What do you play?

Check pawn shops is your area for a good price on a decent guitar. Take someone with you who plays and can recognize a good instrument.

All of the above is good advise.

A well made reasonably priced acoustic, in my opinion, is Seagull.

The great thing about picking up the guitar nowadays is that it’s far easier to buy a good instrument to learn on than it was 35 years ago when I started. Electric guitars were either the real deal or what we used to call ‘copies’ which were cheap things that looked like Strats or Gibsons, usually LP or SG and they were pretty diabolical. Now you can get really great instruments for a fraction of the price of a name guitar. Same with acoustics. My advice would be whatever you do go to the store with someone who plays, most stores are friendly and live on their reputations so ripping beginners off is relatively rare, but having a player with you is very handy when the guy in the store says ‘I’ll leave you to play it awhile’, because whatever he has said about the instrument will have gone straight out of your head, because it’s always slightly intimidating buying something you know nothing about, and your friend can then give it the once over and let you know if it’s going to be any good for you to learn on. 

The only part of Bob’s post I would slightly differ from is that large stores, with big turnovers of stock are sometimes great places to get deals if they want to move old stock off their shelves - but, you do need someone with you who knows their stuff. Smaller stores can be great but sometimes they will price a bit higher and might not have the choice. Don’t buy the first pertty thing you see and take your time; you are doing them the favour not the other way round. In most respects think about buying your first car from a dealer, lots of the things you would tell a young person about to get their first car holds true for musical instruments.

And when you can play a bit, and you want your second instrument, find out whats on the banned tunes list in the locals stores before you go and debut your painstakingly learnt ‘Stairway to heaven’ for the sales staff;)

Gibson SG 61’ reissue, Fender tex/mex strat, Epiphone Casino, Epiphone EJ200 jumbo, Ibanez acoustic electric 12 string (she is a beaut, but I always break that frickin high G) I am going to restring her this week and tune it down a half step at least. A Dean ganjo, and a Fender Jaguar bass.

Nice array. I have one Strat and one Marshall amp, the amp works when it feels like it because it has had lots of beer spilt on it over the years, but is sublime when it wants to be - needs the heat of a smoky bar - the guitar looks after me and it’s a happy marriage. I keep meaning to buy something else, then I just play the strat and all of that lousy, clumpy, crude, hard to deal with lovelyness makes me forget whatever I was thinking about.

@Postup:  I suppose “fairly cheap” is a subjective phrase, but I can tell you what I ended up buying.  It was a package deal from Alfred Music Publishing, one of the biggest names in music education.  It’s called “The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Acoustic Guitar,” and includes guitar, gig bag, 3 picks and an instructional CD-ROM.  The guitar is a Firebrand – Alfred’s own brand, made in the same factory as Schecter and Daisy Rock acoustic guitars, and to similar specifications.  If you look up those brands, you’ll find out that they’ve got good reputations for making quality products. 

It’s nobody’s dream guitar, but it’s a decent starter – sturdy construction, easy to tune (and stays in tune well), and has fairly easy action.  The CD-ROM lessons are pretty good, too.  They teach basic music theory, and how to read both standard musical notation and guitar tabs, along with the instrument instruction, and it’s all in easy, step-by-step chunks that you can absorb at your own pace.  But be warned – if you use a Mac, the software won’t run on the latest version of the OS.  Windows users should have no problem.

Amazon is currently selling the package for $129, but if you look around you may find it cheaper elsewhere.  I got mine through Groupon, and paid considerably less.  My only regret is that I got the full-size dreadnaught model, and I wish I’d gotten the 3/4-size instead.  I’ve got short arms and small hands, and while I can play the guitar without too much trouble, it’s not particularly comfortable.  My next guitar will likely be a parlor-sized Seagull or a Baby Taylor. (I’m drooling over the one with the mahogany top – beautiful rich tone!)

Best of luck in finding the right instrument for your wants and needs.

I have a Dobro 33H, Heritage 535, Japanese Strat 68 Reissue, Epiphone Alley Cat, and 3 Seagull Acoustics.

For amps I have a Peavey Delta Blues and a Fender Blues Jr.

Also check things like craigs list and other classified ads. There are sometimes amazing deals, just make sure it’s not shady (like if someone removed the serial number).

Musicians friend, I swear by it. They are always having 15% off sales too. I don’t think it is possible to consistently beat their prices.

Hey guys thanks for all the advice. I am currently googling Alfred Music publishing, while scouring craigslist and planning a trip to my local pawnshops and music stores. Seriously thanks, I will look into all these possibilities.

Avoid pawn shops. I have seen a lot of guitars priced over musicians friends new price. I have never heard of firebrand,.

Musiciansfriend.com owns Music123.com, they run different specials, I bought my bass amps etc from music 123 because they did free shipping whereas MF did not.

Tell me your budget, and I can scout for you.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/epiphone-aj-220st-solid-top-acoustic-guitar-pack/h70652002001000

Here, nothing against the package mentioned above. BUT, this is a very good guitar in the sense of utility. If anything needs to be done later you can do it yourself, get tusque bridge, grover tuners, and some good pegs, and you will be all set. I wouldn’t buy a package deal just because of an instruction book or DVD, the internet is a very powerful resource.

Mitchell gig bag acoustic 50% off.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/mitchell-mo100spk-folk-acoustic-guitar-pack

Fender gig bag 50% off

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/fender-dg-8s-acoustic-guitar-value-pack

Yamaha 43% off, Comes with tuner and DVD as well as other stuff.

http://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/yamaha-gigmaker-deluxe-acoustic-guitar-pack

As far as my kit, I am not really tooled up for live sound.

I have a crate 200W FXT120 solid state 2X12 combo.  And a crate VFX5212T 50W all tube. Ibanez tubescreamer, fasel inducter crybaby wah, vodoo labs super fuzz.  Acoustic 200W bass head, acoustic single 15 with horn cab.

@JohnnyFriday   Thanks for all the links and time taken to put them up. That Yamaha looks good.

How have I missed this thread.

I primarily play bass, but also play keys, harmonica, some vocals, guitar, mandolin, lap dulcimer, saxaphone, kazoo, ehhehehee

I play in a local variety act here in NC mix of country, rock, dance.  www.spiveyscornerband,com

Also play in a Black Sabbath tribute band named Bloody Sabbath.  I am Geezer of course…

Ken

@Postup, there is nothing at all wrong with ephones, they are legit.  I have an ej200 and a casino.  There are a lot of folks who buy Epi LPs and change the p-ups and tuners and basically get a gibson for 800 instead of 2800.

Mostly mandolin, ibanez electric when I want to feel the floor vibrate. Neil Young songs, mostly.

Mridanga (drum) , Flute, Cello and a bit of (bad) Piano.

I’ll give you guys ONE GUESS as to what I play… :wink:

I play WARWICK FORTRESS MASTERMAN FIVE STRING
WARWICK THUMB BASS 5
WARWICK CORVETTE $$ 4 string

GALLIEN KRUEGER 410 cab

Once opened for Chilli Peppers and Primus

I sang professionally for several years (musical theatre, classical, barbershop quartet), but stuck to the occasional karaoke bar these days. Dabble in guitar and bass just for fun, but I’m not very good haha.

I play violin, piano, guitar, bass guitar, saxophone and trombone