!#71# Buying Your First Guitar Part 4 - How Much Should I Spend?

!±8± Buying Your First Guitar Part 4 - How Much Should I Spend?

Part 4 - How Much to Spend?

This largely depends on your budget and how committed you are to learning. (Although, not always is a more expensive guitar better!). As I am writing in Australia, I can only give you an example of prices in my local market, but hopefully this should still give you some idea. Generally, I wouldn't even consider a guitar under about 0. I have seen guitars from upwards and 99% of the time they are poorly made and not worth even trying to play. They will only frustrate you as they are hard to play and sound bad.

At the other extreme are guitars in the thousands of dollars. Yes, they are usually very good, but unless you have a lot of money or are very dedicated to becoming a professional musician, I would save the money.

There are some brands that I recommend (even the cheaper models I have found are good quality).

- Epiphone

- Fender

- Gibson

- Maton

- Washburn

- Ibanez

- ESP

- Paul Reed Smith

There are many more brands that I haven't listed, but generally I have found that the "bigger" brands are less likely to release something on the market which could hurt their hard earned reputation.

If you find yourself in a store, and trying to decide between a cheaper guitar that would just "do the job" and a real beauty with a higher price tag, I suggest taking some quite time and truly asking yourself about your dedication. Is this going to be a passing phase, or can you see yourself still playing the guitar in 10 years from now. If you can afford it, and you believe that you will get many years of enjoyment, go for it! Treat yourself to the nicer guitar and it will serve you well.