So I got my guitar today.

[GoodOrEvil]

Early Christmas present. Yamaha Pacifica 012 and Vox Pathfinder 10 amp.

Not much point to this threadm but ah well. =P

[Julian]

Cool man, I have a Yamaha pretty much identical to that one. Yamaha make pretty good beginner guitars, I still play mine occasionaly.

[Kevin]

i've got a pacifica 112, was a great guitar

[Julia]

Haha, I asked my teacher the other day about getting a new classical guitar, and what should I look for. He just said, "I warn you now, stay away from Yamaha, they will all try and sell them to you but STAY AWAY!".

That said, they're electric guitars are ok. Our school has a pacifica, it's a very nice guitar.

[BonesTLE]

You can do A LOT worse than Yamaha - yours should be fine.
Often when I hear someone talking about buying a new guitar they say things like "I'll get a cheap one to learn on" or something, but I think that's the worse thing people can do. A shit guitar is always going to sound shit. Even an amazing guitarist (like Chris - nah, I hate to bag him...) will have trouble making a shit guitar sound good. But it makes a beginner doubt his/her ability and they give up. If they'd started with a moderate-good guitar they may have kept going and become really good.

Not saying your new or shite or anything like that :D Just giving my two cents...

[Sammas]

I disagree... people over emphaise the importance of gear way way to much. What people think they need when it comes to gear usually isn't what they need, its just what they want. A beginner, or even a guitarist that has been playing for a few years will gain greater improvement in tone by investing in a $15 metronome and a $30 theory book than a $4000 guitar.

Any decent guitarist should be able to get a decent sound out of any setup. Tone is in the fingers. Its funny how quickly some people blame the gear when things sound bad... usually in those cases things will always sound bad, even if the change to the most esoteric setups.

[BonesTLE]

I can see your point. I wasn't meaning that a beginner should spend $4k on a new guitar, far from it - just dont spend $10 on a piece of junk. There are many schools of thought when it comes to this: should they start on electric or acoustic? Steel or nylon? There's rarely a difinitive answer...
All I meant to say was I've played some shite guitars before, and known people to have shite guitars and get frustrated for not being able to sound any good.

[Julian]

But the Yamaha aint a shit guitar so this arguing is pointless :p

[thelivingvines]

In the realm of beginners guitars you could do a lot worse than buying a squire or a yamaha- they do the job perfectly. There are worse guitars out there that i think should be avoided (stagg encore etc) because it is them that won't do a beginner any favours because to start with they are difficult to play; they usually have a wank action, shit sound and overall abismal feel to them(i think I came close to bleeding after sliding down a high e of an encore). It's those that should be avoided. As rubbish as a squire or a pacifica may seem further down the line they are the perfect place for someone to start.

[Strider]

I disagree... people over emphaise the importance of gear way way to much. What people think they need when it comes to gear usually isn't what they need, its just what they want. A beginner, or even a guitarist that has been playing for a few years will gain greater improvement in tone by investing in a $15 metronome and a $30 theory book than a $4000 guitar.

Any decent guitarist should be able to get a decent sound out of any setup. Tone is in the fingers. Its funny how quickly some people blame the gear when things sound bad... usually in those cases things will always sound bad, even if the change to the most esoteric setups.

I have to to totally agree with Sammas. It doesn't matter how good your guitar is when you begin. The most important thing is how dedicated you are, and how much you're willing to practise.

[WHITE FALCON]

i agree!

you gotta be commited. otherwise your going nowhere. unless your a vituoso (spelling?)

[GoodOrEvil]

I buy guitar, debate starts over how much a beginner should spend, what brands are shit, etc...

Hm. Remind me not to run for parliament or something if that's what happens.

[Strider]

Well lets look at this way. When I started playing guitar I had a $100 acoustic and some of my more richer mates had guitars worth a few thousand. They got bored playing guitar after a few months cos they didn't get as good as they thought they would quick enough so now they don't play anymore. I on the other hand practised and basically got really passionate about learning. Now all of them say "oh, but you're naturally good at things like that". I'm like...f*** off! I worked my ass off to get this good". People never see the effort that goes on behind the scenes, they only see the finished product.

[Jawn]

In the end, it doesn't really matter. A guitar is a guitar. Most of the technical mumbo jumbo is guitar nerdiry. If you are happy with it, you made the best purchase you could. Since you bought it, I reckon you are happy with it, you wouldn't buy a guitar you didn't like (why I don't, and never will, own a Gretsch). So congratulations on the purchase, rock out, have fun, enjoy life.

[tainted_love]

Is that one of the little Vox amps that can run off batteries or power? If so they are very cool. One of my friends has one for busking and it's fun to play around with, they sound nice.

[GoodOrEvil]

Nah, it's the power one. I got no need for a battery one atm. =P

[Daniel]

i have to say Sammass is always right :p
with everything

hows that book coming along lol

[Armistice]

It's kind of like fisherman. They buy hundreds of dollars worth of rods and reels and tackle... and it all comes down to if the fishy is hungry

I got a Squire Strat Pak for my birthday... $300 I think, and it's done just fine for what I do. I'd say, get something cheap or used. If it's something you want to keep doing(for band, in a band, hobby) THEN you can buy something more expensive. I played on my grandpa's guitar with 20yr old strings and played CHildren Of Bodom and other songs on it when I started and learned enough to know sort of what I was doing... yah power chords, then I got my Squire and it's nice... er, lol. Better action

All opinion, do what you want. I don't think a beginner is going to buy a 5K guitar though. If you don't have the skills, you can't play to the guitar's full potential

[Jawn]

It's kind of like fisherman. They buy hundreds of dollars worth of rods and reels and tackle... and it all comes down to if the fishy is hungry


Speaking as a man who has spent feckloads on all of the above, I can vouch for this.

[Armistice]

HAHA, yah, I was on Catalina Island and the fishies really liked French Toast on a regular single hook, haha, no fancy lures there :cool: