Chords for 5 *BIG* MISTAKES To Avoid When Buying a Guitar!

Hey guys, welcome back to the channel.
Today I'm covering five mistakes people make when
buying a guitar.
Now, of course, one of the goals of my channel is to get people excited
and engaged about learning the guitar.
It's such an amazing instrument.
And secondly,
of course, helping you guys find the best gear that's going to help serve your needs.
So that being said, here are five mistakes I've made and other people have made when
buying a guitar.
All right, mistake number one, buying a guitar to sound like somebody else.
Now, the first
thing I want to say about that is it is not a bad thing to listen to an artist and think,
wow, that tone is perfect.
I want to get my tone like that.
Listening to a bunch of different
genres, a bunch of different styles, and kind of honing in on whose tone you like.
I think
that's a really, really good thing and it helps all of us sort of, yeah, recognize what
tones we want to have.
So that's the first thing I want to say is listening and wanting
to sound like somebody is a good thing.
Now, why do I think buying a guitar for that reason is a bad thing?
That's because it's
not going to get you there.
And if people have expectations of, oh, if I just buy this
person's signature guitar or if I buy that American-made guitar that that player plays
or that high-end Japanese guitar, that means I'm going to sound like them.
Those expectations
can lead to disappointment.
So every player, you know, it starts with their hands, the
way they attack the strings, the way they, you know, have their articulation, their [F] vibrato,
and of course, how that all comes together with their unique phrasing and all that stuff.
That's what makes a player sound like a player.
And secondly, all the pedals, the amps, and
when they're putting on an album, all the studio magic and all the post-processing can
really change a person's tone.
So just buying a guitar, probably not going to get you there.
A few years back, I bought B.B. King's signature model Lucille.
It was the Epiphone version,
perfect guitar, half price, so I snapped it up, [F#] brought it home, played it.
Did I sound
like B.B. King?
Not even close, right?
There's just so many different things that makes an
artist special that just buying a guitar can lead to, like I said, disappointment, and
they can be very, very expensive and not give you great value.
So don't buy a guitar thinking
it's going to make you sound like an artist, but finding those tones that you like, whether
gravitating [E] towards single coils, [D#] humbuckers, P90s, whatever, that can help [N] you along your
journey to find your perfect tone.
Right, mistake number two, buying on looks
and not on feel.
Now, this is a Flying V.
I think it looks freaking rad, just an amazing guitar.
This is the affordable Firefly version.
It's actually a really, really good guitar for the
price.
But if this was my main guitar and I didn't spend any time researching, you know,
watching reviews, going to music stores and trying guitars, and I just bought this,
well, living with it is a completely different story.
You literally can't play these sitting
down or if you try to like wedge them some way, that lower horn after like five minutes is going
to put a hole in my leg there.
So you can't just sit and watch TV and practice scales or just chill
in a chair.
You've got to be standing with your strap perfectly so it doesn't headstock dive,
all that kind of stuff.
So livability is completely different, you know, if you just buy on looks.
And
this goes for acoustic guitars, electric guitars, classical guitars, all of those things.
Now, I
think looks is very, very important.
You want to see that guitar in your stand or hanging on the
wall looking beautiful and you're like, oh, I just want to grab it and play it.
That means you're
practicing more and playing more.
So I think looks is very important, but how it feels, the comfort
cuts, the overall weight, the balance, whether you like a painted neck or a satin neck, all of those
different things, trim system, fixed bridge, all of those things kind of like will kind of play into
how you interact with that guitar.
So I think, yeah, ergonomics is king.
That's really what I
want to get across here.
How it plays, how it feels is so important.
Looks, very important,
but if you just buy on looks, you might end up with something like this or even like a nine pound
Les Paul or a 10 pound Les Paul that you just thought looked gorgeous, but living with it day
to day is, you know, less than ideal.
So, definitely consider ergonomics, playability, all of those
things over looks.
Mistake number three, overpaying for a guitar.
