It is understandable that you want to buy a new guitar,
whether you are purchasing it yourself or as a gift for someone, but there are
reasons to consider purchasing a used guitar. The biggest reason is that, no
matter what your budget is, you can get more guitar for your hard earned dollar
when you buy used – as long as you buy used in the right way.
This article will talk about used guitars, and how to make
sure they are good to go before you lay your money on the counter. Some of the
questions are the same – acoustic or electric, and if so what type? There are a
lot of variations on the guitar, but they can be broken down into four simple
categories:
Acoustic (steel string)
Acoustic (Classical, or nylon string)
Les Paul Style (or double Humbuckers on any body shape)
Strat style (or single coils on any body shape)
Of the first two, unless specified by the person you are
giving the gift to, always go with a steel string acoustic. On the second set,
the electric guitars, the Les Paul style is used more by metal and rock
players, and the Strat style, or single coil, is used more by people playing
country, jazz and still some rock. If you are not sure, many electric guitars
have both single and double coil pickups that bring the best of both sounds.
For used guitars, the next thing you will want to think
about is the shape the guitar is in; a good percentage of used guitars are
pristine, but there are more that have some slight cosmetic damage, such as
light scratches, and there are some that are simply beat up from a visual
perspective.
To a musician, that is not necessarily a bad thing – in
fact, you can buy a new guitar that has been purposely beaten up, with gouges
and cigarette burns added, or just lend it to your teenage neighbors for a week
or two to get the same affect. Often times, small cosmetic blemishes and
scratches will not matter that much if the guitar plays good.
Which brings us to the neck, and the action. Your first step
will be to pick the guitar up, and hold it straight out in front of you with
the slab of the body in an up/down position. Look down the body of the guitar
and the neck, so the neck is directly in front of your eyes. The headstock
should be on the far end of your field of vision. The neck should either be
straight, or it should have a very slight bend as it goes towards the headstock
in the direction of the strings.
What you want to look out for here is the neck curving
backwards (away from the strings) or a hump in the middle to the body end of
the guitar – this will affect playability, especially the hump.
Next, check the action by holding the body of the guitar
flat, even with the ground, and look at the side of the neck, holding the back
of the guitar in one hand and the headstock in the other so that the fattest
string is closest to you.
The strings will be closest to the neck at the headstock
where they cross the nut (which has grooves that hold the strings), but should
remain at a uniform or barely widening distance from the fret board as the neck
gets closer to the body. If the strings exhibit a widening gap as the neck and
body join, watch out. Players prefer different heights, but most will prefer
between 3/64’s and 5/64’s height between the string and the fret board.
Examine the frets themselves to make sure they are even with
no dents (if the frets are uneven, or if there are dents in them it is a very
expensive repair).
Both the neck and the action can in many instances be
adjusted, but if either of these things is out of true do not buy the guitar
unless the seller can fix it before you buy it (or unless you know how to make
the adjustments yourself).
Next, on an electric or an acoustic electric, plug the
guitar in and make sure the switches and volume and tone knobs all work. If the
tone knobs or pickup selector seems not to be working, turn the amp down and
twist and turn the volume or tone knob about 15 – 20 times, or click the
selector switch on your electric back and forth the same number of times
(depending on the guitar, it will either by a 5 way or 3 way switch).
Many times if these seem not to be working it is because
dust has built up on the connections; turning the knobs up and down and working
the switches back and forth rubs the dust off, and if there is a scratchy sound
from either of these sources, this fixes it quite often.
If there is anything that needs adjustment or repair, do not buy the guitar
unless the seller fixes it. You can get a great guitar, and get a much nicer
guitar for the money when buying used guitars. Follow these simple steps, and
even if you don’t know a lot about guitars you will be able to find a great
deal on a great guitar; it is often possible to pay less than half of what a
guitar cost when it was new, whether you buy it from a music store or an
individual!
