Guitar Buyers Guide

This guide is intended for first time buyers and parents buying for their children.

Step 1 – Should I get an all-in-one guitar pack or make up my own?

Most stores including Karacha offer the first time buyer two options, buy an outfit which contains everything you need to get started or pick and choose your electric guitar, amp and accessories.

In the past all in one guitar packs sold in catalogues, toy shops and so on gave guitar packs a bad name. But over the past few years music stores such as Karacha have started selling all in one guitar packs containing award winning guitars.

The new encore range E6, E2 & E99 have received glowing reviews from the music press:

Read Review From Guitar Buyer Magazine

Read review in Total Guitar - E2 Telecaster Style Gets 5 Stars

Other guitars in packs sold at Karacha include squire by fender, Boston by Westfield and Stagg. As long as you’re buying from a respectable music store we believe a guitar kit is the best option for the first time buyer.

Step two - Choose your guitar shape?

Most big guitar brands will make guitars in the style of famous 20^th century guitars. These include, Stratocaster, Telecaster and Les Paul.

We’re often ask is one particular shape better than another, in our experience young first timers often have a better time with a Stratocaster style guitar as they tend to be a little lighter and therefore more manageable. But for the older first timer Stratocaster, telecaster, Les Paul, it really doesn’t matter just choose the one that best suits you. First time guitar pack guitars are built with first timers in mind, so go with what you like best.

Step Three – What else do I need?

Because of the various accessories needed when buying an electric guitar we suggest for first timers to buy a all-in-one kit, but if you are buying separately essentially you need to get what most good kits offer.

• Amp. A 10 watt amp is supplied with all good guitar kits.
• Lead. Connects the guitar to the amp.
• Pick. You need a pick (picks – plectrum – plectra) to strum your guitar with.
• Bag. Protects your guitar when not in use.
• Tuner. Used to tune the guitar.
• Stand. Guitars left lying around can get broken easily.
• Strings. A spare set of strings.
• DVD. Some good kits come with a first lesson DVD.

How much does a good starter kit cost?

Ten years ago we would have said £200+, today unbelievably we can say less than £100. Because the market has been flooded with foreign imports and supermarkets selling packs the quality kits sold by music stores have had their prices slashed.

We would never recommend you buy an musical instrument from a catalogue shop, supermarket or an unknown brand from the internet – however from the consumers point of view it is good they exist as by flooding the market they have forced the big brands to lower their prices. The encore guitars mentioned above with glowing reviews all have retail prices at c. £100.  Believe it or not we sell these guitars complete with amp and accessories for £99 simply in an effort to allow people to buy a quality pack. At Karacha we want this to be your first instrument, not your last, we’ve lowered big brand packs to allow our customers to buy quality for less. We’re glad to say we have slashed our prices and now offer big brand first guitar packs priced between £99-£179

Do you have child size guitars?

Until a few years ago a child size guitars were essentially toys but thanks to some great work at companies such as encore we now have child  size version of they’re best selling models – apart from the size they’re identical in all high end features. We usually advise child size for 6-9 years but feel free to call us for a chat about you particular child’s needs.

Is tuning a guitar difficult?!

No, your guitar pack will likely have a free tuner or you can buy one for a few pounds. Don’t worry if your buying for your child and think you know nothing about music as long as you buy a tuner you simply tighten or loosen the string by turning a small knob then pluck the string and the timer tells you if the guitar is in tune or not, tighten or loosen as appropriate and pluck the string again, it’ll take longer the first time but  really is very easy.

Do I really want to by my child an electric guitar? – they’re loud!

Unlike with drums there is a handy parent friendly solution. All good amps will have a headphone jack, simply plug a pair of headphones in and the sound from the amp travels to the headphones instead through the speakers. Don’t worry the sound in the headphones is not as loud as if it were coming through the speaker, as long as the child sensibly sets volume it’s the same as listening to music. Karacha sells special headphones for guitars, visit the page by clicking here.