History was made.
For a first steel string guitar, or for a small person, I would always suggest a 12th fret join parlor guitar as a good place to start with easier string tension, etc... Much more appropriate than a nylon string. But, anyone been listening to Willie Nelson - you can get some good and interesting sounds from nylon.
This might seem off the wall, but hear me out : A squareneck Resonator , or an electric Lap Steel . The elephant in the room nobody talks about , is that the overwhelming majority of absolute beginner ( vertical) guitarists quit within a couple months. . They are starting out with basic exercises to stretch and strengthen their fingers . They won't begin to make sounds generally recognizable as music for several months of uninteresting drills and discomfort . Most don't sucuessfully stick it out . Playing Lap Style with tone bar and open tuning , I can have an absolute beginner able to play every major chord within 30 minutes . With no confusion , and no finger pain . A starter Reso that doesn't suck will run about $400 USD , plus a tone bar, and probably a set of finger and thumbpicks . But starter Lap Steels can be very affordable , frequently available for under or around $100 USD . And almost always the vaguely amplifier shaped objects that are included in starter pack bundles are total unlistenable crap . Realistically , somthing minimally usable will be $ 100 +/- $20 . ( That's for either Lap or Vertical electric guitar .
From Leo: in the days before electronics, the steel string was desirable because of the higher volume. You just could not hear a gut string guitar when played with other instruments. The "X" bracing on the Martin guitars was developed to deal with the string tension. The early ads were quite proud of their superior design. I agree, that the worst curse you can give a beginner is a cheap steel string guitar that is unplayable. I recommend an acoustic player borrow a good guitar until they can justify $250 AND a quality setup. You can get a very playable electric guitar for 1/2 the money.
I learned on classical. I pretty much hated it, but I learnt the basics, then I bought an acoustic. I liked it a lot more but i didn't play loads, then I got an electric and it was great, I much preferred learning it, I played way more and I play almost exclusively electric now. But maybe if it wasn't for me learning classical technique I would never have perused on electric.
I would start with a Strat. Stratocasters are like a blank canvas; how you wish to paint it is all up to you. The Strat in itself is simple. However, you have to work with the guitar in order to learn it. Play a Strat well, and you can play just about any electric guitar well. If playing the guitar is something that sticks with you, you can always add more guitars to your collection further down the road. Add a Les Paul, and a Telecaster to your collection, and you will have all the tone you need for a long, long time. I would also recommend getting an acoustic guitar. It is a different beast entirely, so you might feel like you take 5 steps back when you go from an electric to an acoustic guitar. However, it is definitely worth the experience. Fretting, chords, strumming, picking, and fingering, will all benefit greatly from playing an acoustic. (Orangewood is a great brand that fits within most budgets.) When you start out, do not get caught up in brands or gear; it is irrelevant. An expensive guitar will not make you a better player.
I always suggest to beginners to start on electric guitar simply because the typical beginner acoustic guitars are much more difficult to play unless they are well set up (which beginners won't necessarily know how to do). The action is usually much easier on electrics, especially when I think back to my beginner days as I pressed down on the strings with a death grip. The only draw back is the cheaper electrics dont stay in tune as well. That's really super important when learning. In the end it's which you prefer. That's just my two cents on the matter. Great job on the video guys. I think you both inspired a lot of future guitarist! 😎
one salient point not mentioned is portability. You can pick up an acoustic and take it anywhere. On holiday, to school, to your grans barbecue or your girlfriends etc. That's really useful !!
I started almost 4 years ago with a puny little First Act with a Line 6 Spider IV amp. It was good for then, now I have a Les Paul, a Martin, and a Fender bass. And yes, still the same old Line 6 amp...wonder what guitar I should get next...
I'd say: buy best guitar you can afford to keep you inspired, but get it on used market. If you'll want to sell it, you'll lose nothing, no matter what class that guitar would be.
I first played acoustic to practice. When I got my own electric guitars, I preferred using them due to the guitar body being thinner compared to an acoustic.
Great overview and great advice. Pushing the EastCoast stuff pretty hard, still, I see. But I'd do the same thing if I were them. I wonder if Andertons sets up every guitar that comes into the shop. Over here in the USA, our big chain stores don't touch guitars aside from sticking them on the floor. It's terrible. I like that Andertons are setting these guitars up before people buy them - I think that's great.
In my opinion playability is more important than design. I think that e-guitar is easier than acoustic guitar. A headless e-guitar with a scalloped multiscale fretboard and Superstrat cutouts on the body is a very good beginners guitar. Because all of the afore mentioned features enlarge the playability compared to a standard e guitar.
There is one thing you should put at the top most priority when considering your first student guitar Who do you want to play like and what do they play? You want to play like metallica? well there's not much sense in buying an acoustic now is there?
I too started out playing Metallica on my schools nylon acoustic. Didn’t know any better so I got one for home to continue playing Metallica on 😂 Later that year I did however get an electric and the tone difference blew my young mind and I was hooked!!
First guitar I tried learning on was a cheap acoustic thing with an abominably high string action, couldn't play it at all. I was young an knew nothing about set ups and whatnot and it turned me off pretty quick. Electrics I've found to be a lot easier to play, plus a bit more versatile with the whole electric thing. I play my electric guitars acoustically more often than not anyway.
In my experience as a player and teacher it's fine to start on anything except a steel-stringed acoustic. I've had a couple of kids show up to lessons with an inherited dreadnought and it's just ridiculous, the kid can't even hold the thing on the lap and put their arm over it, let alone see the fretboard and push the strings down with it's ridiculously high action. When I see a new student walk in with a steel acoustic, it's almost a guarantee they won't last long. I'm admittedly a little biased here since I'm a classical player, but I always think that in these discussions most people don't give the classical enough credit. Especially when you're talking about kids, it really does make a difference that you can get one that's the right size and scale, and it sounds fine for acoustic repertoire. Steel-acoustics always sound harsh and buzzy when played by beginners, and while today's cheap electrics are getting better all the time, I don't think the same can be said for acoustics. I have found that a cheap classical always sounds better than an acoustic for the same price; you can get solid-top classicals, with choice of wood and everything, for as little as AUD$200. I generally advise people to just stick to classical, electric, or both. For acoustic songs I either use a classical, or a strat played clean. The only reason I would recommend getting an acoustic is if you specifically want to play Tommy Emmanuel style arrangements, which is obviously more advanced anyway.
