LT Frizz
Well I'm learning to play guitar, but instead of getting a quality brand beginner acoustic like YAMAHA, my mom, being cheap ordered this $40 one: http://www.amazon.com/Beginner-Acoustic-Carrying-Accessories-Harmonica/dp/B001M4L796
I told her it was pretty cheap for a guitar and probably made out of cheap materials, but she does not listen. She says that since I'm a beginner and I'm just learning, it would be "perfect" for me. She says it can be a good as the higher priced guitars when I learn to play. Imo, it looks like a cheap toy guitar, like First Act. Were not poor trust me, but she just gets me angry when she always buy expensive stuff for herself but cheap crap for me. I haven't gotten the guitar yet, but I'm planning on either sending it back or just keeping it put up. Is this a guitar I can play on at the least or do I need to just hang it up?
Answer
Here's my answer as somebody who's played guitars for the past decade in gigging bands. Feel free to show this to your mother:
I'm fully supportive of buying cheap equipment for people who are just getting into music, but $40 is too cheap. Last Christmas one of my cousins bought a guitar very similar to this one for her son. I played around with it as did my father (a better musician than I am). Neither of us could even play it. We'd tune it and within 30 seconds it would be dreadfully out of tune. Even perfectly tuned the intonation on all the notes would be wrong and chords would sound completely out of tune. And it would only get worse the more we strummed and the further out of tune it went. It's not my first experience with $40 guitars. It's not just that they're bad guitars. They're not even playable for a pro, let alone a beginner. Send it back or it'll end up doing nothing more than being a wall ornament. It's very unlikely to be a playable instrument even if you are a pro.
Inexpensive playable guitars tend to run between $100-$200 new. You can sometimes find great deals on Craigslist, but I'd stay away from $100 Craigslist guitars. Too often that's somebody trying to get rid of a defective and unplayable guitar. A $200 used guitar is generally going to outplay a $200 new guitar substantially though. Cheap musical gear generally runs at nearly half the price used as it does new. (The expensive stuff is nearly as expensive, sometimes more, than it is new on the other hand). If you want to get your son a guitar that is actually playable, $100 is a bare minimum and even that will have defects so troublesome he won't actually be able to play in a band. Maybe around $200 for a used guitar he'll get something inexpensive that will be quality enough to use for awhile.
In music you really do get what you pay for. $40 gets you a wall ornament.
Here's my answer as somebody who's played guitars for the past decade in gigging bands. Feel free to show this to your mother:
I'm fully supportive of buying cheap equipment for people who are just getting into music, but $40 is too cheap. Last Christmas one of my cousins bought a guitar very similar to this one for her son. I played around with it as did my father (a better musician than I am). Neither of us could even play it. We'd tune it and within 30 seconds it would be dreadfully out of tune. Even perfectly tuned the intonation on all the notes would be wrong and chords would sound completely out of tune. And it would only get worse the more we strummed and the further out of tune it went. It's not my first experience with $40 guitars. It's not just that they're bad guitars. They're not even playable for a pro, let alone a beginner. Send it back or it'll end up doing nothing more than being a wall ornament. It's very unlikely to be a playable instrument even if you are a pro.
Inexpensive playable guitars tend to run between $100-$200 new. You can sometimes find great deals on Craigslist, but I'd stay away from $100 Craigslist guitars. Too often that's somebody trying to get rid of a defective and unplayable guitar. A $200 used guitar is generally going to outplay a $200 new guitar substantially though. Cheap musical gear generally runs at nearly half the price used as it does new. (The expensive stuff is nearly as expensive, sometimes more, than it is new on the other hand). If you want to get your son a guitar that is actually playable, $100 is a bare minimum and even that will have defects so troublesome he won't actually be able to play in a band. Maybe around $200 for a used guitar he'll get something inexpensive that will be quality enough to use for awhile.
In music you really do get what you pay for. $40 gets you a wall ornament.
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