【Gear Lab 01】Electric Guitar Beginners, how to choose the Basic Musical Instruments

Last Updated on 2024-07-25

As mentioned in the previous article, when I was choosing entry-level electric guitar instruments, I spent a lot of time looking for information and getting to know the instruments.

Therefore, this article will give some preliminary introduction to some entry-level instruments!

This article will be presented in a list, with the purpose of giving people who have never touched the field of electric guitars a general understanding of electric guitar instruments.

If you are curious about what instruments will be used in electric guitars, or if you want to get started with electric guitars.

This article will provide some basic introductions that beginner electric guitarists can take the time to research before purchasing musical instruments.

1. Hardware Devices

# 1.1. Basic Instruments

In the figure below, the most basic instruments that “can make the electric guitar make a normal sound” is listed:

◆ Electric Guitar

✅ Accurate Pitch: For beginners, you don’t need to choose too expensive ones, but the most basic principle is “the pitch of each string must be accurate! “

✅ Appearance: Choose the guitar that make you fall in love.

✅ Hand-feeling: You have to actually pick it up to see whether it is smooth or not, this choice will affect your playing satisfaction. After all, your first guitar will accompany you for a long time in practice.

Of course, if you don’t have any budget considerations, you can ignore the above suggestions and buy as many as you want…

◆ Electric Guitar AMP

Electric guitars need to be paired with dedicated amplifiers (AMP), so not any speaker can be connected to an electric guitar.

✅ According to the requirements of your practice environment, you can choose the “small AMP” or “large AMP”.

✅ small-size AMP: the volume will not be too loud, more suitable for general living places.

✅ large-size AMP: more suitable for use in places with perfect sound insulation. ( if the sound insulation is too bad, you will fight with your neighbors… )

◆ Cable

Connect the electric guitar to the AMP through the connection of the cable, so that the electric guitar can emit sound through the AMP.

Key points for selection: 

✅Signal transmission quality.

✅Appropriate length (depending on your performance environment)

✅Durable cable.

◆ Pick

Use a pick to pluck the strings to make the electric guitar sound. When you are still in the novice stage, most of the guitar skills need to be presented with picks, so learning to use pick is a basic skill.

✅ Selection focus: thickness, shape, material.

✅ Electric guitar players usually choose picks with a thickness between 0.85mm and 1.20mm.

◆ Tuner

In particular, I would like to remind beginners of electric guitar that you must develop the habit of tuning (adjusting the string pitch) before practicing the guitar every time .

✅ The pitch of the strings is very sensitive, and changes in environmental factors such as temperature and humidity will cause the strings to go out of tune.

✅ Good tuning habits can benefit your musical intuition in the long run .

Therefore, the tuner is listed as one of the most basic instruments here.

# 1.2. Effects Pedals

After introducing the most basic instruments in the previous section, you can already use the most basic instruments to make the electric guitar sound normally, and you can also practice basic skills.

This section is a brief introduction to another important equipment “effects pedals” of the electric guitar.

In the novice stage, you can wait until “your ears are sharper” or “you have requirements for tone-color” before starting to purchase the effects pedals.

💡Tips: This means that in the novice stage, it is recommended that you spend more time on the practice of basic playing-skills.

And then, the “purchase of effects pedals” should not be delayed too late. After all, “tone of effects pedals” is also a profound field.

So when the time is right, it is time to start researching the different timbres of the “effects pedals”.

Guitar effects pedals can be divided into two categories: Single Pedals and Multi-effects.

The common types of tone-color of effects pedals are:

◆ Single Pedals

1 single pedal provide a specific tone-color effect.

According to the guitarist’s needs, two or more different single effect pedals can also be connected in series to combine the “guitaristr’s tone of personal style”.

◆ Multi-effects

If it is said that a single pedal is responsible for one tone-color effect.

Then the multi-effects is an “all-in-one” equipment that integrates many tone-color effects into one unit at a time .

2. Brands

Some common musical instrument brands will be listed here, so that those who are not familiar with the field of electric guitars can have some preliminary understanding.

# 2.1. Electric Guitar Brands

Electric guitars, common brands: Gibson, Epiphone, Fender, Squier, Ibanez, PRS, Rickenbacker, Yamaha

# 2.2. AMP Brands

Amplifiers for electric guitars, common brands: Fender, Marshall, Vox, Roland, Mesa/Boogie, Orange, Boss, Yamaha, Blackstar

3. Conclusion

This article will provide some basic introductions that beginner electric guitarists can take the time to research before purchasing musical instruments.

In the next article, I will continue to introduce the instrument-elements that “affect the sound of electric guitars”; so that you can have a little more advanced consideration when choosing electric guitar.

💡Tips: You can ” don’t ” be too entangled in tone-color at the novice stage. After all, it is very normal to “not know how to distinguish tone-color” at this stage! )

Before the end of the article, let Blues-Feng take you to quickly review the main points of the article!

Basic Instruments of electric guitar:

Guitar effects pedals:

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