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You'll find your ear develops over years Seersha. However as a beginner a tuner of somekind will save you alot of annoyance. The best kind for acoustic are contact tuners. Quite cheap now too, heck they are even giving 'emergency tuners' away free with guitar string packs. Contact tuners have little jaws that clip on and 'feel' the headstock vibrations. Don't get hung-up on perfect pitch, a few freaks can develop it real quick, but it just comes with familiarity with pitch. Even before electronic tuners players would tune to the pipe organ or whatever...

No harm in playing nylon strings. They're quieter and mellow sounding, they don't strum quite the same as steel but classical players use nothing else. You will get callouses with them, just not like steel strings. Callouses go with regular playing, I lost my fingertip ones when playing bass alot in the Spring and gained long callouses down the sides of my fingers. Playing more acoustic this summer so they're back and peeling ;-)

Thing with used guitars is finding them. Shops often accept the good ones as part-exchange but they go fast. Knowledgeable musos snap up the bargains. I noticed a 70s Japanese Gibson copy ('Loveson' if you can believe it) that played real nice in a local shop, put I left a few weeks and it's gone now :-(

With new guitars key thing is a solid wood top. These will quickly mature with playing in a way that laminated tops won't. Unfortunately shops don't label this. Ask the salesman which models are solid tops and you'll find the choice narrows right down.

The difference between Fender, Martin and Ibanez. Well Martins tend to be top quality, top dollar, nothing really affordable in their range. Fender make fine electric guitars but their acoustics are pretty sterile, people buy them because of the familiar neck or the 'cool' headstock. To me Fender acoustics are a case of a big brand name hoping punters won't notice it's dull offerings. Ibanez are great value, they tend to be very clean and tidy finishes with a decent sound. Once you know their soundstyle you'll find all their range has the same 'genes'.

You asked about multiple guitars. Well the simple fact is there's alot of people out there with lots of spare cash who are collectors more than players. Do a google search on GAS, Guitar Acquisition Syndrome and you'll find people can't help themselves.

If you begin to play live you'll discover the reason for a second intrument. Things happen. Strings break, idiots knock your guitar over, spill drinks etc. Once you really get attached to a particular model having a spare is reassuring, particularly if you make your living from it or have a band depending on you (I have two electric basses, the strings can break with no warning and then you only have 3 left to play). Stringing up whilst the audience waits is not fun. In fact it got Eric Clapton his nickname 'Slowhand'.

Am - the same shape as E but down a string.

F - what you are showing is 'cheats F' which isn't a bad thing, it leads nicely into C. Full barre F is much harder, leave it for later.

G - What we have here is a folk G where you cover the thick strings with first and index finger and then place ring and pinkie on the thinnest strings. May be hard for a beginner to move the little finger in for a 'hammer-on' which is what the h means. I'd stick with the standard G you already know.

Try just slowly playing through Am F C G without worrying about the song, concentrate on making the changes clean and efficient. Keep repeating and you should find the pattern gets ingrained in your fingers and you naturally get faster. Keep practising every day as those chords are real common. G C F makes lots of songs happen, G C D many more...

You are going in the right direction, good choice of song...

Been browsing around since I posted here. First thing I noticed on Ovation's site is that the majority of their current models have central soundholes, so clearly they no longer feel their copyright style is the one-true-way. I suspect what I was noticing last year was musicians who'd picked up high-spec Ovations secondhand like DG suggested. They were quite a high level brand in the 80s but now they cover such a range of price-points I'm not sure simply buying one guarrantees the same good sound.

Ovation's website gives away the game as regards body depth. The shallower the body the less bass response there is. Fine if you want a toppy bright sound but probably unsatisfying.

I think the real moral here is simply ticking the piezo box doesn't guarrantee a good plugged in to the PA sound. The way the electronics is executed is more important than any particular clever design.

When I'm feeling brave I think I'll get a Fishman/LRBaggs put in my Seagull. That's brave as in handing my baby over to a luthier and brave as in having the chops to play that open mic night...

Hi Cameron, it would be nice if tabs gave basic amp settings but I've never come across it.

Part of learning electric is learning how to set your amp for the song. Often once you get the right tone the lick that didn't quite work clicks into place.

With the Stones you're talking semis and Vox amps for the early songs and then Teles and Fender amps for their crunchier 70s sound. Southern rock you are talking Les Pauls and hi-gain amps like Marshalls and Mesas.

Spend plenty of time playing with your Spider, pick an amp, then mess with the gain, cut treble, boost bass etc. Take your guitar volume down low, roll back the tone then repeat. You'll be amazed how many different sounds your guitar can make.

When you get a great tone make a note of the settings but don't get fixated on it. When you play in a band you may want a far more cutting tone than if you were just practising. Learning what to tweak up to cut through the mix is another part of playing electric.

An English luthier claims olive oil is all you need to use. Makes sense but might make me hungry every time I played.

Lag Jet is a good punchy electric to begin on. With most whammy bars you keep the handle near the palm of your hand. Strike a note and as you hold it lift the bar back from the guitar. The note should go up as you lift and fall as you lower it. Waggle the bar rapidly and you should get a wobbling wailing effect.

The springs underneath give you something to move against othewise you'll just get a 'straight up and so what' sound. Don't expect every spring hook to have one on. These allow you to add springs to increase the force needed (one for strongman acts!).

Two bits of good news. First off Gibson is producing replicas of 'the Fool' very soon, so you should be seeing some good shots of it, maybe even a store near you will put one on display.

Second, from the pictures I've seen the paintwork on 'the Fool' was unfussy hippy brushwork so should be easy enough to emulate. It all depends on whether you want to do better than the original. Cream's Jack Bruce was meant to have his bass done with another design by the same artists but the paint never dried right. Not sure we'll ever know what was to accompany the Fool...

Active is far more common in bass guitars. I have two. With passive the tone control can only reduce, so it dops treble off. With active you suddenly have the ability to add more bass/mid/treble like on an amp (active basses usually have 3 tone pots for the 3 frequency ranges). Now I also have a bass with two batteries in it, it's 18W or 'double active' and can be taken between active and passive modes, so I can directly compare.

Key difference is responsiveness, with the double active it kicks like a mule (even when the tone is set to be identical in both modes). Play soft and you're thrumming away, play hard and you get big notes leaping out the speakers. With passive everything's much more on one level.

Yamaha Pacifica and a Line6 Pocket Pod.

£300 really is quite limiting for a semi. There's alot more work making the top back and sides compared to a solid which just gets cut out on a computer controlled machine. Also semis tend to get given bling finishes for the jazz/western vibe but these cost. One to consider is Spear whose walnut topped 'open pore finish' semi is close to your price mark. Also look out for Gretsch 5120s which should be circa £500. Watchout if buying off the Bay as semis are a bit more fragile than soild electric guitars, make sure pictures of neck joints are real clear...

This months G&B magazine rated Fender's Fuzz-Wah pedal 'sweetest wah' but awarded Foxx's Fuzz-Wah top marks for best fuzz, decent wah, octaver and phasing.