Buying an Electric Guitar For Christmas
Buying a loved one an electric guitar for Christmas? Click here to see some great choices.
Christmas is a time for giving and seeing the joy on the faces of your loved ones. Buying an electric guitar for Christmas is a wonderful idea because electric guitars make excellent gifts for boys and girls and men and women of all ages. In fact, we would say that it is probably the best gift that anyone could ever hope to receive from Santa because you can start a challenging and rewarding hobby that can last you an entire lifetime. The same simply cannot be said of Grandma’s knitted jumper, that cool new food processor or even that new computer game.
Year upon year sales of electric guitars increase and it’s no suprise that it is now the most popular musical instrument in the world, we all know someone who either plays the guitar, wants to learn to play the guitar or wishes they had learnt to play the electric guitar at some point in their life.
For those that fall into the latter two categories it really is never too late, so what better idea than to buy them an electric guitar for Christmas? They will certainly owe you a debt of gratitude forever, especially if their dream of becoming a rockstar becomes true, and you never know, it might! Then guess what, it’d be all down to you, the one who bought them their first guitar!
Because of the immense popularity of the electric guitar there has never really been a better time than now for learning to play. At an beginners fingertips today are scores of tuition books (both electronic and traditional paper ones), vidoes (online and DVD), courses (in your community and on the internet), guides and information sites (like this one!) and many more geat resources that make for easily accessible learning for all. Above all, thanks to manufacturing techniques, readily available technology and materials and significantly reduced labour costs, electric guitars are at their most ever affordable with some truly phenomenal prices on some outstanding quality instruments made by a selection of the most well known brands. All of this boils down to great value for money in an present that will easily outlast the gym membership, the home brewing kit, that pair of rollerblades, or the latest super hero action figure.
It’s understandable that if you are buying an electric guitar as a Christmas present for someone near and dear to you then you want to know exactly what you are getting for your money, so you can make the best decision on which make and model to go for. The chances are you might no necessarily know a great deal about guitars yourself, so, follow the guide below!
BODY SHAPE & MATERIAL
Most electric guitars are based on the shape of two of the most succesful guitar designs of all time. These are the instantly recognisable Fender Stratocaster
If when shopping for the electric guitar you see any references to an ‘S’ or ‘Strat’ style guitar than you will know that the shape is based on the Stratocaster. If you see any references to an ‘LP’ style guitar then you will know that it is based on the shape of the Les Paul.
Now, in terms of materials, the wood from which a guitar is made can have a significant impact on the sound (we call this ‘tone’) and, importantly, the price.
Unless money is no object to you then your beginner electric guitarist is not going to need a guitar made from an exotic wood, they will however need a guitar made from solid wood.
The most common woods used in the construction of beginner electric guitars is Basswood which is light, inexpensive and strong, making it perfect for prospective rockers to throw around whilst practising those rock moves.
The other popular wood used in the construction of more affordable guitars is Alder. It is an great example of what is called ‘tonewood’ (wood that is capable of producing good tones due to its acoustic and resonant properties). It is considered to be superior to Basswood yet is still also rather inexpensive.
HARDWARE
We’ve all heard of the saying ‘the Devil is in the detail’. This certainly holds true for guitars so it’s a good idea to make sure that hardware is sound. After all, it’s all very well buying a guitar with a cool shape body but you don’t want parts to start falling off after a few strums!
Hardware covers everything that either makes teh guitar function or that holds it together. In terms of the former, the pickups are very significant indeed as it is these that actually produce the sound. With poorly made or deffective pickups your prospective guitarist is not going to get very far at all.
Most of the more well known manufactures such as Squier
If you can, go for a guitar that has Alinico magnets in the pickups. Alnico is an alloy made from Aluminium, Nickel and Cobalt as well as a few other metals and these are considered to be highly effective because of the fact it has excellent eletcromagnetic properties.
Tuners are another important factor. These are the six metal pegs on the headstock of the guitar that you turn to tune up the guitar ready for playing. Cheap tuners will not do the beginner electric guitarist any favours because they can sometimes require a lot of pressure to put on them in order to tighten the strings. If the tuners are cheap they can be very difficult to turn and can even snap which will render your guitar pretty much useless as you will not be able to tune it effectively, and an out of tune guitar is just no good.
So, you want to go for a guitar with die-cast, chrome hardware which of course is hard wearing and wonderfully shiny.
GUITAR NECK
It is advisable that you find out some information about the neck of the guitar as this is where a lot of the work that the beginner elctric guitarist needs to do takes place. If the neck of the guitar is too wide or too thick then it will be more difficult for smaller hands to grasp it and therefore it will be more difficult to hold down the strings to play notes and chords which will be nofun at all. More importantly, the wrong shape of neck can make it painful to play the guitar and can even result in injury.
Such guitars as the Squier Bullet Stratocaster
You might also want to think about getting an electric guitar with a short scale neck
The frets (which are the metal dividers on the neck) need to be well made and installed too. They need to be smooth with no overhangs for the strings to catch on.
BRAND NAME
The brand of the guitar you will buy is very important. We’re not talking in terms of kudos or looking cool amongst peers, we’re talking quality and value.
If your beginner electric guitarist wants to stick at the guitar and improve then they might wish to upgrade to a better, more expensive electric guitar when they reach a certain stage and in order to do so they might wish to sell their beginner electric guitar. This will be much easier to do if the beginner elctric guitar is made by reputable brand such Squier
Also, buying a instrument made by an established manufacturer means peace of mind for the buyer who will no doubt get excellent aftersales customer service and will have some sort of product guarantee should anything be wrong with the guitar.
ACCESSORIES
An electric guitar package
You should however be sure to check just what is included in the electric guitar package because, naturally, some are significantly better than others.
The most important things that should be included in a good electric guitar pack are a guitar, a small amplifier, a guitar lead, a guitar strap, a tuner and a beginners book, CD or DVD. These are the bare essentials that will enable the beginner guitarist to be up and rocking as soon as they have unwrapped the guitar and anything else such as plectra or a guitar case will be a welcome but not entirely necessary bonus.
We highly recommend Squier
WHERE SHOULD YOU BUY THE GUITAR FROM?
The best bet for buying your guitar is Amazon.com
Buying your guitar as a Christmas present from Amazon is also a good idea because you will be able to take advantage of any seasonal deals that may be occurring.
Finally you can choose to have Amazon gift wrap your purchase for an extra fee and state a personal messgae to be printed on a label. This convenient, time saving service means that you don’t have to spend ages fiddling around with wrapping paper, scissors and sticky tape, it can all be done for you meaning you can spend your valuable pre-Christmas time shopping for more gifts.
So there you go, get you your loved one an electric guitar for Christmas from Amazon.com
