Upon entering the music store you’ll see an enormous selection of guitars, and this is what’s going to drive you insane. Every guitar that you walk by will be screaming out your name. There are some basic rules in buying a guitar, and if you follow them you should not have any trouble finding what you want. For many people this is an exciting thing to do. Before you go out and spend all your hard-earned money on a guitar, make sure you know what you want. Of course if you know some one who is experienced in this subject by all means ask them to go with you, but if you are not lucky enough to have this luxury this is what you can do.

What type of music do you want to play?

If you love hard rock or heavy metal you would not do well with a classical guitar and this goes both ways. So you need to figure out which type of music you will be studying. For some people this will be a piece of cake and others this will be extremely difficult.

What is your spending limit?

Every one has a budget. This will be the biggest factor in deciding which guitar will go home with you. If your limit is $250.00 don’t let the salesman show you a $1500.00 guitar this will only further confuse you, but this good for comparing how a more expensive guitar plays verses the more affordable guitar. Don’t listen when people tell you that the only good guitars are over $500.00. There are many guitar manufacturers that keep the lower budget in mind. So set the limit and stick with it.

What’s your level of commitment?

If you’re a beginner and just want to see if this whole guitar thing is going to work for you, consider a less expensive guitar. But remember that real cheap guitars are hard to play physically, and might discourage you in keeping with it, we’ll talk about that a little later. If you have been playing for a while, consider buying the best guitar you can afford. It might seem like a lot now but you’ll forget about it 2 weeks down the road when your knew guitar fits like a glove. Many people buy a little cheaper and feel they can trade up to a better guitar later, but you loose so much money on trade ins its not even funny, you’ll have spent twice as much then you would have in the first place. (Trust me)

New or Used?

If you know what you want you can search out a used guitar, but if your not sure and you want the security of a warranty you should consider new as an option. There is no true way to figure out which is best for you, but if you’re a beginner I would really think about a new guitar. Used guitar prices are marked up anyway so it might be worth to think about that. Again if see a killer deal on a used guitar, and it fits perfect to you, buy it.

Retail or Mail order?

If you know exactly what you’re looking for down to the color, then buying on line or mail order can save you some money. If you’re not sure its well worth going to a retail store and playing as many guitars as possible.

How does it look?

An important question, the guitar you buy has to look good to you. You will most likely be spending many hours with it. So grab the first guitar that caught your eye, plug in and play. If you are not good at tuning your guitar, ask for help, one of the salesmen should be able to take care of that.  Is there any glue blobs in the sound hole or scratches on the fret board or rusty strings ect. Look down the neck as if you were looking at a pool cue, do you see any bends, or warps?

How does it feel? The most important questions of all

• Are the strings too hard to press down? This is critical when playing and could discourage you in staying with it. Make sure you can easily press them down.  This is a good time to ask for a more expensive guitar, to compare the way they feel.
• Or how about the neck, are there any rough edges when you slid your hand up and down the length of it?
• Are the tuning pegs bent or hard to turn or even loose.
• If the guitar has a whammy bar how does it feel? Smooth or rough?
• How easy was it to get into tune?
• How does it feel in your hands? Is the neck too wide? Is the body of the guitar too large?
• Are the pick-ups or any knobs in the way when you are strumming or picking?
• How does it feel when you stand up with it? Ask for a guitar strap to try it out.

How does it sound? The second most important set of questions

• Do you notice the strings Buzzing at all? A little is normal, but there should be minimal buzzing. Make sure that you can’t hear string buzz coming through the amp.
• Do you hear any type of humming coming from the electronic parts of the guitar?  Wiggle the output jack and knobs to make sure you don’t get any type of static or hum.
• Gently tap on the guitars body, do you hear rattling of any kind or does it sound solid?
• If you are going to be playing through a cheap amp at home make sure you don’t play it through a $1000 amp at the store. A $1000 amp can almost make any guitar sound great.
• Make sure that you can make the guitar sound the way you want it to. If you love Jimi Hendrix and his sound you’ll want to make sure your guitar can produce a sound that is close to his.

That’s it for the fun stuffs now we gotta deal with buying the guitar of your dreams.  Here are a few tips for buying.

Remember, buy the guitar, don’t let them sell it to you!

Bring Cash $$$

Cash is easy to deal with; you’ll be in better shape to talk them down in price if you have cash on you. Most prices on guitars can be worked out, most of the time. You can bargain if you have cash because credit card company’s take a percent of the total sale, so if the take 5% off the price and the credit card company takes 3% they lost a lot of there profit. They won’t mind taking some money off if you pay cash.

• Ask what kind of service they have, and if they repair on site or do they send all the repairs out.
• What kind of warranty you’ll receive.
• Ask if after you play the guitar for about a week if they will restring it and set the action for you.
• Ask if you get any kind of case with your new guitar, try for a hard case if you can.
• See if they will through in a tuner or few sets of strings maybe a strap or some picks.

Buying a Guitar Case

You should always carry your guitar in a case of some form. The best is a hard case; this will best protect your guitar from the weather or road trips and so on. Although they are expensive, it will be well worth your investment.

The second best case is called a gig bag. A gig bag is basically a padded duffel bag. This case is good but not as good as a hard case.  If you are just transporting your guitar from the store to home and to gigs once in a while it should work just fine.

If you have any questions about buying a guitar please feel free to ask us for help.  Just email info@learnguitar.net with your questions and well get right back to you.

<Back>