How do I choose the right guitar for me?
Two important questions : Are you a beginner, buying a first guitar? What is your age and size?
For the adult beginner, or the parent of a young beginner, the range available in a well-stocked guitar shop can be overwhelming. Some shops display dozens of instruments, from cheap starters up to expensive professional models, and there is little observable difference between some models even though the price may be quite different. If you are a beginner tell the sales assistant you are looking for a basic but reasonable quality starter instrument. Don’t let them confuse you with too many options.
Acoustic or Electric? The type of guitar you choose will affect the style of music you can play once you have established essential technique. If you really want a solid-body electric guitar, and understand the sound difference then choose a traditional 22-fret electric in the upper beginner - intermediate range (best advice is don’t choose the cheapest electric guitar you can find; they’re not reliable). If you are unsure about the differences between acoustics and electrics then go for a basic beginner range acoustic. Don’t worry about built-in pickups and electronics - you just need a straight, no-gimmicks beginner guitar.
Steel strings or Nylon strings? The big thing to be clear on is that, for are a complete beginner steel strings can hurt your nice, soft fingertips! Even a fully grown adult with a large hand can experience this. Nylon-string guitars are kinder to our fingers and have more generous spacing between the strings. Steel-string guitars have a narrower finger-board and whilst this may look easier, the closer spacing between the strings can cause problems, especially for large hands & thick fingers.
Acoustic guitar sizes : It’s really important to have a comfortable size instrument. Children and small adults struggle on large-bodied steel-string acoustic models. The body of a ‘dreadnought’ style acoustic guitar is simply too large for many people. Same too for the wide-bodied ‘Country gentleman’ style guitars. In fact, both these guitar types should be considered ‘man-size’ instruments. There was once a time when little else was available but, thankfully the market now caters for all shapes and sizes. There are good smaller model acoustic guitars available and if the shop you are in doesn’t have suitable size options, go and look in another one.
Guitars for kids under 12 : Most kids are best off with on a 3/4 size nylon-string guitar. It’s the most affordable option for parents and they come in a range of colours. Full size instruments are difficult for a child to hold correctly and can feel ‘too hard’. They can cause serious technique difficulties that lead to the child losing interest. Although ‘junior’ models are available, electric guitar is not a good option for young children. They are more expensive, are more likely to develop faults and don’t encourage good technique development in young beginners. The best approach is buy a 3/4 nylon-string guitar for a beginner to about 10 - 11 years age. Once they are established, and if the activity becomes an ongoing one, you have time to then consider suitable options for when the student is physically ready for a larger guitar.
Should I just buy a guitar online? Only if you know exactly what you are ordering! Otherwise, definitely go to a music shop; it is really important you can see an instrument ‘in the flesh’ and to try sitting with it to check the tone, size and comfort factors. But, please don’t take up the shop staff’s time and good will only to go home and start hunting online for the same model at a small discount. It’s not fair!
“But I’m really busy & I don’t have time to go looking” - start by researching online catalogues for the music instrument retailers in your general area. That will give you a fair idea of prices, quality the different price points offer, and what brands and stock are carried in those shops.
Solid-body electric guitar : Fender Stratocaster
Nylon-string classical guitar
‘Mini’ size steel-string acoustic