Choosing an Acoustic Guitar

For those of you that need to purchase a guitar, here are a few things to consider.

Basically, it all comes down to how much you want to spend and you need to think about this before you come shopping on Saturday. If you are serious about learning the instrument, I highly recommend investing in a good guitar.

TYPE OF GUITAR: Steel String or Classical? We'll be focusing on the Acoustic (steel string) guitar during this course. This is what is commonly used within the church for praise and worship.

TOP: Cheaper guitars come with a laminate top (or sound board). This involves gluing several layers of thin wood together. Guitars of higher quality use a "solid top" which means that the sound board is constructed from a solid piece of wood. Solid top guitars offer superior sound quality and the notes ring out louder and sustain longer. I highly recommend a solid top.

PICKUP: A guitar with a pickup allows you to connect your guitar to an amplifier or PA system. This will not be required for playing in cell group, but you'll need it if you want to play in the main service worship team.

CUTAWAY: A guitar with a cutaway allows access to the higher frets. It looks like part of the body has been "cut away". I personally don't feel it is necessary for an acoustic guitar, but many people prefer it for the novelty and looks.

WOOD: The type of wood the guitar is made from plays a big part in how it sounds (and looks). A Spruce top is arguably the most popular and gives a bright and snappy sound and responds well to strumming. A cedar top gives a warmer and more mellow sound, and is more suited for light finger-style. I would recommend Spruce.

ACTION: The "action" is the distance the strings are from the frets. The closer this distance is, the easier it is to play the guitar. This can be adjusted to a certain degree but the construction/design of the guitar determines how well it can be adjusted.

BODY SHAPE: There are several body shapes available. I will discuss this in more detail on Saturday.

Don't worry if any of these points confuse you. I'll be there on saturday to help you out! Just remember to come with an idea of how much you want to spend.

Cheers,

Darren