How to Buy a Guitar

Video Transcript

Hi, my name is Derek Tarnow. I've been playing guitar for twelve years, and I also teach and perform. In this segment, I'm going to discuss how to buy a guitar. You know, the obvious answer is you go to a guitar store and give someone a lot of money, and they give you a guitar, but there's a little bit more to the process than that. First, you need to decide what kind of guitar you want. If you're a beginner, you know, how old are you? Are you ready for a full size guitar, or do you need a 3/4 size guitar? Generally, if you go to a guitar shop wanting to buy a guitar, they're going to help you out, cause you know, they make a lot more money off of selling guitars than they do strings and that sort of thing, and guitar picks you know, cost a quarter. So, go to a guitar shop, find a guy, you know, feel him out, you know, some guys are, you know, pretty, you know, like used car salesmen, and and some of them are actually really nice as well. So, feel them out, check around, definitely don't buy a guitar at the first stop. You want to shop around if if you have enough guitar shops in your available, in your area to to look do that. Even if you don't, it's generally worth a drive to check out competitor pricing and all that. Some things to consider, you know, like I said, how old are you? What kind of guitar do you want to learn? There's a lot of different thought processes on on how, you know, what what should a beginner start on. Should a beginner start on just an acoustic guitar, cause it's straightforward? Should they only you know, uphold the fine classical tradition of western music, or should they buy an electric guitar and rock out? I tend to believe that you should buy whatever guitar you want to learn on, because you're going to practice more, and you know, over time you can expand it to other things if you decide you really like guitar, which is kind of my personal story. I got you know, electric guitar, and now I you know, went to college to learn guitar. I play jazz guitar now, and I play classical guitar now, and I would've, probably if I'd learned classical guitar first I would have quit immediately. But anyway, another thing to keep in mind is price. How much do you want to spend on your guitar? I'm sure, if you have ever gone to a guitar shop before, you know that they range, you know, anywhere from even like a hundred dollars to tens of thousands of dollars, and you know, there's even some guitars that go for even more than that. Generally, those aren't in guitar shops though. Anyway, a general rule of thumb is that yeah, you do get what you pay for, but you know, some some brands of guitars that are more massly produced like Fender strat, you know, you can get more bang for your buck in some cases. Obviously, it's important to play the guitar you're going to buy, and actually play the actual guitar you're going to buy; not one like it. Not one that is you know, like a different model of the same body type of whatever you want to play; the guitar you're going to buy. Check it out, play it through your amp, bring in your stuff if you want, plug it in. You know of course, you know, they might, they might not let you do that with like the beginning guitar, but if you're getting like a a nice guitar, chances are they're going to be willing to to humor you a little bit. So really, just shop around; don't be afraid to check out other places. Maybe even try some things that are like your second choice. Just check it out and keep an open mind when you're looking for a guitar.

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