Hi, guitarstore employee and huge fan of fairness/value for money. i wanted to chip in just from my experience for what it's worth in hope that another human could get as much comfort and happiness guitars have given me so it's a long read but i couldn't simplify it anymore and not include some details about my background. Growing up i had little money to spend and so did my family so i started out on a Squier Affinity Telecaster with a small 10w amp and when i could, play my dads 80's Gibson Sonex 180 Custom. I ended up as a guitar collector and trader especially in cheaper fender/squier/gibson/epiphone offsets etc etc. I might come off as biased and selfimportant since my job is to get you to spend the most amount of money but coming from a background of basically poverty i feel i have a moral obligation to be honest in my work(too honest according to my superiors) and give the best guidance i can for you to achive your dream of creating music. However comma... Starting on a nylon or steelstring acoustic is a certain way to buy a wall hanger, if you totally new and want to learn guitar go for an electric guitar cause they are easier to get comfortable with over time and you'll have much more progress. 3 guitars i recommend to everyone either they look for cheap or beginner guitar are: 1-Nylon String you want to go for the Yamaha CS45. Great sounding guitar, easy to play and affordable. 2: Steel String would be the Yamaha FG800(or my personal favorite FG830). Again GREAT sounding guitar, affordable, comfortable to play and has a smooth satin neck so no sticky fingers to slow you down. Bonus: The Epiphone Inspired by 1964' Texan is a beast of a guitar and with a pickup so you can hook it up to a amp(i have 2 of these) 3: Electric guitar would be the Squier Standard Series.. These guitars are a bit more expensive but the value in the long run is just amazing and a great mod project for the future. All these are a bit more cash but the value you get in return by saving that extra month or two is so worth it in my opinion
In defense of Nylon guitars: the y are more versatile than this video shows. You can play whatever style you live, specially if you finguerpick...hard struming is other thing. With nylon everything sounds warmer bc of the nylon, and bass work is really amazing. I have all of this 3 different basic types...and I am in love with all of them...I cannot choose only one...
Guitarist are interesting creatures. I've been playing for 14 years and I still watched the entire video. What.
60 years ... and same here.
I've watched every Andertons video to date, and i'm a drummer who hasn't played drums for 12 years. :D
Ah come on, its got the Miku pedal in it, Lee playing Enter Sandman on that nylon-stringed. What's not to like? :)
@@weswheel4834 Miku should make an appearance somewhere in every video just for shits.
@@joshiuahallenbeck531 I had too much time on my hands one day and was reading on Korg's website that you can set your own lyrics for it. I think Rob should set one up for Catalyst.
any 6 string guitar will bring you hours, days, weeks, months and years of frustration
Until you finally figure something out and your frustration turns to ELATION!
Kinda like golf.
Try a 7 string guitar
@Daniel Adler Being happy once you know 1 chord sounds an excellent idea. It all gets more complicated when you try and use 2 of them ;)
@@daddio307 Just Like Tiger Woods
The miku tuning bit cracked me up lol
I spit my lunch all over my keyboard. The captain does his best to keep a straight face.
Easy. A 47 string 4-98" multiscale.
Oh wait no that's a harp
You win the internet for this day, sir!
Agreed! That’s very funny
At least you never have to tune a harp
Oh but you do and it's expensive.
I hate and love this
the best guitar to play is the one you look forward to playing again
Just choose the one you're going to end up playing more or that inspires you the most
@@jerryx2000 Try again in English.
@@brainstewX 初心者がそのような細部を知らないことを決して扱わないので、このステートメントは全くばかげている。
@@jerryx2000 yeah cause a beginner who wants to become Steve Vai doesn't know he wants an electric
Yeah ok, how about be more vague.
Just choose the correct material to invent a time machine because it's the right one
@@jerryx2000 I think you'll find most of them do. If someone wants to play Taylor swift or ed sheeran. The likelihood is they'll buy an acoustic because that's what they want. The same goes for someone who wants to play heavier music. They'll probably start with an electric
The best guitar buying advice I ever received: buy the one you'll enjoy playing.
I took that advice, bought a bass guitar, and have been happy playing ever since! 😁
I started learning in freshman year. My school had a guitar program, a "lab" where you learned, and an ensemble where you learned a little bust mostly performed. We had to use the Yamaha Nylon Classical guitars in Lab, but we could bring our own guitars in Ensemble. So I went and bought an Epiphone SG and used that. Also, for Christmas of my freshman year I got a BC Rich Warlock for Christmas, so I had that to use at home, and my brother had initially lent me an Esteban acoustic just before freshman year. So in a way I learned on all three guitars. I'm very lucky to have had the opportunity to learn on all three. And now, five years later, I still prefer electrics, and would generally advocate most people learn on them over the other two options. Also they're just better :p
One thing I found as a kid: changing the strings on an acoustic or electric guitar is pretty damn straight forward and basically the same on either. I never ever had to change my nylon strings but I hated the idea of ever having to try.
Do you want to play electric, then learn on electric. If you want to play acoustic, play acoustic. It's pretty simple really.
@@SkullCrusherStudios brings me back to the days when i'd learn every single ac/dc song (i was a huge fan at the time) on my first acoustic for like 4 years, now i've been playing for almost 12 years and own a '61 reissue gibson sg just like angus'. man time flies
@@SkullCrusherStudios I do that as well! I play everything on my classical guitar.. I do own all three kinds but my classical is just so light and so easy to play so I sometimes pick it up and play some fun metal on it :D very fun!
