Where to buy first acoustic?

jph100

hi

im looking to buy my first acoustic soon in dublin city centre, anyone recommend any places? ive been told waltons and goodwins are good places and just wanna get some more feedback here.

also im hoping to progress to electric guitar eventually, does that affect which acoustic i shud get or does it not matter at all?

thanks

fguihen

Musician Inc have some great acoustic's at good prices. for a coupple hundred ( 200 - 300 ) you can have a decent tanglewood with no pickups. it will certainly give you years of fun. i dont like musicmaker for acoustics. duno why, but apart from their takemine's they dont have many guitars i like, and especially down around the 200 - 300 mark. perfect pitch would be my 2nd choice for acoustics.

Dord

Actually fguihen, I would be the opposite to you. I prefer Musicmakers acoustic room. The older guy that works there is very knowledgeable and will steer you in the right direction.

For a first acoustic, look for something as close to your budget as possible with no pickup. So that means you're going to get a better guitar than one with a pickup for the same price. You can always add a pickup + preamp later if you feel the need for it.

Alanstrainor

Joe Robot wrote: »

Actually fguihen, I would be the opposite to you. I prefer Musicmakers acoustic room. The older guy that works there is very knowledgeable and will steer you in the right direction.

For a first acoustic, look for something as close to your budget as possible with no pickup. So that means you're going to get a better guitar than one with a pickup for the same price. You can always add a pickup + preamp later if you feel the need for it.

I would have to agree, that older guy gives great advice and really knows his stuff.

fguihen

the last two times i went to get a guitar i tried out all the main music shops in dublin. each time i found musicmaker to be quite condescending. 4 years ago when i was testing out an electric the guy helping me even looked to heaven and sighed when i started to play some nirvana. sure they hear it all the time, but thats no reason to make learners feel small and useless.

also when i asked recently upstairs about the taylor's i was politely told in a round about way to aim lower that i couldnt afford it. i had no intention to buy it, but was asking why it was better than a guitar half its price, just so i would know what makes a good guitar better than a cheaper one. nothing wrong with asking that. that was done to me once before in a sony shop and i left. i had just under 1000 quid to spend on an acoustic last month, and because of Musicmakers actions, making me feel small just for asking a few questions, I walked.

Musician inc were fantastic. i told them my range, what i was looking for and they recommended a number of guitars from my price range down to lower priced models. i ended up going well below my price range as one of the guitars they presented me with felt real good and was a good price. they guy wasnt in a hurry to push the more expensive models on me either.

gave me quite a few items for free ( strap, strings, picks, capo) and 20 quid of a hiscocx hardcase.

thats just why i dont generally like music maker and why I will always try out musician inc first. friendly, helpful and extremely knowledgeable staff.

as stated though, thats just my opinion. try them all out, you might have quite different experiences with the shops

OSiriS

I picked up both of my guitars in Musician Inc, and while I haven't been there in years, it sounds like their service is as good as ever.

methodinsane

Musician's Inc are cool guys who all play and know their stuff. They don't have a large range of stuff but can order what you want. They sometimes get their info wrong - this lead me to buying a Taylor 210e and returning it for full refund - but are incredibly accomodating.

Musicmaker's acoustic department is gone to the dumps the last few years since the older guy left. They've got less guitars. The staff aren't exactly knowledgeable (upstairs staff that is). I had to give a customer advice when the sales man turned his back cos he was filling them full of it. Downstairs I've had better experiences.

Melody Maker are good but have a Martin dealership and thus concentrate on those.

Waltons are ok but the acoustics are not taken care of - a 3000 Gibson with rusty strings? Sacrilege.

My advice go buy one of the Godin based guitars coming from Canada. They're sold under different monikers - Seagull, Simon & Patrick etc. They're good guitars that don't cost that much. It's worth investing in your first instrument. 300-400 if you can afford it. These guitars are worth that money.

Of course you can always go in (take someone that plays if you can), play some, pick one you like and order it online.

