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The "All-Things-Guitar" Thread

Yep, the Pacifica is the budget guitar. Great build quality that puts many big name guitars to shame.

I'm sure there will be somebody stressing the importance of learning chords and scales, but no - the best way to learn guitar for enjoyment is to pick a song and learn it.
 
After all this waiting, I found out today that my guitar was "lost" by the courier! So I should have just bought the guitar from the local store after all that! So I will be going around there tomorrow to hopefully pick up a black Yamaha Pacifica 112V, but I see they have a Squier Standard Strat there for £25 more. Is the Pacifica still the best choice compared to the Squier?
 
Snograt said:
I'm sure there will be somebody stressing the importance of learning chords and scales, but no - the best way to learn guitar for enjoyment is to pick a song and learn it.
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My 10 year old nephew is learning this lesson very quickly.
He started off by learning Wonderwall and very quickly realised that chords in that were also in other songs and has now picked up loads of chords in 3 months plus the ability to play lots of songs.
He has just started to learn some scales but can't really see what they do except for the Pentatonic scale which is the lead guitarists dream scale.


RationalGaze said:
Is the Pacifica still the best choice compared to the Squier?
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They are both excellent guitars but the Yamaha's tend to be setup very well out of the box.
Some Squiers can be just as good as their Fender Stratocaster brothers and I know quite a few guitarists who have excellent ones.
One local Stevie Ray Vaughan tribute act uses a Squier live ( he said it cost him £30) when he has 2 specialised Fender SRV models behind him that cost nearly £2000 each.
Even though the Yamaha is excellent I have NEVER seen anybody playing one on stage and I've been to watch a lot of bands.
My nephew had a Squier with amp for Christmas and I went down on Christmas Day to set it up but when I played it I couldn't take it off because it played really well, I found out 2 hours later that his tutor had already set it up.
 
Try them both!! See what you think.

Guitars are very personal things... what works for one person doesn't for the other and no two guitars are the same (though most modern machine built guitars are pretty good in general so it's not like buying old guitars!! :p)

So the Squire you might play tomorrow could be a total lemon and the Yamaha might sound better than many expensive PRS guitars and so on. :D

See which feels the most comfortable to hold?... which one rings the best acoustically...? What can you see yourself enjoying the most...? Take a guitar playing friend or ask someone in the shop to give you a quick demo of each so you can hear the difference in sound between the two.

Also get them to set the guitar up for you - will make it much easier and enjoyable to play.
 
Thanks guys, I have a gut feeling I should go for the Yamaha since I have seen it recommended in so many places, but I will definitely have a go at some other guitars to see what's available. I am tempted to pay £40 for their luthier to set it up for me. I asked the sales guy on the phone if the guitar could be set up for me, but he said it should be set up already and I would only have to pay to have the strings changed if I wanted, so I don't know if the luthier just sets up every guitar in the shop by default, or if the sales guy had no clue what I was talking about. I will get that cleared up tomorrow, and see if they can give me a discount on the setup if required :)
 
Funny thing, I always recommend the Pacifica when this question arises - the Internet is full of people signing its praises. I, on the other hand, am a perpetual beginner and I own three Squiers - Tele, Strat and Precision. Go figure :)
 
p0ss3s3d said:
Try them both!! See what you think.

Guitars are very personal things... what works for one person doesn't for the other and no two guitars are the same (though most modern machine built guitars are pretty good in general so it's not like buying old guitars!! :p)
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This is 100% the best advice.

Earlier this year I sold a Gibson Les Paul Standard and Yamaha SG2000 just to get the guitar I wanted which is the best thing I've ever played in 41 years but others may hate it.
It was that good I bought a spare and they were £1100 each.
On saturday a guitarist in another band offered me his No 1 axe to play saying it was the best thing he's ever played but in my hands it felt awful.
RationalGaze you have been given two options BUT you must take p0ss3s3d advice and try everything in your price range.
About a year ago another guitarist put a Strat like copy in my hands and asked for my opinion and it played amazingly and suited my hands and playing style.
When asked the price I put it around £800 but it cost him £70 but he had it setup for about £30 - I think it had the name Blade on the headstock!!
 
