Guitar Today

When you are a beginner guitar player it may be wise not to invest too much money right off the bat. Not everybody can afford to buy a brand new guitar and what’s worse is sometimes it turns out to be nothing more than an expensive decoration. Buying a used guitar can end up saving you a lot of money in the long-run. Once you have gotten your feet wet (and your fingers callused) you may want to upgrade.

If you have the necessary skills, used guitars can also be an investment. There is also ample money making opportunity in ‘guitar flipping’. Just like ‘house-flipping’, flipping a guitar is the same idea. You buy a beat-up old guitar at a bargain price and restore it to increase its’ value.

Although buying a new or used guitar is a choice you have to make on your own, it always pays to talk to someone who knows about guitars and doesn’t work at the shop you are buying it from.

You can check online in guitar blogs and forums to ask about referrals to stores that sell used instruments. If you live in decent sized city you can use craig’s list to find people selling their instruments or post your own message that you are on the market for one. In any event, before we fork over our hard earned cash for a used guitar, there are a few things we need to know.

Why am I buying this guitar?

Firstly, you need to decide the purpose of the guitar you are buying. Where do you want to be able to play this guitar? Electric guitars obviously need electricity while acoustic guitars are good to go even when the power is out.

There are laminated and solid wood guitars. Laminated guitars last a long time and are good for outings. Solid wood have shorter life and are better suited for indoor use.

What should I be looking for when I test-drive a guitar?

Always check the neck of a guitar before buying. You always looking for any warps or bowing. Looking down the neck of guitar or holding the first string on the first and twelfth fret can help you check for issues. An experienced guitar player can help you to look for warps. You should also check to see if the neck is appropriately fastened to the body. Holding a guitar upright by the neck and slightly jiggling it will reveal if there is any looseness at the joint connecting the body to the neck.

For an electric guitar it is always important to play it before buying it so you can make sure the wiring is right. Play around with the volume and tone selectors while it is plugged in to make sure there is no scratching, popping or shorting out while in use.

An important thing to look for in an acoustic guitar is whether or not it is hand made. Factory made acoustic guitars do not last and they also lack quality due to the missing human factor. Machines just don’t have the music in them. An easy way to tell if an acoustic guitar is hand-made or not is by looking inside the sound hole at the wooden pieces that line the seams of the guitar’s interior.

The wood should have tiny slats cut into it giving it a resemblance to a train track. If the tracks are somewhat even, it is definitely a hand crafted guitar. If they are perfectly aligned it may be a factory job. If there are no tracks at all, this is likely a very cheap guitar.

The most important, and probably the most obvious thing is to choose a guitar that suits your unique style. Obviously a nylon string classical guitar is not going to be suited to heavy metal riffage. Just as a B.C. Rich wont sound very good if you try to play jazz or ska chords. God forbid what the blues would sound like on one.

Good luck shopping for a new-to-you guitar. If you enjoyed this post why not sign up for instant free updates in the reader of your choice Today! Thanks for reading!

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