Tips For Buying A New/second Hand Guitar

[john]

Hey

Thought it might be useful to compile a list of things to try/look for when trying out and buying a guitar.

To get us started i'll state the obvious... play it! Do you like the feel? the tone?

When buying new over the internet, go to shop and try the same model, look for reviews of that guitar or forum discussions.

Second hand, check that the neck isn't twisted, or warped. Look along the length of the guitar neck from the headstock, looking at a slight angle above the neck. Andjust the angle you look from so that the frets appear evenly spaced. If you cannot get this, then the neck is not true. If the neck is bowed up or down it can probably be fixed by adjusting the torsion rod. If you do not know how to do this, take it to a guitar shop. If the neck is twisted (frets appear evenly spaced on one side but not the other) this cannot easily be fixed (if at all). Forget the guitar and look elsewhere, unless you are prepared to replace the neck.

Cheers

John

[Rudi]

In about 1992 there was this Jackson Soloist at a shop in Portsmouth that I used to play every time I visited it (I knew the owner well enough). It was beautiful! The only reason I didnt buy it was because it need a re-fret, the pots replaced plus the pu select switch was so worn it could lose the signal completely. All this down to its age & wear.

The question was, would it still play as before after all the work was done on it? It was priced at about £1,400 ($2,800) so I didnt want to take the risk.

Dirty pots can be dealt with by a bit of switch cleaner spray, but its only a temporary fix. The selector switch definatly needed replacing. A re-fret may be fine, but if its not perfect, the set-up may have to change if fret buzz occurs!

For an inexpensive guitar it’s worth a try, but Pete (store owner) didn’t want to carry out the work unless I made a commitment to buy. A fair enough point of view.

One fateful day, after about a year, I dropped in to see what new (& used) guitars were in. The Soloist had been sold! By an odd coincidence another one had been acquired of exactly the same colour (metallic black). It was nearly as nice as the other one to play too. It was nearly new, so had none of the problems the other one had. It was cheaper too. I bought it there & then.

Half of the problem of choosing a guitar is just knowing what you want. You may not always know what you want, but the more you try out guitars the more you will realise what you DON’T want.

To a beginner I would suggest enlisting the help of someone more experienced. I would also suggest sticking to your budget. Learn on a half decent inexpensive guitar. You wont need to be told when you are ready for something better. It will become obvious after about 3 years if you practice enough.

Then you can take your time trying to find what you want. In the example above, I took over a year to find what I wanted. That is a bit extreme, but that’s just how long it took.

[tgrover]

check the intonation if you are buying any acoustic. I bought a beautiful guitar but found it was impossible to record with as it was almost half a step out when you got to the 12th fret.

Wasn't fixable - so had to go to guitar heaven!

[thelevellers]

Buying guitars is great fun! I'll wholeheartedly agree with taking someone with more experience with you... When I bought my Ibanez JS100 I took my mate with me (in fact, he took me - you get better treatment in some of the shops if you're actually buying, and he enjoys shredding on nice guitars...also he could drive! ). It meant that I could hear the guitar being played better than I could play at the time, so I got a better idea of the capabilities. Then it was down to me to choose my favourite looks and feel wise...

I ended up opting for the JS mostly because it has the most lovely neck EVER! I just fell in love with it first play, it was in fact the first guitar I tried in any of the shops I looked in, and all day I was thinking 'Hmm, this is good, but the JS was better...'

Top tip: DO NOT try a guitar that is out of your price range, if you do you will only convince yourself you have the money... technically the JS was out of my range, but I talked myself into contributing money towards it (as my parents stumped up most of the cash as a present)... I'm glad I did, but I was poor for a little while!

Rohan

[Steve]

If you are a begginer and you're not confident of playing a new guitar in a shop, ask one of the assistants to play it. That way, you get to sit a listen to an accomplished player, and you can hear the tone of the guitar! Ask if it's suitable for a begginer? Ask him (her) to play a few and give an opinion on all af them! Ask if it will need new strings?

[Nick]

If you already own a guitar take it with you to compare was a good piece of advice I was given. Your memory will only tell you that it's different.

The other thing I really notice on a guitar is the depth of the neck. Lots of guitars feel like big chunks of wood in my hand as I like a reasonably thin neck (not fingerboard width - I trust that makes sense)

My son decided that he wanted an Ibanez JEM 7W because Steve Vai plays one. But he did have the good sense to go and try it first before buying it just in case.

Edited December 24, 2007 by Nick

[Alistair]

Try several examples of the same model, if you can. They are all different.

[Nightwolf]

My son decided that he wanted an Ibanez JEM 7W because Steve Vai plays one. But he did have the good sense to go and try it first before buying it just in case.

I trust he simply confirmed that the JEM is a Gem and bought it right? I have an Ibanez S series and Love it.

Another bit of advice for electric guitars; if possible either bring your amp or play through something as exact as you can find so you know what it will sound like with your set up..

Rohan is right, when you are going to purchase, never play one out of your price range as it will make the ones you can afford sound/feel bad by comparison most of the time