1. Understand the representative types of guitars

When you walk into a music store and decide to buy an electric guitar, when faced with the numerous electric guitars in the store, don’t confuse. Whichever piano's beautiful appearance attracts you, she may be the girl of your dreams who wants to buy it home! Some friends may ask, why is the appearance of the guitar so important? In fact, the reason is very simple. A guitar that makes your hands itch just looking at it will make you secrete the desire to practice, thus making you increase your practice time unconsciously. If you are a beginner, it is not recommended that you buy a guitar that is too exaggerated in appearance, because it will prevent you from practicing at home, sitting on a comfortable sofa. Let me give you a brief introduction to the three most representative guitar types. The first one to be introduced is the stratocaster type. This type of guitar designed and promoted by Fender has a streamlined body, three single-coil pickups, and a single push-down tremolo arm. Its tone characteristics are bright and solid. The second type is the Les Paul guitar. This guitar was first developed by Gibson Company. The sleek body is inlaid with two iron cassette pickups, and there are three symmetrical knobs on the left and right sides of the headstock. This is the most striking appearance feature of les paul. The mid-range tone is strong and solid. Category 3 guitars are rock arm type. If you want to buy this type of guitar, I recommend the rg series launched by ibanez. The appearance is sharp and angular, the pickups are mostly combined with humbuckers, and are equipped with a two-way tremolo arm. The tone is more modern than the first two.

2. About the bridge and fretboard

After finding a beautiful-looking guitar, you need to confirm its functions.

Les Paul-type guitars use a fixed bridge. Although there is no vibrato arm, it is not easy to lose tune and the intonation is guaranteed. The stratocaster type is equipped with a single vibrato bridge. Although it cannot significantly change the musical interval, the subtle and smooth vibrato effect is its charm. Most rock arm types use the two-way tremolo system developed by Floyd Rose. It can create intense vibrato effects and drastically change musical intervals. But the intonation is greatly reduced, and running out of tune is a big problem. Moreover, it may take some time to replace it with a new one.

Also, something to note is the number of frets on the fingerboard. Generally speaking, the fingerboards of Stratocaster type and Les Paul type are mostly 21st and 22nd frets. The rock arm type has 24 frets. In recent years, most of the rg series products produced by ibanez have 27 frets. When leaving the factory, the full tuning is a half step lower than the standard tuning. It is necessary to adjust the bridge spring behind the guitar body to change the suspension height of the bridge before the guitar can be set to standard tuning. , perform normally.

3. Pickup

The pickup has the greatest impact on the tone of the electric guitar. Here is a brief introduction to 2 types of pickups for you piano friends. The first type is a single-coil pickup that is often equipped with stratocaster types. Its main feature is a smooth and bright treble tone. However, the output is small and the noise is high. There is also a strap-on humbucking pickup. This kind of pickup has high output, low noise, and solid mid-range and low-range tone. Different pickup combinations can produce qualitative changes in the tone of the guitar. Of course, the tone of the guitar also has a lot to do with the wood of the body, the fretboard, and the choice of qinxuan. Generally, most guitars sold on the market use pickups from this guitar brand. However, there are also some guitars that use professional pickup brands. For example, Dimarzio and Seymour Duncan are both top pickup brands.

4. Feel

Even a guitar has a beautiful appearance, good functions, and excellent tone. However, if you don’t have a comfortable feel, you will take many unnecessary detours during practice and lose your enthusiasm for practice. The comfort of the hand depends largely on the neck. From the cross-section, the neck can be roughly divided into V-shaped, U-shaped and ultra-thin U-shaped. The stratocaster type adopts a V-shaped neck, which is suitable for solo playing and harmonious guitar playing. It is called the 'universal type'. The Les Paul type uses a U-shaped fingerboard, which is suitable for harmonious playing, but is not easy to play quickly. The ultra-thin U-shaped neck used in the rock arm type is particularly suitable for fast playing.

Of course, this is not completely absolute. You need to try it yourself to know which neck is more suitable for your hands. In addition, the height of the harp from the fingerboard and the thickness of the frets on the fingerboard also affect the comfort of playing.