Giving Guitars as Gifts

Guitars are popular gifts (even for yourself). But selecting one can be difficult. But here's a few tips:

If they want an electric buy them an electric!

Salespeople at stores will often try to convince you to buy an acoustic, saying it is better to start out on an acoustic.

The reason for this is simple: when you come back to buy the electric they will have sold you two guitars and the store makes more money.

In my experience students have progressed more rapidly when starting on electrics. More importantly, an an electric can be played with headphones with a $25 headphone amp.

I discuss this scam in more detail in:

The Two Ways to Play Guitar.

Be careful about color choice!

This seems a bit silly, but it is a guitar after all, and it should look cool. The safest color is black, followed by sunburst and white. (Sunburst is where you can see through the finish in the center and it darkens to black on the edges, its the top of the line finish and usually costs a bit more). If they really like blue, a metallic blue color is often popular.

If you know they want a red guitar BE CAREFUL! Men and women tend to prefer different types of red. If you are buying a guitar for a female friend, go with a blue based red (in guitar colors usually called Candy Apple Red or CAR, choose wine red in a gibson). Men tend to prefer orange based reds (often called fiesta red).

The color of their dream car is usually what they want on a guitar. For acoustics, just get a normal looking one (you'll know it when you see it).

Which model to buy?

The Fender Stratocaster (like Jimi Hendrix played) is the most popular guitar of all time, an American icon, and is usually the safest choice. Plus there are quality overseas models (i.e. the Squier Affinity) for about $165 dollars that play great and make excellent starter guitars.

In the $400 range is the Made in Mexico Fender which is not a whole lot better than the Squier but it says Fender on the head stock, and looks better as a gift, $1200 gets you a real deal professional made in the U.S.A. Strat which includes a $90 hard shell case for free.

The other great rock guitar is the Gibson Les Paul. The real deal made in the U.S.A. Les Paul Standard will cost you about $1800 (and it includes a hard shell case). The problem is the entry level Les Pauls (sold under the Epiphone brand), are not very good in my experience.

The U.S.A. Les Paul Studio is an excellent guitar but still costs about $1200. I personally think the Studio is the best Les Paul they make. I can personally do without all the inlays and assorted bling they heap on the higher end models. But then again I play Stratocasters, so take that with a grain of salt.

Les Pauls are known for having a thicker sound than Strats, because they have a different kind of pickup (the magnets which turn the string vibration into sound). The best bet in the entry level is a "Fat Strat", which is a Strat with the Gibson style of pickup.

Paul Reed Smith guitars are expensive, U.S.A. guitars, which try to find a middle ground between Strats and Les Pauls. They use exotic rainforest woods and look expensive. I would avoid these. For less money you could have a real Les Paul or Strat.

Avoid any guitar over $200 with a matte finish!

There is a new trend of not clear coating guitars and saying this improves the tone. This is baloney. The clear coat is a time consuming process, and the guitar companies save money by skipping it. The guitar will look like garbage in a matter of months. In fact, I think they look like garbage brand new. Get something shiny.

Always buy a guitar off the wall!

They are always better than the ones in the Combo Packs!

If you don't know a whole lot about guitars DO NOT buy one on E-Bay! You will get ripped off!

Avoid Acoustics with "dots" on the Bridge

The bridge is where the strings meet the body of the guitar (where the pegs go in on a steel-string acoustic). Often you will see a mother of pearl dot on each side of the pegs. They often look quite nice, however, this is a sure fire sign of a low quality acoustic! They are there to hide screws, which ruin the sound. A quality acoustic has a glued on bridge.