Bying a guitar

Now that you know all that absolute beginner needs to know, it's time to buy (or borrow) your first guitar (if you don't have one). The main factors you need to pay attention when buying a guitar for a beginner are:

1. Strings are supposed to be soft. That means that player must be able to easily fret strings.
2. Fretboard must be wide enough just to fit into player's hand. If it's too wide, player will have some difficulties when playing barre chords, and it will generally be more difficult to play. If it's too narrow, string will be too close, and it will be difficult to be accurate when playing.
3. When buying a guitar, it's good to have someone experienced with you, so when you see the guitar you want, he could try it immediately. This is useful because experienced player will notice if there is something wrong with guitar.

Remember that every guitar is different, so a player should try many of them before choosing right one for himself. Because beginners aren't very comfortable with guitars, three factors written here are most important. With these, you can rarely buy wrong guitar.


Acoustic or electric?
Now, many beginners are questioning about type of guitar they will buy. Here, things are a little bit complicated. Acoustic guitars are harder to play than electric. But if you want to play both acoustic and electric, then you should start with acoustic one. Why? Because when you learn to play on acoustic guitar, you will easily transfer to electric one, because electric is softer than acoustic.
Now, here are main differences between guitar types.

• Electric guitar

If you're planning to play heavier types of music (rock, metal, etc.), then probably the best choice for you is a electric guitar. But even for other music genres, such as blues and jazz, it's a good choice. Amplified electric guitars sounds different than acoustic ones, even without distortion. Parts that define guitar's sound are pickups and amplifier.
Pickups are very important par of electric guitar's sound. There are two types of pickups: passive single-coil pickups and humbuckers, with two magnetic coils. Passive single-coils are usually found on Stratocasters.
Passive single-coil pickups produce more cleaner sound than humbuckers, and are a little bit better for jazz and blues.
Humbuckers, thanks to two magnetic coils, produce generally heavier sound, and are more suitable for harder music.

• Acoustic guitar

Acoustic guitar doesn't need amplifier nor pickups to produce sound. Its hollow body makes the sound.
There are two types of acoustic guitars: classical, with nylon strings and steel-stringed guitar.

• Classical guitar is usually played with fingers, instead of using a pick. It have softer sound than steel stringed, so it's ideal for classical music. Its fretboard is wider than on steel-stringed.
  
• Steel-stringed guitars have larger body than classical. They are often named "folk guitars". Picking is harder than on classical, so it's recommended to use a pick when playing. It have sharper sound than classical guitar, so it's widely used in jazz, blues and early rock.