Buying a Guitar

Amusic.co.uk Guide to buying Guitars

Welcome to the amusic guide to purchasing guitars. Whether you’re looking for your first guitar, or an additional ‘axe’ for your arsenal, these tips will help you make the best use of your money and hopefully find the instrument you’re looking for.

The guide is split into the following sections – click the relevant section for quick access.

1. YOUR FIRST GUITAR
2. STEPPING UP – To Modify or Upgrade?
3. SHOPPING INSTORE OR ONLINE – The Pros and Cons
4. RECOMMENDED TESTS

1. YOUR FIRST GUITAR

In recent years the guitar has become an ever increasingly popular instrument. With the advent of genres like Punk, people have seen that almost anyone can knock out a decent song with a limited amount of information. It’s not surprising then, that there are lots of options where your first guitar is concerned.

There are many guitar packages available from a wide number of manufacturers and retailers. These will often include everything you need to get started including the guitar, plectrums, and spare strings, as well as an amplifier, and cable if you’re buying an electric guitar.

Electric guitars in these packages will predominantly be Stratocaster shaped. This design lends itself well to the beginner as the body is contoured for comfort. It is also extremely adaptable to a wide number of sounds via the 3 single-coil pickups and five-position selector switch.

Acoustic guitars will largely be ‘Dreadnought’ shaped. This classic design is quite big (as a general rule, they’re comparatively long, wide, and deep too), which provides a loud, rich sound.

Other designs are available, and for the most part they won’t affect the initial stages of learning the instrument, however the design of the body can greatly affect a players comfort over extended periods and their ability to reach higher frets, e.g. Les Paul-style guitars are noted for their weight and large neck joint.

Buying a package will offer you good value for money, particularly one that is manufactured by a well-known brand. This will mean spending more, but benefits of buying like this include…

• Greater quality control throughout. Attention to detail on the neck of the guitar is essential for the comfort of the player. Cheaper guitars tend to have rough edges – where frets protrude further than they should, and aren’t finished accordingly.
• Better playing action. The term ‘action’ refers to the distance between the strings and the fret wire. Problems occur if this is too high or too low – the guitar will either be difficult to play, or strings will buzz on the neck resulting in ‘choked’ or unclear notes when fretted.
• Better service if any of the above are present. Brands like Yamaha, Squier and Ibanez will be able to correct these problems within the warranty period, whereas cheaper ‘unknown brand’ guitars are less likely to have the facility to solve these issues. This will either leave you to pay a qualified repairer to correct them (which won’t be cost-effective), or leave the instrument as it is, which will mean playability is compromised.
• Improved sound/functionality. The better quality components on branded instruments greatly impact the application and quality of the sound of an instrument.
• Better resale value. These instruments are sought after second-hand purchases for all of the reasons above, and as such you can command more money for them in a resale context in comparison with the cheaper models.

General Buying Tips

• Buy locally if possible – a local store will be able to help solve any problems more easily than a shop that’s couriered a guitar to you.
• Buy a well-known branded product – Yamaha, Squier and Ibanez are but a few of these. Buying the best instrument you can at this stage will give you more options when you choose to upgrade. See above for details.
• Get specific recommendations from a shop or guitar teacher.
• Where possible, try out the guitar before purchase. Apply the ideas in the RECOMMENDED TESTS section of this guide to identify any possible problems.

2. STEPPING UP – to Modify or Upgrade?

By now you will have realised elements of your first guitar that you like, and others you dislike and you have probably gained an idea of what other people use to make their own particular type of music.

Where your second instrument is concerned you must study your motivation and resources. According to these criteria you’ll be able to determine exactly how to go about improving your setup.

Buying a New Guitar

My recommendation on buying a new guitar would be to aim for something around the region of £500. This is because the guitars in this price bracket are sufficiently better than entry-level instruments that you are actually able to appreciate the improvements. They will also last a lot longer, and are easily adaptable to make them into pro-level guitars (see below). Instruments around £300 are bordering on having similar specifications to entry-level instruments, and this somewhat side steps the issue of improvement.

To get ideas of the sorts of instruments to buy, you should research what your favourite guitarists are playing. There are many artist signature models on the market that are accurate duplicates of what many pros use, and there are many similar models on the market that have the same functionality, only without the connection to the artist – which you may or may not prefer.

Make use of magazine reviews and recommendations from retailers and teachers, but above all else, try out as many guitars in your chosen price bracket as you can. Where possible play through your amplifier and effects pedal set up to get an accurate reproduction of the sound with any prospective guitar.