This one's pretty tricky and I really
sympathize with people.
I've been there myself.
If you're not sure what kind of guitar to get,
defaulting to, you know, the main brands is really understandable and that's why all these companies
really work on their brand recognition, you know, signing artists to use their guitars and all that
kind of stuff so that people feel comfortable buying their guitars.
But most of the time, you
end up overpaying.
Can you get, you know, a guitar with more features, with a better price and with
better build quality than those big brands?
Absolutely, you can and I've featured lots of
those guitars on this channel where the brands might not be like super household names, but you
look at, like I said, you know, the features, the build quality and the price and they beat those
big brands every single time.
So, you end up with a better guitar for less money, but like I said,
that does require a little bit of research and if you can, you know, doing like an A-B comparison at
a music store.
I mean, when I was first learning, I bought a Samick guitar.
I don't know if you guys
remember that brand.
They actually have a factory overseas that's one of the biggest factories in
the world and they make guitars for all sorts of people.
But yeah, when I was starting to learn,
Samick was trying to move into Canada here and they were showing up in music stores, so I could
kind of A-B them and I ended up buying a Samick.
It was a gorgeous guitar, played amazing, you know,
I got gold hardware, translucent finish, yeah, great fret work, quality control,
all for [E] way, way, way, way cheaper than the competition.
I played on that guitar for a few
years, modded the crap out of it because that's my jam.
I love modding guitars and it was a great
platform for that.
So, yeah, all that to say is if you do a little bit of research, you can get a lot
more guitar for the money.
It's tricky if you're a new player, but I think it's worth it.
Mistake
number four is a big one.
It's not getting your guitar set up.
If you ignore a guitar setup,
you are going to have a frustrating experience with guitar.
Getting a good setup on your guitar,
sometimes if you buy a guitar in person, the store will set it up for you, wait the extra
20 minutes or half an hour or however long it takes and get that guitar set up.
Or if you buy
it, make sure you don't just forget about [A] it, take it back because a good setup will number one,
make your guitar sound better.
It'll keep your guitar in tune and it'll make it much more
playable and much more enjoyable to play.
If the action's too close, it's going to choke out your
tone and your tone's going to sound thin and buzzy.
If it's too far off, it's going to be horrible to
play and pressing down on the string will put it out of tune.
You know, setting up your trem system,
setting up the intonation will keep the guitar in tune all the way up and down the neck.
Or if
your neck needs adjustment, if it needs to be straightened out or curved back or whatever,
all of those things will affect, like I said, playability, tone and tuning.
All of those things
massively important to playing guitar.
And finally, we've arrived at mistake number five
when buying [N] a guitar.
So far, I've definitely been guilty of all of these ones.
If you guys have any
mistakes that you've personally made or that you just think I missed, drop them in the comment
section below.
I know people find them really helpful reading through those and sort of,
yeah, avoiding some of those pitfalls.
So here's my mistake number five when buying a guitar.
It is not getting music lessons.
This is so important.
It's just like, you know, education
or school or sports.
You need that teacher.
You need that coach kind of giving you the next step,
pushing you to go a little bit further, building upon what, you know, has gone before.
A great
music teacher will do this as well, giving you tangible steps each week to work on and then
building upon those and just developing you as a musician.
That's so important.
And you could do
everything else right on this list.
You could find the perfect guitar and you could just enjoy
it and play on it for two, three weeks.
And then suddenly, it sits in the corner and dust collects
and it's kind of for naught.
So definitely getting a good music teacher will take you
through the steps building upon everything before and developing you, like I said,
into a more well-rounded and proficient musician.
So yes, I'm a huge advocate for music teachers.
Find a good teacher.
They're going to help you push you to the next level.
And yeah, that's huge.
So that's a big mistake as well, buying a guitar but not getting any instruction.
So there you
guys go.
That's my list.
I hope you guys enjoyed it.
If you did, be sure to subscribe to the channel.
Other than that, hope you guys had a great week.
Take care.