Nice But Reasonably Priced Starter Guitar Suggestions?!

[Chris_in_SoCal]

I received the Jackson today. Fresh out of the box with the plastics on it and un-tuned I plugged it into the amp and gave it a few strums. OMG! the sound of it is so much better than the wall hanger I bought before. I'm going to love this thing.

I watched more than a few videos on it and before tuning it I will use lemon oil on the fret board and replace the strings (maybe). They were recommended but I might just wait on that. the ones it came with sound great to me. Those will arrive on Friday.

It is a beauty.

 

[forktender]

I received the Jackson today. Fresh out of the box with the plastics on it and un-tuned I plugged it into the amp and gave it a few strums. OMG! the sound of it is so much better than the wall hanger I bought before. I'm going to love this thing.

I watched more than a few videos on it and before tuning it I will use lemon oil on the fret board and replace the strings (maybe). They were recommended but I might just wait on that. the ones it came with sound great to me. Those will arrive on Friday.

It is a beauty.

It's all about the pickups, well not all but they play a huge part in how the guitar sounds.
I have a PRS 245 that I wasn't in love with until I swapped out the pickups with Seymour Duncan Avengers, talk about an upgrade. The Avengers are about as high output as you can get, and they made my guitar spring too life, in a big way.

Chris, if the stock strings feel fine, I wouldn't worry about changing them, for 4 to 6 months. And make sure you stay with the same string tension, unless you're ready to adjust the neck relief/ truss rod. Google what strings come on that model guitar and stick with them. People tend to change string way to often, really unless you're playing for hours a day a decent set of strings will last a yr I more. I play hardcore metal, and I absolutely abuse my strings, and I get at least 6 months out of them, and I really dig into them super hard. I play in a lot of drop tunings, drop D, And open D, and drop C Sharp. There is nothing gentle about my playing, unless I'm playing the blues or surf music.

Have fun with your new guitar, if you get bit by the guitar bug like I did prepared to open your wallet. It's' a complete money pit, between guitars amps, and peddles, a guy can easily spend thousands of dollars a yr. I know that I do.

 

[912smoker]

New strings?
I haven't changed the strings on my Jazz V in probably 5 yrs. Might practice an hr or so every couple of weeks learning a new set, depending on the gig, and play out a lot. I do know that the 6 stringers change more often for better tone.

Keith

 

[forktender]

Half the time I change strings is because I want to try a new gauge or brand, not because a string change is needed.
I don't mind changing my setups, I like working on my guitars and cleaning them up from time to time to keep them looking nice. I polish up the frets with a leather Dremel wheel, oil the board with a good wood oil and A good wipe down a fresh coat of carnauba wax keeps the body's looking great. I have three black guitars and one burst, the black guitars are like having a black vehicle, they show dirt and fingerprints like no other. Keeping them waxed up is easy, and they look as if they were new.

 

[zwiller]

I do know that the 6 stringers change more often for better tone.

Me and buds played around with all sort of things. Buddy of mine would boil his strings to save $. It works. Fretboard/lemon oil and the like will keep string in great shape much longer. Easier to play too. Swear I posted about that but do not see it. With 40 years of tinkering with this craft the key to good rhythm tone is thicker string gauges. I played 12s. Lead is another story. All depends on the speed. Shredder use real light stuff 8.5, 9 and yes they do make 7s. Blues you can play higher, SRV played 13. A REALLY cool trick is Nashville tuning. Not really a tuning per se. Used for jangly guitars which I like. Very cheap and easy to do and SUPER cool. Great to keep on cheapy semi hollow body.

 

[tallbm]

I received the Jackson today. Fresh out of the box with the plastics on it and un-tuned I plugged it into the amp and gave it a few strums. OMG! the sound of it is so much better than the wall hanger I bought before. I'm going to love this thing.

I watched more than a few videos on it and before tuning it I will use lemon oil on the fret board and replace the strings (maybe). They were recommended but I might just wait on that. the ones it came with sound great to me. Those will arrive on Friday.

It is a beauty.

Congrats on getting something you are thrilled with!

I don't think it's been discussed but let me talk briefly about guitar tuners.

I am fully on board with using a guitar tuner app on the phone these days.
Last year I finally broke down and paid the $10 to get the "gStrings" guitar tuner app. Wish I had done it sooner.

I had been using GuitarTuna app for free but got tired of it advertising and hijacking the screen with it's ads or suggestions, etc. when I just wanted to tune my guitar.


