Welcome Guitarists!

If you are new to the Guitar no doubt you're looking for advice.
The established Guitar brands include:

Gibson, Fender, Ibanez, Martin, Taylor and many others. These brands have legendary status but with that comes a price tag. The good news is there are hundreds of other brands that make great instruments & copies of the famous Guitars such as the Stratocaster, Telecaster, Les Paul & SG. But with all instruments we recommend a visit to a real music shop where you can be advised and actually try out the Guitar before you buy. Buying instruments online isn't a great idea unless you know exactly what you are getting. Also, don't be fooled into bargains at Aldi, Lidle, argos, tesco and other non specialist corporations. They generally sell cheap junk.

If you're looking for strings and accessories you can get some great bargains. Check out www.strings.ie for this.

About the Guitar:
A guitar is a musical instrument characterized by its visually dominant body and neck. Guitar strings are strung parallel to the neck, whose surface is covered by the fingerboard (fretboard). By depressing a string against the fingerboard, the effective length of a string can be altered, which in turn changes the frequency at which the string will vibrate when plucked. Guitarists typically use one hand to pluck the strings and the other to depress the strings against the fingerboard. The strings may be plucked using either fingers or a plectrum (guitar pick), thus creating the sound of notes or chords. The strings of a guitar produce little sound by themselves. Instead, their vibration must be amplified to audibly useful levels. In general, this amplication is achieved either mechanically or electronically, with the result being that there are two main categories of guitar: acoustic (mechanical amplification) and electric (electronic amplification).