Subjects to consider include…

• Hardware – do you want a tremolo system, or would you prefer a fixed bridge option?
• Pickup configuration – do you want something different to that on your first guitar? Bear in mind that the pickups vastly improve with increased investment, and there are many different switching options that can make a guitar more versatile.
• Fret numbers and access – do you want a guitar with a full 2-octave range, or are you happy with 21/22 frets? Do you even play that high up, and therefore is a cut-away/comfortable neck joint necessary?
• Body shape – do you want to change the appearance of the guitar? Be aware of the possible impact on the playability/functionality that body shape may have.

Modifying a Guitar

If you want more from a guitar, but can’t afford a new instrument it is possible to get greater performance out of an instrument you already have. The true benefits of any modifications are likely to be limited by the quality of the instrument in the first place and as such this is another reason to buy the best instrument you can in the first instance.

There are many after-market accessories and parts available from shops and websites that can be installed into your guitar with little or no serious modification. Things like pickups, machine heads, scratchplates, and control knobs can often ‘retro-fit’ into your instrument as perfect replacements for the initial parts.

Be wary though – not all parts are going to fit into your instrument perfectly, so make sure you research the available options thoroughly. If you have any questions about electronic or hardware options, a guitar repairer is probably best placed to advise on such matters.

For inspiration on modification options you would do well to look at what your favourite artists have done. Signature models are good indicators of what sounds particular artists are looking for. For example you may purchase a set of pickups that are endorsed by a favoured artist in order to try to recreate their sound, or you may want to ‘lock-down’ a tremolo system in order to get better tuning stability.

If modification is your chosen route, having an idea of the budget available is very important as costs can accumulate, particularly if you have to pay a guitar tech to install anything. You may find it better to spend the total cost of all modifications on a new guitar of an overall better standard, than to put better quality parts into a poorer quality instrument.

General Tips

• Research is key. Don’t rush any decisions, but make sure you know what your needs are, and what you’re trying to achieve with any purchases.
• A guitar tech will be able to recommend suitable upgrade options for your particular guitar, and may even have stock of that particular item. This can work out cheaper than buying it elsewhere, and then having the same tech install it for you.

3. SHOPPING INSTORE OR ONLINE – The Pros and Cons

It would be silly not to acknowledge the fact that the Internet has raised many questions about the manner in which we buy many of our everyday purchases. This is the same with guitars.

The online marketplace has become increasingly competitive in the world of guitars. Prices are increasingly being sought from around the world – not just the country. There are however many pitfalls to be aware of.

Dealing with a retailer outside of reasonable travelling distance requires purchases to be couriered to customers. If there are any problems with the instrument, this process of couriering an instrument to and from a retailer increases the time it is away, but can also cost the customer – and sometimes practically nullify any cost-saving incurred from buying online.

Online auctions have become increasingly popular, but there are arguably more pitfalls involved here. Buying from a retailer through an auction is fairly safe, although the above problem remains. The main issue with auctions is being sure you’re paying for what you’re expecting to arrive. There are many cases where people purchase either fake or damaged instruments from private individuals both in the UK and abroad, and in these cases it is a very difficult and arduous process to reclaim any monies for misrepresented goods. If you do decide to buy abroad, make sure you check the warranty status prior to purchase, as these safeguards can be vulnerable in these situations.

While you may well pay more for an item, a relationship with a local music shop will yield many positives. Customer service is a phone call or visit away, and the need to courier a faulty item back to a shop is nullified. They can also offer deals on goods, and will generally always welcome the opportunity to improve on a price to acquire your custom. Buying regularly from a shop can also lead them to offer more regular and improved discounts.

The biggest positive about buying from a music shop is that you can lay your hands on an item before paying for it. You can test it out and see if it’s actually worth buying and what you expected. You can test it alongside your own set up if you desire, and they can also acquire special orders for unique or hard to find items.

4. RECOMMENDED TESTS

This list is designed to help you decide whether there are any possible flaws in a prospective guitar purchase. Bare in mind these are not exhaustive, and having someone give a second opinion is recommended.

• Test any guitar with your own amplifier/effects set up where possible. This will give you a better idea of how it will sound when you get it home. A guitar may sound great through an expensive amplifier, but if it bares no resemblance to your own amp it may be misleading.
• Play every string at each fret, then bend every string in the areas you do so most frequently. This checks if there are any frets that need attention.
• Test that the controls of the guitar are working correctly and silently.
• Check the action of the guitar – this can’t be set to your specific requests, but if it’s buzzing, or unreasonably high from the fretboard, you can have the retailer solve the problem free of charge.
• Check the neck joint for any cracks. This is particularly common with bolt-on guitars, and is quite often only as deep as the finish.