@@SkullCrusherStudios, nothing cracked me and my friends up more than playing Metallica on our Classical/Spanish acoustic guitars.
Two dudes rocking away with a singer playing Shortest Straw is one of the funniest things you can play IMO.
Steven Stevens started on an acoustic guitar, and switched to electric at 12 years old. There is nothing wrong in starting on an acoustic guitar!
@@SkullCrusherStudios same 😂 it was a piece of crap but I still learned to play simple Nirvana riffs and some Metallica... Glad I got a cheap strat and an amp a few months later though
I was bought a £28 "student" size nylon guitar in 1984 because my dad didn't trust that I was serious about playing. I'm still playing. It taught me the fundamentals of how a guitar works and forced me to be creative. Weave a thin necklace chain around the strings at the bridge and you get a nice "fuzz" type effect. I'm a bit eclectic though so anyone who likes one sort of music should get the guitar that reflects their tastes, like Rob said.
I would always recomend starting on an electric guitar. In my experience acoustic guitars have really high action from the factory which makes them harder to play. While an experienced player might be able to just fix this, a beginner would most likely not have a clue which would inhibit their progress. Also there is a wider variety of music available to electric instruments, especially modern styles like pop, rock, metal, etc. Nylon string guitars are fine if you want to play classical or flamenco and steel string acoustics are good for a portion of many different styles but generally has less songs available to it than the electric guitar.
I started on a nylon. I think what you start on influences how you play, it changes the way you learn/approach the instrument. And it may also have you pickup different habits along the way. If I were to do it over again, I wouldn't change anything... well I guess I would've liked to start playing sooner.
I started on a travel electric guitar with a speaker built in back in 2008 when I was 5 years old, after that I moved to a Dean Tele copy and a Fender Malibu acoustic (I really liked the Strat headstock and my parents wanted that it would be small enough and easy enough for me to play on) and both guitars are still in my collection (with the Malibu being my only acoustic), and 10 years later I'm a proud Chapman owner :)
I wouldn't recommend a nylon guitar unless the person really digs and wants to play classical/jazz/bossa nova.
or Jerry Reed/Chet Atkins style country picking.
I work at a guitar shop and I always say I personally love playing nylon string, but it really depends on what you feel drawing you in to play the guitar.. you can always change guitars once you know how to play one as well so it's not a big problem...
My first guitar was the cheapest classical guitar my parents could possibly find... I painted it green so it sounded even worse 😋 but it stayed in tune (enough) to learn chords on for the first few months... I just attacked those strings with a hard pick but they still lasted for months until I had the money for a Samick strat and practice amp... It's all I had so I didn't know better... But I would definitely recommend an electric guitar and a good(!) amp to learn on
I am a guitar teacher. Nylon strings are the second easiest strings to press. Electric is the easiest to press and the dreadnought is the hardest to play. When you teach little kids the dreadnought is the enemy.
@@wesshepard that's a good point 👌 also... I've had an operation on my chest and all my ribs were broken... I can't play a guitar with a huge body poking into my ribs... But apparently without that other people often seem to have the same problem... It just gets really uncomfortable after 30 mins of playing or so
When I told my parents I wanted to learn when I was younger my dad was on board. My dad is a traditionalist so he believes that no matter what you should start off on acoustic. He got me an acoustic, me wanting to play metal, I let the guitar sit in the corner for a while bc it did not inspire me. My mom realized this so one year for Christmas she gets me an electric starter pack. The amp with it had ridiculous bee like distortion but I did not care. After that my guitar playing took off and I was heavily invested in it. So with all that being said, when choosing a first guitar, go in the direction that inspired you to make the decision to play guitar.
Side note: That acoustic now gets proper treatment as I ply it almost every day.
Couple of observations from my personal experience:
1. Motivation is key. Get a guitar that looks nice, but also *plays* nicely - and you can feel that even if you have no experience. Run your hand up and down the back and sides of the neck, hold the strings down in what vaguely resembles a chord shape, etc.
2. For the same reason, don't buy your first guitar sight-unseen from the Internet. It may look good on the online picture, but you have no idea of how comfortable/uncomfortable it'll be, how it's set up, or whether there are any outright issues with the build quality of the guitar.
3. Ideally, avoid guitars with a floating tremolo bridge (an arm you can push down or pull up to make the strings go higher or lower in pitch) as a first purchase - or, if you do get one, put a little shim in the back of the guitar so that it'll stay in place. Floating tremolo bridges add a few steps to the maintenance and setup of a guitar that as an absolute beginner you don't want to be dealing with.
Guys, it´s totally worth it to start and learn an instrument. Look, in my case, i had a 20 euro (dirt cheap crappy) guitar and I learnt it a little for like 1 year when I was 7, then stopped BECAUSE IT DIDN´T MOTIVATE ME, i decided last year to pick the guitar back up again but play ONE that motivates me to play every single day for hours and hours. So i got a squier affinity telecaster, which is an electric guitar (the one you see in my profile pic), and im absolutely loving the journey. YES if you start on acc/classical you might get a tiny tiny headstart on technique, but it doesn´t matter, in the end you will learn everything nonetheless, as long as you enjoy it and love both what you do and the instrument you play. :)
I got a my first guitar when I started to play, but my Father didnt want to take a risk so I got a cheap classical guitar. And that was the best idea ever. I learnt the fundementals. Next stage was a western guitar then a few years later an eletric guitar. That was a JOURNEY to be on.
If you want to drive a racing car then firstly you have to learn how to drive a regular car, right?
