Some rambling thoughts on equipment - Not expert advice by any means !!
First off clearly you need a guitar. Acoustic , Electric and brand are all for you to choose. My advice is do your homework. Check them out. Go visit your local Music Store. Take the time to try different ones they all have qualities that set them apart - Weight , Neck shape and of course sound. The people in the store don't bite! often they will demo the instrument for you but you also need to pick it up and try it for size. Find one you like.
DON'T - get a cheapo second hand / £50 set in a box option at best they will have setup and tuning issues but often they have other problems that will just slow your progress down.
Amplifier. If you get an electric then you NEED an amplifier. And here is where I made my first big mistake I bought a reasonably priced all singing all dancing modelling amp. It does all sorts and truth be told generates some really nice tones. However its a little bulky.
I play alot in the lounge whilst my partner watches TV. No problem I bring the amp downstairs wire it up to the Laptop so I can play along to the Youtube lesson or hook it up to my phone to run a metronome beat. I plug in my headphones and grab my guitar all set to play.... now the dog wants walking .. it's a faff!
One thing I do know is that practice time is premium time the more you can spare the more potential you have to improve. Faffing with wires and amps etc didn't help me. So I started just playing the electric guitar acoustically. I can hear the tune through my headphones I can play the strings all good . . or so I thought! I was making reasonable progress learning a couple of picked tunes so one day I go upstairs plug in my amp and play -- Ouch ! without amplification its very difficult to hear some of the slightly muffled mistakes your fingers are making. Practicing un-plugged seemed a good theory but it actually let me get away with some lazy fingerings that played though the amp sounded terrible,
I have tried a number of PC / Linux software amp packages but most don't perform that well without alot of tweeking and certainly not with most gaming setups so a non starter for me.
I am now considering investing in a small desktop amp modeller. Since I bought my amp I have used it in speaker mode maybe 5 times the rest was with headphones. The little desktop units have all the functionality and more of my amp but are the size of a calculator. I can use it all the time without lugging amps about! These units are about the same price as a good practice amp but for a beginner like me they offer far more opportunities.
I can grab my guitar off the rack plug it and my phones straight into the unit press play on a backing beat and I'm playing. I can grab a quick 10 minute finger exercise or lick practice in with next to no preparation time.
All the other bits of equipment speak for them selves
Tuner - Never play without one and learn to use it!
Picks , Cables etc to your personal taste.
Stand / Rack - Buy one ! they are only a few pounds and cheaper than a repair job on a broken neck or big ding in the body of your pride and joy because it fell over from the side of the sofa where you propped it...
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