What first guitar to get?

powlesY

powlesY

powlesY

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I want to buy an acoustic guitar.

I had a quick search on this forum and seen some sound advice. All of the threads are a few years old though so i'm guessing things have changed.

gear4music has a Yamaha F310 set for £114.99 which i was considering.

I also see a few higher priced Yamahas. F370 (£130), and then the FG700MS and FG700s (£170 and £210 respectively).

I want something good that will last me a while and produce a good sound.

Thanks in advance.
 
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EDIT: I noticed the guitar you mentioned is acoustic, you might want to change your topic title to acoustic if that's what you're after.

Epiphone Les Paul special II.

Cheap (£120~) great quality, very easy to play (low action - big frets) and the one I have I still play after years since it's just such a pleasure to play on.
I'm not sure if the stock pickups are different now (this will affect sound) but they are fantastic on my old one, definitely recommend it as a starter guitar that will last you for a very long time.
 
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Hurlbag said:
EDIT: I noticed the guitar you mentioned is acoustic, you might want to change your topic title to acoustic if that's what you're after.

Epiphone Les Paul special II.

Cheap (£120~) great quality, very easy to play (low action - big frets) and the one I have I still play after years since it's just such a pleasure to play on.
I'm not sure if the stock pickups are different now (this will affect sound) but they are fantastic on my old one, definitely recommend it as a starter guitar that will last you for a very long time.
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My bad. Yeah, it's an acoustic i'm after (and i editted the first post).
 
If you can stretch to it, I've heard good things about the Vintage V300. The Yamaha F310 is also a pretty good choice, from what I remember of acoustics around that price range.

Look for something with a solid top, like the Vintage V300, if you can afford it. They tend to sound better than guitars with laminate tops, and they're likely to last you a lot longer before you tire of them and want something more refined. As a rule of thumb, if the specs don't specifically include the word 'solid' then it won't be solid (manufacturers don't tend to brag about laminates).

:edit:

And on a personal note, I have a bass made by Vintage and it's fantastic quality so I'd happily recommend Vintage instruments, and I've dealt with Merchant City Music (the shop I linked to) in person and they're a great bunch, so I'd also definitely recommend that shop.
 
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I'll take a look at it, cheers. I see the Vintage V400 is around the same price. Does the higher number = better or not?

The V300 apparently won some "best under $1000 acoustic" in some guitar magazine. Whilst i don't believe that, it does sound promising. :)

EDIT: I see the V300 is a "folk size" guitar (which is the difference between that on the V400). Does that hinder anything? I'm not so sure on it now. I'd buy one of those Yamaha if i knew whether the price differences were worth it. The V300 does sound nice though.
 
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Best guitar for the money - go to a shop and try them out as every guitar plays differently. Try allsorts.

Yamaha is a good place to start
 
powlesY said:
EDIT: I see the V300 is a "folk size" guitar (which is the difference between that on the V400). Does that hinder anything? I'm not so sure on it now. I'd buy one of those Yamaha if i knew whether the price differences were worth it. The V300 does sound nice though.
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It just refers to the shape. Most of the ones you're looking at are dreadnoughts, which I personally find a little too big to be comfortable to play. I prefer the look and sound of smaller bodied guitars (I own a Guild M120 that I bought from Merchant City Music a few months ago). Dreadnoughts are probably the most common shape, and because they're physically bigger, they tend to have a more bassy, boomy sound and are commonly used by singer-songwriters. Smaller bodied guitars tend to sound sweeter, and are used more for fingerpicking.

I'm generalising hugely, of course, since every individual guitar and guitarist will sound different. To be honest, I think the difference between the V300 and a similarly specced dreadnought shaped guitar like the V400 will be almost entirely aesthetic, there's not really a lot of difference between them in terms of body size.

Best thing to do is, of course, to try them out in person, but if you can't do that then maybe check out some YouTube videos of the V300 and V400, if there are any, just to see how they look in relation to a person playing them. Don't pay too much attention to the sound on YouTube, since the recording methods and qualities will probably vary hugely from video to video.
 
I've been looking at the V300 and it does indeed sound like a great guitar. It's stretched my budget a bit which means i've also been looking at the Yamaha FG700MS which from what i've read sounds awesome.

I don't understand why the FG700S is £50 more expensive than it though as the only difference seems to be "The 700S has a gloss finish, where as the 700MS has a satin(matte) finish". The are otherwise the same guitar. Anyway, i think i'm gonna go for the FG700MS at the moment. Sound like a good choice?
 
It does look like they only differ in finish, and I think the general consensus these days is that satin finishes tend to sound better anyway (since they're generally thinner and let the guitar 'breathe' more) though I'm never quite convinced that they sound different at all, I think wood choice and body shape is much more important.

I'm not all that familiar with Yamaha acoustics, but the spec looks good and they have a good reputation, so I don't think you can really go wrong with it. :)

Be sure and buy a tuner as well, if nothing else. Until you learn to tune by ear, there's nothing more frustrating than having an out of tune guitar and no means to tune it.
 
I'm just looking where to buy from now. Hopefully with next day delivery.

As for a tuner, is there a need these days when there's probably a phone app for doing it? Excuse my ignorance. :P

Anything else i need to purchase with it?
 
If you can get a phone app to do it, then by all means go for it, just make sure you've got some way of tuning it. :)

The only other things I would suggest would be a stand, a strap and a spare set of strings, but these are purely up to you. A stand isn't really necessary, I got a free strap with my acoustic that I've never even used, and you can easily pick up strings later on if you need to. I'd say strings are the most useful of the three, just in case you snap a string and want a replacement on-hand, but it's up to you. I don't think I've ever snapped a string on an acoustic guitar anyway.

As far as strings go, it's personal preference again. I use D'Addario Phosphor Bronze 12s.
 
I have a Vintage branded Telecaster clone (AV2 something), I would not recommend this guitar and it has put me off vintage a bit. Quite ropey build quality and the neck is twisted so even with high action it still buzzes.
 
for an acoustic you should have a look in cash converters and places like that, I've picked up a couple of great deals doing that, but I guess you would want to take someone that knows a bit and can play them in for that situation, some of the yamahas are great, some are not, you'll just have to have a bash on them and see!
 
gibb said:
I have a Vintage branded Telecaster clone (AV2 something), I would not recommend this guitar and it has put me off vintage a bit. Quite ropey build quality and the neck is twisted so even with high action it still buzzes.
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Sounds like you got a particularly bad example. I've heard nothing but praise for Vintage, and my own Vintage bass is fantastic.
 
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