Although small, Lindo’s guitar lineup is fairly varied, with selections for acoustic, electric, electric-acoustic, and bass guitars. They also have a line of travel guitars, which are smaller, more compact, and designed for easy transport. Prices range from £50 (US$82) for a basic travel guitar to £150 (US$245) for their higher-end electric guitars. The company regularly adds to its collection and holds regular specials, so you may even be able to get one for less.

Lindo guitars come with various colors and finishes, so there’s one to catch every user’s fancy. For instance, the Lindo (i) Series, its bass guitar line, features a natural wood finish, an eye-catching red, and a polished black. All come with a basswood body and a maple neck, as well as chrome hardware and die-cast machine heads.

Two of its more popular electro-acoustic guitars are the Black Fire and Dreadnought, which are made with roomy, ergonomic bodies to ensure playing comfort. The fingerboards are rosewood and the body is natural spruce. The necks are made with maple, a popular “tonewood,” which means it carries sound well and makes for excellent acoustic play. As the name implies, it also plugs into an amp and can be used as an electric guitar.

One of its newer products is the Tribal electro-acoustic guitar, set apart mainly by its glossy tiger-stripe design. Featuring the same solid construction as the rest of the lineup, it boasts some of Lindo’s new features such as a scratch-plate design, matte tuning pegs for added style and finger comfort, and a smart headstock design.

Lindo also offers a wide range of guitar accessories, including picks, strings, and straps. Beginners may also be interested in the Complete Rock Guitarist six-lesson DVD for electric guitars or the Complete Fingerstyle Guitarist for acoustic guitars. Tuners, amplifiers, amp cables, and guitar stands are also available for those in the professional league. There’s even an accessory pack for electric-acoustic guitar owners that includes a gig bag, spare steel strings, shoulder straps, plectrums, and a pitch pipe.

Stagg Music Company was founded in 1995 and is headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Its product line includes acoustic, electric, and bass guitars, other string instruments (mandolins, banjos, ukuleles), drums and cymbals, wind instruments, and professional audio equipment. Percussion has come to be its most popular offering, however—its cymbals have had a growing fan base since the launch of its hand-hammered Furia and Myra series.

The company’s guitar line, although not its flagship product, offers a good price-to-quality ratio. This is especially true for those who don’t want to pour too much into a first instrument or spend thousands of dollars on a hobby. Both electric and acoustic ranges are handmade and built for excellent sound quality. The round-back models and the James Neligan series are especially popular and get good reviews on sound and craftsmanship. Most guitar teachers consider it a good learning guitar, although guitarists usually move to more expensive brands once they start playing more seriously.

Stagg also makes a wide range of children’s guitars, built to half or quarter sizes. There are classical wood designs, but some models have whimsical, child-friendly motifs such as dinosaurs (the 1/4 size Dino Guitar is ideal for children aged 3 to 5). These guitars are made with nylon strings, which are gentler on young fingers, and are comfortably light. Larger guitars also carry well (especially with Stagg’s line of artsy straps), although older models tend to be heavy, according to some experienced players.

Most musicians agree that Stagg guitars are well-made—some have compared it to more established brands like Yamaha and Epiphone. The sleek and often creative designs are also a plus. In terms of sound quality, it gets a little subjective. Some find the pitch ideal for metal and the strain perfect for blues and jazz, so it can do a little of everything. If you don’t have a specific musical style and just want a good practice guitar, Stagg is definitely worth a look.

In most cases, you do get what you pay for. There’s an obvious difference between a $3,000 guitar and a $200 one. But if you’re just learning your first notes, the former would be overkill. Your decision should be based not on what’s available, but on what you need.

Most experts agree that knowing your style is essential. Believe it or not, different guitars favor different musical styles. Sure, you can make a “jack of all trades” out of any guitar, but the best musicians always choose their style and build their equipment around it.

For example, the Ibanez GRG170DX, which was recently named Best Budget Electric Guitar by BestCovery, is really more suited for shredders—two octaves, easy tuning, great range—than anything else. So it serves its purpose well, but it won’t be your first choice if you’re going for, say, soft rock or acoustic ballads.

Many people shy away from buying “specialty” guitars, those that do just one or two things really well and do just a decent job on others. Often, they think it limits their creative options. But most experts disagree. If you haven’t nailed down a style yet, start with a beginner’s guitar and stick to it until you’ve honed your own sound. Other than that, you’d be wasting your money on a pricey electric guitar you’re not sure what to do with.

The Squier Affinity Series Telecaster Special Butterscotch Blonde came in second on the BestCovery survey. Like the Ibanez, it’s a specialty guitar, lending itself particularly well to old-school R&B and country music. While not on par with the Telecaster, it’s got excellent sound for its price.

