Q&A: Advice Pasal Equipment Untuk Beginners (Part 2 of 4)

 

Sebelum aku masuk part Acoustic Guitar, aku nak jelaskan sket advice aku sebelum ni. When I say you should be willing to spend a good amount of money on your equipment, I didn’t mean you should overdo it. Toksah la baru start main guitar, dah beli professional quality punya equipment. 

Kalo spend banyak sangat, takut nanti you’ll be afraid to use it. And at the early stage, you’ll have plenty to go through until you know what is it about a guitar that you like (fretboard, body, wood etc). Pilihan equipment yg patut dibeli pon dependant on muzik yg kau suka main. For instance, you probably shouldn’t get an Ibanez RG kalo nak jadi jazz guitarist. So kalo spend terlalu banyak awal-awal, it’s too big of a gamble.

 

Acoustic Guitar

Untuk beginners, maybe korang rasa electric guitar lagi bagus, sebab boleh buat sound ganas (distortion), and boleh main clean gak. Kalo boleh main clean, buat ape nak beli acoustic. I used to think like that way back. Maybe sebab time tu gitar acoustic keliling aku don’t sound very good. Maybe because aku belum develop the hearing that I have today.

Aku bukan nak cakap ko wajib ade gitar acoustic. Just know that you can’t get acoustic guitar sound with an electric guitar. Well, ade effect “Acoustic Simulator” untuk electric guitar, but I don’t believe that it’ll sound nearly as good as the real thing. You don’t get the same feel too obviously.

And beginners mungkin tak sedar yg generally ade dua jenis acoustic guitar. Nylon ngan Steel stringed acoustic.

                            Nylon                                                                                  Steel

Nylon punya guitar biasanya orang buat main classical music. (Flamenco pon pakai nylon gak. But although they may look similar to classical guitars, they’re not the same). Sound dia usually cam mellow sket. Tengok video ni for an example. In rare cases, ade gak orang yg main nylon guitar untuk lagu rock. Contohnya Rodrigo Y Gabriella. They’re very unique. (And Gabriella is really awesome). Nylon guitar ni biasanya dia punya fretboard lebar sket, and more flat. And usually takde fret marker, yg dots kat 5th, 7th, 9th and 12th fret tu. Maybe kalo ade pon it’s really small, on the edge of the fretboard.

Steel guitar pulak is more common for modern pop/rock music la. You know how it sounds. Dia punya tone brighter than nylon. Fretboard dia narrow sket, curved, macam electric guitar la. Jarak antara tali-tali pon dekat sket.

So bukan tali jek yg beza. Fretboard pon lain. So kalo beli guitar acoustic, don’t plan on switching the strings from nylon to steel. Buruk perangai tu.

Lagi satu, kalo ade gitar acoustic, tolong jangan pakai electric guitar punya tali. Yes, I used to do that, sebab senang sket nak main. But it’s not a good idea. Acoustic punya tali memang lagi keras. But it’s designed to bring the good acoustic guitar tone. In fact, it’s a good way to build your finger strength. Honestly, sekarang aku spend lagi banyak kat tali acoustic aku. Aku pakai Elaxir, each set costs 3 times more than Ernie Ball strings yang aku pakai untuk electric guitar aku. Strings are very important when it comes to acoustic guitar, since you can’t really do anything else to get the best tone.

Sesetengah acoustic guitar ade pickup & preamp. Gitar camni di panggil acoustic/electric. Gitar camni usually mahal sket, for obvious reason. Kenapa beli gitar camni? So that you can perform on stage and connect the guitar to the PA system. That way you don’t have to mic the guitar. Aku plak pakai acoustic/electric sebab aku nak cucuk kat computer, to record. I won’t be able to record the best characteristics of the sound of my acoustic guitar, but at least I won’t have to worry about noise kalau aku pakai mic. And since aku selalu buat transcription, it’s good for me to hear my guitar and the music I’m transcribing on my headphones. You don’t buy this kind of guitar to put distortion and pretend you’re playing an electric guitar. It sounds pretty bad, and you don’t get the same playability. (Well, concert Nirvana unplugged lagu The Man Who Sold the World ade distortion, but it’s a really simple solo).

Well, since aku dah lama tak dok Malaysia, aku punya idea of how much Ringgit is worth kurang sket. But for beginners, I’d say avoid anything lower than RM200. No, make it RM300. And kalo beginner, maybe avoid spending more than RM800. But kalo dah lame main, and you just want a good acoustic guitar, consider spending more than RM1000.

Brand plak (for steel since aku tak familiar ngan nylon), I’d recommend maybe Yamaha atau Takamine. Brand sederhana mahal yg lain cam Jasmine by Takamine, Fender (yes, Fender acoustic takde reputation cam electric dia), Applause by Ovation, Ibanez, Parkwood, Epiphone pon ok gak. In fact, consider a Baby Taylor too. It sounds really good for something small.

If you’re looking for a high-end stuff, consider Martin & Co, Breedlove, Taylor, high-end models Takamine, Ovation, etc (not Gibson, because if you have the money for it, you probably won’t be reading this :P). But, even if brand-brand ni luar budget ko, maybe if you have the chance, try them. See what you like about them. And find something cheaper that has the characteristics of what you like.

In any case, unless ko memang perlu built-in pickup system, avoid it. Buat ape buang duit kat situ. Yeah it looks fancier, but if you don’t need it, might as well get something that plays and built better. Penting beli gitar acoustic yang bagus. Sebab gitar acoustic ni bukan cam electric. Electric, kalo intonation ko off sket, senang nak adjust. And again, on an acoustic guitar, you can’t really change the sound other than getting good strings and change your picking techniques. Aku punya guitar acoustic pon dua kali lagi mahal dari gitar electric aku, only until recently.

 

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