What to look for when buying an Electric/Acoustic Guitar - post from old forum

[cyberfret]

The_Doors_Girl wrote:

Hi all yet again I am back looking for answers to my many guitar questions. Today's question is about Electic/Acoustic Guitars I was wondering what should I look for when buying one? Is there a differance between them? etc. If anyone has a good web site they could lead me too or just have alot of knowledge on this topic please drop me an email. Or reply to this topic. A million thanks.

-Music the Voice of the People

[cyberfret]

ESP_Viper replied:

Here are some tips on buying any kind of instrument. Look at the construction: is it sturdy? Look at how the quality of the wood is. Hardware is also something to look at, but that can always be replaced, but watch out for lazy machine heads. If you are looking at a guitar with a pickup, preamp, and EQ built into it already, plug it in and mess with the settings to see how clear it is. Another good option is to buy a nice acoustic guitar, and get a pickup for it, EMG and seymour duncan make very nice acoustic pickups. I don't know what price range you are looking for, so I can't really make model recommendations. Just play lots of guitars for a little while to get an idea of how the construction and tone are.

[cyberfret]

The_Doors_Girl replied:

Thanks esp_viper for the info so far. The range I am looking for is between $100-$300. I have a nice gibson ep aj-10 right now and was thinking of buying a pickup but wasnt sure what to look for aswell.

[cyberfret]

Gil replied:

A lot of e/a guitars seem to have a tinny sound. dont ask me why. if you dont like that, than avoid ones that do.

[cyberfret]

SteelSlider replied:

Hi Doors Girl

Before you purchase a new insturment, you need to ask your self, "What am I going to do with it, and where am I going with it?"

Do you only play around the house, for your friends, do you do gigs? The more you do with an insturment, the better quality you'll want.

That gibson ep aj-10 is a nice guitar. Maybe instead of buying a new guitar, you can modify that one. Toss in a pickup or mic to boost your sound. Replace the machine heads if your current heads slip, change saddles, have your neck checked by a guitar shaman, mechanic, and the truss rod adjusted. A tune up on the mechanic of your guitar will make it sound like new.

Then in your in the market for a new guitar, here's a few more things to thing about. Start at one end of the guitar and work your way down. I like to begin at the head, so,,,,
Machine heads are important. Some don't have any adjustment screw on them. That can be a problem later on as they loosen under tension and the stings to always need retuned. Once you settle on a particular insturment, check the feel of those machine head screws, they should feel firm, but not hard to turn, not loose either. They should turn easy without any racket of protest from them.

After you've looked at the head, move down to the nut. Do the strings lay in the nut, on the bottom of the groove? Check your E and A strings especially. Sometimes you can see light under them. This can cause a problem later on as wear will eventually let the string seat in the groove like it should, but even a small change in the position of the strings in the nut can drasticlly change the action on the neck, causing your strings to buzz on the frets. Make sure the strings are seated properly, and the action is true to your liking.

Look down the neck of the guitar for a bow, twist, curve ect in the neck. It's a vunerable part of the guitar and usually the first to show any signs of problems. Also, make sure the neck has a truss rod, some of the cheaper models don't have them. On down the road of time, one day that neck may bow for some reason, and if it has a truss rod, it can be fixed.

If your looking at a used guitar, check those frets out. They are fairly hard, but they still wear down over time. That can cause a buzz on the forward fret also. Fret replacement isn't cheap

Someone mentioned the wood used in a guitar. That's an important part of looking at the insturment. Forget the pretty paint, the shiny laquared finish, look for the wood. As you learnt in science class, hard objects transport sound better than soft. A hard wood guitar will, of course cost more, but is well worth it.
Another thing to look for is not the kind of wood, but what type of wood. Most guitars come in two varities, solid wood or laminated wood. Here's what you want to think about when looking for a new insturment. If you want one to gig with, to sound the best you can afford, that will be taken care of, go the soild wood route.