The same rule applies to buying budget guitars as any other piece of equipment: try before you buy. Many people buy online in a rush, thinking they don’t have a lot to lose since “it’s just a budget guitar.” But no matter how safe online buying is, there’s something to be said about feeling an instrument in your hands and plucking the strings with your own fingers. If there’s a better deal online, go to a local store and try out the instrument before ordering.

Garageband, Apple’s popular music writing program, has recently been made available for the iPad. And while the work of amateurs will probably still sound very much so, it allows them to crank out decent clips of more than acceptable quality for presentations, school assignments, and personal projects.

The app, which has retained most of the features from its original Mac version (part of the iLife package), uses virtual instruments but will accept input from real ones. This probably accounts for its appeal both to professionals and amateurs. It also functions as a multi-purpose synthesizer, incorporating an entire library of guitar, keyboard, and percussion media with a mixing board and recording studio.

Virtual instruments can be played through changing interfaces, so there’s no need to plug in a separate device. If you want to put in a keyboard track, for example, just pull up the option and a digital keyboard appears, essentially transforming your iPad into your instrument of choice.

That last technology isn’t exactly groundbreaking, of course—it was preceded for at least a decade by touch-sensitive drum machines, on-screen pianos, and virtual guitars. But several things put it a notch above its predecessors. Besides superior sound quality and a user-friendly interface, it also offers a wide range of creative options, appealing even to the most inexperienced without pandering, losing depth, or coming across as too elementary.

In fact, what it does is serve two different markets simultaneously, according to musician Robby Grossman. The first is that of beginners or casual musicians, who just want to make something decent without much fuss—the program’s built-in correctors keep the output in key and maintain a standard rhythm. The second is serious musicians who, although they might find the program limiting, can use it as a sketchpad of sorts. Garageband works very well for rough demos, or for jotting down ideas in seconds.

Not surprisingly, reactions to Garageband are mixed. There are the highbrows who think it’s making art too accessible, and the let-it-be ones who appreciate its user-friendliness. Garageband music probably won’t be ruling the airwaves soon, but at the very least it nurtures the interest of people who eventually will.

When considering buying your first acoustic guitar amplifier there are a few things that you should think about before you commit to a particular brand or type.  These things include the cost of the amp, what size amp suits your situation, what features does the amp have and it is important to go to the music shop and plug in some amps and play to see how they sound.

The cost or budget that you have for an amp is going to be significantly less than you would spend on the guitar however there are a great range of amps for around the $100 mark which are great for beginners. These amps are generally ok if the guitarist is practising by themselves but are limited when it comes to playing with other guitarists and other musicians as they cannot be heard well over other larger and more powerful amps.

The size of the amp as I have just mentioned does matter as playing with a smaller amp is generally not suitable for jamming with friends especially if there are multiple guitarists and a drummer for example.  Depending on the situation that you will be playing, the size and power of an amp should increase especially if you are going to be spending a lot of time playing in a group.

Some of the features that mid range acoustic guitar amps will have include an equalizer with three bands – high, medium and low, an overdrive button, reverberation control, headphone input and a master volume dial.  As well as considering these features it is also important to know that amps come in two main types tube and transistor with the tube amps being more expensive.  Deciding which one will depend on how much you wish to spend as well as how good the sound of the amp is when you give both acoustic guitar amps a try in the store.

With the introduction of the cordless microphone many performers where then able to move freely around the stage without having to worry about getting tangled in cords all over the stage.  Cordless microphones are available in two main types which includes the self contained microphone which is hand held and has a transmitter built into the handle and the lapel wireless microphone.  The main differences between the two microphones is that the hand held microphone has the transmitter built into the handle of the microphone while the lapel cordless microphone has a small lead that runs to a small battery powered transmitter which is usually clipped on the waist.

Bands that perform at live venues often use a variety of cordless and lapel microphones to allow them to easily move around the stage (or the audience) during their performance.  In a majority of cases the hand held cordless microphones are used by the singer and other members of the band who also sing with the lapel microphone adapted and used as a pickup from the guitar wirelessly to the amp.  The various guitar players have a pickup near the strings of the guitar which picks up the sound and transmits it to the amp from a small battery powered transmitter which normally clips on the back of your guitar strap.

If you are looking to buy a cordless microphone it pays to look around and try some of the different brands available at various stores.  The quality of the sound will differ from the cheaper brands to the more expensive so it will generally come down to how much you are prepared to pay.