Funny you mention electric and now I solely play acoustic (a Brazilian rosewood Lakewood D54 if you must ask!)

methodinsane

fguihen wrote: »

gave me quite a few items for free ( strap, strings, picks, capo) and 20 quid of a hiscocx hardcase.

What guitar did you get? Just wondering cos a Hardcase should be free if you spend over a certain amount but then we're talking probably 2000 or over. I got a Hiscox LiteFlite with my Lakewood (but then that's a 3000 guitar - bought on Ebay mint for 1800 - Swish!)

BTW is this fguihen that went to IT sligo?

fguihen

What guitar did you get? Just wondering cos a Hardcase should be free if you spend over a certain amount but then we're talking probably 2000 or over. I got a Hiscox LiteFlite with my Lakewood (but then that's a 3000 guitar - bought on Ebay mint for 1800 - Swish!)

BTW is this fguihen that went to IT sligo?

I got a tanglewood TW155 CT from Musician inc.. They initially gave me a beauty of a martin to play, 900 bucks. i was about to roast the credit card and get it, but the guy said i should try some of the tanglewoods first. teh TW155CT felt beautiful, sounds great looks class. has a real quality feel to it. i was expecting it to be 600 quid(ish) but came to 370 or there abouts. I would never expect a free case with a guitar of that price. sure its not a martin, but for me, starting off again its a terriffic guitar.

Oh, and yes, this is the mighty fguihen from Sligo IT. there are no other fguihen's in the country. I wiped them all out years ago. there can be only 1 fguihen!.

who might you be when you are not using the alias of methodinsane??

jph100

thanks for all the replies lads.

sorry to be breaking up the IT Sligo reunion here!

but i was actually in goodwins the other day and they had some decent looking starter sets for around 150 so im thinking for a beginner that aint too bad

eoin5

At that price level the Cort guitars steal the show imo. Ask the lads in Musician about the Cort Earth 70. They come very well set up compared to the other guitars in that price range which is good for a beginner. Oh, and dont forget to haggle

methodinsane

Some important things to note when buying a cheap acoustic (bar the subjectivvity of the sound):

Action:
A low action is referred to as being "fast". It's makes playing far easier as the string tension is not as noticeable as pressing the string to the fretboard takes less effort thus your fingers don't get as sore. This can come at a price (apart from sound) and that can be unnecessary buzzing on open and fretted chords/notes. It can easily be fixed by either raising the bridge (putting a shimmy in under the saddle or replacing the saddle) or more often than not raising the nut (crudely by placing small pieces of paper under the strings at the nut or replacing the nut).
High action can be a bitch and cheap cheap guitars can have mega high action making playing (especially for beginners) a nightmare. It can also be remedied by filing the saddle or nut.
These things should really be done by someone with experience.

Intonation:
Check the intonation as well as you can. Easiest method?? Do a harmonic over the 12th fret on each string; note the pitch. This will always be the same as hitting that string open albeit a few octaves higher. Then hit the same string fretted at the 12th. If the fretted note is lower or higher that the harmonic (or open) then you've got intonation problems. Intonation problems can happen all over the shop. If you notice this on a test guitar don't worry too much. Old strings feck up intonation big time. This is why I mentioned in another post that I hate guitar shops that have expensive guitars with crappy old strings; doesn't let the guitar sound it's best. Other things that can affect it are incorrect sitting of a string in the saddle (where the ball at the end of a string sits in the bridge). I found this out on my expensive Lakewood when I bought it first (online blind!!!) and received it I noticed the D string intonation was way off. Put on a set (carefully) of Elixirs and BAM! the problem was gone. Outside those simple causes there are other more serious problems one being that the scale or distance between the nut and bridge is incorrect either by bad design or problems with the bridge (dry or wet guitars affect the soundboard allowing to go concave or convex and thus moving the bridge).

Sorry for waffling but if you can get someone who plays to go with you. you can cheap crap guitars or cheap good guitars. Someone with experience should know the difference.

Any of the guitars mentioned above should do serve you well and remember it is your first so you don't need to go mad spending when you can pick up bargains.

MI