Help--Easy to play guitars

Subject: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: GUEST,Big Red
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 12:37 PM

Some recent threads have talked about reasonably priced guitars ($500 or less) but none of them talk about ease of playing, especially on the fingers of the left hand (if you are a right handed player). Which guitars in this price range are the easiest to play?

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: catspaw49
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 12:42 PM

Depending on what width and scale you are comfortable with as well as which body size, properly set up most guitars that we mention are pretty nice. Lots of individual preferences though........Neck shape? Width? Body size? Strings and gauge?

Spaw

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: Midchuck
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 12:50 PM

Assuming that the guitar is reasonably well made, with a proper neck setup, it's more a function of the action being properly "set up" than of the brand of guitar itself.

Action too high = hurts your fingers. (well, if you're a new player, I should say "hurts your fingers more than necessary")

Action too low = strings buzz.

You also have some control of the feel in terms of string gauge. The lighter the gauge, the easier to play (but the less volume you get, and the more likelihood of buzzing).

Best advice I (a confirmed non-luthier, but an avid guitar buyer and seller) can give is: Find a guitar you think you'll like, for a price you like, then find a competent local repairperson to check out the setup (It helps to be in a band with a competent repair person, because he knows he'll have to live with the sound and your whining about the action). If you buy used, or buy an obscure brand new, try to have the repair person look at it before you buy.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: bbelle
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 01:08 PM

Peter ... the way you go on about Sandy ... it's a wonder he doesn't put rocks in your geetar!

I'm sure if you're looking for a geetar that's easy to learn to play, if you don't play now, or one that will be "easy" to play, if you do currently play.

What's easy for one, won't necessarity be easy for another. You've got to play lots of different guitars to make that decision.

Both catspaw and midchuck gave you stellar advice. I know, because their knowledge and advice was critical to my buying a new guitar. And the most heard piece of advice of received, from a myriad of people, is what I wrote above ...

"You've got to play lots of guitars ..."

moonjen

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: Mooh
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 01:30 PM

As a general rule, a shorter scale (distance from nut to saddle) means a softer (less tension) action, simply because it requires less tension to reach a certain pitch if the vibrating length of string is shorter. Therefore, guitars with slightly shorter scale lengths, like some Gibsons, may be a little easier to finger. The other considerations of course are set-up, string type and guage and general shape of neck vs shape and size of hand.

Note: D'Addario "Flat-top" brand strings require more tension than their regular strings of the same guage. So even though they are slightly flat wound and easier to finger for the experienced guitarist, this may not be the case for the beginner, young, or gentle handed among us.

Stay away from guitars with square fret profiles or sloppy fret finishing, they're hard on your fingers and the strings.

Try out every possible guitar available to you and take your time about it. After your hands are happy, trust your ears.

Good luck. Mooh.

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: GUEST,Big Red
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 02:01 PM

Thanks for the information. Instead of going out and buying a new guitar, I will take my beat up old Gibson to someone who can do a proper "set-up". Again, thank you.

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: Mooh
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 03:59 PM

...not too many old Gibsons which can't be fixed to play well..Mooh.

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: Cap't Bob
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 08:34 PM

I bought a Larrivee parlor guitar earlier this year and it is absolutely the easiest playing guitar that I've ever tried. Not only is it easy to play but it is small enough that you can play it slouched on a sofa or reclining chair and even in the cramped quarters of my small sail boat. Another advantage is that the Larrivee has a great sound. The best way to find one that is easy for you to play is to visit many music shops and try as many different guitars as possible.

Cap't Bob

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: GospelPicker (inactive)
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 10:50 PM

I'm telling ya... the folks who had a similar discussion about guitars under $400 didn't listen...

JOHNSON GUITARS!!! They have NEW, SOLID-TOP GUITARS STARTING AT ROUGHLY 175-200 BUCKS! GO TO FOLKOFTHEWOOD.COM AND CHECK OUT THE SPECS! THEY USE MARTIN STRINGS AND HAVE A PRETTY GOOD FEEL RIGHT FROM THE FACTORY (I KNOW, I USED TO SELL 'EM)

TRUST ME, On a budget you'll thank me for this tip!

GospelPicker (who has had to wade through dozens of cheapies to find these!)

@:()>[+]

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: CBjames
Date: 15 Oct 00 - 10:51 PM

Hey Big Red;

When I bought my first guitar - still my favourite - I bought it from the guy that built it. We lived in northest France at the time and I went to the local luthier and bought a hand made classical guitar with a birds-eye maple back for the equivalent of forty dollars.

