Cheap BEGINNER guitar Jasmine Dreadnought Acoustic Guitar (S35) - Natural $119.99

If you intend to buy this to start out as your first guitar, I would suggest to PM at Long&McQuade so that you will get a free setup for the guitar, that's probably worth another $50, and it helps tremendously vs pre-setup

Are those free youtube/apps to learn to play any good?

Yes

CertainSomeone wrote: ↑ If you intend to buy this to start out as your first guitar, I would suggest to PM at Long&McQuade so that you will get a free setup for the guitar, that's probably worth another $50, and it helps tremendously vs pre-setup

what's "setup"? surely the guitar will come with strings no?

is this a nylon string guitar? it doesn't say in the description what strings it's made for. how does it compare to a basic yamaha? i'm not a beginner but I don't need anything fancy. base price looks fine, but reviews don't.

Physically holding the guitar in your hands is much better than an on-line purchase . Fit is the key even with a beginner guitar .

elfion wrote: ↑ what's "setup"? surely the guitar will come with strings no?

is this a nylon string guitar? it doesn't say in the description what strings it's made for. how does it compare to a basic yamaha? i'm not a beginner but I don't need anything fancy. base price looks fine, but reviews don't.

Google "guitar set up". There's more to it than installing strings. Lots of little adjustments to maximize the instrument's performance. The reviews on amazon and L+M are a lot better for what it's worth.

According to descritption it is 11.7kg, is this one of those heavy metal guitars?

deals4realz wrote: ↑ Google "guitar set up". There's more to it than installing strings. Lots of little adjustments to maximize the instrument's performance. The reviews on amazon and L+M are a lot better for what it's worth.

I googled it but didn't really find anything relevant to acoustic guitars. The only thing is the trust rod. I don't even know if this guitar has it, but even if it does, I am relatively certain you should not need to adjust it. I bought a very fancy Ibanez with a floyd rose bridge from Long and McQuaid a couple of decades ago and I am pretty sure they didn't do any adjustments what so ever when I bought it. I'm not saying they didn't do it. Maybe they did it as soon as they displayed the guitar, who knows. But I'm just saying this is very surprising to me. Given I've never needed to do that.
The guitar I am replacing was custom made and it actually doesn't seem to have any neck adjustment, which is kind of the reason why I'm replacing it, because it got totally bent out of shape.

Just finished Bocchi the Rock last night and I was thinking of getting myself a guitar.

There is something called a guitar action that determines if you'll end up liking to learn it or not. I found out the hard way. Trust me - the 50$ tune up on L&M is worth it. Also truss rods come into play when the fret board status bending (which it will based on the wood, temperature and the string)..

elfion wrote: ↑ I googled it but didn't really find anything relevant to acoustic guitars. The only thing is the trust rod. I don't even know if this guitar has it, but even if it does, I am relatively certain you should not need to adjust it. I bought a very fancy Ibanez with a floyd rose bridge from Long and McQuaid a couple of decades ago and I am pretty sure they didn't do any adjustments what so ever when I bought it. I'm not saying they didn't do it. Maybe they did it as soon as they displayed the guitar, who knows. But I'm just saying this is very surprising to me. Given I've never needed to do that.
The guitar I am replacing was custom made and it actually doesn't seem to have any neck adjustment, which is kind of the reason why I'm replacing it, because it got totally bent out of shape.

I bought a guitar as a beginner during the pandemic and did some research. I think the set up is mainly adjusting the "action" of the guitar or how high the strings are from the face of the guitar. Since wood bends due to many factors including humidity and temp etc. the neck of the guitar can shift a bit causing the guitar strings to lower or raise. I think most guitars have a truss rod going through the neck of the guitar that allows for adjustment. In doing so, you can adjust the height of the strings. If a guitar was made in Mexico and they set up the guitar string height properly, that is a totally different environment than what we have here, not to mention the journey of being shipped over to Canada and being stored for who knows how many months/years. So over time/ being in a different environment, you can get strings that are "out of alignment" to where they should be, mostly strings that are too high from the fret board. For a beginner, this makes it difficult to play since you have to press harder on the strings to make them ring out and that hurts your fingers. Adjusting the "action" by lowering the strings to a sweet spot makes it easier to play. I think they also look at other things too like the nut and saddle and frets etc. to make sure everything sounds as it should be.

