Hi All,
I am learning guitar for past 2 years and can play open/barre chords (with thumb), and can play quite a few songs on my 100$ stratā¦Hadnāt started learning guitar properly until last month when i signed up to Justinās coursesā¦ I still consider myself a lower intermediate play because I donāt know nothing about music theory.
I am planning to buy a better guitar, preferably one that doesnāt go out of tune with a couple of bends and would love to know your suggestions/recommendations. I really like to play blues and funk genres. My budget is around 600$
Welcome to the forum Bharatendu.
The only suggestion is to go to a music store and play every guitar with in your budget. Buy the one that says take me home. If none of them give you that take me home feeling then keep searching.
The one thing I will add is I donāt agree with the concept of a certain level of player justifies a certain price of guitar. I understand not wanting to spend big money on someoneās first guitar but really cheap guitars also are generally the hardest to play, so what often gets described as a beginner guitar, might well be a contributing factor to them quitting!
So take some time, try a few different shapes and buy the best you can sensibly afford. Youāve definitely served an apprenticeship with that cheap guitar and you might be quite shocked how much better something that costs a few hundred dollars more actually can be. You donāt need to know music theory to deserve a nice guitar (I didnāt let it stop me getting one)
If you have the option, in a ārealā store it is much more fun and the choice may be much easier/faster to make, but donāt despair if that is not possible,
Pay attention to some of the details about the guitar. Like how high is the action. Play guitars with different levels of action. Also the width of the strings, some guitars have narrow nuts, some wider, by playing the different sizes youāll see which one suit your hands the best.
Also look at difference guitars have with their projection. I play mostly fingerstyle without any thumb or finger picks so I need a guitar that has better projection than someone who only strums with a pick. If the terms Iāve used like action, nut, projection donāt make sense, google is your friend.
Buying 2nd hand is a great way to save money, but you have to be careful in case the neck isnāt in good shape, taking along a friend whoās more experienced can help.
Good luck. Comments like āBuy the one that says take me home.ā never worked for me. Iām not down on such comments as Iām sure they work for many people. It might be my analytical personality style. Iāve noticed the same thing when people tell me to work out a song by itās feel. That just doesnāt work for me. I need to know the details, the strum pattern, the fingerstyle pattern, you name it, then I slow that down, work through it and thatās when the feel starts to work for me.
Tony how do you buy guitars? Do you figure out what the string spacing is and what the nut width is and even if it feels and plays like you buy it anyway because mathematically it should work for you?
Have you never played a guitar that just feel right without knowing anything about it?
I guess once you know what works for you you can aim for that but for most āyoungerā players translating neck shape and size, fret width, radius etc isnt easy
Thatās why I buy guitars that feel right and sound good and donāt worry about the technical stuff. I own a 12 string, 4-6 string, a mandolin, ukulele and key boards. None of my guitars have the same neck shape, nut width or string spacing. 2 are long scale the rest short scale.
Playing lots of different guitar is how I learnt what works for me.
I was fortunate in my early days I was playing a mini maton that has not only a narrow nut, but also a narrow string spacing at the saddle. A good friend who was also an experienced acoustic player noticed the type of playing I was doing, which at that stage was exclusively fingerstyle, and suggested a different guitar, one with not only a wider nut but also 5mm wider string spacing at the saddle.
I was quite blown away with how much easier things were with that guitar.
After Iād played for about 18 months or so I decided to upgrade to a more expensive guitar and spent several years going to every guitar shop and playing quite a few Martins and Taylors. I noticed the Taylor suited me more with the wider nut.
Hard to answer that question because Iām generally aware of which brands have wider nuts and such. Iād say overall thatās not been the case.
A year ago I bought a boutique guitar after spending many months visiting guitar shops and luthiers. The challenge is my previous daily play guitar, the one I mentioned above with the wider nut and saddle, also has very good projection and Iāve struggled to find guitars that compare to it.
The guitar I chose wasnāt an instant āThis is the one!ā, but I could tell fairly quickly that it ticked most of the boxes.
I go to the guitar shop and find out what
I want and then I buy it used. That way when I donāt really use it anymore I can sell it, get most of the money or make a profit. Then move on to the next one.
I donāt know what amp you are using but I believe the amp makes more difference in the sound than switching guitars.
You should buy whatever makes you happy. Good luck
I went through this and ended up buying and selling a few used guitars before I realised was important to meā¦ And it wasnāt matching the choice of guitar to the type of music - you can play blues on single coils, humbuckers, strats, Les Pauls etc
I found that, in the end, it was about what I felt comfortable playing for a long time. I thought I wanted a single cut guitar with two humbuckers. But when I got one, whenever I practiced sitting down, I didnāt like the way it dug into my ribs after a while. It was ok standing up, but I knew I played sitting down more often with practising.
And I realised I liked a very slightly wider nut than my Pacifica had.
So unfortunately there is no substitute for trying out different guitars, for as long as you can, then deciding what is important to you (or not) - shape, weight, nut width, scale length, position etc.
For what itās worth, I ended up with a Player series strat, and that holds itās tuning very well, without any modification. So did my Yamaha Pacifica 311h, which had no trem and was rock solid tuning stability.
and would love to know your suggestions/recommendations. I really like to play blues and funk genres. My budget is around 600$
you buy it anyway because mathematically it should work for you?
The only pros is that itās easier on the wallet 
