Haji
Supporting Member
The thing to be careful of is to not impulse buy and not be pushed into something because somebody wants you to buy it. You need to build a little bit of a base of knowledge. I've done very well with pawn shops in finding deals, but ya gotta know what you're looking at or have somebody with you that does. Sometimes you can find a really good value-I got my Ibanez GSR 200 from a pawn shop for $79 because it had goofy skull control knobs-but you also need to know why something is cheaper than everything else in its range. The other end of the scale is paying way too much because its in a store that seems to be where you get things cheapest. I saw a neat OLP four string at a shop yesterday that was in dire need of a truss rod adjustment and a set up for $239.00. That's almost a hundred bucks more than you can pick one up on the net for with careful searching.
Do you access to more than one guitar shop? Go do some learning by asking questions. You're investing money, so don't just throw it at the first thing you see. The above recommendations are all excellent and I'd do as much as possible to stay within those parameters. The worst thing you can do to yourself is to impulse buy something that's hard to play and frustrates you. You'll want to give up on playing The Greatest Instrument just because your equipment drove you out of it.
If I got a vote, I'd grab one of the entry level Yamahas such as the aforementioned RBX 170. They have a nice thin neck with room for fingers, but not too much room.
Do you access to more than one guitar shop? Go do some learning by asking questions. You're investing money, so don't just throw it at the first thing you see. The above recommendations are all excellent and I'd do as much as possible to stay within those parameters. The worst thing you can do to yourself is to impulse buy something that's hard to play and frustrates you. You'll want to give up on playing The Greatest Instrument just because your equipment drove you out of it.
If I got a vote, I'd grab one of the entry level Yamahas such as the aforementioned RBX 170. They have a nice thin neck with room for fingers, but not too much room.