My first guitar was a nylon string Yamaha G-50A my parents gave me for my 15th birthday. For me, it was a great thing to learn on. My attempts to imitate Robin Trower and Jimmy Page on that guitar probably sounded odd, but so what. I had many, many hours of enjoyment. I eventually "graduated" to my 1st electric in 1978 (a Peavey T-60, if anyone remembers those). Now I've moved on to others but remember those first guitars fondly. (Still have them, too.) Whatever inspires the new player is best. There seem to be so many good modest price guitars of every kind that you can get these days.
Good overview. Rob's right - it's all about who inspires the student.
I've found electric guitar to be the easiest to teach on though.
Top tip: Rob recently had great video about tuning your student's guitar to open E - just to get them started on strumming and left-right hand co-ordination. I tried it and it worked out great.
After just a week of this method a recent student was in standard tuning without the weeks of frustration of trying to initially hold down chords. Helps them 'believe' they can make music on day one as opposed to trying to master chord changes for weeks before they can bang out a tune.
The best guitar to learn on is that guitar that inspires you to keep picking it up to play, even when progress does not seem to be forthcoming. I would also recommend headphones/earbuds and a jam machine with amp simulation (like Boss Mico BR80). So you can make as much noise as you like, get accustomed to playing in time and learn to blend your guitar contribution to other parts just like being in a band.
Captain be looking like the love child of sheldon cooper and Mr bean
@Name sorry my dude ahaha
Acoustic guitars had steel strings put on them to compete volume wise with banjos. Prior to electric amplification banjos and mandolins were the loudest acoustic instruments being played in bands. Martin began building steel string guitars to compete with these for volume starting from the Single-O on up to the dreadnought.
i love nylon, when i was a lot younger i picked up an acoustic wanting to learn, but instantly was put off feeling like my fingers where getting shredded and ended up stopping playing it. Few years later someone had a nylon string guitar so i had a go and it felt much better, especially since i have big hands the fretboard spacing was great! So i took the plunge and got a nice Tanglewood Nylon guitar for something like £60 in my local shop, after a year or so of that i moved onto (but not forgetting about the nylon) electric then acoustic last, now almost 5 years later, i enjoy playing all types of guitars and still have my first Tanglewood guitar, even thought now at the open chord part of the fretboard its almost as if its been scalloped because i'v played it so much, and sadly i think the neck is warping, near the 12th fret the strings feel like they're a mile above the fretboard, still though its a joy to play, i literally used to play anything on it, from folk, to rock, to heavy stuff. Only downside is, from using a classical guitar first i didn't learn to use a pick, and even 5 or so years later still can't quite get to grips with a pick so still pick/strum with my thumb/fingers, haven't found it to be an issue though, managed to play the first few rush albums without using a pick at all!
Learn to play on what you want to play. I always wanted to play electric guitar and one of the coolest sounding guitar bands I liked when I was a kid was AC/DC so when I finally convinced my mom and dad to buy me a guitar when I was 14, I found a cool Epiphone SG that looked near enough to Angus's to a 14yr old kid for $199 and got a cheap amp for $50 and the music shop threw in a strap, and I was off to the races. So again, learn on what you'd like to play.
My classical guitars always had massive necks. The comfortable ones were Fender's and Yamaha's which I couldn't afford at the time
I agree with Rob on getting a guitar similar to what inspires you to want to play. My mom asked me what instrument and just said guitar. By my confirmation in 1988 I got a new Jasmine acustic steel string S60.
The only problem was the lack of inspiration to get to know it and still is these days.
After 2 years in hell 9 and 10 grade pre Black Album I was now inspired to play electric guitar and I have not stopped since
Yamaha is amazing for acoustic steel/nylon. Squier is amazing for electric. I just saved you hours of research.
What about Yamaha Pacifica?
I’ve been playing guitar for 12 years and i have had half size classical a Asda full sized classical a Yamaha classical and another Asda steel acoustic then I brought a cheap starter electric strat by rock burn and that was amazing until about 3 years ago I changed the pickups and lost the springs. Now I play a Lindo strat and I love it it’s got a amazing sound and especially neck pickup .
I started with Steel String Acoustic Guitar 6 years ago.
My mate bought an acoustic steel string and put nylon strings on the 6th 5th and 4th string. Not for the sound but bc it allowed her to practise for longer with out finger tip soreness.
I love watching Rob and the captain together!! It's such a great vibe!
I learnt on acoustic for the first 2 years and I love that sound, however it really did set me back with out realising bc its so much harder to play and learn on that an electric. Barre chords are a breeze on an electric compared to an acoustic. Also much less painful on the fingers.
Learn on what ever style of guitar you can, it all helps in the long run. If you truly love learning and enjoy the guitar it won’t matter one iota the style/cost of the guitar, you will just love learning and playing, whether it be an old battered acoustic with very high action or an expensive slick electric, as long as it gives you pleasure.
Well I started at the age of 22 after dreaming of learning guitar all my life basically. I started with a nylon (just like in the video, same style of tuning pegs) that I had laying around since ages (Grandpa gave it to me as a gift) but I realized that I would never get an electric sound of it. It was still enjoyable, but fingers hurt as hell still. For about a month, at least. Then I started going out with my current gf, and she has a steel string acoustic BELOW 100 pounds price, way below. It's a nice sounding instrument but acton was challenging, to put it mildly. I liked the sound much more. Finally I could play acoustic stuff as I heard it on the records. A year after I started playing I got my first (and only so far) electric guitar - Steinberger Transcale, and that was the game changer. A year after that I got a Yamaha 12 string. Now I am looking forward to getting something a bit more high end, like a Strat Pro or smth.
