How to Choose a Professional Guitar

Now that you have learned how to play the guitar and are ready to take your playing to the next step, it's time you get a guitar that fits. Choosing a professional guitar is an important choice that will affect how you play. Keep reading to find out what you need to look for when you choose a professional guitar.

Instructions

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

1. Determine your budget for buying the guitar. If you are going to be a professional guitar player then you will need to buy a mid-range to higher-end guitar, and the price range will extend from $200 to $1000.
2. Choose an acoustic guitar if you want a guitar with a hollow sound, and play music such as country, folk or light pop or rock. Choose a single coil electric guitar if you want the electric sound and don't play much hard rock or heavy metal music. If you play a lot of rock or metal, you will want to choose a guitar with a humbucker or humbucker and coil combination.
3. Pick up the guitar and see how it feels. You want to choose a guitar that fits your body and arm length well. Some electric guitars can be quite heavy because they are made from mahogany. This makes the guitar sound good, but it also means that it can get quite heavy to hold when you are performing. A cheaper guitar will be made from basswood, while mid-range guitars will be made from alder or ash.
4. Pick a Floyd Rose bridge if you want a whammy bar on the bridge. A whammy bar is used to tighten and slacken the strings. A neck thru bridge is simpler than a Floyd Rose bridge, but you will not get the effect of a whammy bar.
5. Select a metal guitar that has pickups at the neck for a warmer sound or pickups at the bridge for a more distorted sound. If you are looking to use both sounds in your music, then you can buy a metal guitar that has pickups at both the neck and the bridge with a selector switch you can use when you want to change sounds.
6. Look for recommendations for guitars from other musicians. You will find that some of the professional guitars that are recommended include Lespaul, Stratocaster or Gibson SG.