How to Buy a Guitar Online
Are you looking to buy a new guitar? How do you know what guitar
to buy, and what your guitar and amplifier choices are?
The first thing to consider is what type of music you want to
play. If you desire to play soft rock, or even folk music, then you
probably want to look for your acoustic guitar choices. If you
desire to play louder and don't require the portability of an
acoustic guitar, you should probably be looking at your electric
guitar options.
The second important consideration is how much you have to invest
in your new guitar purchase! New guitar prices range from $100 to
$2000 and even more! If you have more than $400 to invest, the
quality of almost ALL the instruments above that dollar amount will
have better overall instrument quality, and the tone woods, pickups,
electronics, hardware, and overall construction will generally be
better. If you have less than $400 to spend for your new guitar, you
just need to be a bit more selective in your choices.
Let me explain. Guitars in the lower price range generally have
less quality control, so there are significant differences between
guitars of the same make and model. In the case of these lower
priced instruments, you should visit a store where you can
personally inspect and play each guitar of the same type so you can
eliminate the lesser quality instruments and find the better
instrument to ultimately purchase.
The author has purchased many guitars from online music equipment
stores, and from other new and used musical instrument resources.
These guitars range in price from $59.99 to $800 each. The $59
guitars were built with overall lesser quality than the $400 and up
guitars. The difference in playability is very significant, and
should be a priority for the buyer!
Here is an organized, systematic approach to comparing the same
make and model of guitars among themselves. The evaluation criteria
categories follow.
Guitar Fit/Finish/Overall Appearance:
Inspect the guitar for overall appearance. Is the finish nice? Is
the neck straight? You can look over the guitar, and sight down the
neck to see if the frets are level, and that there is no obvious
bowing down the length of the neck.
Guitar Playability:
Play every fret position on every string to determine if there are
any dead spots, or any buzzing present. Spend the time to be
thorough here. You'll be glad you did!
Guitar Unplugged Tone/Body Resonance:
Play the guitar UNPLUGGED so you can hear the tone from the
instrument itself. If it sounds great unplugged, it will likely
sound awesome plugged in! Listen specifically for things like
sustain, and pure tone as you play chords and single notes.
Guitar Plugged-in Tone/Volume:
You will have eliminated much of the "competition" by this step. It
is likely that you have at least two guitars to choose from by this
step. If you only have one, then plug it in and play through a
decent amplifier. If you have more than one guitar, compare the
plugged in sounds using the same amplifier settings so you have a
base to evaluate from. Play your favorite chords on all the
instruments, and choose the one that sounds best! If you find that
two of these sound basically the same, go back to step one
Fit/Finish and choose the one you like the best.
You can use these steps in a music store to easily select the
best in a specific instrument. Online shopping has one difference to
this procedure. You get what they send you. However, the author
personally has great experiences when shopping online, and would not
hesitate to purchase almost any new instrument from a reputable
online dealer. Look for the best instrument in your price range, and
happy shopping!
This article was written by Scott Worthington. Visit his guitar
center site for an abundance of free information.
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