Difference between revisions of "Choosing a Guitar"

Revision as of 15:43, 3 April 2014

There are numerous concerns you should have when choosing a guitar, such as...

Build Quality

Build quality is everything. Consider a guitar with a warped neck. It will not intonate properly - after tuning the open strings you'll find the fretted notes are out-of-tune. Or consider a guitar whose neck is firmly connected to the body. It will move and keep going out of tune. Build quality relates to the guitar's durability as well.

Usually, the build quality should be apparent based on the other aspects below. It would be rare to find a guitar that looks, sounds, and feels great but has a poor build quality.

Guitar manufacturers stake their reputation on their build quality. The bigger companies usually use a different brand name to market their cheaper, generally-lower-quality lines. For example, the big names like Fender and Gibson have Squier and Epiphone lines, respectively. That said, even the big names can produce duds. Most guitars are factory-built, many in foreign factories. Quality assurance is lacking. It's best to give any guitar you want to buy a good look over - make sure there are no chips, warping, glaring knots in the wood grain, loose parts, rattling, or any other defects.

Play the guitar all over the neck - make sure no frets produce rattling or mysteriously fade out instead of sustaining.

Used guitars can make for good bargains; but if you're not sure how to check if the guitar has any defects, you may want to buy a new guitar. These will have a better return policy with the store you purchased it from, plus have a 3 month - 1 year manufacturer's warranty you can honor if you later discover some non-obvious defect.

Playability

A guitar is no good if you can't play it. Unfortunately, this is not the easiest thing to test, especially in a store. Stores are often notorious for allowing guitars to sit in the demo room without being properly set up or being out-of-tune. So if you grab it off the shelf, it may be impossible or difficult to play, or it may get lots of fret buzz or even have strings that are fretting out. Sometimes they'll even have broken or missing strings. If you are seriously interested in buying that guitar, take it to a salesperson, tell them you are really interested in it but not in its current condition. They usually work on commission and will try to help you as best they can, provided you convince them you are serious about making a purchase. They can definitely tune it up for you (which is often near-impossible to do in a noisy guitar store) and maybe even give it a setup job. Even if they don't give it a full setup, they should be willing to at least adjust the action.

Fretting Out

A good guitar should not fret out anywhere - this is where the string literally cannot sustain due to hitting a higher fret. A little fret buzz is expected, depending on string gauge and action; but it shouldn't sustain over the life of the note. Test notes on the entire fretboard - low and high frets, low and high strings. It's common for frets around 2-6 to get more fret buzz than higher frets - this can usually be evened out by adjusting the truss rod.

Fret Finish

The frets should be smooth - you should be able to bend the strings up and down against the frets smoothly. If the frets aren't properly sanded down and finished, they may be a bit rough. This makes for difficult and possibly jerky bends, which is no good. Having a neck properly finished is not cheap - my advice is to avoid purchasing a guitar in such state. Maybe the store will offer to do the work for you - make them do it first, or make it contingent on a no-questions-asked return policy. They might try to cut corners just to make the sale and leave you stuck with a barely playable guitar.

I bought an Ibanez RGA8 that had to be special ordered and arrived with cuts in the frets - literally looked and felt like knife cuts. Bending through them felt nasty and was completely unacceptable. I used my warranty to get a new one - anything like that should be considered a manufacturer defect, not a setup issue.

Nut Action

Another common issue is the nut action. Just as the bridge can be adjusted upwards or downwards to help playability and tone, the nut can be modified or replaced to raise or lower the height of the strings relative to the fretboard, particularly the first few frets close to the nut. Usually, cheap guitars have the nut action too high, which makes it difficult to fret the first 3 or 4 frets, and throws the intonation off. Filing the nut is not something a store is going to be willing to do to try to make the sale. You'll have to use your judgment, but first try to find better guitars without this issue.

Setup or Quality?

Unfortunately, it's often difficult to tell whether the problem with a guitar can be cured with a proper setup or if it's a defect/poor craftsmanship. Many vendors have a no questions asked return policy. So you could buy it, make adjustments, then determine whether to keep or return it. Unfortunately, if you pay a professional to set it up, then return it, you have to eat the cost of the setup. Sometimes a little setup is all a guitar needs, and you can't write them all off based on their state at the store. But other times a guitar is well-setup and well-crafted, and the quality is clearly superb. It's always best to work off of knowledge rather than assumptions. IE, if you have to pay a little more to get a guitar you know has good playability vs. a guitar that might have good playability, it's probably worth the extra money.

Comfort

Playability above refers to the ease of playing the guitar (action, fretwork) and tonal issues (fretting out, buzz). Comfort is more about the irritations you will experience when playing.

A common complaint about a guitar is the bridge. Some bridges have protruding metal that can irritate or even cut your hand. Some are oddly shaped and feel strange when resting the side of your palm against it. Companies that specialize in bridges definitely take this concern into account in their design process. Cheap knock-off companies that produce every part in the guitar in-house don't. It may not seem like a big deal when playing for 5 minutes in a store, but it definitely is a huge concern when you play for an hour or more, day after day.

Body shape definitely has a huge impact on comfort. It affects the ease of balancing the guitar when sitting down and whether the neck will dip or not when standing up. The Fender Stratocaster is really the archetype of 80-90% of all electric guitars. Its curves are shaped to easily rest on your right thigh, but can also rest in between both thighs comfortably. The next-most iconic shape, the Gibson Les Paul I find a little less comfortable - it's curves are a little sharper and its body a bit thicker. Then there are the crazier shapes like Explorers, Flying V's, Warlocks, etc. I suggest you try these out and gauge if that special look is worth any discomfort associated with the shape.

Another concern is weight. Some guitars feel like a sheet of paper, while others feel like a log. This depends not only on the thickness of the body, but the wood type. Some guitars are even made of plastic or carbon fiber and are super light. Super heavy can be a concern when you have to gig or practice standing up - imagine holding up a dumbbell tied to a rope around your neck for an hour! Similarly, super light can also be an issue, if for any other reason than it feeling wimpy.

Tone

Aesthetics

Features

Pickups

Hardware