New to the World of Guitars, but REALLY wants to learn!

markm2553 · Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 3:49 am Post subject:

You can find out more about the books here:

http://www.worshiptogether.com/store/productdetail.aspx?iid=373920&tid=196

I bought mine at a local Bible Book store.

Next thing you will need is a tuner. But if you have friends that play, they can help you out there.

Let us know when you get your guitar.

Godslittlerosebud · Posted: Tue Aug 30, 2005 4:26 am Post subject:

Godslittlerosebud · Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2005 9:30 am Post subject:

It came! YAY!

markm2553 · Posted: Fri Sep 02, 2005 3:24 am Post subject:

Let us know what you think about it.

wichita_lineman · Not So Newbie Joined: 13 Mar 2007 Posts: 7

Bates15 · Moderator Joined: 19 Feb 2002 Posts: 1084

Welcome to the forum!

Cheap guitars, and expensive guitars with lack of service, tend to have problems with the neck. The strings are to high abvove the fretboard and you have to push real hard to get some usable sound out of the guitar. That realy can hurt you after some time! More expensive guitars have good setups, the maker takes time to make sure the setup is good or adjustable.

wichita_lineman · Not So Newbie Joined: 13 Mar 2007 Posts: 7

what are all the components of a 'setup' and how do they vary, good and bad? I see that term used, but never defined.

jeff_osu · Tiger Joined: 17 Sep 2003 Posts: 838 Location: Oklahoma

One of my friend's acoustic had a bunch of neck problems, the strings were waaaay too high off the fretboard, he took it to the music shop and got the neck rods (is that what they're called?) adjusted and it was better, but still a hard guitar to play. I think it was a cheap Yamaha....although I don't think price is the all determining factor. My fiance's Squire (same price range) plays loads better than that Yamaha.

Another friend let his guitar sit for a few months with no strings, and that really messed up the neck too.

If it hurts your fingers to play, then I would suspect it's not so much to do with the quality but a result of some incident affecting the tension level. However, I'm hardly a guitar expert. Razz

markm2553 · Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2007 7:55 am Post subject:

"Setup" has much to do with how easy a guitar is to play and how good it will sound. Long and short of it, the closer the strings are to the fret board without touching, the better. But if you get them too close they will "buzz" when you strum hard.
Take a look down the neck of a guitar, the strings should be about the same height off the frets all the way down the neck. The strings on a poorly setup guitar can be much higher the closer you get to the sound hole and almost touch at the fret closest to the nut.
Changing the setup may include any and all of the following:
Truss rod adjustment, if the guitar has a truss rob.
Filing the string slots, sanding the nut and or the bridge...
I have a 1972 Gibson J40, the guy that gave it to me, had the neck "reset" by our local Gibson dealer, it cost him $400 to have the neck broken off and reattached to body. But that's what it took to correct the setup problem it had. He liked the guitar and wanted it to play better, I wouldn't have spent that kind of money on it, but he did. He gave it to me the week before he died, I will always keep the guitar, but I don't play it much, the setup is still not the best...

String gauge can have a lot to do with how easy a guitar plays, the lighter the strings the easier they are to fret (push down). But the lighter the gauge the less volume you get, that is not a big concern for most people starting out.

My first guitar was a really cheap ($39 new) "Dixie", it was junk. I learned about three chords on it and gave up playing the guitar for another 15 years. I had never heard the word setup back then, or knew what it could mean. I can say that this guitar being so hard to play was the biggest reason I gave up back then.

The reason most people tell you to start on the best instrument you can afford is two fold, it gives a truely playable instrument, and it's a little harder to walk away from something you have put more money into.
But you can get some pretty nice playing guitars these days for less than $200, and much less if you look at used.

A guy at our Church wanted to learn to play and asked me about what to buy. This man is an adult a few years older than me, I told him I would loan him one of my guitars to start on, till he figured out what he liked. But he wanted to buy his own, he did like my Seagull's, but wanted his own. He gets on E-bay and buys a Seagull left handed cutaway with factory pickup, hard case. The guitar was almost new, someone had bought it to learn on and didn't. (He paid more for it than I did two of mine together) My friend brought it to Church to show me, and has yet to ever strum the first chord on it, that was almost two years ago. So paying to much for something doesn't always keep people from walking away... Very Happy