My verdit is - you wanna learn and electric guitar is what you're into - electric guitar is the way to start. If you like acoustic and electric - get acoustic first (like a cheap Yamaha), and it will prepare you for the electric nicely. Nylon, however, is way too specific. Only case of me needing a nylon guitar is to play the solo on And I Love Her. )))
I often recommend a fender/squire type guitar for new players both acoustics and electrics just because of how easy and comfortable their necks are to play. I learned on a big full sized nylon string classical as a kid though
Just my opinion but I think a good feel on the neck and moderate bridge height are the most important aspects of a beginner guitar. Lots of people get frustrated getting the finger pains even without having strings they can fit their hand under.
I took the traditional route to learn the guitar. Started with a rubbish classical, saved up and bought an electro-acoustic steel string, borrowed an electric for a bit and then bought a decent electric, then bought a quite expensive classical. I teach guitar these days and what Rob says about getting the instrument that best reflects your musical tastes and inspires you is spot on.
On occasion, I have helped a student to buy a guitar. The last time I found a squire strat for £30 in a 'cash converters' store! I'm into all sorts of music, my jokey line when someone asks me what I listen to is 'I like everything from Carcassi to Carcass!' So my three main instruments are a very good Granados classical, a great Japanese made Ibanez and a really nice Takamine that was a bit of a bargain at only a little over £400.
The best thing about guitars these days is how much the quality has improved in the more affordable models, cheap guitars used to invariably be absolute crap, now you can get something half decent without shelling out a month's wages.
Which ever kind fits the music you want to play.
Agree 100% with Rob, buy a cheaper version of the kind of guitar you want to end up playing. I learnt on a jazzbox style electro-acoustic which gave me access to both worlds but then, Squirer hadn't been thought of and Epiphone were making their own distinctive guitars for too much money rather than cheaper Gibsons.
My very first guitar was an Ibanez starter pack.
That said, every time anyone asks me what they should get their kid starting out, I have always only pointed them to either Epiphone or Squire. But yes, it was all about who the kid admires. Who does the kid want to be?
* Pete Townshend: Squire Telecaster
* Kirk Hammet: Squire Stratocaster
* James Hetfield: Epiphone Explorer
* Billy Gibbons: Epiphone Les Paul
* Angus Young: Epiphone SG
Would disagree on what you said about the Metallica guitarists.
I wouldn't suggest a Strat (unless it has at least one humbucker) for a Metallica fan, and Explorers are not the most practical guitars to play sitting down, especially for a beginner.
I would suggest a Les Paul instead
@@Mr.Goldbar Kirk Hammet does play a Les Paul. I will give you that. However, that is not the shape he is know for, which is where I have always based my suggestions. You want something that looks like what the student's favourite musician is playing in the posters. In the case of Kirk Hammet, he is known for his ESP super strats. So, if you want to emulate that, you want something strat-ish. As for the humbuckers, Squire does make HH versions.
As for James Hetfield, or at least when I think of James, I think of Ken Lawrence, not the ESP Eclipse. That said, this is where proper technique must be taught from the beginning stage. As you mentioned with an Explorer shape being not very practical, that is mainly due to it being held resting on your right leg. That forces your wrist into a flat parallel to the ground, which is a turn beyond where your wrist wants to be. That will fatigue you, and could cause pain.
Not only Explorer shapes, but really ANY guitar in general is much better played when held between your legs. Think of how a classical guitar is played. That position more accurately emulates the location where it would be if you were standing, which is the height where your strap should be set anyway. Plus, that position forces the guitar to slant upward, which is the orientation where your fretting hand wrist naturally wants to be.
It's a cultural thing to me. Being from the spanish-latinamerican-brazilian side of the world, the nylon guitar is a MUST if you want to be a guitar player. It's an absolute noble instrument and it's pretty easy to play on basic mode, but it's a whole world inside it if you want to play better. Then, steel acoustic or electric are derivations and options of the old spanish-nylon string guitar. I love all kinds of guitars, I learned from a nylon one.. it was a great adventure to me.
Volume demands necessitated the steel string as part of an eternal yearning for loudness in the evolution of lute family instruments, culminated in the electric guitar. Slide may have been a nice byproduct and or coexisting demand but again you’re talking about a fundamental volume quest.
Just get the guitar that makes your heart beat faster. I started on an acoustic as that was supposed to be "better" or "easier" and it never got me excited. Only when I finally got an electric, I found the inspiration to play every day -and I'm sure it's different for everyone.
(in fact, the guitar I play the most is a semi-acoustic. So there you go.)
I had an acoustic that had strings that were really heavy to play. I didn't know how bad it was until I picked up my first electric. It did, however, make every other guitar super easy to play, once I'd learned that I didn't have to strangle them to death.
I'd been playing electric for 4 years when I got my first acoustic (western)... The thing is, I wanted to learn electric guitar, I'm a Blues/Rock/Metal player, so I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have had a lot of fun with an acoustic in the beginning. And I still wouldn't really recommend a nylon, I just really don't like the necks on those things
Both really. I started on a parlor size acoustic but I always knew I wanted to play electric and after a while of playing the acoustic my dad bought me a first act strat copy from Walmart. And eventually I started on a long journey of swapping pickups and trying strats, super strats , lps and various other guitars chasing tone. But still it’s nice to have a minimum of one acoustic and one electric.
You two playing acoustic with lead over it was just beautiful. I would buy this.
Electric is so much easier to play when starting out
You'll just get really bad habits that way since you can get a decent sound with bad form and technique so you'll keep on doing it wrong. Starting with electric guitar if you don't have a teacher is hard to pull off unless you're pretty mature when it comes to learning new skills don't quit when it isn't so easy. Also learning should be done with a clean tone so you can actually play and not just drown mistakes with distortion, another thing for which acoustic is good or a thing a teacher can tell you.
@@Valto4life I find it a bit reversed in my opinion, from dealing with some students.
I find kids who started on electric to naturally develope cleaner playing. Due to the eclectic guitars natural tendency to make sloppy playing a bit more noticeable.
Where as what I found with acoustic students. Sloppy playing was much more subtle.