So my 12 year old has been learning the ukulele in school and is aparently a damn wizard at it and wants a guitar for his bday... Is this full size to big for a average size 12 year old boy?


https://www.bestbuy.ca/en-ca/product/ja ... r=PDP_Reco
I see there is a mini version for the same price, (that isn't on sale unfortunately), would that be a better fit if not a better deal. Is the sound on a mini one way worse?

Thanks for any help!

elfion wrote: ↑ I googled it but didn't really find anything relevant to acoustic guitars. The only thing is the trust rod. I don't even know if this guitar has it, but even if it does, I am relatively certain you should not need to adjust it. I bought a very fancy Ibanez with a floyd rose bridge from Long and McQuaid a couple of decades ago and I am pretty sure they didn't do any adjustments what so ever when I bought it. I'm not saying they didn't do it. Maybe they did it as soon as they displayed the guitar, who knows. But I'm just saying this is very surprising to me. Given I've never needed to do that.
The guitar I am replacing was custom made and it actually doesn't seem to have any neck adjustment, which is kind of the reason why I'm replacing it, because it got totally bent out of shape.

I've bought 2 acoustics from L&M. One the strings sat too far off the neck, it was fine but slightly uncomfortable, they adjusted it. Also had a friend get one from a local shop and the intonation seemed a bit off, he was new, had no idea. There are a bunch of reasons why people get their guitars setup. These are really cheap guitars being sold, even more reason. For a beginner, all the more reason to have someone know what they are doing look at your new purchase.

A word of caution: starting with a cheap, probably crappy, guitar may just turn the kid off playing. He may think he just can't get it right, but it's really just that the crappy guitar is uncomfortable to play and makes holding chords and stuff harder than it should be.

I understand not wanting to spend too much in case they get tired of it soon after, but consider that a decent $300 used guitar will feel a lot better, be easier to play, sound marginally better, and be less likely to break. And if they do abandon it or move up to a better guitar, you can still get $300 for it again on kijiji. Used prices are fairly steady at that level.

Although my favourite, if you can find it, is a Godin SD or SDxt. Got one for $225 used many moons ago, and the quality is just unmatched for the price. I see they're a bit more now, in the 500-600 range, but I also see some listings for less. Not to mention that $225 to $600 in 10 years makes it a good investment. Not much else appreciates like that.

As for tune-ups, they are very important and also need to be done every so often, especially if you change string brands or gauges or your area has big humidity swings. But it's really not hard to do it yourself, so save yourself the cash and check out one of the million guides for it (and actually -- the truss rod almost never needs adjustment. Those who do adjust it are just compensating for other setup issues and usually make things worse). I would definitely take advantage of the free setup if offered, just because things can get knocked out of whack during shipping or when a parade of idiots were playing with it on the sales floor.

And I second the full size. I was pushing 6 feet at that age He'll be adult-sized before you know it.

As someone who learned piano, clarinet (lol) and guitar: if someone doesn't like to play the guitar, there's probably a very low chance the kid will want to learn an instrument.

Guitar is the easiest instrument to sound decent in. You can just use it to strum and sing along, or get advanced in picking for harmony. If you want to do solos, you can work on making it play the melody or if you're really good, have it play the melody and harmony. It's just a very user-friendly instrument for anyone who remotely like music to enjoy and get started on. The ceiling is also limitless almost. I started with a Seagull S6 (I think it's like $500 nowadays) and it always sounded good. I had a $150 Yamaha when I was overseas that I thought did the job, so unless this guitar sounds horrible, I don't think it will be the guitar's fault if a child gets discouraged.

Edit: Oh damn Seagull S6 cost over $800 now. Inflation is crazy.

elfion wrote: ↑ what's "setup"? surely the guitar will come with strings no?

is this a nylon string guitar? it doesn't say in the description what strings it's made for. how does it compare to a basic yamaha? i'm not a beginner but I don't need anything fancy. base price looks fine, but reviews don't.

Acoustic guitars: steel strings; classical guitars: nylon strings. Read the title: Acoustic Guitar.

TranT14 wrote: ↑ Acoustic guitars: steel strings; classical guitars: nylon strings. Read the title: Acoustic Guitar.

That is not how the terminology works. Acoustic means the body of the instrument makes a sound. Acoustic as opposed to electric. Google: acoustic guitar string types

biggest factor for "cheaper" guitars is keeping the damn thing in tune !! nothing more frustrating..