I was thirteen or fourteen at the time. I had been playing ukelele and baritone uke so I knew most of the fingering, but I couldn't press the strings down hard enough.

A week after I bought it I took the guitar back to the man who made it and complained of this. "I can't play it" I said, "the strings are too high."

He looked at me with disdain, and said "If you were a MAN you could play this guitar." He took the guitar, loosen the strings and made a show of lowering the notches in the ivory nut. I say made a show because I don't think he did enough to compromise the quality of the instrument. Forty years later it is still the guitar I grab first.

I have played other guitars from time to time. Some of the electrics appear to honour a light left hand. But just about every acoustic takes work (ie practise).

Good luck.

j

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From:
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 01:44 AM

Yes you gotta keep playing once you get the callouses. Because of an illness, I stopped playing for a month and found it very painful to play for any time when I returned to it. It didn't take much time to get them back again.

You also have to develop the muscles in your left hand and fingers. I think this would be the case with any acoustic guitar. You can get the action lowered until right before they buzz. If you plan to use open tuning, be sure to have the guitar tuned to the lowest tension you will come across in your choice of tunings. When you develop callouses and muscles, I suggest you get the action raised again.

By the way. A classical guitar can really sound dead if the action is low. This is not the case of most acoustics. They are just less loud.

Murray

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: Barry T
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 02:33 AM

I'm surprised none of you have mentioned the preference for an adjustable neck... which cheaper guitars do not have.

On mid-range and up steel stringed guitars there is a steel rod installed down through the neck. An adjustment nut is accessed by removing the little plate up near the keys. Some others are accessible through the sound hole.

The tension on this adjustment rod is used to partially control the string height and to straighten the neck so that there is a fairly consistent string height all the way up the neck. As Midchuck described it... a height that is low for ease of playing but not so low that the strings buzz on heavy strumming.

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: BigDaddy
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 02:49 AM

Art & Lutherie guitars. Made in Quebec.

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: Midchuck
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 08:05 AM

One of the experts on the flatpick list suggests the "sixteen cent rule" for checking the action height (on six-string guitars).

This requires availability of U. S. coins.

What you do is try to slide a a dime and a penny, together, under the low E string, on top of the 12th fret. They should just barely fit. If there's daylight between the two coins and the string, the action may be too high; if you can't fit them in without the string being deflected upwards, it may be too low.

Then you do the same thing on the high E string side with a nickel, alone.

In any event, don't be in too much of a hurry to try adjusting the truss rod by yourself.

Action height is dependent on neck relief (the amount of curve in the neck - and there should be just a teeny bit of forward curve in the neck - but if you can see it clearly by sighting along the neck, there's probably too much) but also on bridge saddle height, nut slot height, and neck angle (the angle the neck is set into the body at). A good repair person may adjust any or all of those in setting the action.

Peter.

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: Grab
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 01:13 PM

Nylon-string classicals are easiest on the fingers. If you've got a fairly cheap one and the action's a bit high, you can buy another bridge or nut and file it down to an appropriate size (just b4 it buzzes). I'd recommend buying a new bridge/nut so that you've still got the old one if things go wrong, or if you decide you liked the sound of the old one better.

The bridge jams into a slot, which is easy to fix. The nut has to be glued on, but the easiest way is to put a bit of slow-setting glue on it, string 'er up, and then check the nut is in the right position (pitch, position on neck, etc) b4 the glue dries. The strings will hold the nut in place; the glue's more just to stop it slipping slightly if it's banged, and to stop it falling off when you de-string.

If you're as skint as I am, buy second-hand from a decent guitar shop. That way it should be cheaper, and you'll know it's had someone competant look at it first.

Grab.

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: M. Ted (inactive)
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 02:41 PM

CBJames--I love your story, what a typically French answer, and you will note, and also typical, after saying his piece, he fixed the guitar the way you wanted it--

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: GUEST,Les uk
Date: 16 Oct 00 - 03:31 PM

I bought a Taylor314 because it is so easy for me to, plus the great sound of course. This was in the U.K.(£800) No doubt they will be a lot cheaper in the U.S.

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: Jon W.
Date: 17 Oct 00 - 10:31 AM

A good place to learn about string action, relief, etc. is FRETS.COM

Subject: RE: Help--Easy to play guitars
From: Mooh
Date: 17 Oct 00 - 01:56 PM

One trick is to relieve the neck of some tension and your fingers of some pain by lowering your tuning a half or whole step. When standard tuning is necessary, capo up as far as you are tuned down. The drawback is that your guitar top won't be working as hard as it could and you'll loose some volume and tone, but it may be worth the effort to save some pain. Move your tuning up when you're ready for it.

Mooh.