A number of years ago I moved away from battery powered tuners. They work well but it's just another piece of equipment and extra batteries to keep up with, 9V in my case so I don't have a lot of extras or rechargeable ones and got tired of having to deal with battery situations AND remembering whether or not the tuner was in the guitar case or in the living room since I was sharing it amongst guitars.

The phone solves all of this and that app works plenty well. gStrings buy 1 time and never worry about ads again. It's also less expensive than a separate tuner and batteries.

Finally, Google will now pop up a guitar tuner in it's browser and is a free use option BUT you have to have an internet connection and when I'm out on a hunting trip or in the country, etc. I don't always have signal. So the dedicated gStrings app again wins out.

Anyhow, I hope this info helps you get a good and inexpensive tuning option that you always have on you :D

 

[Chris_in_SoCal]

Thank you guys for the suggestions. I'm ready to start playing but...

I did buy an inexpensive clip on tuner that is rechargeable. It seems nice that it guides you to the exact match for each chord.

I removed the strings so I could oil the fret board with lemon oil. It is made of the non purple part of purple heart. It was not treated and looked a little dry.

After that is when I made my newby mistake. I installed the new strings but got ahead of myself and cut the extra string off before I tuned the guitar. All was going fine until the last 11Ga string. As it got close it popped out. I tried three times to replace it but it was just too short so I gave up and ordered a three piece set of Slinky 11-48 that I will get on Monday.

In the end it is a good thing since The fret board could have used another coat of lemon oil. I removed the strings and took time to do a better job of oiling then cleaning up so it is ready for the new strings. That was yesterday and the second coat definitely made it look way better.

After watching all these videos on my new guitar I also picked up a set of fret board protectors online and #0000 steel wool at Walmart today for the frets but feeling them I find no amount of friction on any of them and all the ends of the frets are very smooth so I will save that for later.

Haha I will need a storage box and haven't played at all yet. No worries since I am retired and have all the time in the world to learn. I just want to make it the best I can before I get started.

 

[Chris_in_SoCal]

Have fun with your new guitar, if you get bit by the guitar bug like I did prepared to open your wallet. It's' a complete money pit, between guitars amps, and peddles, a guy can easily spend thousands of dollars a yr. I know that I do.

I put my foot down on new peddles! Haha ! I am sure I will get some down the road but enough spending for today. Wait until my wife sees this months Amazon purchases.

 

[forktender]

I put my foot down on new peddles! Haha ! I am sure I will get some down the road but enough spending for today. Wait until my wife sees this months Amazon purchases.

If your amp doesn't have reverb, delay, and distortion, for starter peddles check out the Joyo peddles on Amazon. Those are the pedals that are a need be purchase in my opinion, they make beginners sound like they know what they are doing, a little.
When in doubt, crank up the reverb and delay, and all is good. If that doesn't do it for you, tune your guitar into drop D tuning, hit the distortion peddle and practice your palm muting and have a chug fest.

 

[Chris_in_SoCal]

I got my new strings and took my time getting them in place and tuning them to perfect according to the snap on tuner. I pretended like I knew what I was doing and playing around this guitar sounds great. Now I am ready to learn how to play for real.

@forktender I ordered the American version of the Joyo. I hope that is the right one.

 

[912smoker]

Looks nice Chris and peddle journey begins. As you have already discovered there are endless ways to find the sound your looking for.

And we've all had a string mishap along the way. Love the EB slinky!

Keith

 

[tallbm]

I got my new strings and took my time getting them in place and tuning them to perfect according to the snap on tuner. I pretended like I knew what I was doing and playing around this guitar sounds great. Now I am ready to learn how to play for real.

@forktender I ordered the American version of the Joyo. I hope that is the right one.

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Hell yeah, u are ready to rock now!

I highly suggest checking out the 90's song "What I Got" by Sublime (click here for the chords) . It's basically 2 chords D,G for the lyrics. Ignore the individual notes shown at the beginning of the page and in the Break of the song (indicated with numbers). Just focus on strumming the chords (D and G) with the song playing low and you will have a blast knowing you can play along with a song minus the solo in the break of the song.

This will be so much fun :D

 

[forktender]

Here is an example of what you can play with just four chords.

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

Thank you all, again… you all are the best! A lot to consider here for sure. I do sincerely appreciate you all taking the time to help out someone who has no clue. But, some of this is kinda starting to sink in to this old rednecks hard head. Slow learner here, but trying.

 

[912smoker]

Well that may take a while .
No worries will talk about guitar gear anytime!

Keith

 

[Rafter H BBQ]

Well that may take a while .
No worries will talk about guitar gear anytime!

Keith

You’re not just a kidding Keith… this old noggin is almost impenetrable.

Awesome, I’ll soak up as much as I can.