Cheap acoustic guitar

[IreneD]

Many thanks to you both, I have an idea what to look for now

[Mowser]

Metal or nylon strings?

[IreneD]

Metal

[Trooperman]

Steel, Mowser, steel.

[gina59]

loads on amazon uk starting from 30 pounds.

[IreneD]

Thanks, gina, I have an address problem here - even getting letters is very hit and miss and also I've left it too late.

[Chunky Monky]

This looks like a joke but is a very valid way of travelling and still be able to practise the guitar, and pretty cheap too!

Manufacturer's Description
The Washburn Rover is the ultimate travel guitar! Play it any time or any place. Bring your Washburn Rover with you wherever you go. Whether camping, hiking,taking a road trip or going on holiday, this light durable guitar is the perfect travelling companion. Each guitar also comes complete with a case, instructional CD Rom, strap and picks.

Washburn is a reputable make.

http://goo.gl/DH5xa

[IreneD]

Funnily enough, I've just been looking at a 2nd hand electric travel guitar on a facebook car boot group and wondered if there was an equivalent acoustic version. Thanks for this info Chunky

[Martin Page]

Ive just seen three for sale at the local boot sale - One that I looked at was 20 E

[IreneD]

Can you buy one for me and bring it to Canillas, Martin?

Edit: Joking just in case you are an angel and decide to do it - I'm not serious! It isn't the end of the world if I don't get one, just something I thought would be nice for my DD while she's here

[Chunky Monky]

What does DD stand for?


(I know what 36DD means)

[Mowser]

First post mentions daughter so I assume it means Darling Daughter, or Dear Daughter or something along these lines.

[IreneD]

Mowser

[peteroldracer]

When my daughter was younger she was known as 'FN'....

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

Irene

You said you just wanted to get something for your daughter to practice with while she's with you.

It doesn't have to be like the one in your Glastonbury pics. Which I think is called a Dreadnaught or Jumbo shape. I'd get a second hand nylon strung spanish guitar. On steel strung guitars the tension in the strings tends to warp the neck or raise the bridge by deforming the top of the guitar. This causes the strings to move away from the fretboard and you have to apply a lot of pressure to get the string in contact with the fret. This also changes the note slightly and sounds terrible. Idealy the distance between the sting and the fret (called the action) should just be a couple of mm all the way along the fret board. If it's too close the string buzzes on the higher frets when depressed. I've got several guitars which have become unplayable due to warping. I won't throw them away for sentimental reasons.

If you find one, check the action and compare the note you get at the 12th fret with the open string. It should be an octave apart.

If your daughter has an electronic tuner get her to bring it. Or a tuning fork which is ususlly A and is the 1st string 5th fret.

If the guitar is staying spain till her next visit, slacken off the strings while she's away.


Axe men of the world unite (ok, girls too)

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

DD........... yes Darling Daughter
DH............darling husband

If you go on Mumsnet there is a whole list of acronyms they use

My fave is

AIBU which means "Am I being unreasonable"

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

Here's a list of acronyms as used on mumsnet

http://www.mumsnet.com/info/acronyms

some wierd ones there eg SWOI

[katy]

SC's

[IreneD]

Thanks, Rick, very good advice. I'm now thinking of waiting till she gets here so that we can look together, although she did text me to say..........wait while I get my phone................"I haven't brought any of my tabs or my capo with me" and not to bother. (I have no idea what she's talking about ) She is visiting her OH's mum near Barcelona atm and they are then driving down on Monday in a hire car, with an overnight stop at Alicante.

[RichardCoeurdeLion]

tabs....
Short for tablature
This is a form of written music. Rather than writing as notes on a stave (I think it's called that) i.e. the 5 horizontal lines with every good boy deserves favour notes on, it is written with six horizontal lines to represent the 6 stings with dots against vertical lines which represent the frets. The dots are where you put your little fat stubby fingers (in my case) to play the note. BTW did you know that Django Rheinhardt only had two decent fingers, the other two were withered in a fire.


Capo.... This is a clamp like device which goes round the neck of the guitar just to the side of a fret to raise the pitch. Why would you need this. Say you have learned a song and the chords are C,F and G. Then you decide that is too low for your voice and you need to go up 2 semitones. You could either play the song in D using the chords D,G and A or put the capo behind the second fret and play the same chord shapes as before.
I never leave home without my capo.

On your daughters pic, the capo is the silver thing just to the right of her left hand. It is on the first fret. She is playing the chord shape for C which is the first one everyone learns. But in her case it would sound like C# (assuming her guitar is in concert pitch... This means that if she played the first string the note would be of the correct frequency for E)

The song she is singing is that clasic by the famous Liverpool composer Johan Sebastian Scouse "Meet me ouside the pawn brokers and I'll kiss you beneath the balls"