Hi, I'm Todd, the music coach, and welcome to the instrument setup and Buyer's Guide for the acoustic guitar. Today I'm going to help you get started on answering some basic questions about what kind of guitar you should be buying, whether you should rent it first, what kind of strings to put on it, and how to get set up so the strap is on properly and how to use a cable and things like that. So to start with, you may be wondering, should I be buying a guitar or renting it. And also, guitars are so common that you may have one in your family that someone has just said, Oh, I have a guitar in my closet. And here you should just try this because it's free. First of all guitars that have been lying around in a closet are not always bad, but sometimes they're not in great shape.

And if it was a very cheap guitar to start with, you may end up having to spend more money to get it playable than it is to even just go Buy a brand new guitar. Because guitars are so commonly made, they're actually one of the least expensive instruments to just buy brand new. So as a general thing, I recommend that people starting out, you just get a brand new guitar. Unless you have a really good one in your family that you can play. When when you can tell if you're not sure is just take whatever guitar you have, and take it to a music store and have them have a look at it. And usually, they'll be pretty honest with you about how much money would cost to get it set up properly and get it playing really well.

And then while you're there, you can look around and decide, well, they're telling me I need to put you know, $100 or $200 into this guitar. And for $150 more I can just buy a brand new guitar that's already in great shape. Now the question of whether to rent or buy comes up often. And if you live in a major city or near a big city that has different music stores, renting is a great option before you buy because you can Rent a guitar for sometimes seven or $10 for a week, and sometimes about 20 or $30 for a whole month. And if you're going to be spending a couple hundred dollars, I always recommend spending a little bit of extra money and just renting it and getting it home and trying it out on your own before you to fully commit to it. Here's some things to think about when you're buying a new guitar.

At the lowest price point, you're going to find guitars that are in the hundred and 50 to $300 range. And in that range, most of them are going to be parlor sized and have no no electronics in them at all, which again is fine. When you go up one price point above that sort of in the 300 to $500 range, you'll get into basic electronics and things like cutaways and a little bit higher quality as a variable general rule I always recommend, if you can, don't buy right at the bottom, I buy I like to buy one or two levels up from the cheapest thing because when any company is trying to cut costs, you're going to really see it the most right at the bottom. And this guitar here, for example is about $500. And I use it professionally all the time. It sounds really good.

Never had any problems with it. Now you can spend all the way up into the thousands of dollars. But I find that you know, with acoustic guitars, you can get a really good guitar for about $500. Now the size of the body of the guitar is the next thing we're going to look at. I have a couple of guitars with me here. This one here is a full size guitar, which is a standard size.

This one right here is what's called a parlor sized. So the body is a little bit narrower and it's also So a little bit smaller. Now, this has advantages and disadvantages. One of the advantages is is if you're smaller or if you're a child, it's easier to reach your arm over the body, it'll feel less like a big bulky instrument. And also the neck is a little bit shorter so your fingers don't have to stretch quite as far. But one of the downsides is that it's not as loud because it doesn't the inside part of the guitar is not as big.

So if you're planning on playing at campfires or outside especially a bigger body guitar will be closer to the level of your singing voice if you're planning to play and sing. Now, some guitars come with an electronic tuner and a pickup built right into it which allows you to plug into a sound system. I find this is a really great feature to have on a guitar because you just never know where you're going. gonna end up playing and if you really get into playing the guitar at some point you might play at a talent show or a music night somewhere. And it's a lot easier to plug into a sound system using a pickup than it is to get a microphone and mic a guitar. Especially if you're dealing with people who are not really experienced with doing it.

If you're just playing in some community center or theater space where they're not used to miking an acoustic guitar, it can be very hard to get a good sound unless you have some experience with it. It does however, affect the price usually it's a little bit more money to have electronics in your guitar. But again, as a long term thing, then you don't have to buy two guitars so I often recommend buying one with some kind of electronics in it to begin with. This one has just a basic volume control EQ and a tuner built right right in which is also a nice feature to have. And with most guitars the pickup is just in the end pin where you plug in your instrument cable Now how the strap connects to the guitar is also really important. The most standard way that you'll see, I'll demonstrate on this guitar right here.

This is a much this is a guitar from the 1930s. So it's even got a string strap on it. Almost all guitars will have a pin In the end though the strap will wrap around. And if it doesn't have a pin in the neck, what happens is, is you tie the strap underneath the strings at the top. Now this has some disadvantages so I don't always recommend this. For starters, that guitar will move a little more like this when you're seated especially.

And also over time the tension is going to pull on the neck a little bit so it's going to warp the neck faster than it will if it's connected the other way which I'm going to show you now. So what I recommend is having some guitars come right away with it but is having a cleat installed. into the neck here, which allows the guitar to sit more like an electric guitar does. So it clips onto the back the same way. And then like this allows the guitar to be a little more stable. And also it doesn't pull on the neck quite as much.

