A Good Guitar Will Help You to Learn

I’m a keen amateur musician, playing guitar for over thirty years. Since the early nineties I’ve gotten into music production using computers but my real love is the guitar.

As a keen guitarist I have a growing collection of guitars both old and new. My favourite is a genuine 1931 National Triolian that has clearly been well played in its near eighty years of life. The paintwork on the body is almost all chipped off and there are deeply worn grooves in the fret-board where many fingers have held the same chords and played the same notes over and over again. I just need to strum a chord and slide up the neck and the sound is straight from the Mississippi Delta.

But there is no way that I could afford to buy such a fantastic vintage instrument when I was learning to play. Back then I could only dream of owning a real Stratocaster or Les Paul. Then Japanese manufacturers Tokai and Squier started to produce guitars. These were Japanese copies of the great Fenders and Gibsons. I bought myself a nice black Squier Telecaster that was just brilliant to play. A guitar playing friend once told me that a good guitar can nearly play itself and this is almost true.

My Squier Telecaster served me well for many years when I was playing in various blues bands. Then I managed to save enough to buy a genuine Fender Stratocaster. But, to be totally honest, I preferred my old Squier telecaster which I’d sold to a friend.

Not many young people who are starting to learn the guitar have the cash to spend on top of the range models. Luckily these days there are plenty of alternatives many of which are equally as good as the guitars they are copying. There are manufacturers, like Epiphone and Squier, who make some great guitars that play really well, sound great and don’t cost a fortune.

For anyone looking for a first guitar I strongly recommend that you get the best that you can afford. Some guitar stores offer some fantastic, almost irresistible deals. Always look at a few second hand guitars as these can often be setup really well but cost you only a fraction of what a new one would cost. Shopping around for the best deal is always a good idea and try to take a guitar playing friend along when you are ready to check out some guitars. And remember that a good guitar can really help to make it easier to learn to play.

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