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Looking for beginner acoustic guitar?

For my Birthday this year i plan on getting a Acoustic Guitar, I have never played before and am really looking for something that wouldn’t be too complex, I was possible thinking of buying from Ithaca Guitar Works, (or somewhere near that area) Is there a certain kind of Guitar i should be looking for? What’s the best brand?
Thanks!

What ever you do, stay away from Gibson acoustics. Don’t get me wrong, they are great guitars, but the good ones are very expensive and totally overkill for someone starting out! Also, I have to say that the Gibson range tend to be overpriced – this goes for the acoustic as well as electric guitars (and yes, I own and play several of both).

It is far better to settle for anything from well respected yet lower priced guitars brands like Ibanez, Yamaha or Jasmine by Takamine. These offer great value for the money. The Ibanez and Jasmine in particular also have very good necks for beginners. The Epiphone (owned by Gibson) also have some good guitars. However, these acoustics tend to have some very bulky necks. Not exactly user friendly…

What you definitely should consider is to go for a guitar with all wood (solid top). This is the most important part of an acoustic guitar and it won’t set you back that much.

Make sure you get a steel string acoustic. Many folks recommend a nylon string acoustic since these strings are softer on your fingers. What they forget to say is that these guitars have wider necks. Also, the action on these guitar (string height) is quite a bit more than that of a well adjusted steel string guitar. Furthermore, the neck scale (the scale is the length of the vibrating string, between the bridge ans the saddle) is longer on nylon string guitars. The increased scale and action is a way to increase the tension on the strings. Together with the wider necks, this make these guitars just as hard to play (if not harder) than a steel string guitar which has been properly adjusted with light strings.

Speaking of which … do make sure you get your guitar properly set up. This is the single most important factor if you want to be able to enjoy your guitar

Concrete Gibsons – “Paul’s Ride” (SKA circa 1995)