As a result, I found when electric students would pickup a acoustic, they found the string spacing and fretting a bit more difficult, but ultimately played faily cleanly after a slight learning curve.
Where as the acoustic students required allot more of a learning curve to play clean again, as it Just let sloppy played notes ring out a bit more.
But again, my opinion.
@@Valto4life To what bad habits are you referring, and how would the body being hollow prevent these bad habits?
@@brainstewX Mostly fretting hand stuff. With an electric guitar (especially with a high gain tone which beginners will probably use without the guidance of a teacher) you get way more leeway when trying to fret a note or play a chord shape and you can use methods that just will not cut it when you increase the tempo/difficulty of a piece. You can immediately tell that you didn't fret correctly on an acoustic since you can't really hear the note under the buzzing, also notes have to be pushed closer to the fret itself to make them sound properly which is hard to notice through an amplifier. It's pretty often that electric newbies literally can't play through a clean tone, they mask their mistakes with distortion. The bad habits concretely are usually; not playing with just your fingertips (you fret with the pad of your finger and collapse the first joint, which again just wouldn't cut it on an acoustic), slanted and unnatural left hand positioning, tense right hand technique (with acoustic finger style you literally can't do it tense after a certain level of difficulty) and most common of all: going faster than you "can" play since you can't tell if you hit all the notes through your amplifier tone. There is also the reverse situation like not having to worry too much about other strings ringing while you play on acoustic but damping is a big part of electric guitar technique, though I'd still lean on acoustic having less detrimental effects on your overall technique.
"how would the body being hollow prevent these bad habits?" - What you have to remember is that they are two completely different instruments just with significant overlap when it comes to technique. There are subtle dynamics in acoustic technique and tradition that require you to play, well, better to get out the same notes. There are of course idiosyncrasies with electric guitar as well but from the perspective of a beginner they aren't as poignant.
All this is based on the assumptions a) your acoustic is a nylon string, b) you'd play electric guitar with a distorted, driven or high gain tone most of the time. I make these assumptions from experience from working at a musical conversatorium, it would be rare that many of our big classes' of beginner students deviated from them.
Valto nailed it.
At 7:11 I could fee exactly what Rob was feeling.
Great video. Thankfully I came to the same conclusion 2-3 weeks ago, searching for my sons first guitar (for Christmas) , and that is: electric. He likes rock / metal, and you can’t really try to play that on a classical acoustic! Plus like you say, they have wide necks, which put me off when I was his age. So electric, with thinner neck, lower string height and some gain (!!!) I hope will result in him learning and playing for years to come!!
I learned to play through school on a Yamaha classical nylon stringed guitar. To a studious learner, who has to hit certain learning milestones as part of their grade and is fueled by discipline rather than (the often treacherous) inspiration or motivation, classical guitars are the best tools to learn on from day one. You build up your strength, precision, speed, and toughness.
That said, for independent learners (esp. younger ones) who either don't have or don't want to rely on discipline -- people who strictly because of passion, inspiration, motivation -- Rob is 100% right. The best guitar for them, is what they want to play. In my experience, most of these people will get over it and move on to the next thing they want to do. A rare few will make it a lifelong passion. People who rely on discipline to learn will keep it up their whole life, even if it's not THE THING they want to do with their life.
I think its worth saying though, that I've played for years, and if I started with a Nylon, I dont think i'd be playing still today. In fact, I did originally take classes with a spanish and hated it, and only got back into guitar with an electric bass. Saying that, I've just purchased a Nylon Classical today, and its probably now my favourite guitar that isn't a bass. Kids want to make noise quick, not spend hours labouring over fingerstyle and not making anything that sounds good for literally months, especially if they're like me and love rock and metal and only wanted to play Iron Maiden, but now I'm a bit older I appreciate the classics and fingerstyle, and absolutely love the sound of nylon and spanish. Rob is spot on with what he said around the 9 minute mark. Apart from when he said that that if youre given a nylon for metallica, youd be lost, because Battery and Nothing Else Matters :^)
Beginner here, and I took the approach of buying several less expensive guitars because I don’t know what in the heck I want. I’ve got an Ibanez js100 (most beautiful of my guitars), squire strat (had to file fret ends, maybe over filed), Gretsch (streamliner G2655, that I’m going to return), and a Gibson LPM (heavy weight, and gorgeous trans black, best sustain and slightly richer sound on the neck), and last but not least, Mitchell acoustic double cut. Hours and hours of TH-cam videos later, I found out a little of why I like what I like about each one. Here’s my problem, with all of your videos that I’ve watched, I haven’t yet heard you advise a beginner towards a guitar with a shorter scale length and a slim c style neck. School me please! My Gibson/Gretsch =shorter scale length (Frets closer together, less stretching, but skinnier, less comfortable (for me), D style neck) and my Ibanez/Strat=longer scale, but more comfortable, slim/fast C style neck. Is there a 24.5 scale length with an Ibanez style neck?
There are a lot of things to like/disklike about any guitar, and I think scale length and neck shape should be highlighted more to us that may not know the difference.
Lee, you're sounding more like a real guitar player with every episode. That's awesome.
I use Martin 11.5 Silk and Steel strings. They're pretty easy to play and they sounds sweet.
It comes to what do you want to play and why do you want to play guitar, and I think there's something it's needed to be pointed out about that "nylon strings guitar":
Pros of a nylon strings guitar: he's talking about a classical guitar. It's used to play classical guitar pieces. You can use it for flamenco, jazz, folk, and all sorts of popular, though.
Cons of a nylon string guitar: not suited for rock, metal, funk, and anything worried about shaping your tone from another thing than the wood, the strings and your own body.
