Guitar Price Guide for Beginners

Very often during our years of teaching experience we witnessed students of all ages coming to the first lesson with the most diverse range of guitars, from the extremely old and almost unusable to the most expensive one. In this post we will try to give some useful tips in order to pick the right first guitar both from an economical and technical perespective & discuss guitar price guide for beginners.

Considering in our school we teach to play the guitar just with fingers the best guitar to start with is a nylon string guitar. We already talked about the advantages of a nylon strings guitar versus a metal strings one in another post, but it can be useful to remind the main ones: the strings are softer and easier to press, the larger width of the neck allows to get the shapes on the fretboard more correctly in terms of technique and the sound of the guitar is generally more balanced in terms of low, medium and high frequencies. In light of these features it is easy to understand why the nylon strings guitar is more versatile and ideal to learn with.

Once we have established the best kind of guitar, the next step is finding one which is good enough from a quality point of view but at the same time economically covenient. Usually the price for the cheapest nylon strings guitars starts from about 120/130$, but what we get is extremely basic. Very often the instrument is badly refinished, the playability is not good and the sound is poor both in terms of quality and volume.

According to our personal experience we can find more than decent guitars when the price reaches 175/185$. The playability is good for a student, the volume is reasonably loud and the sound is usually well balanced. There is no need to say that a lot depends on the brand we are going to pick, and considering there are so many, sometimes it is not easy to pick the right one.

During the years a brand which actually never disappointed us is Yamaha. Their entry model for students, the C40, is well built and it assures good playability. The woods are always well seasoned and the manufacturing is always over the average. We are talking about a 180$ instrument, we can’t expect the best guitar in the world, but surely the value for money is extremely good. This is the reason why we always suggest our students to buy a Yamaha C40, it is not that expensive and gives the quality you need.

Another brand which in the last few years is gaining market is Katoh. It is a chinese brand but the manufacturing is very good and in terms of value for money is probably even better than Yamaha. The only drawback is that somotimes the woods are not seasoned enough and once the astralian summer arrives the extreme heat can contribuite to dry completely the wood giving as a consequence the shrinking of the neck in terms of width. In such a way the metal frets will remain exposed sharply on the edges getting the playability absolutely unconfortable. The only solution is giving back it to the shop for a new not faulty one or bringing the guitar to the luthier.

There is no need to say that the more the price rises and the better the guitar is, but it is important to remember that a beginner is not absolutely able to take advantage of the benefits of a 2000$ guitar versus a 200$ one. In his inexperienced hands they will sound exaclty the same. This is the reason why is always advisable starting with a 175/200$ instrument and then, once we are sure about our passion and dedication, and in light of a better techinque, we can move to a more expensive one.

If you would like to know more or book a lesson at Guitar Lessons Perth please contact us today.