Choosing A Beginner's Guitar

tripl3thr33 · #1 December 1st, 2006

Hi everyone. I've been looking around the site for awhile and like to say good job, and that this is a great resource for people who want to start out, like me. Anyway, I'm an ukulele player and wanted to move on to learning a guitar. I'm willing to spend at most $250 - $300 on one at the moment. I saw a bundled package at a Costco that i went to, it was either a Yamaha EF31 or SCF08. It was a kit that went for $170 but i was skeptical about it. I was also wondering about the quality of the jasmine line of takamine guitars. I saw that their prices were within my budget but havent really heard much about them. Any help is welcome, and thanks in advance!

Cliff · #2 December 1st, 2006

When I was looking at buying an acoustic a couple of years ago, I tried out the Jasmine guitars but I didn't like them as much as the Samick guitars. I think for the money, Samick makes a very nice quality guitar. I have a 6 string Rio Grande and a 12 string Beaumont. Originally I was considering the 6 string Beaumont (which I think is in your price range) but decided to go with the Rio Grande because it was an acoustic/electric. Samick has a web site that has videos of most of their guitars. I think the website is samickguitars.com. Or you can search for them or Greg Bennet (the designer). Good luck.

allthumbs · #3 December 1st, 2006

Tanglewoods are in your price range too.

tripl3thr33 · #4 December 1st, 2006

hmmm....... havent seen those at the stores that i checked out lol. hopefully they'll have some in now, they should've restocked yesterday. alright, thanks guys. oh and also, i was wondering if anyone had any experience with the ovation guitars with the bowl-shaped back? i noticed some of them are relatively smaller and i've seen ukes like that that were pretty nice. once again, thanks for the help! really appreciate it.

carol m · #5 December 3rd, 2006

When I tried an Ovation a few years ago I found the fret-board quite narrow compared with others. They may have changed it or it was just on the one I tried, but it's worth bearing that in mind if you think it might be important for you. The sound was good though.

allthumbs · #6 December 3rd, 2006

Quote:

Originally Posted by tripl3thr33

hmmm....... havent seen those at the stores that i checked out lol. hopefully they'll have some in now, they should've restocked yesterday. alright, thanks guys. oh and also, i was wondering if anyone had any experience with the ovation guitars with the bowl-shaped back? i noticed some of them are relatively smaller and i've seen ukes like that that were pretty nice. once again, thanks for the help! really appreciate it.

Ovations are one of those guitars that people either love or hate. I believe the bowl is made from material other than wood