If I could turn back time to when I was 12 and first learning guitar, I would get a 3/4 size steel string acoustic, a pack of Ernie ball hybrid slinky ELECTRIC guitar strings, a $5 magnetic sound hole pickup and the cheapest electric guitar amp I could find with at least 8" speaker. Take the guitar with you everywhere you go and get used to playing in front of people. Use the amp when mum and dad aren't home and don't forget to ask for some pedals or multi effects for your birthday
Miku Gallagher, the old boy :D :D :D
04:40 I'm with Rob, I think the classical guitar delivers the most beautiful sounds. And I play the 3 tipes, a lot.
It doesn’t matter! As long as you think it’s good, you’ll be inspired to pick it up and practice!! From your perspective, a guitar either feels good or bad..
it’s either a guitar or a shitar
i was really lucky i learned to play on a 11 gauge strings and it had horrible action steel string guitar and it doesn’t sound good at all however i stuck at it and love playing every day for hours even tho my guitar was only 60 quid and i still love that guitar
I'd agree the nylon is likely not a great first guitar, but it can be a really good tool if you want to write music because the different sound can make your brain go in different directions creatively.
For entry level acoustic guitar, buy the F335 Yamaha. You will not regret. I am betting you . It is a guitar which is above beginner level but sound is pure enough to transition into intermediate level. It is a pretty sweet sounding acoustic guitar.
Surely the whole point of steel strings on acoustics was just to be louder?
If you learn on an acoustic I would suggest to start out using exactly the same gauge of strings as for an electric; like 9s or even 8s and make that finger tip hardening period a bit more bearable. You may need to slacken off the truss rod tiny amount tho.
I swear, Chappers could make a cardboard box with rubber bands on it sound like a shred machine.
Good idea on having that electric brand setup for players, that's the weakness of all the low priced guitars. Lee, the reason steel string guitars came about is in the era of the big bands with horns, the nylon guitar was drowned out. Then bigger bands with more trumpets and steel strings were drowned out so they figured out guitar amps. Then pushed those amps into distortion and Rock n Roll History was made.
For a first steel string guitar, or for a small person, I would always suggest a 12th fret join parlor guitar as a good place to start with easier string tension, etc... Much more appropriate than a nylon string.
But, anyone been listening to Willie Nelson - you can get some good and interesting sounds from nylon.
This might seem off the wall, but hear me out : A squareneck Resonator , or an electric Lap Steel .
The elephant in the room nobody talks about , is that the overwhelming majority of absolute beginner ( vertical) guitarists quit within a couple months. . They are starting out with basic exercises to stretch and strengthen their fingers . They won't begin to make sounds generally recognizable as music for several months of uninteresting drills and discomfort . Most don't sucuessfully stick it out .
Playing Lap Style with tone bar and open tuning , I can have an absolute beginner able to play every major chord within 30 minutes . With no confusion , and no finger pain .
A starter Reso that doesn't suck will run about $400 USD , plus a tone bar, and probably a set of finger and thumbpicks .
But starter Lap Steels can be very affordable , frequently available for under or around $100 USD .
And almost always the vaguely amplifier shaped objects that are included in starter pack bundles
are total unlistenable crap . Realistically , somthing minimally usable will be $ 100 +/- $20 . ( That's for either Lap or Vertical electric guitar .
Answer: the one that fits the style of music you're going to play and is most comfortable! Love these videos, guys. Thanks.
From Leo: in the days before electronics, the steel string was desirable because of the higher volume. You just could not hear a gut string guitar when played with other instruments. The "X" bracing on the Martin guitars was developed to deal with the string tension. The early ads were quite proud of their superior design.
I agree, that the worst curse you can give a beginner is a cheap steel string guitar that is unplayable. I recommend an acoustic player borrow a good guitar until they can justify $250 AND a quality setup. You can get a very playable electric guitar for 1/2 the money.
I learned on classical. I pretty much hated it, but I learnt the basics, then I bought an acoustic. I liked it a lot more but i didn't play loads, then I got an electric and it was great, I much preferred learning it, I played way more and I play almost exclusively electric now. But maybe if it wasn't for me learning classical technique I would never have perused on electric.
I would start with a Strat. Stratocasters are like a blank canvas; how you wish to paint it is all up to you. The Strat in itself is simple. However, you have to work with the guitar in order to learn it. Play a Strat well, and you can play just about any electric guitar well.
If playing the guitar is something that sticks with you, you can always add more guitars to your collection further down the road. Add a Les Paul, and a Telecaster to your collection, and you will have all the tone you need for a long, long time.
I would also recommend getting an acoustic guitar. It is a different beast entirely, so you might feel like you take 5 steps back when you go from an electric to an acoustic guitar. However, it is definitely worth the experience. Fretting, chords, strumming, picking, and fingering, will all benefit greatly from playing an acoustic. (Orangewood is a great brand that fits within most budgets.)
When you start out, do not get caught up in brands or gear; it is irrelevant. An expensive guitar will not make you a better player.
My second electric was a crappy Dragon strat copy. My first one was a Tele lol
Really good video and don't worry, we Spanish won't unsubscribe. Greetings from Spain with love
I always suggest to beginners to start on electric guitar simply because the typical beginner acoustic guitars are much more difficult to play unless they are well set up (which beginners won't necessarily know how to do). The action is usually much easier on electrics, especially when I think back to my beginner days as I pressed down on the strings with a death grip. The only draw back is the cheaper electrics dont stay in tune as well. That's really super important when learning. In the end it's which you prefer. That's just my two cents on the matter. Great job on the video guys. I think you both inspired a lot of future guitarist! 😎
one salient point not mentioned is portability. You can pick up an acoustic and take it anywhere. On holiday, to school, to your grans barbecue or your girlfriends etc. That's really useful !!
The mad lads did it. “And here’s wonderwall”
I pressed the like button when Rob said "And thats how you got married"
I started almost 4 years ago with a puny little First Act with a Line 6 Spider IV amp. It was good for then, now I have a Les Paul, a Martin, and a Fender bass. And yes, still the same old Line 6 amp...wonder what guitar I should get next...