If your playing at home, parties, tossing in in the backseat of the car and heading to the lake, taking it camping, go the laminated route.

The same body design, name and inner construction will sound different on both. The reason I suggest the laminated if your taking it outside or traveling with it, is because the laminated wood it tougher. It's layered like plywood. The body can take a lickin' and not show the nicks and scratches as easily as a soild wood body will. Solid wood, even the hard woods, will dent, nick and scratch more readily than laminated.

It's kinda hard to tell the difference in wood types being used if a guitar has been painted. If the wood grain is visible through the laquered finish, here's how I do it.

Look in the sound hole. Along the edge of the hole, where he cut was made. If the grain of the wood is going in one direction, it's soild. If you see a switch in grain patterns, or a layering look, it's laminated.

End of part one, as I just found out there is a limit to posting size.

[cyberfret]

SteelSlider replied:

Part two.

Ask the people what kind of strings are on it at the time your playing it. I know most guitar shops tune the strings down a quarter to a half step. I carry a small digital tuner with me that sticks to the body of the guitar and picks up the vibration or frequency from each string instead of the sound. Tune the guitar to standard tuning. Play it a few minutes, and check the neck as I mentioned earlier. Sometimes the neck isn't as good as it should be, and the store knows this and lowers the tuning to ease the tension on it. They also lower the tuning to make it easier to play. Unless you know and trust a store and it's people, think of guitar shops in the same manner as car dealers. They'll try every trick in the book to sell a guitar that should be sent back to the manufacture.

Not all stores practice in this manner, but until you find a luthier shop you can trust, be wary.

Next check the bridge. Another vunerable area on your new guitar. When the strings are on it, it's pretty hard to run your hand in the hole to feel around for the kind of attatchement they use. I also carry a mirror with me. It's the kind a auto mechanic uses. It has a telescopic body and the mirror is about an inch or so across and can be tilted on a swivel ball. If you use this to look inside the body, be very careful you don't bump against the body with it when a sales person is near. Even the nicest salesperson will come unglued if they suspect your damaging the merchendise. I do my looking when the sales person is busy with someone else. Someone may of bought that guitar and played it and the bridge began to pull up from the body on them, so they brought it back. The guitar shaman fixed it and now it's on the rack again. While you have the mirror in the box, look at the bacing and joints for anything that looks suspicious. Most people never know what's in their box, even after owning the insturment for years.

Now, back outside, back to the bridge. Set in the groove of the bridge is a white thingie the string lay across, the saddle. One of my biggest peaves is the material these new guitars manufactures are making their saddles from, in their cost cutting measures. Plastic. Those plastic saddles will wear after a while. Each time you restring your guitar, and tune it up, those string scrape a bit of plastic off, lowering the action over time, causing string buzz on the frets or popping sounds when you tune up. They need replacement more frequent that a bone saddle. They will charge you for the changing if you want a bone saddle, but it will be worth it in the long run. Dicker with them over the price, in a good way. You may get a few bucks knocked off. Don't let them sell you a new set of strings either if you have a new saddle put in. Have the originals put back on. They are still good. Wear the life out of them yourself.

One more thing, then I'll shut up. Most acoustic bodies meet the neck around the 12 to 14th fret. If you want to play higher on the neck, think about a cut-a-way model. Then you can reach the high frets without disjointing your hand to get there. A bit on the down side of cut-a-way guitar bodies, is the price, it costs more to make the cut-a-way. The lose of sound due to the missing body space is affected also but that is not really noticable for most purposes.

You may want a certin kind of tone for your guitar. Try out everyone of the guitars in the store that is within your price range. It's suprising the different sounds all those guitars make.
Do not, let me repeat that, DO NOT, look at the pretty finish, the high refractive glossy glow of the guitar has under those lights in the store. When you buy a guitar, get it for the purpose you want to use it for, the sound, feel, construction, ect. Who cares what it looks like.

Get some decent strings, stay away from the generics.
Finally, get a case for it.
Good luck, and let us know what you buy.