Hey folks! It happens every year. Parents and grandparents, aunts and uncles and older siblings hear that a younger family member wants to take up guitar or bass. People are reasonable in their caution as they don’t know if the interest will stick, they don’t want to overspend and the smarter people won’t buy some no name thing with no resale value and of highly questionable quality. So I’m here to help. I’m going to recommend what in my mind are the best acoustic guitar, the best electric guitar, the best electric guitar amplifier, and the best option for the acoustic player who might want to amplify or for any player who is also going to sing.

Of course, I ALWAYS recommend lessons from a live in person music teacher instead of YouTube or online training. Real people make real connections and a teacher who puts the needs and wants of the new player first is the best investment one can make.

Let’s get started.

Acoustic Guitar

When considering an acoustic guitar for a beginning player of ANY age, playability, fit and sound matter most. A guitar that is hard to play will never get played. A guitar that is too big for the player is a pain, and a guitar that is too small doesn’t last. A guitar that doesn’t sound good is a fast way to kill the desire to play. So don’t shop the online warehouse stores and stay out of the big box stores that sell instruments beside the microwaves and washing machines. Go to a real music store, in person preferably, and if distance is a problem, go to the online store of a respected and reputable music store.

For these reasons, I recommend what the industry calls a 000 (triple 0) or OM sized body. It is playable by most people, is compact with a narrow waist, lightweight and in a good build, sounds amazing.

I recommend the Yamaha FS820. It is an OM sized body with a solid spruce top (this is VERY important, laminated or plywood tops sound lousy) and a layered mahogany back and sides. Layered real wood is not particleboard so is lightweight but still very strong. The back and certainly the sides don’t need to move when played the way a top does and while the purists and snobs only want solid wood sides and backs, that’s not necessary so long as the layering only uses real wood and not glue and sawdust in the middle. The FS820 is what is sometimes called Concert sized and has a narrow waist and is less deep than the dreadnought style, so fit range is wider. It sounds awesome acoustically and does not require any kind of amplification to sound great. You can find smaller body guitars but they sound like crap without a pickup and amplifier. A pickup might be a nice to have, but only if its a good pickup and acoustic guitars have been played in bedrooms and live without a pickup for over a century.

Yamaha has been building instruments for many decades and their quality is superb. I have yet in over 50 years as a player to pick up a Yamaha guitar that was bad. The fit and finish on the FS 820 is superb. The string height is low without buzzing, the fret ends are not sharp and the build quality is superb. When asked I will tell anyone who asks that the FS820 is the best 000 sized guitar in the market for under $1,000 and they start at about $300 here in Canada, with small increases for fancier painted tops. It is unbeatable.

Electric Guitar

You have to work very hard to find a bad electric guitar in a real music store. The key elements are the same as for an acoustic guitar. Playability, fit and sound. In the case of the electric, the vast majority of the sound comes from the pickups. In this area, it helps to have an idea of the style of music your new player prefers as that can impact your choice. If they like softer rock, country or music like that, looking at a guitar with what are called single coil pickups might be the place to start. If the person prefers heavier rock, blues or metal, then a guitar with humbucking pickups might be a better choice. Some guitars offer both which provides a nice range of capability.

In this scenario, you want a guitar that is well built, has great playability, sounds terrific, is lightweight and can deliver a very wide range of tones. The ideal one guitar solution is what is called an HSS, or for regular people, this means three pickups. A humbucking pickup in the bridge position and a single coil pickup in each of the middle and neck position. Couple with a 5 position selector switch, the tonal variety is superb. I recommend the Ibanez AZES. It also includes a vibrato arm. My personal experience with Squier Classic Vibe instruments has been very positive indeed and I recommend that line. This model sells for $489 CAD MAP.

Electric Bass

The bass is a critical instrument in any band and while most bass players are not as flashy or ego driven as some guitar players, those who choose the bass are also choosing to be the core of the band. Bassists and drummers work closely together, forming the foundation of any song. In a bass, playability, fit and sound still are the main drivers, and like an electric guitar, almost all the sound comes from the pickups.

Basses tend to have longer necks and sometimes this extra reach is challenging for folks who are physically smaller. Fortunately a good music store will offer a choice between regular scale length basses and short scale length basses. Be assured that both sizes are equally capable when it comes to the sound. As a bassist I own short scale, regular scale and extended scale basses. Every one of them sounds great. I choose based on the tone I want to deliver specifically, but for decades, all types of music were made on the same model and style of bass.

Fender is known for great basses, and their Squier Affinity PJ bass is an excellent choice at $389 CAD MAP. Go with a four string as this is most commonly played, except by heavy metal bands who like the five string. You want a nice pickup installation to deliver a variety of different tones. This bass offers both Precision Bass and Jazz bass pickups in a single instrument and is thus incredibly versatile. It has a slighter slimmer C shaped neck that can suit shorter fingers and a slimmer body to keep the weight down. It is a regular bass scale-length at 34”

If your player is physically small, you might want a short scale bass. This means that the scale length is only 30”. The Ibanez GIO Sr Short Scale series are decent instruments but stock can be hard to find. Do consider if the player will continue to grow as there will be a much wider selection of basses, particularly in stock models in the standard scale length.

Guitar Amplifier or Bass Amplifier

An amplifier must sound good at bedroom volumes for the new player. It should have a headphone jack for silent practice. What we call modelling amps are best overall because their digital signal processing allows a single amplifier to simulate many different amplifiers in one unit. These amplifiers are relatively compact, are fairly lightweight to transport and have enough power to be able to jam with friends. They do require AC power and the larger the speaker, the better they tend to sound without requiring a lot of computational audio processing. I assure that computational audio amps can sound amazing, but there is something about a real amp and a real speaker that helps the player open up.

