Budget vs Premium Acoustic Guitars

In this video, we're gonna be getting to know our acoustic guitars a little better, and I'm gonna be comparing my entry-level signature acoustic guitar, which is just an example of a budget guitar, to my current number one premium guitar, which is this 5th, Neptune. This is an ideal video to watch before you've even purchased an acoustic guitar, but if you have an acoustic guitar already, then that is better than not having a guitar. Whatever guitar you currently have is the best one. To have right now cause it's the one you've got, and we want to make the most of that. But at some point, everyone either asks for or receives as a gift of their first guitar or buys their first guitar, or wants to perhaps upgrade. So what is the reason to go for a budget guitar versus a premium one, etc. etc. all of these things we're gonna be looking at, but we need to get to know our guitars a little better first of all. And a guitar is kind of like a person, it has a head. A neck and a body, and like me, it has a long slim neck. Both of these guitars, and all the guitars behind me have steel strings. There is another common type of acoustic guitar which is a nylon string guitar, which was my actual first hand me down guitar. My older brother had one. The number one way to recognise whether a guitar is a nylon string or a steel string is at the headstock. A steel string guitar will always be wound around in this fashion, and a classical guitar. Has them wound round in a different fashion, purely distinguishable by the headstock alone, that's the best way to spot it, especially on a photo, but the nylon strings themselves, when seen up close, are an obvious difference to the steel string acoustic. I highly recommend for so many reasons that people go for a steel string acoustic guitar over a nylon string acoustic, even as a total beginner, even for children, and that is if you want to learn pop, rock. Folk finger style songs, which is basically everything that I cover. I don't really cover anything that's applicable to nylon string guitar on my website or YouTube channel. On the Head Start we have these tuning pegs, also called machine heads, which we use to tune our guitar, we'll be looking at that a little later. Moving down the guitar, we have the nut here which holds the strings at a certain height, this can be adjusted. We then have the fingerboard or fretboard, which is the wood underneath the strings just here. On the fingerboard, we have metal frets, fret 1, fret 2, fret 3. On the top of our guitar, we have fretboard markers at frets 3579, and a double dot at 12 frets, at least on my guitar, those dots can vary, as can the inlays and the inlays. Vary a lot more. These are dot inlays. Some guitars have block inlays like this electric guitar. Some guitars have a cutaway to enable the fingers to reach uh the higher frets easily, this one doesn't. But that doesn't mean it's any better or worse, it's just a different style of guitar. It just gives access to the higher frets easier. On an acoustic. Acoustic guitar, we then have a sound hole, which is how the guitar actually projects the sound and why we don't need an amplifier with acoustic guitars. Some guitars like this one have a scratch plate or pick guard, uh, my premium one doesn't cos it's got quite a lacquered finish, so that kind of protects it quite a bit. We then have a bridge, which is the wooden area here, the saddle. And then bridge pins which hold our strings in, and we'll be showing how to change the strings on an acoustic guitar in a different video. So when these two guitars look so similar, but they have such a wild price difference, what is the difference that you're paying for? One of the primary things is what it's made of, the construction materials, particularly the wood, and what you're looking for as a first upgrade from a. Budget guitar is for that wood to be solid wood, as opposed to some sort of laminated finish like is on any budget acoustic guitar. Some guitars offer just a solid top, laminated back and sides. That is going to be an upgrade from a fully laminated guitar, but solid top, back and sides is one of the first spec things that you're looking for when you're spending a bit more money and you're moving beyond the total entry level range. Another. The thing that some premium guitars have are electronics in them to be able to plug in your acoustic guitar and plug it into an amplifier or anything, any recording device or any live production device to get either effects or to essentially be louder. These are always shown by having some electronics um shown on top of the guitar. Some of these are quite well hidden. I've got an acoustic that doesn't have the EQ shown here, but it does have both a microphone. And um a pickup underneath the bridge here. That type of guitar is called electroacoustic, electroacoustic, not electric acoustic, and that just means it is a fully acoustic guitar that can be played acoustically, but has the added option of plugging in. That is only really something I'd recommend for anyone that is ever wanting to play live. And even then, you have different options. In my opinion, especially for the first. Guitar, I would recommend saving you money and going for a better quality acoustic guitar made from better materials rather than having the electrics in it. That being said, if you ever do want to perform, buy once rather than buying multiple times, buying once and get it right is an option. And I do want to show you the acoustic guitar that I learnt on, which is this one. This is the actual acoustic guitar that I learnt how to play. I remember learning my first chords on this guitar. I did play a nylon stringed uh beginner acoustic a little bit before this and I'd had a go on my brother's electric guitar, but I couldn't play anything, like I couldn't play even like one chord or do chord changes or anything. This is the guitar I learnt to play on. It is an electroacoustic because it plugs in, but it is also more the size and feel of an electric guitar. It's quite a lot thinner, it has a plastic back right. Rather than a wooden back which allows it to be thinner, it's got some stuff inside it that's wobbling about, and that slimness really made a big difference to me, and that slimness is what we went for with my er acoustic, my signature acoustic guitar, so that's something to look for as well. Beyond the guitar itself, there are a couple of accessories that I do recommend every acoustic guitarist has, um, namely, we are gonna be using a guitar pick a lot in this course, though I will show you how to strum and finger. Pick as an option if you prefer not to use a pick. I do highly recommend having a guitar capo. This will simply enable you to play many more songs and it is quite a core feature of a lot of the songs in the beginner's course. And finally, some spare strings. I recommend Ernie Ball's strings, the basic acoustic guitar ones are great, but so we don't have to change our guitar strings every couple of months, I really like the coated ones. Most of my acoustic guitars these days have had the guitar strings. On for like over 1 year or 18 months, and that just wouldn't be how long they would last with regular play uh with standard strings. So I highly recommend the coated ones. We'll show you how to change your strings and get set up with your acoustic guitar in another video, but that's all the basics you need to know about your acoustic guitar and a little bit on what you get at different budget ranges. There are so many different options with acoustic and electric guitars these days, we really live in a golden age of it. So my recommendation beyond the technical specs and things is get whichever guitar makes you want to play it when you look at it. Guitars should all have a bit of a calling for you. There is no. Come to me And if you have a calling for one, then that's the one for you and no one else could tell you otherwise, you know which one's right for you. That is the best advice I think we can give and I hope it really helps you with your guitar journey.