Going to Cali said:
A decent guitar to play on is certainly a start - most people will recommend a Yamaha pacifica 112. Check out justinguitar, there's a lot to go from there.
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Snograt said:
Yep, the Pacifica is the budget guitar. Great build quality that puts many big name guitars to shame.

I'm sure there will be somebody stressing the importance of learning chords and scales, but no - the best way to learn guitar for enjoyment is to pick a song and learn it.
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Thanks.

I really struggle moving my fingers, I don't suppose there are any specific tracks that work the fingers slowly into a quicker movement? I'm sure I'm not the only one in this boat.
 
Dimple said:
This is 100% the best advice.

Earlier this year I sold a Gibson Les Paul Standard and Yamaha SG2000 just to get the guitar I wanted which is the best thing I've ever played in 41 years but others may hate it.
It was that good I bought a spare and they were £1100 each.
On saturday a guitarist in another band offered me his No 1 axe to play saying it was the best thing he's ever played but in my hands it felt awful.
RationalGaze you have been given two options BUT you must take p0ss3s3d advice and try everything in your price range.
About a year ago another guitarist put a Strat like copy in my hands and asked for my opinion and it played amazingly and suited my hands and playing style.
When asked the price I put it around £800 but it cost him £70 but he had it setup for about £30 - I think it had the name Blade on the headstock!!
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Cheers mate, will definitely try a few out since I wouldn't want an uncomfortable guitar putting me off learning to play. Saw an Ibanez on their site which also looks pretty sweet. Will let you guys know my choice when I get back from the shop tomorrow, might help some other noobs with picking a beginner's axe :p
 
RationalGaze said:
Cheers mate, will definitely try a few out since I wouldn't want an uncomfortable guitar putting me off learning to play. Saw an Ibanez on their site which also looks pretty sweet. Will let you guys know my choice when I get back from the shop tomorrow, might help some other noobs with picking a beginner's axe :p
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Nice to see I'm not the only oldie beginning to play :D

Keep this thread how you get on, I'd be interested :)
 
RationalGaze said:
Cheers mate, will definitely try a few out since I wouldn't want an uncomfortable guitar putting me off learning to play. Saw an Ibanez on their site which also looks pretty sweet. Will let you guys know my choice when I get back from the shop tomorrow, might help some other noobs with picking a beginner's axe :p
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You do realise by going into a shop that your price range could well go up :)

RationalGaze said:
Main thing is I'm under 30, now that's well old :p:p
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Thanks dude
 
Been doing more research, and it looks like I might actually need a Les Paul :D. My favourite guitarists seem to mostly use Les Paul guitars, so I might as well grab one of those if that is the sound I am attracted to. Will be interesting to try them out tomorrow. Might have to up the budget to £300 to get the Epiphone Standard Ebony.
 
Just got back from the guitar store - and I forgot to buy a lead for it to go to my pedal! I forgot about it since I asked the guy for a free bag and he was trying out which one would fit the guitar properly. I also forgot to ask if I could have a non-display model rather than the one I just tested though maybe that's not an issue? I ended up choosing a Epiphone Les Paul Ebony after also trying a Epiphone SG G400 and a Yamaha Pacifica 112V. The G400 just didn't have quite the deep tone of the LP and the neck wasn't as comfortable to play. The Yamaha seemed to me more like a kid's guitar, it was quite thin and light, and the neck didn't have quite the finish that the LP did (of course there was a £80 price difference). I preferred the fuller neck of the LP rather than the thin neck on the Yamaha. I didn't really know what I was doing of course, just played a few open notes and played some random chords I could remember.

I asked for the free bag since I knew the guitar was £20 cheaper elsewhere, wasn't just being cheeky :).
 
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