5 Reminders When Buying An Acoustic Guitar
May 6th, 2008 by PFBlog
If you are planning on buying an Acoustic Guitar, you should know how to choose the right one to buy. There are some things you need to examine in an Acoustic Guitar and knowing what to look at will help you bring home the perfect guitar for you.
Guitar bodies typically come in the same hourglass shape, however with some variations like size, color, type of wood used, style, and its extra features. The commonly used acoustic guitar is the folk style guitar that you often see get played at parties and campfires, the same type common in music groups and church choirs.
There are a lot of acoustic guitars that you can buy and if price is a factor, you simply get what you pay for. As a personal rule I don’t buy cheap, but I do buy when I get a bargain or if an item is on sale. Buying a new guitar or previously owned guitar both have pros and cons; like if you buy a new guitar you would get a warranty and, sometimes a return period if you’re not happy with your purchase, or if it has some sort of unnoticed defect. A used guitar can usually be bought cheaper and has already gone through its “break-in” period.
Commercially built guitars are usually mass manufactured while “custom-made” guitars are exactly that; custom built and tailored to your specifications by a highly skilled guitar maker. Custom made guitars are typically more expensive than commercially built guitars, with the prices of custom-made guitars influenced by the skill level of the guitar maker. A custom built guitar is thus unique and therefore hard to compare in price to a commercially built guitar.
Whether you are buying a new guitar or old one, here are some tips to keep in mind.
Check the BODY
The guitar body is the part with the sound hole in the front, and can vary in size, shape, type of wood, coating, and general build of the body. All these affects how the guitar sounds. Check the body for bumps, scratches, splits, dents or even holes. The body is usually the part that gets banged-up the most.
Check the NECK, FRETBOARD & MACHINE HEADS
The guitar neck is the long piece of wood that extends from the body to the head of the guitar where the tuning heads or machine heads are found. The guitar strings travel from the bridge that is found on the guitar body, across the sound hole, along the fret board which is on the front surface of the guitar neck, all the way to the tuning heads where they are wrapped around tuning posts. Lay the guitar on a flat surface like a table and inspect the neck at eye level to check if the neck is warped or twisted. This usually happens if a guitar is left in a hot area like propped against a hot surface or left in the trunk of a car of in the back seat, under the heat of the sun.
Let your eyesight skim across the front of the body and down the fret board. You should be able to see if the neck is twisted or bowing.
The fret board is glued to the front of the neck. This is the surface where you press the strings to form a chord or play individual notes. Because it’s glued on separately, a fret board can be made of a wood that’s different from the neck.
The strings travel over the fret board and the distance they are above the fret board makes a difference to the playability of the guitar. If the strings are too far above the fret board, then they will be hard to press down, making the guitar hard to play. A guitar with the strings too far above the fret board, known as ‘high action’, will cause the player’s fingers to hurt so much.
Check the action of the guitar by pressing down on the strings at various points on the fret board, or simply try playing it and see if your fret hand is comfortable on the strings.
You need to see if the guitar is in tune. First tune the guitar, it is important that you tune it using a guitar tuner. This ensures that all open strings are tuned to chords, E-A-D-G-B-E. Then play different chords at different parts of the guitar neck and listen for some notes that are flat or sharp. If you are not particularly good at spotting which is out of tune, you can use the guitar tuner to check each and every note to see if the tuning is consistent for the entire length of the neck.
If the neck is warped, and the guitar is properly tuned, some of the chords will not sound good or will sound out of tune. If this happens, check the tuning again and if the problem persists, don’t buy the guitar.
While on the subject of tuning, check the tuning heads and see if they turn easily or are very stiff and hard to turn. Even with the high tension of the strings, a good quality guitar will have tuning heads that are fairly easy to turn.
Check the BRIDGE
The bridge is found on the front of the body, just a few inches away from the sound hole on the side that is opposite to the neck. The bridge is where guitar strings are usually fed, anchored or snapped into place before they cross the hole and travel up the neck to the tuning heads. Guitar bridges are made of either hard plastic, wood or metal. Guitar bridges are known to crack or split, so if you are getting a previously owned guitar, check the bridge to make sure that it won’t split or fly off the body after playing it a few times.
Check the STRINGS
Acoustic guitar strings come in different types. They can be made out of nylon, brass, steel, or a combination. Nylon strings are usually only found on classical guitars and have a rich, warm sound to them.
The strings also come in different ‘weights’, or sizes; some string packages are marked “heavy” and are usually thick in size and sound “beefy”. Strings that are “light”, or “extra light”, are very thin with a brighter sound to them and are less boomy than heavy strings. The string should actually be the last thing on your mind, but if you want to be spared from re stringing, then ask the seller to put on a new set of strings if they are rusting or old; in the latter case some cannot be tuned properly.
Check its PLAYABILITY
If you already know how to play guitar, then give it a try and start playing on it, see how it feels. If you are buying the guitar for yourself, try the following. Fit your hand around the neck or fret board and see if it is comfortable to play the chords. The guitar should also have a size and shape that you are comfortable playing with, and is easy to hold. Listen to its sound, and if you don’t know how to play, ask someone else to play it for you so that you can judge what it sounds like.
Despite the number of websites that sell music instruments, it is always best to buy a guitar from a physical retail music store that allows you to test the guitar before purchasing it. While buying online or from a catalog may allow you to save on the purchase, it won’t mean anything if you get sent a guitar that is difficult for you to play.
Now that you got your own guitar, the only thing left is how to play it. If you do not know how to play or are just starting out, you can get find several Guitar Lessons online.
