Your First Electric Guitar Pack

[Dominick Harvey]

When you imagine yourself as a guitar player you probably think of the
electric guitar. It looks really cool posing with one and they make
great sounds. But is it so cool you want to spend days investigating
which is the best guitar for a beginner, where to get the best price,
what amp to start with, what ancillary stuff you need? Or is it better
to get that over with so you can concentrate on serious posing and
maybe do a little playing? So let's embark on a journey that will take
us flying over the desert of dreary comparison shopping so we can
graze in the lush meadows of power chords and adoring chicks.
So let's begin putting together a pack of necessities for the beginner
electric guitar player. Your local guitar mart is packed with snazzy
looking axes that may or may not love you back when you start
caressing their strings, all at varying price ranges. How can a novice
figure out which brands are best for which price? OK, grab an electric
guitar and look at how it's made. It is, after all a piece of
electronic equipment and should be built to give good service. A well
built electric guitar will have the body, neck and fret board made of
wood, not laminate or plastic.
For most novice electric guitar players, the vibrato, or "floating"
bridge is the one to get. The other type is the fixed bridge which
does not allow you to "bend" notes using the tremolo arm or "whammy-
bar". While we are on the subject, you should be warned that using the
whammy bar on a cheap guitar often leads to broken strings, so if you
end up with one of these you might want to remove the whammy bar
altogether. And another thing: an electric guitar has twenty-two
frets, but some beginner's models are smaller. Don't get this unless
you're about ten years old. Stick to the ones with twenty-two frets.
Now we come to the pickups which are little microphones sitting
underneath the guitar strings. Pickups close to the bridge give a
sharp "twangy" tone, while the pickups closer to the fret board give a
deeper sound. It's quite easy to get a guitar with three pickups and a
switch that lets you choose which pickups are being used.
As for price, are the guitars at the lower end of the price range
inferior to the more expensive ones? Heck no! You'll get years of
musical enjoyment with one of the less expensive models.
Now let's turn our attention to amplifiers. The way your new guitar
sounds will depend largely on the way your amplifier is put together.
The power of a guitar amplifier is measured in watts. The higher the
wattage, the more volume. Start thinking in the five watt vicinity to
start with. That's about the size of your average practice amp. As for
most electronics applications electric guitars' tubes were replaced by
transistors many years ago but most guitar players use electric
guitars with tube amplifiers because they have a better sound quality.
You may be able to get your hands on a practice amp with the option of
using a vacuum tube, but if you can't, don't worry you should apply
your time and energy to learning your instrument right now.
As for the question of which effects to get, most people begin with
trying to sound like their favorite lead guitarist, but you should try
to get some kind of idea of what's available. There is no "pure"
electric guitar sound. It is all altered to some degree. The different
ways the guitar sound can be changed is called "effects". Effects like
distortion, reverberation, and equalization give the guitarist more
creative control over the sound. Some amplifiers have distortion built
in because it is the most popular electric guitar effect. Generally
speaking the more effects that are built into the amplifier, the
better but if you're not to into a whole lot of effects just stick to
what you really need.
OK, that's a brief rundown on what you need to begin a career as an
electric guitar player, and if you see loads of practice lying around
in the guitar store, pick up as much as you can afford.

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