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"Guitars. Where?"

Right then, after a fall out with my old guitar, (involving pulling out the humbuckers) I was wondering where I should go about buying a new one. Not shelling out too much, but is offline best? Try out some second-hand guitars?

It depends on the type of shop. There are two on the same street where I live. One is a big national chain and whatever the price tag says is the price you pay. They tend to have more high end guitars like les pauls and PRS. Basically stuff that breaks the £1000 mark.
The other shop has cheaper stuff for beginers but also has a small selection of medium to high end guitars such as epiphones, fender strats, ibanez jems etc. often second hand stuff. The staff are more friendly and helpful, but most importantly, you can hagle the price down a bit.
First time I went to get a guitar I took my mate with me because I didnt have a clue what I was looking for and would have bought anything. So my advise would be to go to a shop, with a more experienced friend, and try to hagle the price down. Only buy a guitar that you feel comfortable with.

for the record:

semi-acoustic = those Epiphone thngs that oasis used at the height of their indiness

electro-acoustic = an acoustic that you can plug in :)

Pah, I'm probably going to acoustic, unless a "semi-electric" is found for a decent price.

Ah well, I'll probably pop down and see if I can find a decent second hand acoustic.

My first guitar was/is an acoustic so I didn't need to worry about not knowing any technical stuff other than how high an action I like.

I hated buying my guitar.
But I went to a crappy shop, so that's the problem.

The man in my local shop has wonky eyes, that was quite intimidating.

It can be a little intimidating going into a shop to buy your first guitar if you don't know what you're talking about.

When I went to get mine, I insisted that my older brother came with me because he's an experienced player. I didn't want to get ripped off or end up with a piece of garbage, and I didn't want to be made to look stupid when they started asking me about the technical stuff.

This kind of thing probably does stop people going into shops to buy them, or maybe it was just because the shop I went was full of employees who looked like failed rockstars.

Yeah, it's been said: don't buy online!!! You never know what crap you'll end up with, and sorting out exchanges will be a nightmare.

once and for all: buy from a shop.
2nd hand stuff is fine as you'll usually get a better axe for less cash, as long as you don't mind a few scratches but you should ALWAYS try a guitar before you buy it. i've had one mail order guitar in my life and it was absolute crap and of course, no after-sales care.

I find that there are many people who over shoot and buy really expensive guitars despite not being able to play at all. They then find out they don't like playing (they're too crap to learn). So they try to get rid of it for dosh. That gets you good stuff for far less.

I would never advise buying one from a shop (price-wise), but it's great going into a shop and trying out all the guitars until you find one you like and promptly leave the shop to search for it on-line.

Shop prices are higher than on-line I find. Plus one shop will have a limited range compared to the internet. Unless you go to Holland Park Road or somewhere like that that have loads. Then again their prices are through the roof.

Some small music stores offer some decent prices, like my local one. But the bigger ones have seen an increasing trend of selling cheaper start up packs.