Posted by mieke at 28 February , 2009

Guitars - Buy Cheap Or Good?

Exectuive summary by Michael Russell

So if you’re looking to get your very first guitar, what do you do?  There are two schools of thought on this subject.  The first school of thought is that you want to get a guitar that is well made and sounds good, even if it costs a little more.  If a new guitar player buys a cheap guitar with a poor sound, he is more likely to lose interest early on.  The reason is because when you first learn to play the guitar you’re mostly playing scales and simple tunes that really aren’t all that interesting.  The extra money will have, in a sense, saved money in the long run.  A good quality guitar for a beginner will probably run about $300.

The other school of thought is to get the beginning student a beginner’s guitar, maybe something with a price tag of $100 max.  Why?  If you bought a cheap guitar to start with, the student is going to want something better.  Find out how serious he is about his guitar playing.

How To Make A Cheap Guitar Sound Great

Executive summary by Rich Geyer

The most popular clones are made overseas by Gibson and Fender themselves through the Epiphone and Squier lines. Replacement pickups are available with a lot of variety in sound output. Choose your replacement pickups and you’re ready to upgrade.

You’ll need several things for the job. A good stable workbench or table, with plenty of room to lay your tools out, makes things much easier. Here’s a list of what you need:

1.screwdriver set, both flat head and philips

2.soldering iron

3.solder

4.new set of strings

5.wire cutters/strippers

The first thing you need to do is remove your guitar strings. Next remove the pickguard cover. The new pickups come with a wiring diagram that is color coded but take a good look at each pickup before you replace it in case something isn’t quite right with the color code. It’s important that you replace one pickup at a time so as not to mix up the bridge, middle and neck pickups.

Heat up your soldering iron. Remove the first pickup. I usually start with the neck pickup. Cut and strip the wires according to the instructions and solder the wires to the new ones. Replace and tune the strings and plug in. I have several of these upgraded strats for the price of one expensive one and more versatilty with different pickup sounds.

Check out other guide on Guitar Effect Pedal.

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