We’ve all heard two conflicting viewpoints.
The first is that a engineer is only as good as his/her tools allow. The second would be that the tools do not in any way dictate the results.
The short answer is obviously: It depends.
In this short post, I will answer that question first with respect to the guitar, and then more generally as a lead up to my next post, “The Beginners Guitar Budget”.
How Good a Guitar Do You Need
That depends, how good do you want to be?
I mean that seriously. The bottom line is, that as you get better and more technically proficient, you start to ‘feel’ the instrument better. In a sense, you get more picky.
More notably, a lousy instrument does not allow you to play it in certain ways. Ask a concert pianist on the difference between a concert grand piano (cost in excess of hundreds of thousands) and a baby grand (tens of thousands), and he/she will go on about the action of the keys, the quality of the tone, and a hundred other things. They would only play their best on the real grand piano.
Even for the recreational player who wants to bring his/her skills to an intermediate level, I’m very sure the person could tell the difference between a $1000 guitar, and a $100 guitar. The latter would sound muffled, probably have an uneven fretboard. Some notes would be hard to play, and the sound of others would be cut off.
There must be a limit to how low you can go.
Specific Guitar Recommendations
I will recommend that anyone who takes up the instrument take it at least to an intermediate level of proficiency. This means that the quality of the instrument does matter.
The next question is whether you are playing with an acoustic of electric guitar.
If you are are acoustic player, tone is important, and tone is dictated by the type of wood used to make the guitar. Hence, you can get a cheap plywood guitar for probably $100-200 that has lousy tone and a lousy fretboard. Or you could get a middle-of-the-line guitar that would easily last you a good half lifetime that is made of a solid wood body and fretboard (the wood depends on what type of sound you like) [1], and would probably fetch anywhere from $400-2000 depending on the wood quality. Finally, you could go for broke and buy a >$2000 guitar that would probably last you forever. These are typically the types whereby the wood is treated in a specific manner to take the quality of the sound and the overall ease of playing to a great level.
I will say that the price difference reflects a true difference in quality as far as acoustic guitars are concerned. In fact, this would be the same for electric guitars as well.
In this case, we have to deal with a few more variables. First would be the actual precision of the manufacturing of the guitar. Second would be the quality of the pickups, knobs, and optionally, the tremolo system. Third will be the quality of the amplifier. Fourth would be the quality of your effects rig.
Furthermore, I would like to add that if you intend to record your own music, then the quality of the recording equipment and editing software also comes into play. Not to mention the record venue.
Why this is important
Firstly, cheap guitars generally do not have good craftsmanship. The guitar, being a string instrument, must be able to balance the tension of the strings to a great degree. At the same time, it must deliver the right tone and ‘feel’. Even electric instruments made of different types of wood will sound different with the same effects settings. The defining factor is simply when you pick it up and play a cheap instrument and an expensive one side-by-side.
This is important simply because a better instrument is easier to play, and delivers much more consistently in terms of tone. This makes practice a joy. Also, I can bet that if you ask a professional musician, he/she will tell you that the quality of the instrument limits one when performing high-level techniques. For example, a cheap piano’s keys doesn’t bounce up fast enough for certain progressions to be played. (The pianist is literally too fast for the piano)
Next, as an electric guitarist, your effects rig is very important. Frankly speaking. Each additional tool adds ever more to the musician’s creative arsenal. This greatly amplifies his/her creative tendencies and adds on to the overall experience, both for the player and probably more importantly, to a potential audience.
If you give a guitarist a whammy pedal, they will attempt to try to use it to create unique solos. Even a cheap addition like a finger slide will open up ever more options. This is even more prominent when you switch from a guitar without a tremolo system to a nice Ibanez Edge System – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ibanez_Edge
This has implications in composition. Much of the work of musical composition [2] involves trying out different things and keeping what’s good. It’s a hit and miss game, one that you get better as you keep trying. Needless to say, you need the equipment to try in the first place.
It Depends
Of course, I trust people to exercise their own judgment when dealing with such sweeping statements. I have presented a case to support the fact that becoming great as a guitarist demands such equipment.
In some areas it will be less so. For example, you need a tennis racquet to play good tennis, but the difference between a $2000 racquet and a $400 racquet isn’t going to be great. The same goes with items like running shoes.
This will vary greatly from field to field though. A painter may need only a pencil and paper to spark creativity, but still needs a studio to produce great work. Similarly, a fisherman needs a good rod to catch big fish; a lousy one would simply break.
In general, for any pursuit worth becoming the best in the field in, the equipment will matter whether you like it or not. Think of it as a kind of barrier to entry. Which is why I stress the need to look forward and determine how far you want to take your skill, for at the higher levels, it can become quite a sink for cash.
In the end, the short answer to the question is: YES!
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Notes:
[1] Guitars are made of various types of wood, which directly affects the tone of sound produced by affected the natural resonance of the guitar. Just to give some examples, Spruce body guitars tend to be lighter and give a lighter, resonant, and sharp tone. A mahogany body guitar will then be the opposite, heavy, giving a rich, mellow, and slightly dampened tone. Of course, there is everything in between.
If you were a country guitar player, I doubt you’d get a mahogany guitar.
[2] I need to write an entire different post which shares my own methodology for musical composition. More of that next time.
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