What Acoustic Guitar is Recommended For Beginners?

A lot of guitar beginners gave up in their first year or even less. They either faced difficulty in producing good sound with their instrument or they couldn’t bear the finger pains.

These problems may be related to the guitars they used. Some parents for example bought cheap guitars thinking that if the children quit they would not lose much. This idea is not completely true because picking wrong guitars can also lead to a big frustration.

You can buy budget guitars as long as they meet some criteria below:

Warped neck is not acceptable. Press the thickest string on the 1st and 12th frets and look at the gap between the string and frets. A good neck will leave a small gap only between them.

Other important factor to check is the guitar playability. You should feel comfortable playing any chords at any places on the fretboard without difficulties or suffering muscle tension and fingers pain.

To find out an acoustic guitar with good playability you should measure the action. Take a measurement from the bottom of the thickest string to the top of the 12th fret. Ideally 3mm to 4mm distance is needed. For beginners this action setting will help a lot because it decreases the strings tension.

The other important thing to check is intonation. Good intonation means you will get any note at any place on the fretboard tuned right. Have you experienced out of tuned notes when you press your fretboard but when played open chords the pitch is perfectly fine? This is a good example of bad intonation. If you can’t tell the difference between good and bad tuning you can always use a guitar tuner.

It is quite difficult to find cheap guitars that can meet those criteria, especially for beginners. Get an experienced friend to guide you in the guitar store and let him/her recommend some guitars for you to try. Choose one that feels right in your hand and don’t pay attention too much on the guitar appearance. You don’t need a fancy good looking guitar. It may fool you easily.

A budget guitar that meets the basic criteria above is worth buying. With very limited budget you can’t expect much but you won’t get a crap guitar either if you follow this guideline correctly.

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