For electric guitarists, I always recommend the BOSS KATANA Gen 3 50 Combo. It’s ready to go out of the box, but the player who has a laptop computer and a simple USB cable can get right into the guts and built their own preferred preset sounds and amp simulations. These amplifiers also include a pantheon of digital effects that sound awesome and are really easy to use. There are 6 individual amplifier configurations so it’s easy to switch sounds on the fly. At $399 CAD MAP it is an incredible bargain considering what it delivers. The USB out can also go right to the computer if you want to do home recording.

For electric bassists who are getting started, particularly for home / bedroom playing it’s very hard to beat Fender’s excellent Rumble LT25 amplifier. It is compact and lightweight and uses a DSP chip so it can emulate 15 different amp models and 20 bass effects. It sells for $319.99 CAD MAP and sounds very good indeed considering the small cabinet size and 8” speaker. I used one for a couple of years for low volume practice and recommend it highly. It also has a headphone output for silent playing.

Acoustic Guitar Amplification and Vocals

To use an acoustic guitar and amplify it, either the guitar has a built in pickup, or one installed after the fact, or you place a microphone in front of it. If it’s the former, you can look to an acoustic guitar amplifier but I am going to recommend against that. To get one that sounds good is very expensive, at least $800. You are far better to get a simple PA system. This will cost less, and sound better and more importantly, have at least one more input to use with a microphone for vocals. None of this might matter for bedroom practice but for jamming with friends it matters enormously.

Multi-Effect Units

A multi-effect unit will have several guitar or bass effects in a single box. While I tend to recommend an amp like the Katana because it is both an amp and multi-effect device, some people may already have amps that don’t have built in effects and want to add that without having to create their own boards filled with individual pedals that cost more and then endure the joy of connecting and power them all. I do love pedals myself but anyone who tells you that pedal based boards are cheap and cheerful has actually never built one of consequence.

However, I have to be honest. While there are very good multi-effects pedal systems, none of the good ones are inexpensive and the inexpensive ones sound terrible, so there is nothing that I will recommend in this space under about $700.

Necessary Accessories

Every instrument needs a well padded gig bag. Most instruments in this price range come in a cardboard box. A well built properly padded gig bag does not need to be stupid expensive but one is needed. Some instruments come with bags, but they have no padding and are basically thin nylon of no value at all. Musicians like to take their instruments with them and a good gig bag with solid protection and backpack straps is a critical thing.

Every instrument player needs a tuner. I hear people in music stores all the time playing instruments that are so badly out of tune that they make my teeth hurt. The Katana amplifiers have built in tuners but I always recommend a reliable battery powered tuner that goes in the gig bag so it is always with the instrument. The SNARK is the one to get. They are inexpensive, run for a long time on generic quarter sized batteries, are easy to read and clip to the instrument headstock and don’t leave any marks. A tuner like this is a MUST HAVE. I do not understand why people happily buy instruments but don’t get a tuner or gig bag. I know that some folks believe that a smartphone based tuner does the job. Let me be blunt. They don’t. They are unreliable and often inaccurate. They are also widely impacted by background noise.

Regardless of instrument, learning to play is work and a pick can make that easier. Teachers all have opinions on picks. So do I. I recommend to any new player a pick that is stiff and that does not flex much. A flexible pick builds sloppy technique. Too thick or too hard a pick can be frustrating to some. Start with a 1mm thick bag of picks. They come in all number of colours and materials. For the beginner none of that matters. You just want a good pick that is not slippery and won’t get dropped easily. Buy a bag of picks of all the same type. Picks tend to get lost, misplaced or hop into alternate dimensions. Forcing the new player to move between different materials and thicknesses is just making their lives harder. If the person sticks with the instrument she or he will have a lifetime to buy thousands of picks and agonize over which one is best.

I also ALWAYS recommend a strap. Gravity always works. So the new player is faced with not only learning technique, whether left or right handed, but also holding the instrument in place so it doesn’t fall on the ground. When picking a strap there are tons of choices of colours and materials. The only thing I recommend is to feel the edges of the strap as sharp or hard edges dig into the player’s body and end up hurting. Don’t buy one like that. I also recommend against any of the vinyl or “vegan” straps as they don’t breathe at all, get hot and promote perspiration under them, making them slippery.

Finally, since not all players (at any level) have the discipline to put the instrument back in its gig bag when finished playing, a simple guitar/bass floor stand is important. You can spend less than $20 and get a perfectly good stand that will last decades. Do get it from a music store, so the foam padding doesn’t leak dye onto the instrument finish. Some even use surgical tubing which is better than foam, but less popular because some people put looks before functionality.

If the guitar has a pickup, the guitar player will need a cable from the guitar to the amplifier. This is a place where a cheap cable really ruins the experience. You want a high quality cable, perhaps not at the stage cable level of quality which will be at least 8mm in diameter and have a very thick cover, but also not one with molded plugs. You really do get what you pay for in instrument cables.

Wrapping Up

Getting someone started in music, regardless of that person’s age is incredibly rewarding. Helping that person get off to a good start and by helping them get good gear the first time, the probability of that person staying engaged improves dramatically. Industry data says that over 70% of first instruments never get played again in the first year of ownership and that is typically due to the playing being unpleasant, no fun and having no teaching. Help your new player find lifetime joy in music with the right gear and the right tools, including lessons.

If you like what I do here for you, please become a supporter on Patreon. Your monthly contribution makes an enormous difference and helps me keep things going. To become a Patreon Patron, just click the link or the button below. Thanks for your support of my work. I’m Ross Chevalier and I look forward to sharing with you again soon.