I'd say: buy best guitar you can afford to keep you inspired, but get it on used market. If you'll want to sell it, you'll lose nothing, no matter what class that guitar would be.
Would you guys ever stock Vintage guitars? I've heard great things about them, all Wilkinson hardware too!
I own three Vintage brand guitars, all are great. I also own much more expensive guitars, but I enjoy playing all of them.
Check out Rodrigo Y Gabriella playing Metallica on nylon string guitars.
I first played acoustic to practice.
When I got my own electric guitars, I preferred using them due to the guitar body being thinner compared to an acoustic.
Great overview and great advice. Pushing the EastCoast stuff pretty hard, still, I see. But I'd do the same thing if I were them. I wonder if Andertons sets up every guitar that comes into the shop. Over here in the USA, our big chain stores don't touch guitars aside from sticking them on the floor. It's terrible. I like that Andertons are setting these guitars up before people buy them - I think that's great.
Having a rough day. But nothing better than pulling up the ol TH-cam and getting chap and the cap on the feed
I have a classical with steel strings so it sounds really amazing
In my opinion playability is more important than design. I think that e-guitar is easier than acoustic guitar. A headless e-guitar with a scalloped multiscale fretboard and Superstrat cutouts on the body is a very good beginners guitar. Because all of the afore mentioned features enlarge the playability compared to a standard e guitar.
There is one thing you should put at the top most priority when considering your first student guitar
Who do you want to play like and what do they play?
You want to play like metallica? well there's not much sense in buying an acoustic now is there?
And this comment is why you watch the video before commenting. @9:00
I too started out playing Metallica on my schools nylon acoustic. Didn’t know any better so I got one for home to continue playing Metallica on 😂 Later that year I did however get an electric and the tone difference blew my young mind and I was hooked!!
Shortly a new Chapman guitars finish, Chapman Non-grey Black?
First guitar I tried learning on was a cheap acoustic thing with an abominably high string action, couldn't play it at all. I was young an knew nothing about set ups and whatnot and it turned me off pretty quick. Electrics I've found to be a lot easier to play, plus a bit more versatile with the whole electric thing. I play my electric guitars acoustically more often than not anyway.
As others have pointed out, two words in favour of a nylon string guitar: Willie Nelson.
Willie effing Nelson.
I’m not a beginner I rarely play an acoustic unless I play slide I never play classical yet I’ve been watching videos like this all night
Celebrating being done with my final uni coursework (for this term) with an Andertons video and a cold one. What could be better?
14:18 *cough* *cough* harley benton *cough *cough* ;P
In my experience as a player and teacher it's fine to start on anything except a steel-stringed acoustic. I've had a couple of kids show up to lessons with an inherited dreadnought and it's just ridiculous, the kid can't even hold the thing on the lap and put their arm over it, let alone see the fretboard and push the strings down with it's ridiculously high action. When I see a new student walk in with a steel acoustic, it's almost a guarantee they won't last long.
I'm admittedly a little biased here since I'm a classical player, but I always think that in these discussions most people don't give the classical enough credit. Especially when you're talking about kids, it really does make a difference that you can get one that's the right size and scale, and it sounds fine for acoustic repertoire. Steel-acoustics always sound harsh and buzzy when played by beginners, and while today's cheap electrics are getting better all the time, I don't think the same can be said for acoustics. I have found that a cheap classical always sounds better than an acoustic for the same price; you can get solid-top classicals, with choice of wood and everything, for as little as AUD$200. I generally advise people to just stick to classical, electric, or both. For acoustic songs I either use a classical, or a strat played clean. The only reason I would recommend getting an acoustic is if you specifically want to play Tommy Emmanuel style arrangements, which is obviously more advanced anyway.
Hi, guitarstore employee and huge fan of fairness/value for money.
i wanted to chip in just from my experience for what it's worth in hope that another human could get as much comfort and happiness guitars have given me so it's a long read but i couldn't simplify it anymore and not include some details about my background.
Growing up i had little money to spend and so did my family so i started out on a Squier Affinity Telecaster with a small 10w amp and when i could, play my dads 80's Gibson Sonex 180 Custom. I ended up as a guitar collector and trader especially in cheaper fender/squier/gibson/epiphone offsets etc etc. I might come off as biased and selfimportant since my job is to get you to spend the most amount of money but coming from a background of basically poverty i feel i have a moral obligation to be honest in my work(too honest according to my superiors) and give the best guidance i can for you to achive your dream of creating music.
However comma...
Starting on a nylon or steelstring acoustic is a certain way to buy a wall hanger, if you totally new and want to learn guitar go for an electric guitar cause they are easier to get comfortable with over time and you'll have much more progress.
3 guitars i recommend to everyone either they look for cheap or beginner guitar are:
1-Nylon String you want to go for the Yamaha CS45. Great sounding guitar, easy to play and affordable.
2: Steel String would be the Yamaha FG800(or my personal favorite FG830). Again GREAT sounding guitar, affordable, comfortable to play and has a smooth satin neck so no sticky fingers to slow you down. Bonus: The Epiphone Inspired by 1964' Texan is a beast of a guitar and with a pickup so you can hook it up to a amp(i have 2 of these)
3: Electric guitar would be the Squier Standard Series.. These guitars are a bit more expensive but the value in the long run is just amazing and a great mod project for the future.
All these are a bit more cash but the value you get in return by saving that extra month or two is so worth it in my opinion
How old were the Captain and Chappers when they first started learning to play? Do either read music?
In defense of Nylon guitars: the y are more versatile than this video shows. You can play whatever style you live, specially if you finguerpick...hard struming is other thing. With nylon everything sounds warmer bc of the nylon, and bass work is really amazing. I have all of this 3 different basic types...and I am in love with all of them...I cannot choose only one...