And if your guitar doesn't come with one or even if you have a guitar that doesn't have it, you can easily go to a music store and have this installed or you can even do it yourself. It's not really that complicated, but I definitely recommend buying an extra set of cleats and putting one in either yourself or having someone else do it. Now the type of strings you have in your guitar will also affect the playability or how easy it is on your fingers. I personally like to use what are called coded strings which have a synthetic coating on them that allows them to be a little softer on your fingers and also last longer because Changing strings on a guitar is time consuming and expensive. So, even though coded strings tend to cost a little bit more per pack, they last about twice as long.

The other factor with strings is the weight of them or how thick they are. Generally speaking, most companies weight their guitars as MIDI or sorry, light, medium and heavy or light, medium and hard. I recommend for beginner players to go with the lightest strings you can because they take the least amount of energy to push down and they also just over time or a little easier on your fingers. The reason for having heavier strings on an acoustic guitar especially is how much volume you can get. If you have really light strings and you have to play loudly, they'll be knocked at a tune easier, and they won't generate quite as much volume. But unless you're having to play outside a lot and you're performing I don't really recommend getting really heavy strings The type of picky end up choosing to use is a very personal decision much like the type of pen you like to write with or pencil.

I've had friends who are really amazing guitar players who use very, very thin picks and sound amazing. And people who use really hard picks and also sound amazing. But as a general rule, the lighter or the more flexible the pick is, the easier it is to strum really hard and fast without knocking the strings at a tune. And the harder the pick is, the easier it is to pick the strings fast and cleanly individually. So I personally like to use sort of somewhere in the middle, a medium, sort of like a medium hard pick. Because sometimes I'm playing and I have to do a lot of strumming and other times I have to do soloing and individual string playing.

And almost any place that they sell guitars, there'll be probably a whole wall with buckets full of picks. And what I recommend is you just they're usually about 25 or 50 cents each, just take you know $5 and go buy a bunch of them just one of each a bunch of different ones and then get them home and try them. And when you find one that you really like, then you can go back and for a lot cheaper, you can buy a whole bag of them and then that just sort of becomes the pick the choose. Another important piece of equipment for playing the acoustic guitar is a cable. Now cables allow you to shorten the length of the neck and play the same chord shapes, but in different keys. So a cable is just something with a spring in it that clips onto the neck at one of the fret locations and just shortens the neck.

You can find very inexpensive ones that are a strap with a thing with a hinge that hinges over. I don't recommend buying them for a couple of reasons. One is they have to be readjusted depending on where you are on the neck and they also they're just not as easy to get A clean sound where all the strings are pushed down. These hinged ones are usually about 20 to $30. And I recommend just getting one and keeping it in your case. The other thing you can do is you can just clip it onto the end of your guitar, it's a little easier to keep from losing it.

Having a guitar stand is a really important piece of equipment that you're going to need. You'll often see guitar players resting their guitars against a table or an amplifier like this or like this. These are not recommended ways to store your instrument. It's really easy for a guitar to slide and become damaged, Chip the neck or even break the neck. So I definitely recommend getting some kind of a proper guitar stands something that's made for guitars. The other thing that will help you do is it will make your practicing more efficient and you'll probably practice more often because of the guitar is out easy to access, you're just going to grab it and start playing, you'll walk past and think, Hey, I should pick it up and start playing.

If it's in a case and it's in a closet, it's that old thing of it's out of sight out of mind. So when your guitar is gone out of your vision, you're going to be less inclined to think to pick it up. guitars stands are range in price usually from as little as about $20 up to about $50. The only main technical differences is some of the more modern ones have these locking mechanisms that allow the guitars weight to close a little bit to keep it from sliding out. These are a little more advanced, they're usually more used for performing musicians because when you're on a stage there's more people things moving around. A very basic guitar stand like this which is just got to hooks is well adequate enough for you at home to get started with but definitely make sure to have a good guitar stand.

Now with any instrument You're gonna need some ongoing maintenance. And I recommend that if you live in a major urban area, and there are guitar stores or music stores around, they often have a repair department. And for a very low price, you can usually have your guitar have what's called a setup done on it. And usually it's in the sort of 50 to $100 range for a basic setup. And I recommend that about once a year you take your guitar in and have a basic setup done. And in a basic setup, they will take off the old strings, they'll clean everything, they'll straighten the neck, put on some new strings, fix any other minor problems that are going on on your guitar.

And again, it's just it'll the more playable and the easier your guitar is to play, the more you're actually going to spend time wanting to play it.