A very common request or idea for a present or gift is to buy someone a guitar. This is a wonderful thing as the joy of making music is something you come to treasure and a tremendous source of personal satisfaction and recreational relaxation. My sons love playing their guitars in their rooms, along to their favourite bands tracks, and with their friends, etc. and it certainly keeps them out of the teenage 'trouble' all we parents fear.

Selecting the right guitar is actually not as easy as you might initially imagine. Don't worry if you end-up with a 'best-guess', as this often makes a pretty good starting point and most guitar dealers and shops offer part-exchange if push comes to shove and Johnny needs an upgrade.

There are several important and key things to consider though:

Which Handed: Is the intended recipient left or right handed and even if left handed they might prefer a right handed guitar as one of my sons does.

Size: you can get small scale lead and bass guitars to assist small fingered little people to enjoy the guitar playing experience also! some of these are very good, but prices are not far behind adult sized guitars.

Cheap Options? Cheap copies vary enormously in quality and frankly playing a dreadful guitar is often enough to put-off the budding learner, and in buying a poor quality guitar, you may be depriving the world of the next Eric Clapton!

Price to Pay? £60 electric guitars are not generally very good, that said there's some terrible £250 guitars I've seen too! A good top brand starter pack, will set you back about £200. This is pretty safe territory and includes all the necessaries to get you off and rolling.

Help? If possible seek guidance from an experienced guitarist and ideally involve them in the selection. Bear in mind they tend to like to good stuff and that costs money of course! importantly, they will spot a bad one a mile off!  The middle ground, is to seek the assurance of a good brand and buy an entry level model to start off with. Johnny can upgrade as his ability increases, or if interest wanes, the package can be easily resold on eBay for £100 or so, dependant on condition of course.  

What? Then there's the matter of what type! Will the intended recipient be inclined toward acoustic or electric? Lead or Bass?

If acousticly orientated, should this be a Spanish (nylon string) or steel string acoustic or perhaps an electro-acoustic allowing the guitar to be amplified and indeed certain 'effects' to be used.  Then there's the issue of 6 or 12 string!

There is a veritable plethora of guitars available, so it is worth doing some homework of the intended recipients musical inclinations.

Why? In the main, young people are seeking to play their own favourite music often emulating pop or rock stars, using electric guitars and learning the basic chords to accompany their favourite tunes played on CD, often in the bedroom. It is worth establishing how serious they are when deciding how much to spend. There are 'practice amps' generally in the 10watt to 30watt power range that also have the facility to connect a CD player to play along - great fun. More sophisticated amps can contain 'accompaniment' functionality and that costs quite a lot extra.  

How Much? A basic package of a respectable guitar (lead or bass), decent if low powered amp and sometimes some extras like leads and straps from a leading brand like Fender can be purchased for around £200.  This will often be something like a 'Squire' guitar which is a budget one offered by Fender and built to a price point, so there are some compromises, and an accompanying amp, which is actually remarkably good sounding for the low price.  I bought one for my son to learn on, so that's how good value I think they are.

Bargains? There are often a good choice of these packages on eBay, usually with useful savings against a retail shop. As always - shop around! Some outlets see this as an excellent source of future business, so sell the starter packs very competitively in the hope of winning your future business for years to come...often as not they do. More enlightened outlets have some sort of eBay presence, so you often have the reassurance of buying from knowledgable folk.   

Should I Buy an Electric? Electric guitars give a substantial range of sounds and of course, the amplification options are far wider, not to mention the potential for sound effects and what-not. If you can establish what type of music genre the recipient will want to play, this will shape the decision and help indentify the right choice.

What's 'Good Value'? In reality, you need to spend a couple of hundred pounds to get good value. If that sounds like a lot ask any skilled musician who's been playing some while what his favourite guitar costs! We're in 'car money' territory!

Right Choice? We constantly see guitars coming back to shops nearly new because little Johnny wanted to play Guns 'N' Roses with distrortion on a guitar that looks like Slash's Gibson Les Paul and it didn't sound right on a £30 nylon stringed acoustic! Johnny ends up disappointed and disillusioned - sometimes he gives up - shame.

Protection: Please buy a protective case for a guitar, as damage to guitars devalues them tremedously. Ideally buy a hardcase as these are available from as little as £30, or at the very least a Gig Bag, which costs as little as £10 for an electric.

Tune It! Please also invest in a guitar tuner if there wasn't one in the package, one ideally with instructions on how to tune the guitar.   

Beware! Please be aware that their are some scandelous scams (generally eminating from the far east) offering guitars you might have heard of at attractively low prices. Beware these are very often dreadful quality fakes and fall apart damgerously! Seek advice from a knowledgable source before buying!

About me:

25 years ago I extracted my first guitar from a dustbin with 3 strings on it! I went on in life to become a professional guitarist (playing internationally) and even now I still love the guitar deeply and it is a big part of my life. So I know a thing or two about guitars...and budding guitarists!

In my very early guitar playing days, I was very kindly bought a cheap 6 string acoustic, that was a bit borderline on quality, was nigh on impossible to hold the strings down on and sounded dreadful. Luckily I had some talent and borrowed various electric guitars from friends and band members, eventually my kind late Father was persuaded to buy me a decent guitar by the leader of a Band I was in, and a beaten up second hand Gibson Les Paul became mine for a bargain £300 in 1982. I still play it today (restored to former glory). I love it dearly and it plays like a dream and is frankly beautiful. Since then I have built and customised many guitars and have a particular favouritism towards Fenders and Gibsons - QUALITY. 

Buying someone a guitar could be the best thing you could have done for them and help them discover new joys and satisfaction that lasts a lifetime. Here's to you discovering the next Eric Clapton/John Williams! 

Best wishes and good luck.