Baer's Music Service - Guitar, Piano, Bass and Drum Lessons on Cape Cod and Online. Hyannis, Barnstable, Falmouth, Yarmouth, Centerville, Brewster, Cotuit, Mashpee, Sandwich, Forestdale and more!

Drums

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Coming Soon!

Piano/Keyboards

Wed, 28 Oct 2009 22:54:00 +0000

Coming Soon!

Electric Guitars

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There are two companies that are standards in electric guitars: Gibson and Fender. Both these companies make entry-priced versions that play well. Often, you can find them in a package that includes an amplifier, case, picks, tuner and so forth. One great thing about having one of these guitars is that you can often see famous musicians playing them, which is a great inspiration for any student.

Epiphone is owned by Gibson and makes a pretty good electric guitar. The Famous "Les Paul" is shown above as the Epiphone Les Paul Special II which goes for around $120. They are very well made sound great.

The other staple of the guitar world is the legendary "Stratocaster" or also know as a "Strat". Fender's entry-level company "Squire" makes a good Strat for around the same price. It's listed as the Squire Affinity Strat.

Acoustic Guitars

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4 - 10 or 12 Years Old

A good 3/4 Size guitar is a good idea for younger students. It is easy tohold and the neck is smaller for learning chords and scales with littlehands. I also recommend a "Classical" guitar. They are also used for folk and world music - not just for classical. They have soft nylon strings instead of metal strings which can hurt little fingertips and cause frustrating practice sessions (metal strings can also be slightly dangerous if they break). Nylon strings also have a "warmer" and softer tone. A good 3/4 Size Classical Guitar is the Yamaha GC103A 3/4 Size Classical Acoustic Guitar (Around $100 - $150).

10 to 12 Years or Older

As I said before it is important to spend a couple extra dollars toget an instrument that is playable and sounds good. The good news isthat there are some guitar makers out there that make qualityinstruments for very reasonable prices.

Personally, I would avoid Fender Acoustic Guitars and Squire Acoustic Guitars (Squire is Fender's Cheaper Brand). Fender makes some the world's best electric guitars but I have known every low to mid-priced Fender acoustic to be hard to play, "tinny" sounding, and after a couple of years they seem to warp become virtually unplayable. I also found the same with Washburn. Some good guitar companies that make good entry-priced guitars are Seagull, Takamine, and Baby Taylor. Again, Yamaha is a great place to start and the The Yamaha FG700S Acoustic Guitar will last, be easy to play and will sound great.