2 instruments I'm looking at....

archard

Joined: Jan 11 2007

That's not a lot of money to spend for a guitar.... for a recorder I dunno. I used to play one when I was in like 3rd grade and as far as I remember they're just little pieces of plastic that cost like 20 bucks. Of course there's probably nicer ones for more than that but is it really worth it? Honestly I would wait till you have more money to get a classical guitar. In my experience if you wanna get something nice and it isn't your first time buying something like that then you shouldn't go cheap or you'll end up unhappy with it.

BluePhoenix

give me a dollar

Location: Earth, Universe A

Joined: Jan 21 2008

I would reccomend against the recorder. You may think it's a flute type instrument that'd be easy to play but for the most part the sound produced is loud and annoying, it can only be used for carnival sounding tunes and ripping off 3rd graders' parents as archard mentioned.

As for the classical, there are some decent ones for that amount. Ibanez has some good ones with pickup for like $250. However I think for classicals, even more so than electrics or steel stringed acoustics, you gotta fork over some $ for any quality, like around 400 atleast. As be wary as there is more than one type of classical guitar.

Rancid- you may dislike the spruce as it's more used for flamenco, the red spruce tops can be also be good like cedar, but I have cedar and it does kick ass.

Stamen47

no0bzOrG

Joined: Jun 16 2007

Well, I for one defend the recorder. It does get a bad rep due to the whole classroom-of-third-graders-blowing-as-hard-as-they-can, but it CAN sound wonderful if you have a good instrument and know what you're doing. If you live in a house and can manage some alone time with no one in the rooms around you, I'd recommend a cheap plastic recorder just to learn the ropes on and see if you think it's worth pursuing. I must warn you, though, if you're easily irritated by noise, that playing the higher notes will sound VERY irritating on these cheap recorders (hence why I recommend playing when nobody is around). On the other hand, learning to make it sound less irritating by controlling your breath is probably really good practice and will give you excellent tone when you decide to upgrade to a better instrument.

Anyway, that's what I've done. I just have a cheap, plastic, soprano recorder, but am thinking of upgrading to an alto, but I may even go tenor because the fingerings are the same as soprano. Unfortunately, the instruments get more expensive the bigger you go. I found this site, it seems pretty good at pricing good recorders:

http://www.courtlymusicunlimited.com/Instruments.html

On the other hand, I do like the guitar more than the recorder, especially classical guitar. I'm just saying not to dismiss the recorder, and it would possibly be cheaper depending on if you're ok with the irritating sound of the cheap plastic soprano recorder (you may want to go with a cheap plastic alto recorder, which has a range of a fifth lower than the soprano, so it would be slightly less irritating).

Joined: Dec 31 1969

Recorder is like a harmonica, I guess: Either love it or hate it.

The former for me.

itscold

Joined: Mar 20 2008

I saw this video a few days ago,
http://youtube.com/watch?v=H0a8k_s4ako
Pretty funky recorder playing.

IMO, you should save some more money for a classical, go for a solid top cedar/spruce guitar. I personally went spruce because I love the brightness of it, and apparently it ages better.
But you don't necessarily need a classical guitar for finger picking, unless of course you want to play classical pieces. Some jazz musicians fingerpick on electric guitars, and country and folk musicians often fingerpick on steel string acoustics.

"BluePhoenix" posted:

Anyways I have had some experience with classicals and I'm confused when you say you want to work of your finger picking

He's referring to right hand picking technique, i.e. using fingers instead of a pick.

archard

Joined: Jan 11 2007

Definitely save up some more money if you're gonna buy a guitar. If you go out on impulse and get a crappy one for 150 bucks you'll end up regretting it. I'd say save up at least 300 dollars.

meh

stuff

Location: Ontario

Joined: Jan 11 2008

lol the first part to that video reminds incredibly of the naruto game for xbox 360

PLZKLLME0080

The WhtDrgn

Location: Midgar

Joined: Jul 29 2008

"archard" posted:

That's not a lot of money to spend for a guitar.... for a recorder I dunno. I used to play one when I was in like 3rd grade and as far as I remember they're just little pieces of plastic that cost like 20 bucks. Of course there's probably nicer ones for more than that but is it really worth it? Honestly I would wait till you have more money to get a classical guitar. In my experience if you wanna get something nice and it isn't your first time buying something like that then you shouldn't go cheap or you'll end up unhappy with it.

Same on everything he said.