You can buy a lot of things for about a hundred bucks: a couple of video games, a couple of meals at your favorite restaurant, a few new shirts. Those are all nice, but the meals will be gone in minutes, the clothes will go out of style, and you’ll finish the video games in a couple of months. Or, for the same money, you can get an acoustic guitar, bringing you entertainment and satisfaction for the rest of your life. Even if you don’t join a band or turn it into a career, playing guitar is a great creative outlet, a powerful means of self expression, and a wonderful way to entertain yourself, your friends, and your family. And, yes, playing guitar can help your social life. A lot. After all, what beach party, camping trip, or friendly neighborhood get-together is complete without the ubiquitous acoustic-guitar-dude (or dudette) to bring some feel-good sing-along merriment. If your social calendar is looking a little sickly, maybe a healthy dose of vitamin G, C, and D is all you need (that will be funnier when you’ve mastered the basics).
Learning to play guitar may seem daunting at first, but with just a little bit of time and effort, you’ll be surprised how far you can go. And you don’t have to spend a lot of money to get started, either. The Ibanez IJV50 Jumpstart Acoustic Pack, for example, includes everything you need in one convenient collection, including an acoustic guitar, a gig bag for protection on-the-go, a guitar strap for stand-up rockin’, an electronic clip-on tuner to keep you on-pitch, and an accessories pouch for all the random goodies you’re bound to accumulate as you go (extra strings, picks, capo, string winder, pin puller, your hacky sack, etc.). All this for just over $100? No lie!
The Ibanez V50
Many people have resolved to learn the guitar, only to give up a short while later. Why? Is the ability to strum a few chords some mystic gift only poured out on a select few? No. The truth is, most people (understandably) are leery of spending a bunch of money on something they’re not sure they can do, and then they get frustrated, discouraged, and ultimately quit because their starter-guitar is uncomfortable to play and impossible to keep in tune. If you’re serious about learning to play the guitar, you need a serious instrument. Fortunately, this doesn’t mean a serious outlay of cash.
Essential Accessories
The guitar itself would be a steal at this price, but Ibanez has thoughtfully thrown in a handful of accessories, too. There’s a gig bag for carrying your guitar around and protecting it from dust and scratches, a comfortable guitar strap, a pouch to keep accessories in, and, most importantly, an electronic clip-on tuner. Learning to tune your guitar is an essential step for all players, but it’s also a step that can frustrate beginning players. Having an electronic tuner will make the process a whole lot easier for you. It has a little microphone that picks up the sound of a string when you pluck it, and the display makes it easy to understand what you need to do to get it on-pitch. Stow it the accessory pouch and whip it out whenever you want to play.
Entertainment for Life
Becoming a guitar player can change your whole life–but first you have to learn to play. Beginners deserve a guitar that’ll make learning the basics enjoyable and rewarding, like it should be, and you get one of those with the Ibanez V50 Jumpstart Acoustic Pack. How else can you entertain yourself for life for just over a hundred bucks?