Buying a guitar is one of the most complex purchases that you will ever have to get involved with if you want to end up with a guitar that will suit your needs and that will never fail on you. There are innumerable reasons why purchasing a guitar is such an undertaking and we would like to give you a few pieces of advice on how to go about this.
First of all, you need to decide what you will need the guitar for and what type of music you intend to play. If you wish to play just for yourself and to amuse yourself, an acoustic guitar is quite possibly the best choice. This is particularly true if you do not intend to play any type of music that requires effects, distortion or anything else that might require an electric guitar. If this is the case, however, you will need to go electric.
The good news is that guitars are generally affordable. Sure, there are models and makes that will set you back a few thousand bucks, but for the most part, you can buy a perfectly good guitar for a few hundreds, if not even less. Another good piece of news is that sometimes you can find your perfect guitar for less than $200. For instance, I myself have a poor copy of Les Paul that has lasted me decades and that I got for less than $150.
You will hear tons of things about buying the perfect guitar from the “connoisseurs” and “experts”. However, in most of these cases, you will be bombarded by nothing but raw numbers and data that will, in the end, make no sense and will have no particular influence on what kind of a guitar you buy. It is all about trying it out. It is about trying out dozens of guitars on dozens of setups until you get that sound and that feel that you can only get from your perfect guitar – when you get the sweetest sounds possible and when the strings feel like butter, responding to every small move you make and capable of elating your soul. That is your perfect guitar. Never settle for less.