There are numerous options available when the conversation is about buying an electric guitar. However, choosing an electric guitar that suits your needs sometimes can be very confusing. We may not have the ability to improve your guitar skills, but we can help put the right axe in your hands. This article of How to buy an electric guitar for beginners is going to introduce you ways to choose the perfect electric guitar that you have always wanted.

How To Buy An Electric Guitar? – Tips For Beginners

1. What Are Your Goals?

Or should I ask, what kind of music do you want to play with your electric guitar? The type of music you want to play will mostly decide the type of guitar and amp you need to get. Knowing and understanding the type of music you want to play will help narrow-down the selection of guitars you need to buy.

If country is what you desire to master, what you might want is a more twangy type of sound; therefore, something like a Telecaster is what you need. If you are a rocker who is looking for a fat and dark type of sound, a Les Paul or an SG with some humbucker pickups should be in the shopping bag. What if you are into metal? Focusing on your amp and effects pedals in order to achieve a hi-gain distorted sound is what you need to do. How about jazz? If it is your thing, what you might need is to take a look at a semi-hollow body guitar like an Epiphone Dot in order to get that darker and warmer sound that this genre usually has.

However, in fact, one electric guitar can usually play many types of music. But because they generally have different tonal characteristics; therefore, identifying and understanding the genre you are going after can also help filter the options.

2. What’s Your Budget? Just like when you are planning wedding ideas or going on healthy diets, the most crucial thing is to make sure you set some sort of budget. What and how much can you afford? The range of price when it comes to buying an electric guitar is extremely various; therefore, having a budget can help you narrow-down the options, eliminate some unsuitable ones and focus on what you really need. When talking about quality, it is usually true that you get what you pay for. A $100 guitar certainly plays, sounds and feels much more different than a $500 one. Generally, the cheaper the guitar is, the lower-quality it has (e.g. does not stay in tune, poor electronics, fret buzz, poor action…). Of course, you do not necessarily need to invest a huge pile of money in your first electric guitar, but you also need to buy something that can inspire you during the musical journey and will not be much of a trouble on the way there. You will need to consider not only the guitar in your budget, but also the amp and effects pedals (distortion, reverb, delay…). It is essential that you consider your first electric guitar purchase as an investment. One of the most common fears is: “What if I pay every penny I have to purchase this guitar and end up not touching it again?” Well, you should not be worried about that. Because even if eventually you find out that this electric guitar is not the one for you, you can still make the most out of it by getting money back in resale. Moreover, used electric guitars should be put on the list too. In order to find ones, check eBay, Craiglist and also your local newspaper’s classifieds.

3. Choose The Right Pickups  Pickups are considered to be one of the most important things that can influence your sound. Therefore, choosing the right ones to work with is extremely crucial. – Single-coil pickups: Single-coil pickups are what usually used by all first electric guitars. A single-coil pickup usually contains only a coil of wire. It may come along with a single magnet, which with screws for easily adjustable pole pieces, or a separate one for each string. It does not matter how many magnets it contains, if it has just one coil of wire, it is still a single-coil pickup. Single-coil pickups are susceptible to hum.

They have a clean, thin and transparent sound. They are usually common on Fender guitars which are popular in rock, pop and country.

– Humbucker pickups: In 1935, the first electro-magnetic pickup, also known as the “bar”, was introduced by Gibson. It first came along with the Gibson “Hawaiian Electric” and then was made famous by the electric guitar pioneer Charlie Christian that was extremely successful. It is still known as the “Charlie Christian” pickup nowadays. In 1954, Seth Lodlver filed a patent application for a pickup that uses two coils to cancel or to “buck” to hum which is now known commonly as the humbuckers. A humbucker contains two coils & either 2 magnets or pole pieces at opposite ends of one single magnet. In this pickup, the 2 coils are wound with opposing electrical polarity. However, for each coil, the magnetic polarity is reversed. Therefore, each coil carries 2 signals; the string vibration signal produces a meaty, thick sound, and the noise signal which is cancelled. The humbuckers worked with two models of Les Paul in 1957. The smooth, warm, double-coil sound of the Gibson Les Paul is very common in rock, pop, blues and jazz.

4. Consult A Professional

It is extremely important for beginners to consult a professional to get tips on guitar performance and quality. Therefore, it is always good to pay some times to visit some musical instrument dealers in your area. They will be glad to help you have a closer look at what to search for when it comes to knowing how to buy an electric guitar andbuying an electric guitar. If you are a newbie, you should get several different opinions. Remember to ask questions. Narrow-down what you need to consider when choosing a guitar.

That is the end of this articleof how to buy an electric guitar for beginners. Hopefully after reading this How to buy an electric guitar article, you will be able to choose the perfect guitar of your own. If you find this article of How to buy an electric guitar for beginners useful, please let us know what you think by leaving a comment down the section below. If you have any questions related to this article, please feel free to reach us at any time. There are also many other entertainment related articles from the site vkool, please take sometimes to pay them a visit. We will make sure that you will learn something useful to apply into your daily life.

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