Cordless Microphones

Today left handed electric guitars are readily available in most music stores as the demand for these types of guitars especially left handed electric guitars has been increased by the popularity of famous left handed guitar players.  Iggy Pop, Jimi Hendrix and Paul McCartney are all famous guitarists that played left-handed on specially made guitars.

To determine whether or not a left handed electric guitar is right for you the best way is to try both a right handed and a left-handed guitar next time you are at the music store.  Play each of the guitars and note which one feels the most comfortable in terms of strumming, fingering of chords and practising chord progressions.  You should be able to tell quite quickly which guitar feels the most natural when you are playing.

Apart from the difficulties that a left-handed person faces when choosing and playing a left-handed guitar it is also a challenge to find teaching and learning material for this type of guitar playing.  The increase in the amount of online material for electric guitar players has provided some much needed resources for left-handed guitar players who have been searching for information on guitar basics and left-handed guitar techniques

Some of the earliest stands included stands designed to rest on a table as well as those that where tall enough to stand alone.  These early music stands where made of wood and many of the stands where quite ornate which matched furniture that was in the music rooms of these houses during that period of time.

Today stands are available in many different types of material with the most popular being metal.  Metal stands are very durable with a majority of these designed to be folded up when transported.  Folding stands are the most popular type of music stand on the market.  The design saves space and makes it easy to transport one or more stands around to the multiple venues that a band may perform at.

Music stands are also available for specialized uses such as for marching bands.  These types are generally made of metal and are quite small when compared with a regular music stand.  The marching band type of music stand also have clips and attachments to allow these stands to be attached to the various instruments that make up a marching band.

Some people who have a sense of history still have some of the early styles of music stands that are handcrafted with wood.  This sort of thing goes in and out of fashion, but a beautiful ornate music stand can be quite striking in a music room with other furniture items and instruments such as a piano.

Firstly, The Lead of the Packs provides electric guitar packages at an affordable price. Each package provides legendary quality, value, and features, matched with industry-leading service and support. They have two great electric guitar packages, at very affordable prices. The SE Special Strat & SP-10 Amp pack consists of the Squier SE Special Strat which includes 3 single coil pickups, rosewood fingerboard, diecast tuners and a 3-play shell pickguard. The package also contains the Squier SP10 amp, Squier Electronic tuner, and Fender gig bag, guitar stand, picks, cable and strap, as well as a DVD sampler on, ‘Getting Started on Electric Guitar’. From just $549, you can customise your guitar package in various colours, black, white and sunburst. The Affinity Strat & Frontman 15G Amp pack consists on a Squier Affinity Strat, Fender Frontman 15g amp and Fender electric tuner, cable, gig bag, strap, picks, headphones and the DVD sampler. This package is at a retail price of just $699 and available in black, sunburst, metallic red and metallic blue.

Another great company offering amazing electric guitar packages is BMusic, which consists of starter guitar and amp packages, from the leading brands of ESP, Zemaitis, DBZ Guitars, Caparison, Edwards, Cort, Hagstrom, Parker, Washburn and Greg Bennett Signature. The first package from BMusic is the ESP Ltd M10 Electric Guitar package that is priced at $498.99, including GST. It includes LTD M0-10 deluxe electric guitar, LTD 15 watt guitar amp, gig bag, tuner, strap and cable. The ESP Ltd F-10 Electric Guitar package consists of the LTD F-10 guitar that is pure rock, from its distinctive angled shape through to its deep black finish. The package contains the special edition ESP amp which is great for practice, instruction or jamming along to your favourite CDs. This package ranges from $549.

Lastly, The Music Shop showcases the Ashton Electric Guitar and Amp Package, with more extras than ever before! The AG131 Starter Pack includes a new built-in tuner and is built around the classically styled rock guitar, which is built from solid basswood producing a rich tone. Extras include the 10 Watt practice amp, picks, lead, strap and DVD lessons. Prices start from $319.

The type of guitar that is included in the pack is important and one of the easiest ways to choose a guitar is to try a few different models in the shop.  Many music stores encourage people to have a play of several different types of guitars so that you get one that is comfortable for you and one that you like the style and colour of.

The next feature of most of the electric guitar packages that are on the market is an amplifier.  Many of the amps on offer are small starter amps which are suitable for most beginners.  These amps are designed for you to practice at home.  If you are going to be playing with other guitarists or with a band then these amps are not suitable and you should consider getting a larger more powerful amp for this situation.

The guitar pack should also include a strap for the guitar as well as leads to connect up to the amp.  These things will be the very basic of items and once you have started to play will you can reward yourself with a more personalised guitar strap and some better quality leads.

Some of the guitar packages will also feature items such as a bag for your guitar, a stand for the guitar and also some beginner books that will help you on your way to learning how to play the guitar.