Hi . I am not struggling with the guitar playing but with the guitar.I bought it 5 months back from now. I never knew about guitar and stuffs that time and the the music store guy recommended me to buy "Granada PRS-1 39" Medium Cutaway Guitar". He said thats its good for beginners But now, as I play some other guitars, I feel they are better than mine. What I feel is other guitars(which my friends have), the strings are much closer to the fretboard(which I feel makes the playing easier) and in mine, they are not. And, my guitar is 39". I think I need a bigger one! Wht should I do?? Should I sell my guitar after 5 months of use and buy new one. WHich one should I buy? And if yes, then sell it for how much(I bought it for RS. 4200 with granada cover). Where should I sell it? online? My college is based in a place where there are no music stores, I guess (Pilani(Rajasthan)). So it has to be an online deal. SO which website is the best? Please help someone! Thanx!
Dude, from what you say, the 'Action' of your guitar is too high. To understand what's action of a guitar, please check youtube which will show you detailed video of what actually I am referring to. If action is too high, it's pretty difficult to play for freshers. Frankly speaking, you were duped by the store owner. Although action can be reduced but the problem is finding a good Luthier (repairing guy) is like finding water in desert. You don't need a bigger one. Buying a new guitar online, you will never be sure how it may end up. If your luck is bad, you may end up with another high action piece. Better go to store with an experienced guy, play an instrument, see that you are comfortable playing it. For action, there are numerous steps recommended online before buying. For starting guitars, frankly speaking buy anything which fits in your budget, it can be Granada, Pluto or Jimm. But see that it's playable. Only, when you are sure that you will take your guitar learning further, you are pretty much serious about it and you think it's time to change, then only start thinking of big budget and branded one. Lastly, if you are not able to do anything, do not lose your heart, keep practicing on your current instrument. You will find it difficult to play barre chords towards the guitar (high notes) but you can always practice better on first 5 to 7 tabs and open chords for time being. And if you are able to play well on high action guitar, you can play any instrument later on. Best wishes, happy strumming.
Do you know guitarists take extra care to get the high "action" (= the strings are much farther away from the fretboard) for certain genres , that you so despise. Unless the high action is detrimental - there is no reason why you should be even concerned. Low action is only required for speed metchul wanking solos.
Well, I had the same problem, or at least I think I had the same problem back when I bought my guitar in '10. At least u have some consolation that u got ur guitar by urself, mine was bought after the advices of my friend, who I believe to be a douche now. Anyway, for ur problem, ur action seems higher. If u r uncomfortable in playing basic chords and strumming and stuff, u can get a guitar tech take a look at it, which u can find in any decent guitar place. I personally never had any problems with those guitar techs. Frankly, its pretty easy on some models of acoustic guitars to adjust their action. I myself modify mine from time to time. And no, they are not called "Luthiers". Luthiers are very experienced and intelligent people who can easily tell guitars apart from each other by tone. Those guys customise guitars and even build them from scratch, timber and all. Calling a guitar tech a luthier is like calling ur canteen's maggi-cook a "master chef", if u get my drift. And lastly, if u feel that u're friends guitar sounds better, dont lose heart. You need to improve over time to get a good one, otherwise u might get another bummer, and that wud be, well, a bummer! I made peace with my guitar too after a year. So what if it was short (17 frets max)? so what if its action was high? I tweaked it to my requirements and now I play it well, and sound good on it. It's just beginners complex if I may sum it up to u. Anyway, do u study in BITS??
@ alpha1: Bro, I know certain guitarist prefer high action. But we are not referring to an experienced guitar player who owns a Gibson or Taylor. For 4200, one can still get a decent guitar. What I've actually referred to are the false practices followed by many store owners in duping customers for money. I've myself seen these cases but one thing I hated about these store owners is their attempts to sell a particular piece to novices. It's a store owners responsibility to educate customer on the piece one is going to buy and prepare it before delivery/handover. I've experienced this at Furtados, Mumbai where the owner had only one particular piece and it had high action. He worked on it and made sure action is lowered a bit before delivery. Coming on to main topic, I would say, work on it, repair it properly if it's not at all playable and keep practicing hard. The frustration isn't about the guitar itself, but getting adjusted to playing. It takes time. But you should be happy that you have learnt something that will help you to buy better ones in future.
