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Tips for buying a guitar

 

Tips for Buying a Guitar

Buying a guitar can be hard experience, particularly if you are not yet a good player. The good thing is there are some practical techniques you can use in selecting and buying a good and affordable instrument. You may have to be practical, buying a guitar at a price that won't empty your savings account. As with all purchases, it is important to do as much research as possible before buying anything.

Listen to different players and determine what kind of instrument you would like to play. There are several types of guitars made to play different styles of music, but it is better to select one that closely approximates the style you want to learn.

Buying a very cheap guitar may be self-defeating, because it may not suit your playing style or be so poorly made that it is so difficult to play, that you'll be discouraged from learning. You have to find a balance between quality and price. A good used guitar can be an excellent value as guitars hold their resale value and some can grow in value over the years.
If you are planning to buy a used guitar you must make sure that:

• The tuning knobs all work and turn easily.
• Any crack, no matter how small on the body is a bad sign.
• Press a string down at each end of the fingerboard. It should touch all the frets.
• Play a few notes and chords; see if the guitar sounds good and is easy to play on.
• Ask if the instrument has ever been repaired.

What kind of guitars are there on the market?

New American-made guitars tend to be more expensive, so most beginners are going to end up with an imported one, as many guitars are made in the Far East today. The Asian makers in fact make reasonably good guitars in all the popular styles, but obviously if your main interest is the classical/Spanish style, you should look for Spanish imports as well.

Inexpensive guitars are usually made of lesser-quality woods as laminates or plywood. The appearance will be good, because quality woods are used to for the outer layer, but the sound of a plywood guitar is rarely as beautiful as one made with solid woods. Sometimes the top will be solid with laminated wood for the sides and back, which is preferable to plywood throughout.

The best classical guitars have sides and back of East Indian or Brazilian rosewood. The tops can be of spruce or Canadian cedar with even spacing between the annular lines of the grain. The neck is usually made of Spanish cedar, and the fingerboard of ebony. Acoustic guitars can be made of spruce, maple, rosewood, or mahogany, each having a different characteristic sound.

As well as costing more, the solid wood guitar will need more care since it is more susceptible to changes in temperature and humidity. At the very minimum, try to get a guitar with a solid top. This will give you the advantage of improved sound. The laminate body acoustic guitar will be better for a beginner because it is sturdier, less likely to crack or scratch with mishandling.

For electric guitars however, it does not much matter what wood is used to make the body. The ideal thing is to have a strong, non resonant body - quite the opposite of what you'd like in an acoustic instrument. The body is more important for its decorative value than its composition.

Over the years electric guitar manufactures have come up with necks and bodies made of graphite compounds and metal. These materials do offer some advantages over wood, they are more stable than wood and are less likely to shift over the years. They can offer unique designs and sound good, but some argue that wood guitars, with all their faults still are the best, and nothig can substitute for the "feel of the wood," and for the fact, that each wooden guitar is unique as the trees that are made from.

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