A new academic year, a new term, another Christmas..these are all valid reason for buying an acoustic guitar for those eager and excited by the concept of learning to play guitar and enjoy music. There is also a big market of different shapes, sizes, colours to choose from, which can prove a rather daunting task.

Sometimes, when it comes to purchasing a guitar for a beginner (of any age I might add!), there tends to be two factors that are often overlooked in the eager eyes of the bargain hunter: build quality and playability. As easy as it is to purchase an instrument at the click of a button, it’s also just as easy to land a guitar that isn’t suitable for any level of musician. With cheaply built guitars, there are a couple of factors that affect the build quality thus affecting the playabilitiy. These include:

Action – How easy it is to play the guitar. This is often determined by how far the strings are from the fretboard and whether it remains a similar height across the whole guitar. The lower it is, the better, but not to the point that frets ‘buzz’ when pressing down notes (especially at the first frets!). The straighter the string is across the neck, the better. A slight angle towards the frets at the body is okay, but not to the point that you can fit your fingers under the string!

Intonation – How in tune the pitches sound across the guitar. The tuning pegs on the guitar are used to correct pitch the open strings, but its when you press down frets which show how ‘in-tune’ a guitar really is. On a cheap guitar with bad intonation, if the frets have not been installed at the right distances between each other, it can result in notes sounding sharper. This isn’t diserable for chords as they sound out of tune!

‘Tone’ – A subjective term amongst guitarists, but general this is how balanced the overall sound of the guitar is. This ranges from whether the guitar sounds full when played ( for example, not thin-sounding that you can’t hear the deeper strings well), or how loud the instrument is overall. Full sized guitars are normally louder than 3/4 sized instruments.

These are just some of the factors that I would look into as a starting point for any guitar, but perfect ones for finding a great guitar for beginners. It goes without saying that instruments of a higher price range will have these, and many other factors, in mind when it comes to their build quality (and price tag). However, great instruments do exist at all price ranges, so you can easily buy a quality guitar for kids!

So how do I choose a good beginner’s guitar?

As a general rule, I would say guitars under the price of £60 should be avoided. Often found on big commerical online shops, supermarkets, charity shops etc these guys are the ones that I’ve had experience with where frets are not installed correctly (either have sharp objects or fall off the neck), strings are too high that they are hard to press down notes, or quite frankly, just fall apart!

When choosing a beginner guitar for students under the age of 11, choose a guitar with nylon strings as opposed to steel strings. They are easier on fingers, a little bit robust in terms of string life, and are usually the right strings for the guitar build. An acoustic guitar with steel strings needs a neck with a truss rod installed (essentially its a spine for a guitar neck) which helps offset the tension of the string, which is adding force to the neck. When a nylon-strung/classical guitar has steel strings on (which doesn’t have a truss rod), it eventually pulls the neck and guitar body apart over time, ruining the instrument.

With cheaper instruments, some faults can be fixed. Sometimes the height can be adjusted by sanding down the nut (the plastic slot piece near the head of the guitar) or bridge (the plastic piece underneath the strings on the saddle of the guitar), filing down frets (so edges don’t cut hands) changing strings can help. I doubt you’ll want to be working on these factors, and usually taking a cheap guitar to a luthier isn’t worth the cost of the instrument!

So when choosing a guitar, if you can, its worth purchasing either from a shop in person, or an online shop with an in-house tech/repairs department. When stock is ordered from suppliers, guitars are inspected by the shop, adjusted (if anything is needed) before selling to customers.

What guitars do you recommend?

Presuming students are of primary school age, I would purchase a nylon/classical guitar as a student’s first instrument. Students aged 6 and younger can start off on a 1/2 sized guitar (but be wary that you’ll probably need to upgrade sooner than you think!), students aged 7-10 can go with a 3/4 sized, and then students 10+ should go full sized. With guitar sizes, its often to do with neck size and fret spacing as opposed to the shape/size of the body. If your child is somwhat smaller (or bigger) then you can play around with guitar sizes (a good reason to visit a shop!)

Top of the list for me is (and has always been) Yamaha Guitars. They have the C range of beginner guitars that have been around for years, and are great starter guitars. Often enough in guitar ensembles, they are the loudest instruments too!

Students age 10+ : Yamaha C40 – https://bit.ly/yamahac40guitar

Students aged 7-10 : Yamaha CS40 – https://bit.ly/yamahacs40guitar

Students 6 and younger : Yamaha CGS102 – https://bit.ly/yamahacgs102guitar

 

Is there anything else I will need?

Here are a couple of accessories that will help with learning/practising at home and at school. Items are not necessary the budget end, but chosen for quality and longevity, should should be worth the investment.

Music Stand –  https://bit.ly/gravitymusicstand

Footstool – https://bit.ly/herculesfootstool

 

Please feel free to leave me a comment regarding this post, any product reccomendations and tips you may have! Happy playing!