Blues Guitar Lessons
After watching a superb blues guitar performance, one of the most common questions that comes by the audience is 'what make of guitar is that' ? This reflects a common misconception concerning a musician's performance, namely that it's the guitar rather than the musician that is responsible for the music! People don't consider all the guitar lessons and hundreds of hours practicing!
Every guitarist dreams of owning the best quality and most expensive instrument, and somehow imagine that it will change their skill level. Of course it helps to use a very good guitar, but a good guitarist will get a great sound out of most any instrument, more or less. It's pretty safe to say that you can purchase a reasonable quality guitar for several hundred dollars these days, and for most purposes, it's OK. The difference between a guitar costing 500 dollars and another priced at 2000 is quite small.
Of course, it all depends on the instrument, and there are always exceptions either way. For instance, Vintage make a small bodied guitar costing well under $200 which was given the 'Best Parlor Guitar Under $1000' award from Acoustic Guitar Magazine a few years ago. On the other end of the scale, I went to visit a friend who had no less than five expensive Martin guitars of different ages, and none of them felt 'special'.
It additionally depends on what you use the guitar for. If you perform acoustically to a really appreciative audience, then the tone and harmonics are very important for the overall sound. However, if you play the instrument amplified by a pickup inside the guitar or located under the bridge, then the more delicate features of the construction designed to improve the acoustic guitar sound are obviously wasted.
My advice is to spend over $200 and something less than $800. You will surely get something in between that will suit your style. Look around carefully, and think about a good second hand instrument, as long as it has been looked after. I recently saw an advert on Ebay for an ancient Stella guitar which went for a few hundred dollars. Naturally, it might not sound like a top range guitar, but it's a piece of history and must have made really mellow blues music. It certainly looked wonderful.
