Pitfalls of Cheap Guitars



It is SO tempting to buy one of the many cheap guitars on the market today. I mean, come on, who wants to spend hundreds or even thousands of dollars on a guitar that you may or may not be playing a year from now?

The Risk of Going Cheap

Cheap Guitar In today’s economy it is understandable that in buying your first cheap acoustic guitar (or when buying a guitar for a beginning guitarist) that you will want to be careful spending your money. It is a fact that every year thousands of people pick up a guitar for the first time, determined to learn how to play, and out of those thousands maybe only a third actually continue with their lessons and become proficient. So yes, spending a great deal of money on a top-of-the-line guitar is a risk. However, did you know that buying one of those cheap guitars; those $99 specials or ‘beginners kit’ presents an even bigger risk?

That’s right, cheap axes present a real hazard to the beginning guitarist for a number of reasons, the first of which being that most cheap instruments do not have very good sound quality and most have even worse playability. In fact, many of the economically priced guitars can prove not only to be difficult, but disappointing to play and chances are that if you are disappointed by the experience, you will give up. It’s that simple.

So is that it then? Does that mean that if you don’t spend thousands of dollars on a top-of-the-line guitar that you’re doomed to failure as a guitarist? Not hardly! What that means is that you need to become savvy in learning to differentiate between cheap and affordable guitars, for there is a decided difference between the two.

Cheap Guitars vs. Affordable Guitars

Cheap Guitars Cheap guitars are a dime a dozen. You find them everywhere; on the shelves at big-box stores, in music shops and, of course, on the Internet. Besides not sounding particularly good; losing their tune easily and being poorly constructed (which can lend to problems with playability), cheap guitars just don’t have the same look as a well-crafted guitar, and they definitely don’t have the same kind of resale value.

This is probably one of the biggest discrepancies to buying a beginning acoustic guitar that costs under $200. You don’t spend a lot of money to purchase the instrument, but if you don’t continue to play (and chances are that if you buy a poorly constructed guitar you won’t) then you are out that $200. This lends an entirely different perspective to the term “affordable.”

If you buy a better quality guitar you may pay a bit more, but it has the advantage of not only sounding and playing far better than the cheaper model (which means that you will be more likely to continue playing) but if for some reason you do decide to quit, the better-made guitar has resale value, which actually puts it in the category of an affordable investment.

In addition to the fact that a better quality guitar will be more encouraging to continue learning due to its ease of play and its far better sound, a good quality beginner’s guitar just gets better sounding with age. So even if you give up after a few lessons, the better quality acoustic guitar will only need a few minor adjustments to get it back in great playing shape should you change your mind later on down the road, whereas those cheap acoustic guitars tend to sound even worse than they did initially.

Conclusion

So don’t give in to the temptation to buy one of those “too good to be true” cheap acoustic guitars; put your money where your fingers can feel the difference, and purchase a good quality affordable guitar that will bring you years of playing satisfaction and watch your guitar playing dreams come true!

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