Acoustic guitar for beginner

[Garp]

A guarantee with starting playing guitar: It will hurt. A lot. Pressing steel strings down to the fretboard take a surprising amount of effort, and it will cause the fingers and wrist of the fretting hand to ache, and the tips of the fingers to hurt for a while. It is something that needs perseverance, Within a month it won't ache much, though prolonged playing will still be slightly painful, it'll take a good year or so before the pain goes. Encourage her to stick with it though, it's well worth it.

[Pheebs]

Originally Posted by Garp

A guarantee with starting playing guitar: It will hurt. A lot. Pressing steel strings down to the fretboard take a surprising amount of effort, and it will cause the fingers and wrist of the fretting hand to ache, and the tips of the fingers to hurt for a while. It is something that needs perseverance, Within a month it won't ache much, though prolonged playing will still be slightly painful, it'll take a good year or so before the pain goes. Encourage her to stick with it though, it's well worth it.

I haven't played in a while... well I have but not like a proper jamming session for a couple of hours... and so dedicated some time to loving my geetar on Sunday.

My fingers were on FIYAR when I got in the bath later

I need my resistance back!

VIVA LA RESISTANCE!

[Desmo]

Aye, finger tips take a right hammering to start with but it soon settles down

[LeperousDust]

I had a crack at the gee-tar in my younger years at school but i was always so much better at the piano it never really stuck. Because i'd be put on keyboard or something likewise I do remember the callouses though, fun times Guitar is hard work on the hands. But also after reading round on the internet it seems different guitars are actually easier to play than others, and i assume our school guitars were designed to be bulletproof rather than "play" .

Guitar is something in a perfect world i'd love to play properly and have the time, but i don't feel i do, my heart isn't in it right myself.

[Garp]

How hard a guitar is to play is dependent on the action (height of the strings above the frets), the weight of the strings and the type of the strings.

Nylon strings are generally about the easiest, closely followed by electric guitars, then acoustic steel string.

To get a low action without getting fret buzz takes a fair amount of precision work by the manufacturer / luthier, too close to the frets and the strings will catch frets when they vibrate causing a nasty buzz. Too far away and you need vice like fingers to press the strings down, plus the tuning will be out the further up the fret board you get

As ever, there are guitars and there are guitars, and price doesn't always enter into it, though the general rule of thumb is the more you pay the better the setup. I've played some £250 acoustics with better setup and than some £500 guitars.